Pillar of Yita

Rather than calling it a basement, it would be more accurate to describe it as a luxurious workshop, with rows of bookshelves lined up around the room, densely packed with thick books, and ladders to climb. Several dwarf goblins are busy organizing the rows of books.

Hilveld has never seen these dwarf goblins before; they were obviously slaves that Ande Ulriel bought later. In the center of the basement stands a massive machine with a rounded shape and a copper-colored exterior.

Fang Hong had seen this at the Artisan Association, it is the Magic Guided Furnace.

Ande Ulriel led everyone to the side of the Magic Guided Furnace. In the center of the gigantic magic guided equipment, there was a transparent hexagonal crystal, and with a snap of his fingers, a beam of light burst from the crystal and landed at their feet.

Only then did Fang Hong realize that this Magic Guided Furnace seemed to have been modified—In Eteliria, transparent crystals are almost certainly Non-Attribute Crystals—using a Non-Attribute Crystal as the Main Crystal for a Magic Guided Furnace is not unusual, but this one was evidently too large.

And as soon as the light illuminated, it formed a grid that interlaced in mid-air, appearing as if suspended within, and above the grid, some different projections seemed to hover.

These projections appeared to be like pieces on a chessboard, but on closer inspection, Fang Hong found that they were projections of small, flexible constructs.

Some resembled the Clockwork Fairy, but others seemed like different constructs.

He paused slightly; suddenly he felt he had seen this thing somewhere before. Wasn’t this the training system sent to him by the ID named Shana? Though a bit different, it should essentially be the same kind of thing.

These are devices projecting the Artisan System into the reality of Eteliria.

”By the way, little fellow, you should have passed the vocational assessment, right?”

The old man turned around, smiling and squinting at him: ”I wonder if you still remember that Kapuka assessment device, which was also invented by the Great Alchemist Ade—speaking of which, that great Alchemist even shares a name with you. The training Magic Guided Engine he invented was mainly to train the next generation of Alchemists.”

”Later, that thing was passed down from generation to generation, inevitably becoming a part of Alchemist inheritance, but for thousands of years, nobody thought to improve it,” he spoke with some pride, as if showcasing a proud creation: ”But this one is different; it is an improved product of the training Magic Guided Engine.”

”This is something we old folks thought of out of boredom; incidentally, we borrowed some designs from your Invoker system,” said Ande Ulriel as he handed a crystal to him and Hilveld: ”It’s not just one here, there are many, and we connected them through the Ether Magic Network—”

He gestured for Fang Hong and Hilveld to pick up the crystal.

As soon as Fang Hong gripped the crystal, he immediately felt a connection between himself and the gigantic magic guided equipment, glancing at the crystal in his hand. Being an Alchemist himself, he quickly realized it was a Resonance Crystal.

Yet it was much larger than any Resonance Crystal he knew of, and seemingly some internal structures were different.

While he was observing, various voices suddenly reached his ears—many elderly voices were arguing among themselves as if Fang Hong was suddenly placed in a bustling, never-ending marketplace for bargaining and dispute:

”A terrible move!”

”Copper Nose, your skills are getting worse.”

”Shut up, you fool of the Boots Family!”

”I’m just not used to this thing...”

”Watch it, he’s starting to use the seventeenth construct...”

”Damn, you’re cheating!”

Fang Hong listened dumbfounded to these voices.

He looked up to see the ’pieces’ on the remote light grid coming to life, proceeding in order, advancing and retreating, fiercely attacking each other.

It turned out that it wasn’t a light grid at all, but rather a chessboard.

His jaw dropped.

At the moment, Ande Ulriel held a crystal in his hand and shouted: ”Everyone quiet!”

The voices from the crystal fell silent.

But shortly afterwards, the noise resumed, and a voice loudly asked: ”Old Blacksmith, what kind of authority are you flaunting here?”

”Haha, weren’t you supposed to host that old fellow Phales?”

”What, have you chased him away?”

Even with his thick skin, Ande Ulriel couldn’t help but blush at this point, thinking his old companions were being a bit too much. The nickname ’Blacksmith’ was given to him during his apprenticeship at Kapuka due to his clumsiness at the time when even the Grand Artificer of the Kapuka Society considered him clumsier than a blacksmith.

And thus, this nickname persisted—

Yet the notion of using the appraisal of clumsiness to become a Grand Artificer’s apprentice was indeed rather dubious, to say the least.

”It wasn’t like that,” the old man raised his snowy white eyebrows: ”I asked him to reflect on his actions.”

”Well done.”

The voice from the crystal said loudly.

”Everyone,” Ande Ulriel continued: ”Let me introduce a few young friends to you.”

”Young friends?”

The crystal grew silent once more.

After a while, someone then asked: ”What, Old Blacksmith, have you finally come around and taken on a student?”

Ande Ulriel held the crystal, smiling without answering, and didn’t refute. He merely replied: ”Why not, Copper Nose? You keep clamoring about finding someone to play chess with you? Why not test the credentials of my ’student’?”

Since each voice from the crystal referred to each other by nicknames, Fang Hong couldn’t discern who these nicknames represented.

Nonetheless, he wasn’t foolish, knowing that anyone who would interact with Ande Ulriel in this manner likely held a similarly high status. Judging by their earlier handling of the flexible construct within the light grid, it seemed each one was a seasoned Great Alchemist.

But holding the crystal left him briefly bewildered.

Previously, when he heard Ande Ulriel say they connected these magic guided engines through the Magic Power Network, he hadn’t realized what that meant. But now, he suddenly understood what the other meant.

This was essentially the internet, wasn’t it?

A scoff emerged from the crystal, and an elderly voice with a thick nasal sound muttered:

”Old Blacksmith, are you planning to have a youngster take me on?”

”I won’t fall for your tricks.”

”Though I happen to have a young person here, why not let them try as well?”

...