Wizards: Starting with Fairy Crests

072: A Basic Guide to Alchemy

Lin Qi looked at the excited Lilith, his face remaining expressionless, and simply nodded: "Yes, remember your promise. Go, and hurry up."

"yes!"

Lilith carefully picked up the heavy document box, as if it were a priceless treasure.

She bowed to Lin Qi again, then with a still somewhat light but steady gait, she left the study and gently closed the door behind her.

The study returned to tranquility.

The sun was still warm, and the magical fairies were still humming silent songs while tending to their potted plants. Outside the window, the figures of goblins could be vaguely seen moving in the garden.

Lin Qi withdrew his gaze and picked up the magic book again to read.

What he held in his hand at that moment was "An Introductory Guide to Basic Alchemy," a book with a simple and clear title, about alchemy.

After an apprentice meditates and discovers the ninth rune, they can apply to the Gray Tower for a knowledge reward. After careful consideration, Lynch acquired this set of alchemy.

The main purpose is to prepare for the upcoming Styx Flower Trial.

Lynch had soloed the Valley of Eternal Silence, the resource-rich area where the Styx Flower grew, countless times in the game, knowing its mechanisms, traps, and restrictions inside and out.

Alchemy artifacts are very useful in this secret realm, as they can greatly reduce the difficulty of the trials.

First came heraldry, then potion-making, bloodline studies, and now alchemy... Not counting other spell models, Lynch has learned several knowledge systems alone.

This was undoubtedly a foolish act in the eyes of other wizards.

After all, wizards have limited time and energy, and learning any kind of magic is extremely difficult.

Getting started can easily take months or even years, and turning it into actual results takes at least a year.

Therefore, a normal wizard will only put their limited time and energy into a certain subject, preferably one that is close to them, valuing quality over quantity.

But Lynch's situation was much simpler.

It all boils down to one sentence: System, learn it.

After thoroughly reviewing the "Basic Guide to Alchemy" to solidify his knowledge, Lin Qi got up and left the study to head to the alchemy laboratory, a separate building on one side of the manor.

Donning the protective cloak hanging at the entrance, and wearing a bird-beak mask and rubber gloves, Lynch entered the alchemy laboratory.

I have mastered alchemy for several days now, and I have also recently purchased all the necessary materials.

Today he is preparing to begin the creation of his first alchemical artifact.

"Click!"

Pushing open the heavy composite metal door, a unique odor, a mixture of metal coolant, ozone, residual heat from lava, and various mineral and activator powders, wafts out.

The air is dry, and the temperature is consistently slightly higher than outside, giving it a clean feel, like the aftermath of a precision instrument in operation.

The laboratory was spacious and bright. The ceiling was high, and several rows of adjustable-angle and high-intensity crystal chandeliers illuminated the area below, leaving no shadows or blind spots.

The four walls are also made of easy-to-clean dark magic stone, with multiple vents equipped with filters that emit a low hum, continuously exchanging air.

At the heart of the laboratory is an extra-long, extra-wide, and heavy black steel worktable placed against the innermost wall.

The countertop undergoes special treatment, making it smooth as a mirror, corrosion-resistant, heat-resistant, and inert to most energy fluctuations.

At this moment, the area on the left side of the worktable is like a calmly dissected body:

A standard-sized clay puppet was completely disassembled, with its parts arranged in an orderly fashion.

Its main body was split lengthwise, revealing a complex but now-dormant network of energy conduits, the embedded grooves of the control core, and the runic bearings that drive the joints.

The limbs, head, joint connectors, etc., are arranged in categories, with small labels next to them indicating their functions and energy loop interfaces.

Unlike the guards outside the door, this puppet was a "teaching sample" that Lynch had specially bought to help him understand the general structure and energy operation principles of basic constructs.

The "Basic Guide to Alchemy" contains two instructional diagrams: "Clay Golem" and "Alchemy Golem".

The latter requires a high degree of mental adaptability and the materials are hard to find, so Lynch chose to use the [clay golem] as his introductory practice piece for alchemy.

Make a clay puppet.

On the right side of the workbench and against the wall behind it, on the multi-tiered material shelves, are the raw materials needed for this production:

Several dark gray granite cores of varying sizes, all of which had been preliminarily cut and polished; rows of specially made steel ingots, mithril wire coils, and small amounts of Deepmarite iron powder, molten core fragments, and so on.

The miscellaneous items, including teaching materials, cost Lynch over three thousand magic stones.

After several years of development, Lilith's cottage can now generate a stable income of about 1000 magic stones for him every month. After deducting the expenses for cultivation experiments, he can still save several hundred each month.

Over the years, Lin Qi's magic stone reserves have reached a staggering 30,000.

Although a huge sum of money was spent on investing in the estate not long ago, it is more than enough to maintain such an educational experiment.

Arriving at the workbench, Lynch prepared to begin making his work.

According to the guide, creating a basic clay puppet with basic movement and command execution capabilities can be roughly divided into three core steps:

Step 1: Creating and mentally binding the core rune plate.

This is the puppet's "brain" and "soul contract." The core control runes need to be etched onto a specific carrier using a mixture of spiritual power and magical materials.

In the process, a trace of the creator's spirit is permanently bound to the core of the rune plate, establishing absolute control.

Step 2: Shaping and energy circulation infusion of the clay body.

This is the puppet's "body" and "neural network." A rough puppet shape is created by shaping specially made magical clay incorporating elemental affinity materials and structural reinforcing agents.

Before the clay has fully hardened, use magic-conducting metal wires or liquid energy-conducting materials to construct energy transmission and command transmission loops connecting the limbs, joints, and core rune plate inside it.

Step 3: Overall assembly, energy core activation and basic debugging.

The solidified clay body parts are precisely assembled with the core rune plate and the low-level elemental core that serves as the power source, ensuring that all physical interfaces and energy circuits are perfectly connected.

Finally, the energy core is activated, and gentle, stable elemental energy is injected into the entire system to drive the core rune board to start, conduct preliminary action tests and command response debugging, and complete the "awakening".

Lynch didn't aim too high. Although he had completely mastered all the theoretical knowledge in "An Introductory Guide to Alchemy" through the system, as with any skill, there is a huge gap between "knowing" and "doing".

Subtle differences in materials, the stability of mental energy output, the instantaneous balance of energy circuits, and even minor interference from environmental factors can cause a perfect theoretical design to collapse in practice.

In order not to waste the valuable materials, his goal today was very pragmatic:

Thoroughly study the first and second steps, and strive to independently complete the production of the core rune plate and the initial shaping and circuit laying of the clay body.