NOVEL NEXT Chapter 94
In the following days, Lynn spent most of his time in the underground laboratory conducting experiments. He brought out the tables and vessels from the Alchemy Laboratory and during the day, took time to visit nearby shops to purchase various laboratory instruments, along with plenty of experimental raw materials.
In this conducive environment, progress in mutation studies occurred daily.
Under Lynn’s arrangement, the goblins also moved in.
All eight goblin engineers were brought to the basement and, under Lynn’s direction, began to be exposed in his experiments. Tasks such as the more straightforward yet time-consuming steps involved in the construction of Iron Serpent No. 1 were delegated to these goblin engineers.
Lynn soon realized that the participation of these goblin engineers in the experiments also counted towards task completion. Due to their lack of proficiency, the quality of the finished products was affected, changing the evaluation of completion from “excellent” to “qualified”.
To avoid impacting the evaluation of his daily tasks’ first experiment, Lynn ensured that each day’s first experiment began with research related to mutation studies. Lynn had previously acquired numerous monster corpses in the maze, and every day, he dissected these corpses, studying and analyzing their bloodlines.
After completing the first experiment of the day, he proceeded with alchemy experiments, delegating some unimportant and time-consuming steps to the goblin engineers.
As expected, this method significantly increased the efficiency of producing Iron Serpent No. 1.
In fact, the technical difficulty of manufacturing Iron Serpent No. 1 was not particularly high; the most challenging aspect was the process of invention and improvement.
The goblin engineers, who were experimenting alongside Lynn for the first time, were in awe of his seemingly divine skills.
Each of them was filled with worship.
They had never imagined that their master, besides being powerful, was also so excellent in alchemy.
Gradually, Lynn began to impart his techniques to these goblin engineers. Once they fully mastered the production techniques of Iron Serpent No. 1, Lynn could entrust them with its production in the future.
This way, Lynn could save a lot of time every day, which he could then devote to researching and creating more advanced alchemical creatures.
In the blink of an eye, seven days passed.
Lynn opened his attribute panel.
‘Lynn
Level: Level 24 (0/1000)
Physical Fitness: 19.08
Mental Strength: 37.7
Mastery:
—Earth Ring Meditation (Mastered)
—Hellfire Meditation (16%)
Life Occupation:
—Level 2 Mutation Studies (18.4%) (0/100)
—Level 1 Bloodlines Studies (65%) (0/10)
—Level 2 Alchemical Studies (9.8%) (0/100)
—Level 1 Undead Studies (75%) (0/10)
General Experience Points: 690′
After some contemplation, he allocated all 600 points of general experience to mutation studies.
The progress in mutation studies swiftly changed.
In a daze, Lynn once again saw the door in his mind.
The door cracked open a slit, and the intangible yet substantial knowledge flowed into his mind like a torrent.
In that instant, Lynn felt as if he were immersed in an ocean of knowledge.
Lynn gained considerable insight into many previously unfamiliar areas of knowledge.
However, this euphoric feeling lasted only for a moment before dissipating.
Lynn felt a sense of disappointment, but after composing himself, he once again looked at his attribute panel.
Level 2 Mutation Studies: 18.4% → 24.4%.
As Lynn crossed the significant threshold of 20%, he felt his understanding of mutation studies deepen, as if he had crossed a small threshold.
The feeling of immersion in knowledge he experienced earlier was utterly captivating, luring one in without one even realizing it.
What lay behind that door? Could it be a mysterious place containing all the known knowledge of the world?
That was just a small crack, yet it resulted in such significant progress after a brief period.
If he could truly open the door and immerse himself for days on end…
No, Lynn shook off the thought.
The pursuit of truth required one to proceed step by step, with a firm footing. One mustn’t aim too high.
The experience points Lynn had just used were accumulated through his daily hard work in experiments, the fruits of his labor. Moreover, he had personally added each point. Being grounded like this was the right way to go about it.
After briefing the goblins, Lynn took the invitation and readied himself to enter the inner court. The letter stated that tearing open the invitation would grant access.
Finding a quiet spot, Lynn gazed at the exquisite black-bordered invitation and gently tore it open from top to bottom.
As the invitation was torn, the space before him rippled, and simultaneously, a rift appeared, magnified many times over.
Peering through the crack, Lynn observed the world beyond. He saw a vast expanse paved with bricks, surrounded by towering stone pillars.
Uncertain of any dangers ahead, Lynn instructed a goblin to go first. However, no matter what they tried, the goblin couldn’t pass through the rift until Lynn’s invitation began to emit a faint glow.
Lynn understood; this was a reminder that only holding the invitation allowed passage through the rift. Retrieving the letter, and confirming it was written by Harin, Lynn stepped into the rift, invitation in hand.
As Lynn stepped inside…
The torn invitation automatically healed, and the rift behind him vanished without a trace.
Before he could contemplate further, Lynn was astonished by the surroundings.
Beneath his feet and all around was a vast square, lined with colossal stone pillars.
As Lynn set foot in the square, these pillars underwent a transformation.
They seemed to breathe, with their pale gray shafts slightly swelling, sprouting numerous rounded knobs.
Subsequently, these knobs split open neatly down the middle, revealing indifferent eyes within. These slightly protruding eyes, devoid of eyelashes, resembled human eyes, but with a cold, gloomy gaze.
The eyeballs swiveled in unison, countless gazes from the square’s pillars fixed upon Lynn simultaneously.
The invitation in Lynn’s hand emitted a gentle glow, enveloping him in its protection. When the gazes of the eyeballs fell upon Lynn’s invitation, they paused for a moment, then slowly retracted their gaze, closing once more.
The swollen eyeballs retracted back into the pillars, and the square returned to its initial tranquility.
Lynn raised his head; the sky above was shrouded in mist, thick fog pervading the surroundings.
There was no moon or stars in the sky, only the dense fog covering the thick clouds.
After waiting for a while, the distant cry of a crow sounded, and a colossal black crow descended from the sky. The crow’s size was comparable to that of a bus, with each of its feathers growing almost as long as a human.
As it drew closer, Lynn noticed that the black crow had three eyes. Perched on its broad back was a man clad in a thick wizard robe, with only a pair of eyes visible.
He glanced at the invitation in Lynn’s hand. “Come aboard.”
With its broad wings spread flat on the ground, Lynn walked steadily onto the black crow’s back.
“Steady now,” the man said as Lynn stabilized himself.
The black crow suddenly took flight.
Lynn’s body swayed, quickly crouching down and grabbing onto the crow’s feathers to steady himself.
As the crow ascended higher, the distant and surrounding scenery gradually came into view before Lynn’s eyes.
Above was the rolling, ink-black clouds, and the crow ceased its ascent when it reached just below the clouds.
Beneath his feet was a vast plain, and at the farthest end of his sight, there stood a towering black mountain.
On the plain, towering wizard towers stood tall, their surfaces adorned with shimmering runes and defensive spells, making them resemble lighthouses on the plain. Some of these towers were exceedingly tall, akin to dormant giants in the darkness.
Each wizard tower was surrounded by a vast cluster of buildings, with considerable distances separating them, almost resembling independent cities.
Suddenly, a dazzling electric light emanated from the top of a distant wizard tower on the plain, converging into a glaring orb. In the next moment, a powerful ripple spread outward like a shockwave.
In the air before the wizard tower, a circular illusory light gate formed.
Bathed in the light of the gate, Lynn saw countless tall or deformed figures gathering in silence, waiting patiently before the gate.
As the illusory gate completely formed, the multitude of figures before it orderly surged into the light gate like waves.
“You’re lucky to witness the wizards activating a plane portal just as you arrive,” the man standing before the black crow remarked.
The black crow flew swiftly, arriving shortly at a nearby wizard tower.
While in the sky, Lynn hadn’t perceived the height of these wizard towers as much, but upon landing, he truly felt the enormity of the towers before him.
Lynn lifted his head. It was his first time observing a wizard tower from such a close distance, and he couldn’t see its peak at a single glance.
The wizard tower before him looked slightly different from the others Lynn had seen. Its shape resembled a towering evergreen tree, stretching from the depths of the earth to the sky.
The trunk was incredibly thick, and the dense canopy of leaves at the top resembled a massive umbrella that blocks the sky and the sun.
Lynn found this wizard tower somewhat familiar, and after searching his mind, he recalled.
In the indexes of wizard towers he had previously perused, there was indeed a blueprint of this particular wizard tower towards the end. Even among the many wizard towers, this one was considered unique because it used a sapling of a sub-species of the elven mother tree as its core, serving as the tower’s body. It was one of the few with such innovative design.
He remembered that when constructing a first-level wizard tower, an elemental pool and a moon pool were built inside to serve as the core.
This wizard tower must be more than just first-level now.
Initially, when it was at first-level, its height was only a hundred and fifty meters. Now, it has far exceeded that, probably nearing a height of a kilometer.
There were many holes in the tree resembling doors and windows, and occasionally, semi-transparent humanoid life forms with wings like bees would come and go from them.
“Today, I’m just here to guide you. From now on, Black Crow will pick you up each time. Don’t wander aimlessly in this world; otherwise, if you lose your life, I won’t be responsible.” After Black Crow landed, it fluttered up to the canopy.
The man beside Lynn loosened the scarf around his neck, revealing a bird’s beak in place of his mouth.
Lynn glanced at it briefly before averting his gaze. The man could be a member of a bird-like race or perhaps a wizard who had undergone transformation.
“I’m called Nocturne,” the man said. “I have very high expectations of researchers. If you don’t meet the standards, you won’t last long.”
Lynn didn’t ask why he wasn’t the owner of this wizard tower. It was evident that the owner of this tower far exceeded the level of a first-level wizard. Lynn was well aware of the standards for a first-level wizard tower.
“If you have any questions, you can ask me, but I need to test your abilities first,” Nocturne said, leading Lynn to a nearby spire-shaped building.
Before, Lynn’s attention had been drawn to the towering elven tree wizard tower, but upon seeing the spire before him, Lynn paused. Although this spire was only a hundred meters tall and lacked the grandeur of the elven tree wizard tower, it appeared to be a genuine wizard tower. Was Nocturne also a wizard?!
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