Are you undead?

Chapter 17: Are You Undead?

The economic crisis in Alchemy City was more severe than Amber Xiu had imagined. Even the minor Lords below were starting to make preparations, anticipating the collapse of Alchemy City.

However, whether Alchemy City collapsed or not was not Amber Xiu's concern at the moment. He was fully immersed in the experimental creation of Grave Golems.

Master Morgan had pointed him in the right direction. By optimizing the Simulated Soul technology, Amber Xiu quickly managed to create a "biomimetic" soul at a cost of about two hundred Gold Coins.

Considering the value of a soul, two hundred Gold Coins was undoubtedly extravagant. After all, the soul of a Human Slave wasn't even worth one Gold Coin. But compared to the fifty thousand Gold Coins cost of the Magic Ritual created by Master Morgan, Amber Xiu's two hundred Gold Coins represented a significant cost reduction.

Furthermore, there was still room to compress the cost.

The first step in Grave Golem manufacturing was considered complete. However, after resolving the soul issue, a small problem arose with the Grave Golem's body design.

Living Mercury was the most compatible shell for souls, but the problem was that Living Mercury lacked many internal organs when it was created.

It was unclear what the original plan of those madmen in Alchemy City was. Besides exhibiting extremely high Magic Resistance, Living Mercury was a deformed lifeform.

Lacking essential internal organs, Living Mercury was very fragile and had no ability to act beyond its instinct to consume metal. In such a state, even forcefully inserting a soul would be a waste of materials. Therefore, Amber Xiu needed to help Living Mercury complete its missing internal organs.

The best approach was to reference the body structure of a Slime, as Living Mercury was essentially a modified Mercury Slime.

"Alas, you don't know what you don't know until you need it. I know absolutely nothing about Slimes."

Even a Lich, with its eternal life, would feel insignificant when faced with the vast sea of magical knowledge. Every year, new magical theories were published in Legendary Spell, and the number of unpublished findings was countless.

Even as a diligent scholar, Amber Xiu couldn't possibly master every field.

At this point, he needed to seek expert help.

However, after asking around in the Mourning Poetry Society's chat group, all the legendary Undead claimed to have no research on Slimes.

This was understandable. Slimes were not only weak and ugly low-level monsters but also had almost no practical value, making them an extremely niche research subject. While Undead had plenty of time, none of them were interested in this creature.

Amber Xiu had no choice but to bring out the past issues of Legendary Spell and begin searching for Slime-related content, issue by issue.

The results were disappointing. Even in Legendary Spell, a renowned magical journal, the content about Slimes was scarce.

It could only be said that Slimes were truly pathetic.

After much thought, the only place left to find experts on Slimes was Alchemy City, the very place that had researched Living Mercury.

But Alchemy City was currently in a financial crisis, and prices were skyrocketing from top to bottom. If he were to seek information now, he feared he would be severely overcharged.

The matter of paying extra money was something Amber Xiu could impose on others, but when it happened to him, it was a painful ordeal comparable to bathing in holy water.

After much deliberation, Amber Xiu could find no shortcut and could only resort to the most traditional method for a Lich—capturing a few Slimes for experimentation. After dissecting one or two hundred Slimes, he would become a Slime research expert himself.

Amber Xiu cast Transformation Spell again, reverting to his human form.

This was a world with severe racial discrimination. Liches faced many inconvenconveniences when traveling, and only by appearing human could he reduce many unnecessary troubles.

Dressed as a black-haired youth, Amber Xiu once again left his Laboratory and headed out of the Ancient Castle.

Passing by Isabelle's workshop, Amber Xiu, ever the capitalist, took a peek inside.

Fortunately, the young girl was honest and hadn't stolen his experimental materials.

Amber Xiu had previously created an intelligent Ghoul as an experimental assistant, but within a few days, it had devoured one-third of his inventory. He had been so angry that his Soul Fire had almost smoked, and he could only dismantle the Ghoul, which had gained two sizes, to recoup some of his losses.

Isabelle, sensitive to his presence, noticed Amber Xiu and appeared surprised before quickly walking over to greet him. "Teacher, it's so good to see you again."

"Teacher?"

Amber Xiu blinked in surprise and asked, "You call me Teacher?"

Isabelle nodded. "Thanks to your guidance on Alchemy last time, I've found myself improving greatly. Perhaps this address is a bit presumptuous, but I am truly grateful for your instruction, Teacher."

Amber Xiu did not refuse the title. He was indeed worthy of being called a teacher.

Since he was her teacher, he should inquire about his student's progress. Amber Xiu asked Isabelle, "Do you have any questions recently?"

Isabelle's eyes lit up. "Yes, Teacher, please wait a moment."

Isabelle took out her notebook and flipped to a page. "When extracting Belladonna, I can't quite control the heat..."

"Pay attention to the timing of the bubbles. When the first bubble appears, stop heating within thirty seconds at most."

"I followed the recipe for the Animal Talk Potion, but its quality is very low."

"Due to the temperature fluctuations, the ambient temperature in the Ancient Castle is low. You need to increase the suspension ratio appropriately, by about five percent."

Every question was answered with perfect accuracy!

No matter what question Isabelle asked, Amber Xiu could provide an answer almost without thinking.

The more Isabelle inquired, the more she felt that the black-haired youth before her was unfathomable. Many of these were questions that her previous teachers couldn't answer, or were unwilling to answer. She never expected this person to casually provide the answers.

This was all basic Alchemy knowledge, too simple for a research scholar like him, but for Isabelle, it was precious experience that would have taken her years to figure out without guidance.

Isabelle, keenly aware of the value of knowledge, grew increasingly respectful, even worshipful, of the young teacher before her.

She quickly flipped to the next few pages of her notebook and continued, "Also, the Hill Giant Strength Potion..."

"Wait, is that a potion you can make now?"

"This... I saw the recipe, and I have the ingredients here..."

"Aiming too high will only waste materials. Even if I taught you this advanced potion hand-in-hand, you wouldn't understand it."

Amber Xiu's tone turned stern. Basic potions were one thing; they were consumed in large quantities and required Isabelle's diligent daily labor to prepare. But the Hill Giant Strength Potion was different. It was precious, an advanced potion. The materials lost from a single failure would make Amber Xiu's heart ache until his bones cracked.

After delaying for more than half an hour, Amber Xiu quickly stopped and said to Isabelle, "Alchemy is a profound field of study. You don't think you can become an Alchemy master in one day, do you? Master everything I've taught you before asking about anything else!"

Despite being reprimanded, Isabelle didn't show any dissatisfaction.

Compared to her previous teacher, Amber Xiu was practically an angel in his kindness. He hadn't even cursed her with insulting words like "idiot" or "moron," nor had he withheld knowledge about Alchemy. Many of the questions recorded in this notebook had troubled Isabelle for a long time, but each time she asked her previous teacher, she only received perfunctory answers.

Amber Xiu carefully instructed Isabelle not to waste materials and was about to leave when Isabelle suddenly called him back.

"Teacher, please wait a moment. I have one last question."

Amber Xiu turned around, puzzled, and asked, "What is it?"

Isabelle asked cautiously, "Teacher, you... you're an Undead, aren't you? An Undead of this Ancient Castle? Right?"

Amber Xiu: