Alchemy Construction Genius

With a dull thud from the heavy wooden door, Shien led Yarrow, who had just been washed clean of mud, into the underground Workshop.

A faint burnt smell still lingered in the air, as if some Mana Circuit had just burned through and the lingering odor hadn't completely dissipated.

The massive Black Iron control panel was almost completely filled with a Heavy Steam Repeating Crossbow Prototype that had been dismantled into pieces.

It was five or six times larger than the standard models on the city wall, with thick, Cold-Forged Refined Steel rails lying across the center of the table, gleaming coldly under the illumination crystals.

Victor stood motionless in front of the control panel.

The initial panic and humility in this old Construct master had long since been worn away.

Whenever he stands in front of his workbench, his back straightens unconsciously, as if he has returned to the days when he was the Master Victor who could mobilize the entire city with a single word.

But now the master was looking down, staring intently at his empty right sleeve.

His only remaining left hand gripped a Mithril carving knife, and his cloudy single eye held resentment, frustration, and bewilderment.

Seeing that it was Shien who came in, Victor took a deep breath and composed himself.

"My lord, the mechanical enlargement structure of the Heavy Repeating Crossbow is fine. I have repeatedly tested the Linkage Assembly, the High-Pressure Boiler, and the expanded Bolt Magazine."

He paused here, as if the last sentence was particularly difficult to say.

"There's a problem with the Rune System." Victor turned and walked back to the control panel, tapping the thick Refined Steel rail with his carving knife.

The surface of the guide rail was covered with several charred cracks, thin and twisted, like a centipede crawling on iron.

"When you enlarge something, the Rune can't just be lengthened and thickened."

He ran the tip of his knife along the crack, making a sharp scraping sound.

"Once the driving Magic Power is poured in, it should move forward along the circuit, but if it hits these dead ends, the entire set of Rune will be destroyed."

The only option was the most cumbersome and expensive one: mixing a large amount of Holy Mithril into the guide rails and then layering Third Tier Stabilization Array on the surface to forcibly straighten the Magic Power.

The method isn't unusable, the problem is... no one can carve it.

He slowly raised his left hand, his wrist trembling slightly.

"An array of this strength... if I had both hands back then... but not now."

He gripped the Mithril carving knife tightly, the blade already cutting his palm, blood seeping out little by little.

Even if I drag Eli into it and work tirelessly day and night, considering the scrap rate and the consumption of Holy Mithril, we can barely scrape together one or two units by the Blood Moon Season.

After Victor finished speaking, he looked as if he had aged several years in an instant.

Shien simply turned to Yarrow, who was still standing by the door in a daze, and said, "Come here."

Yarrow's Adam's apple bobbed, and he reluctantly moved to the control panel.

The disassembled Heavy Steam Repeating Crossbow lay before him, the Rune on its thick rails flashing on and off, as if something was trapped inside.

Yarrow didn't understand Magic Power transmission or the technical terms, but in his eyes, it was ridiculously simple.

The forging marks remaining in the steel are like dark veins buried in the iron, while the engraved Rune are like another bright blue line, rushing and crashing inside.

The two forces collided deep within the guide rail, neither giving way, locked in a tight knot, causing the entire large iron bar to heat up.

Yarrow stared at the shimmering Rune, sweat beading on his forehead. He stammered, "M-Sir, I don't understand these glowing things, but this big iron bar... it seems to be suffocating. If it keeps holding its breath like this, it'll break sooner or later."

As soon as he said that, a low, barely suppressed commotion arose in the Workshop.

To them, these crude words sounded like mud being smeared on the face of Construct Studies.

Victor suddenly raised his left hand, immediately lowering his voice. "Where's it blocked?"

Yarrow trembled at the question, but still took half a step forward, carefully stretched out his hand, and lightly touched an inconspicuous spot in the middle of the guide rail through the flickering arc of electricity.

"Here." He didn't actually touch it; he just gestured in the air.

But in that instant, Victor's cloudy single eye suddenly tightened.

With just one glance, he understood that the small section that Yarrow pointed out, though seemingly insignificant, was actually located precisely at the most unbalanced point on the entire guide rail, where Magic Power could easily become blocked.

He jerked his head to the side. "Eli!"

The mute Construct master who had been standing in the shadows immediately stepped out, took the Mithril carving knife, and bent down in the direction Yarrow had pointed.

The blade tip moved along the surface of the guide rail, following the forging patterns on the steel itself, and at the stuck point, it added a basic Flow-Guiding Rune.

The last metal shard fell, Rune closed.

The next moment, everyone in the Workshop was stunned.

The azure Magic Power that had been ramming wildly along the guide rails was abruptly pulled back onto the right path after hitting that node. It flowed along the natural forging patterns inside the steel and steadily penetrated the entire mechanism.

The Workshop was eerily quiet; everyone was staring intently at the now-stabilized guide rail, their expressions frozen.

They didn't know who Yarrow was, but based on his words, they could infer that he didn't recognize Rune, didn't understand arrays, and didn't even have the most basic knowledge of Construct.

Yet, it was precisely this kind of person who, with just a glance, managed to pinpoint the bottleneck that had everyone else stuck.

This is talent, and the kind of talent that's so outrageous it's chilling.

Victor stared at the smoothly rotating guide rail, his breathing becoming erratic.

After several breaths, he suddenly turned his head to look at Yarrow, who didn't even dare to raise his head, his eyes filled with uncontrollable shock.

Victor's throat tightened, and his voice became hoarse. "He managed to spot the hidden patterns and nodes in the cold-forged metal with just his eyes!"

At this moment, Shien looked at the boy who was still kneeling on the ground in a daze, and finally spoke, "Yarrow, from now on, you are no longer Convicts."

Yarrow froze, as if he hadn't understood at all.

Shien ignored him and turned his gaze to Victor.

Victor understood immediately, and dragging his broken body, he strode up to Yarrow.

Before the people around them could recover from the shock, they saw the once-renowned master of Construct raise his remaining left hand and place it heavily on Yarrow's shoulder.

Would you like to become my apprentice?

Yarrow was completely dumbfounded. Although he didn't understand what he was being asked to do, he knew that this was his only chance to turn his life around.

His lips trembled several times, and he couldn't utter a complete sentence for a long time. Finally, his knees buckled, and he knelt down heavily with a thud.

Yarrow lowered his head, tears streaming down his face, muttering, "I'm willing... I'm willing..."

Shien watched this scene quietly.

In his field of vision, the light green number above Yarrow's head was rapidly increasing, the light green color stabilizing completely before deepening further and finally settling on a solid green.