Draconic Genealogy

After sorting things out, Lude divided his abilities into three parts.

The first was the [Steel Body] forged by the alchemists led by Professor Beshe. The second was the [Ancestral Glory] originating from the Red Dragon Remains embedded within this body. The third was the ancient Relic, the [Heart of the Furnace], dwelling within Lude's cranial cavity.

First came the Heart of the Furnace. The reason he discussed it first was that there was not much to say about it.

Simply put, Lude currently had no way of doing anything with this Relic. Even the information he knew had been provided by the Relic itself; for example, [crushing Remnant Fire yields pure Psionic Energy]. Yet Lude still had no means of consuming Psionic Energy at all!

The Heart of the Furnace's only use for Lude was collecting Residual Flame as disposable consumables.

However, Residual Flame was something that required the life of an Arcanist to create, so using it as a consumable was somewhat wasteful. Lude could only hope that its unknown third use would not disappoint him.

At present, two Remnant Fires were stored within the Heart of the Furnace. One was grayish green, while the other was bright yellow.

The Secret Art contained within Aleppo's Remnant Fire was naturally [Mist Sea Indulgence]. However, the Secret Art within Professor Beshe's Remnant Fire was not [Seven Heavens Lock], but a Secret Art called [Eye of Enlightenment], something akin to an appraisal spell.

Lude suspected that the glowing eyes Professor Beshe had displayed earlier might have been the effect of this Secret Art.

But this raised a question. Lude had once read in Blacksmith's Secret Manual: Soul Casting that the Soul Fire of ordinary spellcasters was usually an almost pale light-blue flame, while awakening a Secret Art would cause the Soul Fire to distort and change color.

The problem was that Lude had not awakened a Secret Art, yet his Soul Fire had already changed.

Lude's Soul Fire was a blazing inferno with a jet-black core, brilliant golden flames, and a blood-red halo. Whenever Lude meditated and looked inward, he could feel within that flame a crown-like force of ferocious heat and immense destructive power.

Even Lude could not help wondering what sort of Secret Art such a blazing Soul Fire would give birth to.

Strengthening the [Steel Body] was simple: keep studying Alchemy, then modify himself. Strengthening [Ancestral Glory] was not difficult either; he only needed to seek out its insignificant descendants and absorb the power within their bloodlines.

Thus, over the past few days, Lude had spent plenty of time reading the copy of Dragon Genealogy Research he had swiped from Professor Beshe.

Strictly speaking, the dragons of this world were not a single species. Their relationships resembled the interlocking lineage described in Huainanzi: The Physical Forms of the Earth: the hairy calf gave birth to the winged dragon, the winged dragon gave birth to the jian horse, and the jian horse gave birth to the qilin.

Legend had it that at the beginning of creation, seven beings were born from the furnace of the Primordial Fire.

They each held one of the seven authorities bestowed by the Primordial Fire. Using metal flowing from the furnace, mixed with flame, thunder, order, and time, they forged bodies for themselves. They called themselves the [Gods of Eternal Burning], a term with another, more familiar translation: [dragons].

True Dragons were not living creatures. They stood above time itself, yet even they grew bored over the long years.

So the True Dragons modeled servants after themselves, using their own scales as cores and metal to forge [Ancient Dragons]. Ancient Dragons possessed immortal lives and were divided into four kinds—gold, red, white, and black—each with different forms and abilities. What they shared was six wings and four limbs.

Lude's skeletal remains had been inherited from one such Red Dragon, and the Dragon Remains contained burning divine power.

Power could not give birth to power, so Ancient Dragons could not produce Ancient Dragons. Thus, Ancient Dragons mated with birds to produce [Wyverns], and with beasts to produce [Earth Dragons]. Wyverns and Earth Dragons were generally named in the format of [element + dragon] or [adjective + dragon], such as Flame Dragon, Steel Dragon, and Mountain Dragon.

The Glazed Pouch at Lude's waist had been made by covering an Earth Dragon's heart with a membrane, which was why Lude felt such familiarity toward it.

However, after the Renaissance, as the mysterious gradually hid beneath the world's surface, the world was completely handed over to mortal rule. Even massive descendants like Wyverns and Dragon Beasts gradually vanished and were rarely sighted.

Nowadays, when mortals in the Material Realm spoke of "dragons," they generally meant Dragon Beasts.

When a beast was tainted by the blood of a Wyvern or Earth Dragon, it would undergo a painful, earthshaking transformation. If it endured the transformation, it would become a Dragon Beast. Dragon Beasts were generally named in the format of [place of origin + trait + base creature + dragon]. For example, the Lion Dragon's full name was [Frankfurt Green-Scaled Lion Dragon].

Among them, Dragon Beasts tainted by Wyvern blood had wings, while those tainted by Earth Dragon blood possessed powerful physiques.

What Siana had given Lude earlier was a blood essence extracted from Wyvern Dragon Remains, capable of awakening a trace of the Red Dragon's power. Lude figured that if he could devour more parts belonging to Dragon Beasts, he might gradually replenish the energy of these skeletal remains.

From another perspective, awakening Ancestral Glory could likewise strengthen Lude's Alchemy.

The origin of Alchemy, this extraordinary craft, was dragons. Even the bloodlines of their insignificant descendants still concealed this talent. That was one reason Professor Beshe had wanted to reincarnate into this body—it was naturally suited to studying Alchemy.

Unfortunately, Lude could not help shaking his head. If he, a transmigrator, had not snatched the opportunity first, Professor Beshe would have been a formidable figure in his own right.

But speaking of Alchemy, there was one issue that could not be hidden: money.

Among Professor Beshe's belongings were numerous alchemical texts. It could be said that they contained Professor Beshe's complete path, from beginner to burial.

But the problem was that Alchemy was a highly practical discipline. Reading alone would never produce any results. He needed to purchase a laboratory, along with a large quantity of equipment and raw materials, so he could learn through trial and error again and again.

Alchemy's ability to burn through money was absurd, but the expense of studying it was equally astronomical.

Before leaving Professor Beshe's home, Lude had only managed to grab two handfuls of metal currency from a drawer. He had counted his gains on the road: including all the gold, silver, and banknotes, he had a total of 320 Sol and 500 Pfennig.

Sol, whose full name was [Gold Wheel Sol], was the official currency minted by the Loselin Empire.

Because this world contained all manner of natural disasters and supernatural creatures, poor transportation made it impossible for nations to establish credit systems between one another. As a result, most countries used the gold standard, or even a bimetallic gold-and-silver standard.

Even within their own borders, the only nations truly able to issue banknotes were the Five Great Empires.

Interestingly, this world was the complete opposite of Lude's previous life. Banknotes were generally used for small domestic payments, while fixed-weight precious-metal coins were more commonly used for cross-border circulation or purchasing bulk goods.

Since the currency minted by the Five Great Empires was all of high purity, it had always been hard currency internationally.

For example, the Rhine Kingdom's official currency, the Krone, had an official exchange rate of 1 Sol = 5 Krone. But because the Rhine Kingdom was in civil war and warlords everywhere were privately minting debased coins, the black-market rate had already been driven up to 1 Sol = 17 Krone.

Professor Beshe clearly knew this as well, which was why all the cash in his home consisted of Sol minted by the Loselin Empire.

The exchange rate for Sol was 1 Sol = 1 gram of gold = 1,000 Pfennig. It was a simple and practical conversion, far superior to Mettenheim next door's idiotic system of 1 gold pound = 7.32 grams of gold = 20 shillings = 12 pence.

In the Loselin Empire, an ordinary adult male laborer earned around 5 to 8 Sol per month.

320 Sol and 500 Pfennig was roughly equal to forty months' wages for a skilled worker. It was no small sum for the working class, but for studying Alchemy, it was barely a drop in the bucket... In other words, Lude needed to find a way to make money.

Fortunately, Lude had built his fortune from nothing in his previous life, so he was no stranger to the process of starting a business.

In this life, he not only had startup capital, but also extraordinary power at his disposal and insight beyond the limitations of the age. So long as he had one or two years to develop, returning to the top would not be difficult for him. After all, this world had far more opportunities than his previous one.

Just as Lude was carefully weighing his options, a crisp clatter of hooves from the cliff outside the carriage window interrupted his thoughts.

"Tch." Lude looked out the window and narrowed his eyes slightly. "We have guests."