End of the Magic Era

Usually, an Alchemist needed a minimum of five Apprentice Alchemist assistants. The work of those Apprentice Alchemists wouldn’t be too complicated, mostly consisting of some minor jobs that Alchemists were unwilling to do or disdained doing, such as magic material processing, temperature control, tool manipulation, numerical calculations, and so on…

In fact, the former Alchemists of the Gilded Rose had been allocated with that standard number of assistants. But it couldn’t be done now. The Gilded Rose now had a total of fifty-one Alchemists, including Faleau. Even if they were given the lowest number typically required, they would need a total of 255 Apprentice Alchemists. How could he find so many Apprentice Alchemists in such a short time?

Naturally, this didn’t mean that the Gilded Rose wasn’t going to provide the Alchemists with assistants, it just wouldn’t be that fast. They had just gotten 51 Alchemists today, where could they find 255 Apprentice Alchemists?

Lin Yun said nothing after thinking about this issue.

It was because he knew that talking was useless, as Hauss would still come looking for trouble anyways.

“Faleau, take care of it…” Lin Yun picked up Faleau’s contract and left without even looking at Hauss.

“You…” Hauss almost had a stroke. ‘Too arrogant. As the boss of an alchemy shop, he actually dares to treat me like this? Regardless of what happens today, I must leave this damn Gilded Rose and go back to speak to Great Alchemist Bassoro to see if he could let me work at the Black Horn Auction House. That way, I’ll be able to get some pointers from Alchemist Faleau.’

But here, Hauss finally realized something.

‘Hold on… Alchemist Faleau…’

Hauss’ face paled.

He suddenly noticed that his idol was standing in front of him, and he didn’t seem to be in a good mood.

“Al-Alchemist Faleau.” Hauss subconsciously gulped. Although he didn’t know why Faleau’s expression was so unsightly, he could feel extreme annoyance coming from his expression.

That’s right, Faleau was truly infuriated.

He was having a nice discussion with Great Mage Merlin and had even received an invitation to the most mystical alchemy laboratory of Thousand Sails City, but now that kid rushed here and angered Great Mage Merlin over a trivial matter. ‘Are you seeking death?’

“Fucking…” Faleau originally wanted to curse at him, but upon opening his mouth and pointing, he realized that he had forgotten his name.

“Hau-Hauss.” The pitiful young genius had no choice but to timidly remind him.

“Eh, Alchemist Hauss it is…” Faleau first nodded, before his face sank. “Has your teacher never told you that personally processing magic materials and manipulating alchemy tools is a required task for Alchemists? You can’t even do such a trivial matter, yet you want to be an outstanding Alchemist? And who do you think you are? You are just an Alchemist! You aren’t a Great Alchemist, nor a Master Alchemist! What qualifications do you have to be picky? If you don’t believe me, go back to Bassoro and watch his expression when you tell him that the Gilded Rose didn’t allocate any assistants to you!”

“Al-Alchemist Faleau… That’s not what I meant, I only…” Hauss’ mind was thrown into chaos by Faleau’s harsh words, his tears quickly falling down. He didn’t even know why Faleau was getting so angry, but he kept apologizing as he tried to explain himself.

“Go back and think about it, ask yourself whether the Gilded Rose is actually mistreating you!”

Faleau didn’t care about Hauss’ feelings, and he didn’t care how talented he was. There were too many “geniuses” in the world of alchemy. A few would appear every years, but in the end, only a few would become Great Alchemists.

Even Faleau himself was dubbed a young genius. When he became an Alchemist at the age of 18, everyone had said that he was a rare genius only seen every hundred years. But once he was in his twenties, still an Alchemist, people would only say that he was promising.

Yes, just promising.

In the world of alchemy, if you weren’t a Great Alchemist, you were nothing, someone promising at most.

If it wasn’t for his encounter with Great Mage Merlin and the pointers he received at the Black Horn Auction, he would still be that promising Faleau.

Of course, Faleau wouldn’t tell this to Hauss.

He just left the room after saying his piece. He originally planned on looking around and familiarizing himself with the Gilded Rose, but after walking for a bit, a Magic Apprentice named Remy told him that Great Mage Merlin was calling for him to go to his alchemy laboratory on the second floor.

Gilded Rose’s 2nd-floor alchemy laboratory!

Faleau’s eyes shone. Others might not know what it was, but how could Faleau not know about it?

That was Thousand Sails City’s most mystical alchemy laboratory. The Ghost Potion and Volcano Potion that sold for 4,000,000 golds at the Black Horn Auction had been created in that laboratory. That was Great Mage Merlin’s working space, it was where miracles were born.

Faleau composed himself in front of the stairs. He calmed himself down and slowly walked up the stairs to enter that mystical place.

Faleau noticed the fumes lingering around the refining table as soon as he entered. A crucible filled with thick liquid was letting out some bubbling noises as it stood over the fire. A tense, young Great Mage wearing a black robe was busying himself in front of the refining table. When he noticed Faleau coming in, he only nodded, “You are right on time, come and help.”

“O-okay.” Faleau couldn’t hide the emotion in his voice. He knew that Great Mage Merlin was starting his teaching.

But Faleau was only half correct.

Lin Yun hadn’t come to his laboratory to teach Faleau. The harvest of his trip to the Poison Fog Canyon had far surpassed Lin Yun’s imagination. The Death Garden’s stone tablet was a True Spirit level Component.

True Spirit level, and a Component to boot. This was a treasure that could make countless mages fight each other to the death over it, even at the peak of the magic era. It had now quietly fallen into Lin Yun’s hands.

This made Lin Yun have greater expectations of that prince’s tomb.

But it was just that the last time he went to the viper tomb was to cause trouble for the Viper Nest. He hadn’t thought that he would go deep in the prince tomb, and thus the Magic Spring potions he had on hand were insufficient. Over a dozen Magic Spring potions, one Hope Potion, and he didn’t even have any mana replenishing or healing potions. This was the reason that Lin Yun didn’t dare to go deeper in the prince tomb after clearing the Death Garden and could only retreat to Thousand Sails City.

He would make ample preparations for his next trip to the prince tomb. After all, his true target was the Reincarnation Eye situated in the depths of the prince tomb!

This was the real reason that Lin Yun went into his alchemy laboratory. As for giving pointers to Faleau, it was something he could do on the side.