Pillar of Yita

”I told them earlier to keep their distance from those Arcanists—”

Fang Hong stood to the side, sweating profusely, fearing that everyone would suspect him.

Fortunately, the production department of Tansnier always had a precedent of taking the fall, shielding him from suspicion. Only a middle-aged craftsman walked up to the Magic Absorber, examined the protruding spikes on the ground, tested their hardness with his hand, and discovered that the spikes did not retract after the spell dissipated.

”Physical attack,” a craftsman said to him, ”Seems to be an Earth System Spell.”

The middle-aged craftsman was not an Elementalist himself and was unfamiliar with Elemental Spells beyond the few commonly used in Magic Guided Constructs. He just nodded lightly at the words.

The Magic Absorber was considered scrapped, but this kind of self-produced item was abundant in the Guild, so he didn’t care much. He merely glanced at the ’Blade of Tarn’ on the other side, which he had inspected earlier, a slight doubt flashing in his mind—was it a coincidence that twice the items encountered were private modifications by the production department’s craftsman?

However, like the others, he didn’t suspect Fang Hong too much, as altering the spells on a Mana Storage Crystal was too unbelievable.

The middle-aged craftsman was deceived by Fang Hong’s innocent look, after all, from a logical standpoint, if the other party truly intended to hide this, they wouldn’t show it. Unless Sicape was here, how would anyone else know that this young man would be so reckless?

Fang Hong, having narrowly escaped suspicion, immediately became much more cautious.

But this didn’t mean he didn’t do anything behind the scenes afterward. It was just unnoticed and without expression. In the subsequent process, he conducted a few more experiments, with about three to four failures, the rest were successful.

Fang Hong tallied up the results, finding the failure and success rates roughly even, a fifty-fifty chance.

On the surface, of course, he was just orderly testing each Magic Guided Construct, with nothing else out of line. Once the initial excitement wore off, many of the craftsmen excused themselves to attend to their own matters. Those who remained naturally couldn’t be idle enough to check each Construct one by one.

Only after making a full round did Fang Hong feel that the visit was worthwhile.

During the tour, the middle-aged craftsman told him that seventy percent of Istania’s Magic Guided Constructs were here, with the rest at the Istania Artisans’ Guild or in private hands.

In other words, the essence of the Istani School was all here. He had visited other Alchemy Museums before, but those places did not allow him to touch the exhibits. Here, however, he was able to explore nearly every Construct he was allowed to operate.

Except for those beyond his Level, those that the Magic Guided Reactor couldn’t manage, or the Pseudo Dragon Knight Constructs.

This feeling was simply wonderful.

Unfortunately, such opportunities were indeed rare.

Therefore, he developed a favorable impression of the middle-aged craftsman beside him, along with the backing Grand Princess behind him.

This guy’s face couldn’t hide anything—

Seeing Fang Hong’s expression, the middle-aged man could tell he was very satisfied and couldn’t help nodding—at this point, his task was halfway complete—so he proactively asked:

”Mr. Ade, what Magic Guided Construct do you plan to use?”

Fang Hong already had a plan for this question, after all, his experiments along the way were not in vain.

He only pondered slightly, then pointed behind him and said, ”This one then—”

The middle-aged craftsman followed his gaze and was slightly taken aback.

Fang Hong was pointing at a large Nautilus—or rather a Nautilus-shaped Construct—it stood over half a person tall, its spiraled shell forged from Cold Iron glinting with a faint, cold light, surface marked with faint Magic Guided Path engravings. Many copper tubes extended from the shell’s opening, from which fibrous tendrils resembling nerve bundles or numerous tentacles grew.

This was a very unusual Magic Guided Construct, called a Construct Sea Monster. Like all shell-shaped mollusks, it excelled in defense. Its most notable feature lay in its shell, which housed three Main Crystals—yes, this relatively large Construct had a structure significantly different from other Constructs.

It lacked many functional components, and even its cooling system was simple, but inside the cavity were three Main Crystals rather than just one.

These three Main Crystals by themselves had three distinct Attributes.

This allowed it to quickly convert different types of Elements, absorbing and storing them in their Ether state within its Main Crystals.

With this ability, the Construct Sea Monster could achieve near-immunity to up to three classes of Elemental Spells—simply put, it lacked attack power and had limited utility—merely to shield its controller. Even this shielding had restrictions, only covering one chosen class of Elemental Spells among the three.

This type of Construct was also called a Specialty Construct, distinct from a General Construct, designated for specific environments. Alchemists often preferred to carry one or two to handle various situations, so the middle-aged craftsman wasn’t surprised at Fang Hong’s choice—

But, was its priority this high?

Did it need to be chosen first?

He was momentarily puzzled, but quickly regained composure, asking further, ”Does Mr. Ade need any other Constructs?”