Chapter 243 Alchemist and Totem
Chapter 243
The first step for the Morning Star Wizard to invade the plane is to seduce the native residents of this world and lure them into becoming accomplices.
This kind of behavior is like a demon in the abyss, dragging people into the abyss of depravity little by little with whispers and temptations.
However, what the Morning Star Wizard wants is not a certain person's soul, but the civilization of the entire plane itself.
From this perspective, how different is Lin En at this moment from those abyss demons?
At this moment, what Lin En did was to quietly lock onto a person whose mind was wavering through the Starry Sky Gate.
Or more accurately, a person with a burning desire in his heart.
Only people like this will take the initiative to reach out and embrace the contract with the "devil".
Those who have no desires are worthless.
…
At this moment, Viscount Leighton was staring blankly at the slowly moving old pocket watch in his palm, his pupils shrinking violently.
He tightly grasped the old pocket watch that should have stopped working for many years, his heart beating wildly.
This pocket watch has been covered in dust for many years and has long lost its ability to function, but now... it actually started moving on its own.
There is no need to wind the watch or adjust the time, the hands move on their own.
What does this mean? The whisper in the dream was not an illusion! The voice was real! Viscount Layton's eyes suddenly flashed with fanaticism.
He was so excited that he almost cried, holding the pocket watch and muttering to himself: "Grandfather...you really sensed it...at this time of crisis for our family, you are coming back, are you going to save our Mason family..."
His voice was trembling and his expression was excited.
And the old pocket watch was trembling slightly at this moment, as if responding to his prayer.
…
At the other end of the Starry Sky Gate, Lin En stood quietly in front of the void, staring at the scene.
In the star gate, the room where Layton was located was clearly reflected, and everything seemed to be reproduced in a mirror.
“This world…” Lin En narrowed his eyes slightly, and a hint of an ambiguous smile appeared at the corner of his mouth, “…interesting.”
Just now, when Lin En was conducting the bewitching screening through the Starry Sky Gate, he also simultaneously captured some of Layton's memory fragments.
It was those memories that gave him a preliminary understanding of this plane containing the "fourth-level opportunity".
On the surface, this is a world divided by countless kingdoms, and the kings rely on cold weapons and backward firearms to maintain their rule.
But beneath this mundane shell, the true order of power is controlled by the extraordinary people hidden behind the scenes.
They are like shadows, controlling the fate of the kingdom and influencing the outbreak and end of wars.
The cultivation system of this world was beyond Lin En's expectations.
He originally thought that this place might follow the traditional knight system, or a system where knights and wizards coexist like the civilization of the gods, or a wizard path similar to the wizard world where spirit and elements are intertwined.
But the reality is not so.
The core of those training systems, whether it is a knight, a mage, or a wizard, is to temper the individual, either physically or mentally, and ultimately condense extraordinary power into oneself.
But this world has taken a completely different path.
It is biased and extreme.
Although there are also clear divisions of realms and differences in strength here, the core of cultivation is not "self-improvement" but dependence on external objects.
Practitioners use external objects to practice, invest resources, skills and will, and continuously improve the quality and ability of external objects; and as external objects become stronger, they will in turn have a feedback effect on the practitioners themselves.
In the eyes of wizards who value the concentration of power in one body, this system seems somewhat fragile and disturbing.
But for plane explorers, this is great news.
Because external things can be taken away.
If the power of a world can only belong to an individual, even if there is a channel, it is impossible for the wizard's clone to come down and practice again.
But if power comes from transferable "external objects", then taking them away would be equivalent to plundering the essence of the entire world.
"In this world... there is a group of extraordinary beings called 'Alchemists'."
Lynn murmured quietly.
The so-called alchemist is someone who uses advanced alchemy to refine materials such as gold, silver, copper, and iron into totems with extraordinary powers.
Once you successfully control the totem, you will gain extraordinary power.
The reason why Lin En knew it so clearly was because Viscount Leighton himself was an alchemist.
If you want to become an alchemist, you first need a lot of resource support.
Only after countless trials and failures can a true totem be created.
Therefore, the threshold for alchemy is extremely high. A wealthy family is only the starting point, and talent is even more critical.
In Layton's memory, the levels of alchemists were clearly and strictly divided: third level of Black Iron, Bronze Alchemist, Silver Alchemist, Gold Alchemist... from bottom to top, they were promoted step by step.
Lin En only took a glance and easily found the corresponding relationship: Black Iron Level 3 ≈ Wizard Apprentice Stage; Bronze Alchemist ≈ Level 1 Wizard; Silver Alchemist ≈ Level 2 Wizard;
Golden Alchemist ≈ Level 3 Great Wizard.
…
A completely new worldview gradually took shape in his mind.
Viscount Layton is an alchemist at the third level of Black Iron.
In the eyes of ordinary people, this person is already a strong man. He only needs to release the power of the totem to defeat hundreds of people and sweep through the regular army.
In Lanyu Province, he possesses both the aristocratic status of a viscount and the hidden strength of a third-level Black Iron alchemist. The combination of these two identities makes him an important figure that the entire province has to pay attention to.
Even the highest ruler of the province, the Earl, treated him with great courtesy, which is a clear indication of his status.
However, the trouble that Layton is facing now does not come from the struggle for mundane power, but from the murderous intentions of the extraordinary world.
That was in his youth.
At that time, Layton had not yet inherited the title. With a yearning for the extraordinary, he went out to study and became a disciple of an alchemist.
Unfortunately, his talent was limited and he only reached the third stage of Black Iron, and was never able to engrave his extraordinary powers onto the brass totem.
Knowing that the road ahead was over, he bid farewell to his mentor, returned to his hometown, and followed the routine of inheriting the title, getting married, and having children.
Under his governance, the Viscount's territory developed year by year, the harvest increased day by day, the government was stable and the people were harmonious, and he was a successful man.
However, it was behind this period of peace that the seeds of his current misfortune were planted.
Not long ago, he received a secret letter, which was a special communication method used by alchemists. The content of the letter was brief, but it was like a thunderclap:
"Your teacher has been accused of murdering a Golden Throne and is being hunted down."
The Golden Throne refers to the Golden Alchemist, who stands at the top of the pyramid in the entire alchemy system.
Layton couldn't believe that his former teacher, who was only at the bronze level, dared to murder a gold master. He instinctively wrote a letter to defend his teacher, saying that he knew little about the case and was not involved.
But soon, he received a desperate response, and many clues pointed to himself.
Layton was stunned.
At this moment, he finally realized that he had become the teacher's "scapegoat".
That person may have already fled far away, but he set up a puzzle to lead all the clues to him, making him a "chess piece" to ward off disaster for him.
No matter how much he denies, he will only be regarded as an accomplice in covering up the truth.
The eyes of the extraordinary world have already fallen on him...
As for the cost, it goes without saying.
That is the Golden Throne, a place where a country can be founded with just one word.
If you provoke an existence of this level, there is only one word for the outcome: death.
He, the dignified Viscount Leighton, was implicated for "sheltering a suspect".
Let alone being ruined, even having one's property confiscated and one's family exterminated is the lightest price to pay!
How could Viscount Leighton accept this?
Firstly, it was to clear himself of the grievances, and secondly, it was to prevent the entire family from being wiped out in his hands.
So he ran around, using all his personal connections to seek help, while repeatedly denying that he had any connection with the "teacher".
Unfortunately, the charge of "murdering the Golden Throne" has already scared away everyone.
His friends and allies had already quietly severed ties with him.
No one wanted to get involved in this storm that would lead to certain death.
Just when Layton thought the road ahead was over and his life was hanging by a thread, he did not expect that a trace of mercy from the "devil" would ignite the flame of hope in his desperate situation.
At that moment, he looked at the worn pocket watch in his palm with trembling hands, his heart was beating fast and he could not calm down.
He never doubted that the source of this dream was deliberately designed by someone else.
The power required to silently invade the dreams of a Black Iron Stage 3 alchemist and lead him to this strange space is far beyond what he could imagine.
Even a Silver Alchemist couldn't do this easily; and it was even more impossible for the Golden Throne to personally take action to "fool" a marginal figure like him.
For such an existence, every minute and every second is extremely precious, so how could it be wasted on a small character like him? The only doubt is that he has never heard of the existence of "ghosts" or "dead souls" in this world.
But as an alchemist, his research and perception of the "soul" are much more acute than ordinary people.
He knew clearly that, up to now, no Golden Throne had dared to assert that the undead did not exist.
Regarding the controversy over "whether the dead exist", there have always been two camps in the supernatural world:
Both supporters and deniers have their theoretical basis, and no one can completely disprove or confirm it.
The result is that the theory of the dead has long been in a chaotic state of "duality".
And Viscount Layton is exactly the kind of person who tends to believe in the "existence of the dead."
In his opinion, if certain animals and plants die, their souls can still be refined into totems.
Then why can't human souls exist after death? It's just that due to unknown rules, human souls can't be transformed into totems, which doesn't mean they don't exist.
It was out of this belief that when he was in despair, he turned to his ancestors for help in his dreams.
Unexpectedly, this "thought" was captured by the "Starry Sky Gate", which in turn attracted Lin En.
Thus, the gears of fate turned quietly.
Just like the hands of a pocket watch turning gently.
The next moment, the pointer of the pocket watch trembled slightly, and then pointed steadily in a certain direction. Viscount Layton's face was stern, and he immediately walked quickly along the direction of the pointer.
After passing through the dark basement and stepping onto the first floor of the castle, he walked along the corridor and finally, guided by his pocket watch, he entered his own alchemy laboratory.
As an alchemist of the third level of Black Iron, Viscount Layton's laboratory is naturally large in scale, with a rigorous and professional layout.
In a corner of the laboratory, a wide variety of black iron raw materials are piled up - these are the core materials for refining black iron totems.
The central area is divided into two functional areas: on one side is a heavy and solid alchemical furnace, which is dedicated to smelting ores and separating elements.
On the other side was an operating table covered with inscriptions, on which was placed an exquisite and complex instrument. Precision gears were slowly turning inside it, as if it was made up of hundreds of parts. The craftsmanship was so ingenious that it could be called art.
In the area against the wall, the finished totems he made by hand are also displayed.
Totem, this mysterious and ancient alchemical creation, may be just an inconspicuous existence before being processed by alchemists: roadside grass, snails in the corners, and domestic dogs can all be used as materials.
But once the refining is completed, these ordinary things will be reborn and transformed into totems with extraordinary powers!
Essentially, a totem is a "reinforcer".
The stronger the raw material itself, the stronger the ability of the totem will be.
However, powerful totems also require matching mental strength to control, and not all alchemists can manipulate them at will.
Therefore, what the alchemist pursues is not the blind strongest, but a totem that can be controlled and grown.
More importantly, totems are not static. They have a gradual evolutionary path and can be advanced from black iron to brass, or even higher levels, as the alchemist's level increases.
If a totem seems powerful at the Iron stage but cannot evolve, then it is ultimately useless to the alchemist.
Viscount Layton once studied under an alchemist, so his totem inheritance was orderly and his evolutionary path was clear.
The natal totem he chose was a violet flower.
This violet has completed two upgrades in his hands and has now reached the third level of Black Iron.
It was the result of his painstaking efforts over many years, and possessed extremely high spirituality and adaptability.
On the wall of the laboratory, the blooming violet suddenly blossomed, and its petals trembled slightly, as if it was breathing slowly.
There seems to be a faint purple light wandering among the flower shadows, indicating its extraordinary identity.
At the other end of the Star Gate, Lynn guided Viscount Leighton here for a reason.
Just now, after he captured Viscount Leighton's memory through the Star Gate, he naturally learned about the other party's totem and extraordinary knowledge as well.
Although it was only a very short time, Lin En was at the level of a third-level great wizard, plus he had the talent of hard work.
Therefore, his knowledge and understanding of totems at this moment is even greater than that of Viscount Leighton.
For example, the other party has cultivated it many times, but has been unable to complete the evolution to the Bronze Alchemist according to the totem evolution route.
Lynn has already discovered some clues.
"At least we have to reach the level of a first-level creature, that is, a bronze alchemist... to be able to withstand the attacks from those extraordinary people..."
Lin En controlled the Star Gate and the worn pocket watch, pointing to the violet totem on the wall.
The violet totem on the wall is very large, with meticulous divisions, stems, branches, petals, and flower cores...
At first, Viscount Layton was still confused, but after looking at the instructions on his pocket watch, he was stunned...
(End of this chapter)
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