Under Agatha’s guidance, Helos finally stepped onto the deep stone steps leading underground.
The stone steps spiraled downward, and the temperature in the air dropped sharply. The searing heat and noise from the upper levels of the Smelting Center were completely cut off by the thick stone walls.
Replacing it was a unique smell, a mixture of strange ores, dry herbs, and the faint scent of reagents.
When they reached the bottom of the steps and passed through a heavy, unlocked iron door, the sight before her made Helos’ eyes widen slightly.
This place was less of an “Underground Workshop” and more of a massive Secret Base.
The entire space was unusually spacious. Bright magic crystal lamps were embedded in the high arched ceiling, illuminating the workshop as brightly as day.
It was neither as dilapidated as her own workshop nor as cluttered as Agatha’s dorm room; everything was in perfect order.
The vast space was clearly divided into several functionally distinct areas.
Rows of wooden shelves reaching the ceiling were neatly stocked with various labeled rare materials, from faintly glowing ores to magical beast tissues soaking in jars—everything one could need.
On the other side, several large alchemical furnaces, precise Alchemical Tools, and rune-engraving platforms stood quietly, still retaining residual warmth from recent use. At the very back, there was a row of tools Helos had never seen before.
Several students who looked like seniors were busy with their heads down, so focused they didn’t even notice the newcomers’ footsteps.
Helos could faintly feel the ring on her finger warming slightly. The mana fluctuations here were completely isolated from the outside world, clearly protected by some powerful Barrier. A strange yet stable flow of mana permeated the air.
Agatha lowered her voice, introducing proudly, “How about it? Impressive, right? All the equipment here is the academy’s highest spec! A lot of it was bought at great expense by the professor from the Dwarves!”
Helos nodded silently.
She was genuinely stunned.
An Alchemical Workshop of this scale was probably unmatched anywhere else.
Agatha led her through the experimental area filled with bottles and jars to the very center of the workshop.
There, Professor Graham was hunched over a huge desk piled high with blueprints and various mechanical parts.
He held a feather pen, scribbling on a Design Diagram with an extremely complex structure, muttering to himself. His messy hair looked even more disheveled than yesterday.
“Professor! I’ve brought Helos!”
Agatha shouted excitedly, breaking the workshop’s tranquility.
The few students immersed in their experiments nearby seemed startled, looking up. Upon seeing it was Agatha, they showed expressions of being used to it and returned to their research.
Graham looked up sharply as if jolted from deep thought. When he saw Helos behind Agatha, his tired eyes visibly brightened. His thick glasses had slid to the tip of his nose, and he wore a somewhat embarrassed smile.
“Sorry, sorry, I lose track of time when I get absorbed in research. Didn’t scare you yesterday, did I?”
“No, Professor.”
“Oh! Miss Olivius! You’re here!”
He put down the feather pen and walked over quickly, looking at her with expectant eyes.
“So? Have you thought about it? Will you join our alchemy association?”
Helos glanced at the equally expectant Agatha beside her, then at the professor before her. Though his appearance was unkempt, his eyes were filled with a pure passion for knowledge.
She took a deep breath and nodded solemnly. “Professor Graham, I am willing to join the alchemy association.”
“Excellent!”
Graham clapped his hands excitedly, his previously exhausted face instantly glowing with vitality.
He turned and rushed back to his chaotic work desk, frantically rummaging through a pile of parchment and sketches.
“Paperwork, paperwork… Ah, here it is!”
He pulled out a thin piece of parchment, grabbed a feather pen from a pen holder, and shoved it into Helos’s hand.
“Come, come, the procedure is simple. Just sign here!”
Helos took the parchment and found it was an extremely simple membership application form, even with a few ink stains on it. She picked up the pen and quickly wrote her name in the signature field.
Graham took the form, pulled a seal engraved with a gear and a flask pattern from his pocket, thumped it down on the paper, and then casually tossed the form into the pile of documents behind him that was nearly overflowing.
The entire membership process took less than a few minutes.
“Alright, from now on, you are an official member of our alchemy association!”
Professor Graham clapped his hands, his smile growing even brighter.
“Your badge will be sent to you by Agatha later. You can use it to come and go here freely from now on.”
Mid-sentence, he suddenly rubbed his hands together. His eyes behind the lenses shone brightly as he finally asked the question he cared about most:
“Miss Olivius—no, Miss Helos. What exactly have you been researching lately? Can you tell me about it? That explosion yesterday… was truly magnificent!”
Helos felt a bit speechless.
She knew this guy was still hung up on that explosion.
She instinctively glanced at Agatha, who was frantically winking at her, signaling her to “go ahead and tell him.”
Helos hesitated for a moment but decided to reveal only part of the information.
She spoke carefully, “Professor, I’ve recently been researching a fragmentary copy of Ancient Alchemy that I obtained from Agatha.”
“Oh?”
Graham’s interest clearly intensified.
“Yes.”
Helos nodded. “The content in it is very strange, recording many alchemical tools I’ve never seen before… My experiment yesterday was an attempt to restore one of the incomplete blueprints from it.”
“But the runes and structures inside are too ancient. There’s a lot I don’t understand, so… I could only try to restore it myself.”
She observed Graham’s expression, seeing he was listening with rapt attention, before continuing:
“So, I might need your help, Professor.”
Graham’s breathing instantly became rapid. He grabbed Helos’s shoulders, his expression agitated to the point of losing composure.
“Quick! Quick, show it to me!”
Helos was startled by his sudden action but still handed over the tattered ancient book from her backpack.
Graham practically snatched the book from her. His fingers, covered in calluses and burn scars, trembled slightly as he carefully turned the yellowed pages.
When he saw the twisted ancient runes on the pages, a light unlike any before burst forth from his turbid eyes.
“That’s right… that’s right… This is definitely the lost ‘heretical’ alchemy!”
He muttered to himself, his voice trembling with excitement. “No wonder! No wonder a young girl like you could create a bomb of that power! So you’ve mastered this kind of power!”
He looked up sharply, gazing at Helos with a blazing look, his eyes filled with admiration and excitement for a genius.
“Helos! You are practically a genius messenger sent by our lord to save us!”
He did not hold back his praise.
To be honest, this was the first time in both her lifetimes that Helos had been praised so directly with words like “genius” and “prodigy.”
For a moment, she felt somewhat overwhelmed by the favor.
Her small face flushed slightly red beneath the mask, and she waved her hand somewhat sheepishly. “Professor, you flatter me too much… I just got lucky…”
“No! This isn’t luck!”
Graham interrupted her excitedly, waving the fragmentary book in his hand.
“This is talent! Talent that even the gods would envy! Our alchemy association—no, the entire empire’s alchemy community—needs fresh blood like you!”
He pushed up his glasses and, after calming his excitement a little, spoke in an extremely solemn tone:
“Helos, if you don’t mind, I hope that in the coming time, you can use this fragmentary copy of Ancient Alchemy as your main research topic. Under my guidance, of course.”
He thumped his chest in assurance.
“Don’t worry! You can use the association’s resources freely! If there’s anything you don’t understand, I will teach you everything I know! Working together, we can surely restore these lost ancient tools to the world!”
Faced with such a sincere invitation from the professor, Helos naturally had no reason to refuse.
This was precisely her ultimate goal in joining the association.
“Alright! Then I’ll be in your care, Professor Graham!”
After receiving Helos’s affirmative reply, Graham seemed even happier than she was.
He immediately pulled Helos to an empty experimental station at the very back of the workshop, equipped with a full set of brand-new tools.
“This will be your dedicated experimental station from now on! Agatha is right next to you!”
He began introducing the various high-end equipment in the workshop with great enthusiasm, from the magic constant temperature furnace that could precisely control temperature to the mana analyzer that could analyze material composition. Each one opened Helos’s eyes.
Although Helos couldn’t operate these mana-driven alchemical devices for now, Graham said it wasn’t a problem—they had plenty of people here who could operate them.
Seeing this, Agatha also excitedly joined in. Three heads equally craze about alchemy huddled together, heatedly discussing the various bizarre recipes recorded in the fragmentary book.
Helos looked at the professor before her, who, though a bit eccentric, was full of appreciation for her, and a warm feeling surged in her heart.
She couldn’t help but silently check her “cheat” in her mind.
After yesterday’s earth-shattering “fireworks show,” the successfully restored and activated [Alchemy Bomb] recipe had been registered in the Ultimate Alchemy’s Formula Directory. Added to the previous [Mana Core] and [Dawn Dew], her recipe list finally had a third entry.
Looking at the no-longer-empty list, the corner of her mouth curled into a confident smile.
Only seven more recipes were needed to unlock the [Enlightenment Arts] alchemy.
Keep it up, Helos!
***
Empire Border.
“Damn goddess’s lackeys—how did they find us?!”
Thud—
The Holy Sword “Daybreak” pierced the chaos cultist’s throat.
Julius tilted his head slightly, confirming no one was around before he couldn’t help but complain:
“Really holding a cult ritual on such an open platform? You think I’m a goblin you can fool?”
“Are these chaos cultists not right in the head?”
The black-haired young man sighed and sheathed his Holy Sword.
He had finally returned to the empire’s border, only to run into cultists as soon as he secretly crossed.
What were the Saintess and saint knights of the Southern Diocese doing?
Oh, right, isn’t the Saintess of the Southern Diocese Miss Eleanor?
She’s still young, probably not truly in charge yet, right?
Cursing in my heart… shouldn’t count as blasphemy, right?
Julius shrank his neck and looked in the direction of Olivius City.
“I wonder how that girl is doing now. Still blowing up workshops every day…”
He shook his head, dismissing the thought as soon as it arose.
He glanced at the corpses of the chaos cultists on the ground, the corner of his eye twitching involuntarily.
Forget it, time is tight, tasks are heavy. Since I’ve secretly returned to the empire, I might as well help Miss Eleanor clean up some of this trouble while I’m at it.
These cultists… I’ll clean up as many as I can.
How violent