Volume 2 Wandering Chapter 3 Farewell, Lost Life
Time always passes especially quickly on a night with something to do. It was already early morning when I stood at the door of the alchemist Edgwell again.
I wandered around his building for a long time - I had already experienced how this madman, obsessed with alchemical research, was smart enough to frequently create terrifying explosions and miraculously survived these earth-shaking accidents, which made it difficult for me to have no concerns when I went to see him.
But soon, my concerns were dispelled. While I was hesitating, another huge explosion was heard from the roof. I didn't bravely climb the stairs until the aftermath of the explosion completely disappeared - experience tells me that it is safer to go up the stairs right after an explosion. After all, it takes some effort and time to make such a big noise.
Standing at the stairs, I saw Mr. Edgware, as expected, with a charred face and a miserable appearance.
"Oh, you brought them here. This really saved me a lot of trouble. You know, those big winged rats are annoying, and they never brush their teeth..." I threw the bag full of quartzite jade in front of Edgwell. He took out a piece from it and looked at it carefully under the light, muttering happily: "... Wait a moment, it won't take long."
As he spoke, he threw three or four pieces of ore into a barrel-shaped metal container, added some powders and liquids of various colors, and then placed the container on a large furnace of a special shape to heat it. The furnace had obviously been blessed by some special magic, and the flames it spewed out were not the bright red and yellow that we usually see, but a special blue-white flame. Although this blue flame was not very lush, it seemed to contain an extremely strong energy. Even though I was standing far away at the stairs, I could feel a wave of heat coming towards me.
Just when I thought it was necessary to take some protective measures to resist a violent accidental explosion, some red liquid dripped out from the pipe on the side of the container and was poured into a mold that Edgwell had prepared. The liquid was crystal clear, like the tears of the legendary immortal fire bird Phoenix when it was born, with an intoxicating and dazzling beauty.
Soon, the hot liquid gradually cooled down, lost its original fiery red color, and turned into pieces of uneven transparent particles in the mold. Yes, I said "transparent". Before this, I had never seen any solid material that was so transparent and pure, especially ice and snow - of course, I seem to have never seen ice and snow, but I naturally know what they look like - like the soul of solidified water, or like a misty dream that has aggregated into a entity, integrated with everything around it, making people question their existence.
Ignoring my amazement, Edgwell took a slender metal tube with a slot, gently and swiftly inserted the transparent sheets one by one, and then inserted it into the slot of an instrument next to it.
"Give it to Elder. I hope he is not waiting too long..." After doing all this, Edgwell pointed to the finished instrument and said to me, "...Thank you for the quartzite jade you brought me. I can use the rest for other purposes. As a reward, you will receive my gratitude."
As he said that, he put five silver coins into my hand, and at the same time my soul power increased by another two hundred points.
"If you can get more quartzite jade and send them to me, you will get a satisfactory reward..." Then he added, "...If you want to learn the mysteries of alchemy, you can also come to me. However, my tuition is not cheap."
"I want to learn alchemy!" I said quickly. The wonderful scene just now gave me a great shock. The image of the ragged middle-aged man in front of me instantly became taller in my eyes. The miracles he could create with his hands were definitely not as simple as the grand directional blasting.
“For two gold coins, I can teach you some simple techniques to get started.” He said, extending his hand to me.
"It's too expensive. It's the same thing as throwing things into the pot and cooking, but the cook, Aunt Fitel, only charges four silver coins." My mercenary nature came into play, and I immediately bargained.
"One gold coin for ninety silver coins." Edgwell lowered the price strictly according to the standard of 5% of human "mercenary" nature.
Although the price has fallen, even if I were to strip off my underwear and sell all my property, I still couldn’t make up a fraction of the huge tuition fee. No wonder some people involved in the air would curse "education is a profiteering industry" in private chats. This painful lesson made me understand the meaning of the phrase "knowledge is money" more deeply:
Knowledge is not just money, but "lots of money".
Seeing that I was still hesitant to make a decision , Edgwell probably saw the clue. He waved his hand and said, "You should wait until you have money. Alchemy is not for poor people."
The extreme lack of material foundation forced me to temporarily give up my pursuit of alchemy. I put the blood analyzer into the magic backpack and left the house in Edgwell. When I walked to the front door, there was another strong explosion upstairs. Although I knew that this level of explosion was only enough to dust off the bomber who was making money, I still felt a kind of evil revenge pleasure in my heart when I heard his screams.
I sent the blood analyzer to Elder's pharmacy, and he immediately began to work. He poured the green blood into a transparent container, dripped two drops of lavender liquid into it from a small bottle, put it into the analyzer, and pressed a button on it. The analyzer immediately made a slight buzzing sound. When it returned to silence, Elder put his eyes on the small tube with a transparent chip inlaid on it that Edgwell had finally successfully made, and carefully adjusted it:
"Hmm, so that's how it is... Very interesting..." I don't know what made him so interested in reading it. He nodded his head and took notes with great interest. I was very curious about what he saw in the instrument. While he was writing, I secretly glanced at the "blood analyzer". Through the layer of chips, I saw some furry particles swimming restlessly in the purple potion, and sometimes they would split into two and become two identical ones. I guess these little guys who look a little disgusting are all the things in the bottle of green blood. It's just that they are too small, so we have never discovered them. And this blood analyzer - to be precise, these layers of transparent crystals, can magnify them hundreds of times so that our eyes can see them.
Not long after, Elder stood up, smacked his lips and said:
"This blood contains some special active hormones that can cause ordinary wild beasts to mutate and become more ferocious. I believe it is artificially made. I have never heard of such a thing. Judging from its composition and color, it is more like the product of the undead and demons in the withered land. I don't know what this means, but it's always better to be careful. You'd better remind Gerald to prepare early." After saying that, he stood behind the counter with his head down, waiting for the incoming customers.
Blighted Land? Elder's answer surprised me. I had no idea that a common wild dog could be associated with such a dangerous and famous name.
It is said that about two hundred years ago, the territory of Falvi Continent was not what it is now. At that time, the continent was much larger. The Mondica Kingdom, which now has half of its territory on the Comet Coast, was just an inland country without access to the sea.
Perhaps the continent's wealth attracted the devil's jealousy, or perhaps the people's arrogance at the time triggered the punishment of the gods. In short, one day, a space-time wormhole leading to a realm of fear, destruction and destruction suddenly opened above the Falvi continent. Under the command of their ruler, the apocalyptic king Darendil from another world, "The Heartbreaker", countless vicious invaders continuously passed through the space-time wormhole and set foot on the land of Falvi continent. This group of ugly bloodthirsty people sowed the seeds of war and destruction in every corner of Falvi continent, and like greedy locusts, they turned everything in front of them into nothingness.
This is a battle for survival of the entire plane. Every race and every life is pushed to the forefront of killing and fighting. Humans, dwarves, elves, minotaurs, orcs... The various races of the Falvi continent have never been so closely united to fight against the same enemy. In this war, everyone is a warrior and no one is a bystander.
Although the resistance of the continental races was heroic, it was still difficult to stop the invasion army's premeditated war deployment. Their weapons blocked the sun like dark clouds, and their army engulfed the earth like a tide. They were invincible and unstoppable. The opponents who resisted their destruction of the flag either suffered a tragic fate of complete extinction, or were knocked down by fear and became their accomplices of servility, and turned around to slaughter their former allies. Soon, the army of the last king gained a foothold on the Farvi continent. They occupied nearly half of the continent's land, and their tentacles of aggression continued to erode independent territories. The earth was shrouded in clouds of despair, and the remaining continental races had almost given up the pursuit of survival. They were making a final struggle for their dignity - not their lives.
Until one day, the free life won the hope of being rescued. Dedotan, the great magician who was later called "Guardian of the Sky", sacrificed his life and cast the terrible magic "Devour Gate" comparable to the power of gods. He reversed the operation of the space-time wormhole, turning the channel that originally ran through the two planes into a black hole that devoured all matter. The last king Darendil, along with his army and the occupied continental territory, were swallowed up by the black hole and disappeared without a trace. No one knows where they were swallowed and what fate they will suffer.
Since then, the entire continent has become what it is now, and the land that was ruled by the last king and then swallowed by the black hole is what people call the "Withered Land".
This happened more than 200 years ago , and although I knew a lot about it, I always thought it was more of a legend than history. But now, someone suddenly told me that he might have discovered traces of this history, and it was closely related to what I did. How could I not be surprised?
I immediately reported the news to the sheriff, Mr. Gerard. He obviously realized the seriousness of the problem and said to me:
"I hope this is just a false alarm. If it is true, we will be in big trouble. However, I still want to thank you for your help, young warrior. Please accept these, this is the reward you deserve."
He held out a cloak and placed it in my hand. This was a "City Defense Officer Cloak" that could increase my defense by two points and my agility by two points. At the same time, my soul power was full again, and a white light surged from the soles of my feet and flowed through my body. Completing this task allowed me to gain another 500 points of soul power, which allowed me to successfully upgrade to level 6.
Gerald did not work at his desk as before, but looked at him expectantly, as if he was about to say something but hesitated. I asked tentatively, "Do you have any other instructions, sir?"
"This is a report on the Monster Kaplan incident..." As expected, he took out an envelope with a wax seal, "...I hope you can hand it over to Colonel Pekla of the Valen Fortress as soon as possible and ask him to send someone to investigate the matter."
When did he finish writing the report? I had just handed him the test results of pharmacist Elder, and he hadn't written anything yet? Puzzled, I took the envelope and accepted his commission.
I didn't plan to complete this task immediately, because I didn't know where the Valen Fortress was, nor did I know what dangers I would encounter on the way there. I didn't think I would be as lucky as Niu Baiwan, who could cross the mountains and rivers alone with bare chests and survive many crises. I believe that there is absolutely no other traveler as tough as him, and I don't want to be the second person to complete this "bumping" (reckless behavior) at all.
No matter where I go, it is always a good idea to accumulate strength and improve my level; and, despite the high price, I still did not give up the idea of learning alchemy. For these two reasons, I still chose to stay in Campnavia and do my best to accept work and earn money.
The next three days were busy and fulfilling. I ran through the streets and alleys of Campnavia, helping those in trouble to overcome their difficulties. As I knew a long time ago: I delivered a love letter full of typos for Pierre in the tavern, went to the abandoned wild temple to help the stonemason Dakela who specialized in carving tombstones to find new stones, collected the debts of hired farmers for Baron Porter, and found appetizing candied haws for the anorexic sister-in-law of the hotel owner... From the moment I can remember, these tedious things seem to happen every day, and it seems that everyone will encounter them.
Pierre's ability to express himself in words, like his love affair, seemed to never make any progress; those poor hired farmers could never completely pay off Baron Porter's debts. All this was like a reflection of time, repeating over and over again endlessly. I was once tired of it. But gradually, I seemed to see another side of life from it - a peaceful and real side:
I used to be a cold-eyed observer of all this tediousness. But now, I have to throw myself into it and savor the peaceful touch. Perhaps, this complicated and trivial life is destined to become an inevitable part of everyone's life. No matter how arrogant and reckless you are when you are young, one day you will be surrounded by the messy life of food, clothing, housing and transportation, and willingly become a prisoner of life.
No one's life will be filled with legends. No matter how great you are, most of your life will be left to the most ordinary trivialities of life. In the pursuit of passion and glory, sometimes we have to stop and carefully feel these tiny and delicate emotions - they may not make people's blood boil, but they also have a different kind of warmth.
I didn't even forget the bet I had made with my partner, "City Gate Guard Fred Guderian". I stole the piece of "ironwood" from old man Rama's room at night and helped the city gate guard who replaced me win this small bet.
When everything was over, I saw the city gate guard, who looked like me, smiling smugly.
It was a simple, foolish smile, and in it was the truth of life that I had lost forever.
