Chapter 531: Box of Books
“Is there really such a place at Witch Academy?”
According to the location given by Teacher Natalie, this is an independent alchemy area designated by the Witch Academy. I even sensed the spatial segmentation and reinforcement, and everywhere I looked, there were uniquely styled independent alchemy rooms.
Alchemy is a highly risky craft; after all, one small mistake could lead to serious explosions. Therefore, I understand that this area is particularly special, especially after I saw more than one danger warning upon arriving here.
As I walked through this area, I could even feel that the flow of the earth veins here seemed to be interfered with. I could see that the information obtained through the identification technique was very comprehensive, particularly about the structure of the alchemy rooms here, even showing traces of manual editing.
Moreover, from my experience walking through the alchemy rooms, I could conclude that these rooms had been blown up several times. Upon further understanding, I realized that these buildings were connected to the earth veins of this area, recording structural information, and using a spell that could not be analyzed by a single identification technique to complete the material reconstruction of the buildings. They have truly played with the earth veins in a remarkable way…
Combined with the Witch Academy’s level of control over the earth veins, I might have some understanding of where the academy’s confidence in repairing the Main World comes from.
“Xiao Han hasn’t been here before? Generally, witches involved in alchemy would have a dedicated alchemy room here. I’ve had the fortune of accompanying my instructor here before, and I heard that there would be no fewer than three explosions every day. This entire area is reinforced against spatial disturbances, and it won’t affect the surrounding areas.”
“So Sister Bai is very familiar with this place?”
“Not really familiar, but… now I am.” As Sister Bai spoke, the information gathering from the identification technique completed and presented the map of this place.
“Sister Bai seems to use it quite skillfully~” Seeing Sister Bai reach out easily, I felt a bit happy. After all, what could be more delightful than having a loved one enjoy using things they created themselves?
“Yeah, this identification technique is indeed quite powerful. But ultimately, Xiao Han is the amazing one; that Teacher Natalie has positioned this area, and it’s not far away.” While Sister Bai spoke, she finalized the positioning on the map, and then the augmented reality ability from the Knowledge Tree completed the route planning in the visual field.
Not long after, we arrived at an alchemy room. This place looked quite unique overall, but compared to the surroundings, it seemed rather normal.
Along the way, I saw many alchemical products. Perhaps when passing by some old rural-style houses surrounded by flower beds, there’s no doubt that this was also an alchemy room. The flowers shouldn’t be picked; they might just be biological alchemical products, carnivorous plants that could snap at you if you reached out.
I must say that the Main World’s Witch Academy lives up to having so many witches from outside worlds. Many architectural styles here can be seen as incongruent with the mainstream style of the Main World.
The style of our destination leans towards a more modern or even futuristic sci-fi style, filled with a minimalist architectural design. Rather than being an alchemy room, it would be more accurate to describe it as an experimental building.
Moreover, I understood that there seemed to be space underground.
Once we arrived to visit, a presence similar to an intelligent butler quickly appeared, confirming our identities before guiding us into the alchemy room.
Upon entering, the layout of this alchemy room gave me a significant shock. Rather than an alchemy room, the path we walked along appeared to be designed as a display area for alchemical products.
Many understandable and incomprehensible things were showcased, which indeed attracted my attention.
“Xiao Han? You finally came! I’ve been waiting for you for a long time. Hmm? Who is this?”
At that moment, while my gaze was still occasionally falling on those alchemical exhibits, a figure suddenly appeared right in front of me, and her tone suggested that she had been waiting for me for quite some time.
“Hello, I’m Bai Yu.” At this time, Sister Bai also introduced herself.
“Bai Yu… oh, great! So you are accompanying Xiao Han?” After understanding, Natalie directly called Sister Bai “sister” with familiarity. After all, as fellow extraordinary witches, she would not be unaware of it.
Under Teacher Natalie’s warm welcome, we finally reached what could barely be considered a reception area.
However, I unexpectedly saw someone I did not anticipate, oh no, a witch.
“Teacher Lola Lucy, I didn’t expect to see you here.” I quickly greeted her politely.
Teacher Lola Lucy, who is also the instructor that Betty follows. It has been a while since I last contacted Betty to discuss alchemy, so I did not expect to meet her instructor here.
Earlier, I had even attended Teacher Lola’s alchemy class.
“Xiao Han, I’m also very happy to see you here. Your growth seems to far exceed my expectations.” Teacher Lola wasn’t too surprised; she had understood I would come since the call she received earlier, so she stayed here without leaving.
Witches adept in alchemy usually gather occasionally around here to chat or exchange alchemical techniques, hoping to spark some brilliant ideas.
From the design of the alchemy room in front of Natalie, it’s clear that she is a hospitable person; after all, that central path is her most proud exhibition area.
At that moment, some desserts were also brought to us from the alchemical instruments.
“Would you like something to drink? Black tea or coffee? Hand-brewed might be a bit difficult.” Natalie pointed at the alchemical creations.
“Um… coffee sounds good.”
“I’m fine with coffee as well.”
Before long, the brewed coffee was served. I took a gentle sip, hmm… instant coffee.
But considering this was an alchemy room, the requirements didn’t need to be too high, and… the taste of this instant coffee was indeed quite good, richer than the general coffee from the outside world.
After some simple conversation, Teacher Natalie immediately seized the opportunity to discuss topics related to my weapon customization.
“Do you really love alchemy so much, Teacher Natalie? I felt your passion for it even during our earlier phone call.”
As soon as I finished speaking, Teacher Lola Lucy next to me couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.
“That’s not passion for alchemy; she is actually fixating on those precious materials collected by Mei Linde. Don’t underestimate a alchemist’s obsession with rare materials, especially not Natalie.”
“Don’t reveal my secrets!” Natalie yelled at Teacher Lola.
“Natalie has a notebook that records witches from the Witch Academy who have collections of rare materials. She likes to visit them whenever she has the opportunity…”
“Lola Lucy!” Natalie shouted to interrupt the revealing of her secrets, then turned to me with a smiling face, “Haha, sorry Xiao Han, you can forget what she just said. Although I do this, it’s definitely not as pretentious as she made it sound.”
Seeing her explain like this was basically tantamount to admitting her behavior. At this moment, I understood what the Academy Head meant when she spoke about the alchemist’s obsession with precious materials.
So that’s what it means…
Is she already longing for it?
What kind of materials could make her so eager that she would be so willingly dedicated even if they weren’t for her use?
“Hey, Xiao Han, have you thought about what kind of weapon you want? Since it’s a custom order, we’ll definitely help you all the way. After all, it’s others providing the materials, so you can say whatever you want, and I’ll make it boldly~” At this moment, Natalie leaned over excitedly, just across a small tea table from me.
“Well… to be honest, I haven’t decided what kind of weapon I want yet, so I came especially to consult your opinion, Teacher Natalie.”
“You haven’t decided yet…” Hearing my response, she seemed a bit surprised, but then she asked again, “So have you determined what type of weapon you want? What kind of positioning do you hope it has when it’s in your hands?”
“Not really. I don’t have much knowledge in those professional areas. Could you please introduce them to me, Teacher Natalie?”
“Of course! Since you want to make a weapon, let me give you a brief explanation. Weapons are generally divided into many types according to their primary use. For instance, main combat weapons are those that can directly enhance combat power.”
“Then there are functional weapons, which literally integrate multiple functions.”
“After that are auxiliary weapons, which are used to assist in combat, and these include amplification weapons that amplify a specific ability, such as chant reduction and spell-casting speed-up. Then there’s specialization weapons that focus on enhancing a particular ability. Generally, these few categories can summarize the mainstream weapon range.”
“Oh…” Upon hearing these classifications, I had some thoughts, but I hadn’t really thought these through before. I hadn’t even considered what kind of weapon I needed.
However, one point was clear: I dismiss the idea of a main combat weapon. After all, enhancing my own strength is preferable to relying on the direct combat power increase provided by such external tools. The obsolescence speed of weapons at my current stage is very fast, and such a weapon is less desirable than auxiliary ones or amplification weapons which have longer usability.
“Right, if you’re still indecisive, there’s also the option of an integrated custom version, where multiple abilities can be combined into one weapon.” At that moment, Natalie suggested an enticing choice.
“Xiao Han, don’t listen to her nonsense. A weapon with many abilities but lacking finesse is a major taboo. Moreover, such a weapon can be bulky and difficult to repair, and maintaining it is quite a hassle. It’s not just a weapon; it’s an encumbrance.” Teacher Lola Lucy rebutted without holding back.
“Oh please, as if you’re so impressive. With the energy to master something to the extreme, wouldn’t that be better?”
“What’s the use of mastering one thing? It can be easily targeted!”
“Weapons are part of the user’s compensation for their shortcomings; you’re overlooking the user’s role in wielding the weapon.”
“How can you guarantee that the user only has one shortcoming?”
“How can you be so sure that the user can only have one weapon… Huh… Stop, this isn’t the time for you and me to argue. You should ask Xiao Han more,” Teacher Lola Lucy took a deep breath to end this pointless debate.
“True…” Natalie seemed to just realize it and leaned toward me again, “Sorry, Xiao Han, this was just a clash of ideologies between me and her. Ultimately, how to proceed is still up to you. Do you have any thoughts now? Boldly share, I also want to understand your ideas.”
“My thoughts…” I instinctively looked at Sister Bai.
“Xiao Han, it’s fine. Even if what you want is simply a firestick, I won’t have any objections,” Sister Bai smiled at her side.
She naturally didn’t want to put pressure on me, as she could tell I wasn’t highly demanding about weapons. Even during our previous conversation, she sensed that my “interest” in weapons seemed to be more significant.
Of course… if it were in the past, she wouldn’t have figured out so much… but who made her have the Knowledge Shadow to assist her?
“It’s okay, just speak boldly. You only need to imagine, I’ll take care of the implementation. Don’t feel too much pressure; since Mei Linde has promised to give you these materials, she’s not afraid of you wasting them. So let’s take it step by step,” Natalie added, considering herself emotionally intelligent. “Let’s start with the appearance. What do you envision? Hmm… how about I give you a compilation of the weapons I’ve made to refer to?”
“Sounds good!” I nodded immediately.
After my nod, not long later, Natalie approached me with her compilation and enthusiastically shared her design ideas and abilities for these weapons.
As I looked at these weapons, my eyes opened wide. I could see that Natalie had a broad range of manufacturing styles and a wide coverage of abilities; she truly deserved to be the alchemical master recommended by the Academy Head.
“Hmm? This one…”
As I flipped to the back, I noticed that the later collection images seemed to be hand-drawn design diagrams rather than photos of actual objects.
“These next ones are design concepts or scraps from previously commissioned works, or models I didn’t want after customization. But how should I put it? They are pieces of inspiration I’ve been holding onto, which I’ll improve whenever I have time. Some of these have limitations in materials, and some were due to my initial lack of skill. In short, these are all past efforts of mine,” Natalie quickly explained.
“I see…” I nodded and flipped back until I stopped at a design prototype.
I found that this design prototype was a book. In fact, many spellcasting devices take on the style of a book, but most are either for recording spell ceremonies or speeding up casting, or acting in collaboration with spell books. The reason this one attracted me was its multifunctionality.
“Did you like this one?” Natalie asked the moment she noticed my interest.
“This was one of my wild ideas from a while ago. Although my instructor criticized it harshly before, I still kept it. After my continuous improvements, I’ve named this design… Box of Books!”
“It’s most suitable for friends with decision-making difficulties because it can store… well, that’s a bit inaccurate; it should be said to record various weapons. It’s a representative work of functional weapons, perfectly solving the problem of bulky multifunctional weapons…”
“This weapon… are you sure it’s not a magical device that has been layered over with storage equipment?” At that moment, Teacher Lola Lucy approached, glanced at the blueprints and ideas, and quickly grasped the essence of this weapon.
“Don’t insult my inspiration and creativity! According to your logic, wouldn’t all weapons just be mixed materials forged with some runes carved onto them? But is it the same? This is a clever combination of inspiration, concept, and design! How could you, as an alchemist, say such a thing?!”
“Well… the two of you teachers, I think this idea is still quite good… I’m just not sure if it can be modified according to my needs?” Seeing the two’s sharp exchange, I quickly interjected.
I had originally intended to use a book as the exterior form of my weapon, but upon seeing such a ready-made design, I did find it quite interesting, though it still didn’t entirely meet my requirements.
However, this is just a weapon customization, not a final decision that cannot be changed; who knows, I might develop a preference for something else after achieving extraordinary witch status!
So rather than hesitating endlessly, I might as well make a decisive choice while I’m stirred up right now!
“Good eye! Of course, you can! Just say how you want to modify it and what demands you have!” Natalie replied brightly.
