The Art of Fire

Regardless of how much he manages to develop, he must leave Blackwater Town in one week.

Lude knows very well that the risk of being caught by the Black Tide Society increases with every passing moment. He set the seven-day deadline because the shortest train journey from Vienna to Blackwater Town takes eleven days.

The straight-line distance between Vienna and Blackwater Town is 235 kilometers; theoretically, a train should arrive in ten hours. However, a train is not an airplane, and it cannot travel in a straight line.

In particular, the wilderness and geographical conditions of this world are far more treacherous than those on Earth, which leads to much more winding railway tracks. Coupled with the need to transfer to several trains with uncertain departure times along the way, the journey becomes exceptionally long.

Lude always considers the most extreme scenarios.

Assuming that from the moment Brandon and Polina died, the Vienna headquarters pinpointed his location, and this tracking is real-time, they would still need about eight days to reach him.

With a week's time, leaving one day as a buffer, he could successfully evacuate even under the most extreme considerations. The only thing he needs to worry about might be other guard squads chasing from unknown directions.

But if it is just a duo like the previous guard squad, Lude believes he can handle them.

By then, he might even be able to enrich the collection of his Residual Flame.

Lude's fingers gently tapped the Glazed Pouch at his waist. Although he cannot progress to the point of modifying himself in such a short time, making some alchemical weapons and explosives should be no problem... probably.

After all, this body was personally designated by Professor Beshe as having a talent for alchemy.

Alchemy is also known as the [Art of Fire], a craft where all changes are brought about by flame; both the arts of destruction and reconstruction are included within it.

Simply put, anything that [consumes one thing to create another] counts as alchemy.

As one of the four major established disciplines of the occult world, studying it to the extreme can even open the door to immortality. It is said that any alchemist who reaches the Crimson level can attain eternal life through their own craft.

That Paracelsus reached this level.

The eight great achievements of alchemy symbolize the eight branches of the craft: [Matter], [Element], [Life], [Intellect], [Spirit], [Causality], [Time], and [Space].

Among them, Professor Beshe is most proficient in [Life], [Element], and [Spirit].

Of course, Lude is not qualified to discuss these things now; he does not even count as an alchemist yet.

But Lude does not need these profound skills at the moment.

Lude only needs to forge a weapon for himself that can withstand his full-strength swings without breaking—perhaps along with some sword oils and bombs with special effects, as well as protective measures that could save his life.

Especially the weapon.

Although Lude can rely on this body to hit the bullseye within the effective range of any firearm, if he were to deal with enemies that could be handled by guns, he wouldn't need cold weapons at all; he could just use his fists.

What Lude worries about are opponents like himself.

Lord Hypnos once said that one of the ways for a spellcaster to become stronger is through alchemical modification, which means that when Lude faces another spellcaster who has undergone such modifications, the strength of his physical body might be neutralized.

Therefore, he needs a handy weapon, a weapon that can play a role in such a situation.

Lude is still using Aleppo's sidearm, that silver-green Dragon Tooth Sword. The Dragon Tooth Sword is a fairly decent piece of alchemical armament, but it has a fatal flaw: it is too short.

The Dragon Tooth Sword is a standard [sidearm]. This term refers to the swords worn by officers in the Loselin Empire cultural sphere for self-defense. It is a sword suitable for trench and indoor combat, so it is designed to be relatively short.

For an average person, a 60-centimeter one-handed sword is enough, but the problem is that Lude is 1.96 meters tall. In his hands, such a sword looks a bit like a toothpick...

Lude wants to make himself a longsword, at least one meter in length, a weapon that can withstand his full-strength swings. With his strength, wielding a sufficiently sturdy weapon would definitely put him in the category of a meat grinder!

And the prerequisite for forging such a weapon is having sufficiently strong metal.

In Professor Beshe's notes, there is a record of a metal suitable for Lude to forge weapons, called [Resist-Steel].

[Resist-Steel] is a man-made alchemical material.

So-called man-made alchemical materials are created by transferring the extraordinary properties of raw materials onto metal and then subjecting them to a solidification process.

For example, by transferring the extraordinary properties—the [Spirit Essence]—from [Hellfire Stone] mined from deep within volcanoes onto steel, one can forge [Hellfire Iron] that releases temperatures of 1500°C when infused with spiritual energy.

Weapons forged from Hellfire Iron can cause irreparable trauma to the vast majority of carbon-based lifeforms.

And [Resist-Steel] is one of the rare alchemical materials that can be forged without extraordinary raw materials.

[Resist-Steel] only requires the most basic destruction and reconstruction of steel, while injecting pure spiritual energy during the process.

This material has no extraordinary properties of its own, but it has a high compatibility with any extraordinary properties. Furthermore, its physical performance is quite excellent, even far stronger than aerospace materials.

In layman's terms, this stuff is incredibly sturdy and durable, and it is suitable for almost all types of sword oils, enchantments, and transmutations.

According to Professor Beshe, being able to independently forge Resist-Steel is the hallmark of an alchemist's initiation. At least, that is what he required of his apprentices; only those who could independently refine Resist-Steel were considered beginners.

After all, Resist-Steel is considered the most versatile low-level alchemical material, with such broad applications that it is almost ubiquitous.

"I need to rent a blacksmith shop," Lude thought, "and some research equipment."

In addition, Lude needs some basic materials for research, even those that don't qualify as extraordinary.

Under the influence of the ubiquitous winds of spiritual energy, the boundaries between some extraordinary materials and mundane objects are not clear; it is just that many low-level materials require special processing to reveal even a hint of the extraordinary.

For example, many herbs can be used by physicians to treat illnesses, but an apothecary can make them exert even better effects.

From this perspective, Traditional Chinese Medicine might actually be an established discipline in this world.

After all, according to Professor Beshe's records, extracting the pure extraordinary parts from materials is also a branch of alchemy.

Preparing herbs and brewing potions, forging metal and extracting properties—they only use different materials, but there is no essential difference, so they are all classified under the [Art of Fire].

"Potions... I should probably study this as well; it might come in handy."

Lude furrowed his brows, deep in thought. Forging Resist-Steel, refining sword oil, crafting bombs, and brewing potions—he hadn't had the time to dwell on it while being hunted, but now that he looked at it, the list of things he had to do was truly daunting, and every single one of them was essential.

After all, everything he did was to strengthen himself; it was exactly as the saying went, he was now learning for his own sake.

Lude frowned and touched the Glazed Pouch at his waist. "And the kerosene is running low. Although the smell is truly unbearable, the fuel is indeed the most suitable sustenance for this body; at the very least, it can serve as an energy drink to keep me alert."

Looking at it this way, there was quite a lot to accomplish in these seven days, and he might even have to make some trade-offs.

The sun wheel turned and the crescent moon rose in the east; the time had already reached nine in the evening.

As the power of the steam engine gradually weakened, Lude knew it was time for him to get off the train.

Following the railway, he could already see the red tiles of the train station roof. If the train schedule didn't have an error of more than twelve hours, then the station where this train was currently pulling into should be the Pilsen train station.

Yes, Pilsen, not Blackwater Town, because Blackwater Town, as a mere [town], lacked both the qualification and the necessity to have a train station built, so Lude would have to take a carriage from Pilsen to Blackwater Town next.

It was interesting to note that, seemingly influenced by the founding emperor of the Loselin Empire, [Loservia I], the administrative planning of basically every country within the empire's cultural sphere followed the same structure: Nation-Province/State-City/County-District/Prefecture-Town/Village.

This at least saved Lude the trouble of having to spend any effort researching it.