The economic crisis in Alchemy City was even more severe than Amber Xiu had imagined. Even the lesser lords down the ladder had begun preparing for a rainy day, getting ready for Alchemy City to collapse.
But whether Alchemy City collapsed or not, Amber Xiu had no time to worry about it right now. He was devoting himself entirely to his experiments in creating Soul Puppets.
Master Morgan had pointed him in the right direction. By optimizing the Simulated Soul technique, Amber Xiu had soon created a "biomimetic" soul at a cost of around two hundred gold coins.
By the value of a soul, two hundred gold coins was undeniably extravagant. After all, the soul of a Human Slave wasn't even worth a single gold coin. But the Magic Ritual Master Morgan had created cost fifty thousand gold coins. Amber Xiu had spent only two hundred, which was an enormous reduction in cost.
And there was still room to bring the cost down further.
The first step in making a Soul Puppet was complete, but after solving the soul problem, he'd run into a small snag with the Soul Puppet's body design.
Living Mercury was the best vessel for a soul. The problem was that when it was created, it lacked many of its internal organs.
Who knew what those madmen in Alchemy City had originally planned? Aside from its extraordinarily high Magic Resistance, Living Mercury was nothing but a malformed life-form.
Its missing organs left Living Mercury extremely fragile. Other than its instinct to devour metal, it had no ability to act. Even if he forced a soul into it under these conditions, it would simply waste the materials. So Amber Xiu needed to help Living Mercury grow the missing organs.
The best way to do that was to use a Slime's anatomy as a model. After all, Living Mercury was simply a modified Mercury Slime.
"Ugh, you never realize how little you know until you need to use it. I really know nothing about Slimes."
Even a Lich, with an eternal life span, seemed insignificant in the face of the vast ocean of magical knowledge. Every year, new magical theories appeared in Legendary Spell, and countless more discoveries never made it into print.
Even Amber Xiu, a diligent scholar, couldn't master every field.
At times like this, he needed to ask an expert for help.
But when Amber Xiu asked around in the Mourning Poetry Society's chat group, all the Legendary undead said they'd never studied Slimes at all.
That made sense. Slimes were low-level monsters—not only weak, but ugly, and practically useless. They were an exceptionally obscure subject of study. The undead had plenty of time, but none of them were interested in the things.
Amber Xiu could only haul out old issues of Legendary Spell and start searching them, one by one, for anything related to Slimes.
The results were disappointing. Even a renowned magical journal like Legendary Spell contained very little about Slimes.
All he could say was that Slimes were incredibly lame.
After thinking it over, the only place he could find an expert on Slimes was Alchemy City, where Living Mercury had been developed.
But Alchemy City was in the midst of a financial crisis. Everyone from top to bottom was raising prices like mad. If he went to ask for information now, they'd probably fleece him.
Making other people pay extra was something Amber Xiu could do. When it happened to him, it was a torment as painful as bathing in holy water.
After turning it over in his mind, Amber Xiu still couldn't find a shortcut. He could only resort to the most traditional method for a Lich: capture a few Slimes and experiment on them. If he dissected one or two hundred Slimes, he'd become an expert on them.
Amber Xiu cast Transformation Spell again, returning to human form.
This was a world rife with racial discrimination. Liches always ran into trouble when they went out, and looking human could spare them plenty of unnecessary hassle.
Wearing the guise of a black-haired boy, Amber Xiu left his laboratory once more and headed out of the Ancient Castle.
As he passed Isabelle's workroom, Amber Xiu peered inside like a miserly capitalist.
Good. The girl seemed well behaved and hadn't snuck off with his experimental materials.
Previously, Amber Xiu had created an intelligent Ghoul to help with his experiments. In just a few days, it had chewed through a third of his stock. He'd been so angry that his Soul Fire had nearly smoked. All he could do was dismantle the Ghoul, which had doubled in size, to recoup some of his losses.
Isabelle noticed Amber Xiu and looked surprised. Then she hurried over to greet him. "Teacher, I finally get to see you again."
"Teacher?"
Amber Xiu paused. "You're calling me teacher?"
Isabelle nodded. "Thanks to your guidance in alchemy last time, I've made a lot of progress. Maybe it's presumptuous of me to call you that, but I'm truly grateful for your instruction, Teacher."
Amber Xiu didn't object to the title. He did, after all, deserve to be called a teacher.
Since he was her teacher, he ought to check on how his student was doing. "Do you have any questions lately?"
Isabelle's eyes lit up. "I do! Teacher, wait a moment."
Isabelle took out her notebook and opened it to a page. "I can't get the timing right when extracting belladonna..."
"Watch how long it takes for the bubbles to appear. Once the first bubble shows up, stop heating within thirty seconds at the latest."
"The Animal Talk Potion I made according to the proportions in the book turned out very low quality."
"That's because of the temperature. It's cool inside the Ancient Castle, so you need to increase the proportion of suspension by about five percent."
No matter what Isabelle asked, Amber Xiu could answer almost without thinking.
The more questions Isabelle asked, the more she felt that the black-haired boy before her was unfathomable. Many of these questions had stumped her previous teacher, or he hadn't been willing to answer them. Yet this teacher casually gave her the answers.
These were basic alchemical principles, the sort of thing that was laughably easy for a researcher like him. But without anyone to point them out, Isabelle would have needed years to discover these valuable insights on her own.
Isabelle knew how precious knowledge was, and the more she admired her young teacher, the closer she came to worshipping him.
She hurriedly flipped to the next few pages of her notebook and continued, "Also, the Hill Giant Strength Potion..."
"Wait. Is that a potion you're ready to make?"
"Well... I found the recipe, and I have the ingredients here..."
"Don't reach beyond your abilities. You'll only waste materials. This is an advanced potion; even if I guided you through it step by step, you still wouldn't understand how to make it."
Amber Xiu's tone turned stern. The basic potions were one thing. They were used in large quantities and Isabelle needed to spend every day making them anyway. But the Hill Giant Strength Potion was different. It was a precious, high-grade potion. A single failed attempt would waste enough ingredients to make Amber Xiu's heart ache down to the bone.
After spending more than half an hour on this, Amber Xiu hurriedly stopped and said to Isabelle, "Alchemy is a profound field of study. You're not expecting to become a master alchemist in a single day, are you? Master everything I've taught you before asking about anything else!"
Even after being scolded, Isabelle didn't show the slightest resentment.
Compared to her previous teacher, Amber Xiu was practically an angel of mercy. He hadn't even insulted her with words like "idiot" or "moron," and he didn't keep his alchemical knowledge to himself. Many of the questions in her notebook had been bothering Isabelle for a long time, but whenever she'd asked her previous teacher, she'd received only perfunctory answers.
Amber Xiu carefully reminded Isabelle not to waste materials. He was just about to leave when Isabelle suddenly called after him.
"Teacher, wait a moment. I have one last question."
Amber Xiu turned around in confusion. "What is it?"
Isabelle asked cautiously, "Teacher, you... you're an undead, aren't you? You're an undead from this Ancient Castle, right?"
Amber Xiu: ...
Before you continue