Seven days after the "Relief Society" dinner, Todd stood at the entrance of the church in Twilight Town with a group of onlookers, watching a group of taciturn craftsmen pounding stones and laying foundations on the open ground next to the church.

Not far from the construction site, Rachel and Karin, dressed in loose, pure white nun's robes, stood to one side.

Karin's eyes lit up when she saw the priest, but she had only taken two steps when the head of the convent grabbed her ear and whispered something to her.

Seeing this, Todd shook his head, amused and helpless.

The morning after the dinner party, Todd planned to take Karin back to Mursfield. He had assumed that Rachel would need several days to prepare before arriving. To his surprise, she simply grabbed a leather bag and a small wooden box and jumped into the carriage.

Along the way, no one knows what methods she used, but Karin, who was originally willful and somewhat hostile towards her, was completely subdued by the end of the journey.

A few days after the three arrived in Muxi Town, the group of craftsmen who built the convent appeared next to the church, which made Todd marvel at Rachel's efficiency.

Leaving the church entrance, Todd returned to the laboratory building and once again opened Theodore's biography of Sutherland. In the passage about the sage's early research career, one passage particularly struck him.

"Sutherland, at twenty-six, while working at the Terro Alchemy Academy, built a hut in the crater of the Albano volcano and lived there for eight years to conduct alchemical experiments. Every morning, he would carry water and rations, descending dozens of meters into the volcanic caves to collect and refine materials… At thirty-four, he returned to the capital, continuing his alchemical studies while also traveling with the Legion as an apothecary…"

Todd slowly closed the book, deep in thought. Once injected into a human body, the number of 'Sutherland Archaea' almost never increases or decreases. However, if the number of foreign bacteria exceeds its carrying capacity, disrupting the balance, the archaea will rampage and turn the host into a monster. According to church records, in the past thousand years, almost everyone who has been tainted by the 'Sutherland Legacy' has turned into a monster, with only one exception: Sutherland himself.

Following this line of reasoning, the alchemist Sutherland must have somehow managed to obtain a large amount of archaea and store them in his body, which suppressed the alien bacteria within him, preventing any mutations until his death in battle.

So how exactly did this archaea get into Sutherland's body?

According to the research findings of the microbial community in my previous life, from the discovery of archaea in 1977 to the year I traveled back in time, only more than a hundred kinds of archaea were discovered. Based on their habits and habitats, they are generally divided into "thermophilic archaea" that live in volcanic craters, "halophilic archaea" that live in highly concentrated salt water, "acidophilic archaea" that live in strong acids, and other minority groups.

Based on the records in the "Sutherland Chronicles", the Sutherland archaea are most likely the first type - the "thermophilic archaea" near the crater.

So, only one question remains.

How can we acquire a large quantity of Sutherland archaea to resolve our own 'inheritor' crisis?

Todd had no intention of following in the footsteps of that alchemist from a thousand years ago and going to a volcano to find ancient bacteria. He didn't even know if he'd find anything; he might even mutate into a monster on the way there and back.

The best method is still to artificially breed the 'Sutherland archaea', but this time the bacterial culture needs to simulate the environment of a volcano.

Having confirmed all this, Todd was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief at the lab table.

The answer to the enormous mystery of the "Sutherland Archaea" consists of four pieces: microbiological knowledge from a past life, experimental equipment for observing bacteria, the Church's secret history of hunting down the "Successors," and Sutherland's life experiences. With these pieces complete, the mystery solved, and everything finally becomes clear.

Finding the blueprints and tools, Todd began sketching and drawing, quickly completing the design for a sealed metal petri dish to simulate a volcanic environment. He placed it inside a wooden tube, intending to give it to Huggins later so that the craftsmen could build it.

Having finally settled a major concern, Todd stretched in his chair, glanced around the lab, and suddenly couldn't remember how long it had been since he'd last been to town.

Todd put down his pen, locked the door to his room, and walked onto the main street of the small town.

It was around four o'clock in the afternoon, and people who had worked all day gradually returned to the streets, making the town center increasingly crowded.

The area surrounding the church was bustling with all the amenities of Muxi Town. Taverns echoed with the sounds of clinking glasses and shouts, livestock shops emitted various grunts, and there were textile and dyeing shops, linen shops, traveling merchants, food carts, and more. Despite the lively atmosphere, Todd glanced at the dust swirling around him and the litter strewn about in the streets, and touched the bridge of his nose in annoyance.

The public management of Muxi Town relies entirely on the residents' spontaneous and conscious maintenance. Although this can significantly reduce municipal expenditures, it falls far short of the required sanitation standards and planning levels.

"Regulation is not a good thing, but we have no choice but to rely on it?" Todd greeted the residents passing by while his mind was filled with all sorts of thoughts as he walked further and further away, gradually heading towards the edge of the town.

In the transformation of medieval villages into towns, the most crucial and essential element was the construction of city walls. However, Muxi Town cannot achieve this, firstly because of its coastal location. While the town has a defense force, its naval capabilities are virtually nonexistent, rendering even the best walls ineffective. Secondly, due to expansion, as the town's population grows and its perimeter expands, the planning and construction of city walls becomes impractical.

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