Another month passed.
Helos’s life had completely turned into a routine of classroom, workshop, and dormitory.
She was like a greedy sponge, frantically absorbing the knowledge Professor Graham imparted while slowly wringing out every drop from the ancient alchemy fragment.
Under the guidance of Professor Graham, a master alchemist, Helos’s research progressed at lightning speed.
Her understanding of those distorted runes deepened daily, and she even began to draw inferences, attempting to combine orthodox alchemy theory with this “heretical” knowledge.
Every few days, small explosions and clouds of smoke would erupt from her dormitory.
But Gavi was utterly in awe of Helos’s “academic passion” and even took it upon herself to bring Helos meals, hoping that Helos might spare a word or two of guidance in return for her help.
That afternoon, cheers rang out from the underground workshop once again.
“It worked! Professor! It really worked!”
Helos held up a blue crystal core the size of her palm, crackling with unstable arcs of electricity, and shouted excitedly at Graham.
“You’re a genius, Helos! This approach actually works!”
Professor Graham was even more thrilled than she was. He pushed his thick glasses back up his nose, hurried over, grabbed the core, and examined it closely.
This was the result of Helos’s month of research, and the ninth recipe on her list—[Flash Thunder Core].
This recipe also came from the fragment, but it was even more damaged than the [Alchemy Bomb], leaving only a few key words: “using thunder element magic crystal as carrier… instant release… paralysis.”
Helos had no idea where to start at first. She couldn’t figure out how to make the magic stone stably release a paralyzing electric shock without causing a violent explosion.
It was Professor Graham who found inspiration in an ancient book about “mana resonance.”
“Look, Helos.”
He pointed to a complex magic array on the page.
“The power of lightning is violent and hard to control. But what if we don’t force an ‘explosion’ but instead ‘induce’ it? Use a reverse mana frequency to neutralize its violent energy, leaving only its basic ‘paralysis’ property.”
Guided by this idea, Helos buried herself in research for nearly half a month, trying hundreds of different rune combinations. Finally, today, she successfully replicated the recipe.
To be honest, if she could use mana herself, she might have finished the rune combination in less than half a month.
The [Flash Thunder Core] in her hand used a low-grade thunder element magic crystal as its base. By etching a precise “resonance” rune onto it, the lightning energy inside was highly compressed.
When struck, it could be used as a disposable electric shock bomb. Thrown, it would instantly release a powerful current.
Professor Graham tested it on an unfortunate magically enhanced rat.
The rat, which was originally bigger than a human head, was hit by the arc of electricity, twitched violently, fell to the ground, foamed at the mouth, and was almost instantly paralyzed.
“Not very powerful, but enough to paralyze most enemies without special training.”
“A fine alchemy tool. It can have a surprising effect in battle.”
Professor Graham stroked his chin and gave a fair evaluation.
Helos nodded excitedly.
This was her ninth recipe!
Helos skipped and jumped back to her own dedicated workbench and eagerly registered the [Flash Thunder Core] recipe into the catalogue of [Ultimate Alchemy].
[New recipe registered: Flash Thunder Core.]
[Current recipe registration progress: 9/10.]
Just one more!
Helos clenched her fists in excitement.
Her gaze fell back onto the ancient alchemy fragment.
However, most of the remaining recipes that could still be salvaged all involved the “will guidance” domain, which gave her a headache.
Neither Graham’s [Metal Activation] nor the fragment’s [Biological Modification] were things she could easily conquer now.
“Ah…”
Her face fell again.
“What’s wrong? Another tough problem?”
Graham’s voice came from beside her.
“Professor… the remaining recipes all seem like terribly broken fragments.”
Helos said weakly.
“Oh, that.”
Graham scratched his head.
“That is a bit troublesome. Can’t rush it. But Helos, why are you so fixated on reconstructing the recipes from the fragment?”
“Huh?”
Helos was stunned.
“As an alchemist, you need to learn to use your own knowledge to study something of your own.”
Graham pushed up his glasses and flashed a sly smile.
“Reconstruction is ‘learning,’ but you can also ‘create.’ With your current alchemy knowledge and your wild ideas, wouldn’t it be easier to design a brand new alchemy tool yourself?”
“I… design myself?”
Seeing Helos’s enlightened expression, Graham snapped his fingers.
“Exactly. Didn’t you already have your own research result before? Even though it was based on improvement, the idea was yours. You can make another ‘little clever idea’ of your own.”
Right, the [Dawn Dew] she had made before was her own research.
How could she forget that?
She had been too fascinated by this ancient alchemy to remember.
Why did she have to hang herself on that broken book?
She could just “invent” a new recipe herself!
“Professor! You’re my savior!”
Helos grabbed Graham’s arm excitedly and gave his shoulder a hard slap.
“Cough… easy there.”
But Helos was completely beyond caring now.
Countless inspirations flooded her mind.
She thought of the [Flash Thunder Core] she had just completed.
It was useful, but she couldn’t just rely on throwing it by hand in every fight.
She also thought of her terrible swordsmanship and physical fitness.
Close combat was too dangerous. She needed a safer, more efficient attack method.
She didn’t have the ability to recreate a firearm from her past life—the precision craftsmanship and pyrotechnics required were beyond her current knowledge.
But she could compromise!
Helos’s gaze landed on a sketch she had casually drawn on the corner of her desk.
It was a structural drawing of a weapon she had doodled while studying imperial history.
A blazing light burst forth from Helos’s eyes.
“That’s it!”
She grabbed her feather pen and quickly modified the sketch.
What she wanted to make was a small portable hand crossbow that could be hidden in a sleeve!
Of course, this wasn’t an ordinary crossbow.
Helos didn’t spend much effort on the “energy storage” or “power” of the bow arms.
After all, she didn’t expect this little thing to pierce a knight’s heavy armor.
All her “little clever ideas” were focused on the “ammunition.”
She didn’t need bolts; she wanted pellets!
Drawing from the structure of [Flash Thunder Core], she designed a new type of round pellet.
She mixed thunder element magic crystal powder with [Ignition Paste] material, used mithril solution as a binder, and pressed them into pellet shapes.
Finally, she etched a simplified version of the crucial “resonance” rune from [Flash Thunder Core] onto the surface of the pellet!
This way, when the pellet was fired from the crossbow and impacted violently, the [Ignition Paste] would instantly generate high heat, activating the thunder crystal powder, and through the “resonance” rune’s guidance, release a paralyzing electric shock!
The power might not be as concentrated as the original [Flash Thunder Core], but it was small, concealable, and could be fired continuously!
Helos looked at the “magical modification” design on the paper—which she considered perfect—and couldn’t help letting out a narcissistic sigh.
“I’m a total genius!”
Both the hand crossbow and the flash thunder pellets still had huge room for improvement.
For example, the crossbow’s material could be made of tougher alloy, and the runes on the pellets could be etched more precisely—or even change the runes and materials to create a brand new type of ammunition.
But for now, Helos’s attention was no longer on that.
With excitement, over the next few days, she quickly produced samples of the [Portable Hand Crossbow] and [Miniature Flash Thunder Pellet].
She couldn’t wait to run back to the dormitory and lock the door tightly.
Gavi tilted her head, not understanding why her master was suddenly so excited.
Helos took a deep breath and sank her consciousness into [Ultimate Alchemy].
She submitted these two recipes—completely independently designed by herself—to the system.
[New recipe detected… naming: Portable Hand Crossbow.]
[Recipe registered.]
[Current recipe registration progress: 10/10.]
[New recipe detected… naming: Miniature Flash Thunder Pellet.]
[Recipe registered.]
[Miniature Flash Thunder Pellet has been judged as a subordinate branch of Flash Thunder Core and will not count toward the total new recipe count.]
Though Helos had expected this, she couldn’t help muttering.
“As expected…”
But it didn’t matter. [Portable Hand Crossbow] was successfully registered as the tenth recipe. Her goal was achieved!
Excitedly, Helos looked at the blue mark representing “Enlightenment” in the catalogue of [Ultimate Alchemy].
The moment she successfully registered, that originally dim blue mark finally slowly bloomed with its deep, profound blue light!
Boom!—
A torrent of knowledge, even vaster and more complex than when she unlocked [Valiance Arts], crashed into her mind like a river of stars breaking through a dam!
It was no longer simple combat instincts. It was about “will”—a chaotic and profound forbidden knowledge she had once been unable to understand.
“Distortion,” “Mutation,” “Creation”…
Countless runes she had seen in the fragment but couldn’t read, countless instances of “will guidance” she couldn’t comprehend, were now all crystal clear.
[Enlightenment Arts Alchemy—Unlocked!]
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Ohndear.