Prologue: The Artisan System's First Facet

Crackling, the bonfire burst into a bright shower of sparks.

The shadows on the faces of the two people by the fire flickered slightly. Tata silently watched fragments of ash fly upwards into the darkness, then looked up to see the embers rise all the way to the treetops before disappearing.

A half-moon hung in the sky, its cool silver light spilling onto the distant mountains.

An owl sat on a branch in the distance, its silvery-gray feathers motionless as it stared in a certain direction. It was pitch black there, with only the downy fuzz of curled plants glowing and fireflies dancing up and down, illuminating the ancient forest with scattered points of light.

Fang Heng let out a long sigh after completing the final step.

He took a biscuit from his pocket, snapped off a small piece with a 'snap,' and gave it to her. "This is dinner for today."

Tata, kneeling on a patch of dead leaves, turned her head to look at him curiously. "Actually, I don't need to eat."

"But I feel weird eating alone, and besides, you can't eat much," Fang Heng said, scratching his head sheepishly.

"There's no food left, is there?"

"It's okay, we can always find food in the forest."

The fairy lady cupped the biscuit in her hands, paused, and then took a bite. She chewed gently, her cheeks covered in biscuit crumbs, before wiping them away with her tiny hands, looking incredibly cute.

"Is it good?"

"The taste of sugar, very sweet."

"Have you never eaten anything before?" Fang Heng asked curiously.

"Dragon Souls don't need to eat," Tata replied, holding the biscuit and looking up at him.

"Huh? ... Will that cause any problems?" Fang Heng became a little worried again, suspecting he'd done something foolish.

But Tata shook her head. "No," she replied. "The biscuit is very good, thank you."

Fang Heng finally breathed a sigh of relief.

It had been a full day and night since the two of them left the Elven Ruins.

Judging by the relative position of the Dragon Roar Mountains and the sun during the day, the teleportation array at Angina Sanctuary should have sent them to the south of the Sea of Ancient Trees. Fang Heng believed they were near Elpaxin—meaning they were very close to the Rainbow Bay area.

This was in the opposite direction of Hidden Spring and Kapuka.

Rainbow Bay was located south of the Sea of Ancient Trees, near the Sea of Clouds. Because the floating continents of Taren and Ishurian met here, forming a curved and long sea-sky coastline, and because the clouds here constantly shifted with iridescent colors, it got its name.

Since it was too far from Kapuka, practically in opposite directions, Fang Heng didn't plan to return to the Rodell area. He intended to go to Elpaxin first. Elpaxin was the foremost of the Seven Cities of Rainbow Bay, the commercial and trade center south of Taren, and also the location of the Artisan Guild of the Sea of Ancient Trees.

He planned to complete his promotion assessment as an Alchemist there and then find a way to get a ferry to Aquin.

From Aquin to the capital of the Kingdom of Kaolin—Port Goland—there was a land route that would take only half a month on foot. Goland was the registration site for the Dawnstar Adventuring Group. In the headquarters of the Kaolin-Ishurian Geographical and Explorer Association there, there was a massive Difference Engine that used punched paper tapes to record and store the status of various registered adventuring groups.

He wanted to see how many people from Dawnstar had survived. Had Mr. Quilod and the others managed to escape the Zone of Silence? Although the possibility was slim, the Jefflitte Redcoats even had the leisure to hunt him, so most others were likely doomed.

However, even if everyone was gone, he at least wanted to register the name.

Because he had promised Miss Scarpe that Dawnstar would exist forever.

As long as he was still in this world—

Of course, Fang Heng also had his own goals.

Becoming a formal Alchemist was just one of them; more importantly, he needed to accumulate experience and wealth to prepare for his own airship. An airship was the most basic equipment for an adventuring group aiming to travel to the Second World.

Of course, this goal was still quite distant.

A shoddy ship below Class 7 would cost at least a million Riser, and such ships couldn't travel far. Fang Heng's goal was at least a Class 6 escort ship. Those winged military vessels had an ex-factory price of tens of millions of Riser in Kaolin-Ishurian, and their limited production was monopolized by the Kaolin-Ishurian navy and major guilds, making them unavailable for purchase.

Fang Heng didn't have many ideas about this and could only take it one step at a time. If necessary, he would accept a boat-type airship, as traveling to the Second World itself was not an easy feat.

He was never blindly optimistic.

Of course, he also planned to visit Fenris Island afterward to see the legendary Green Dragon 'Magelli'. Fenris Island was located in the sky between Taren and Aquin, right on the ferry route. It was rumored that this dragon was a magnate in the Sea of Clouds region and also the nominal vice-chairman of the Artisan Guild of Kaolin-Ishurian.

Fang Heng had long heard of this dragon with such an interesting history.

However, the most important thing right now was how to get out of this forest.

Fang Heng unconsciously touched his stomach. After eating that biscuit, his hunger seemed to have intensified. With darkening vision, he looked up at the deep, dense forest. This wilderness was called 'Egonen,' meaning 'lowland forest.' Due to its location downstream of the Gorgon River, the forest was surrounded by wetlands and swamps. Although its natural resources were abundant, it was hundreds of times more dangerous than its northern counterparts.

With just him and Tata, there was no way they could get out of this forest.

But fortunately, he still had some means at hand. He picked up his newly completed work—a somewhat dull crystal, wax-white in color.

In Aethelria, most people considered attribute-less crystals to be the ugliest type of crystal, as most attribute-less crystals contained impurities and looked like cracked, fogged glass from the outside, hardly possessing the purity and brilliance of a crystal.

But even the most flawed attribute-less crystal seemed outstanding compared to the one in Fang Heng's hand. At least they still looked like crystals, while the latter looked more like a wax candle with pointed ends, completely lacking in aesthetics.

However, this ugly crystal was the most beautiful thing in the world in Fang Heng's eyes.

It had taken him a full four hours to create it. He only needed ten minutes to make an attribute-less crystal using the 'Element Separation' skill. Furthermore, he had used finished materials to make this crystal—an attribute-less crystal removed from his glove. Of course, this also rendered half of the silver rails on his watch face useless.

Conveniently, he had also removed the other half, leaving only a pair of silver rails.

The brass watch face itself had also been removed.

Tata knelt beside him, also looking at the crystal, the firelight reflected in her eyes, making them sparkle. "There are still too many impurities, and the magic content is only about one-third of the described level," she observed after a moment.

"There's no other way," Fang Heng turned his head and gave a wry smile. "This is the only condition available, whether it's for tools or materials."

Tata nodded. "Then, Sir Knight, what do you plan to do with it?" she asked again.

"Make a Walker," Fang Heng replied. "Besides Clockwork Sprites, that's all I know how to make. Actually, I learned this blueprint a long time ago, but I never had a suitable crystal."

A Walker is a type of agile construct used in combat. As everyone knows, among agile constructs, only Clockwork Sprites can use Attribute-less Crystals. Fang Heng's statement held a hint of talking to himself. But Tata didn't mind and continued to listen quietly beside him, like the best listener.

Fang Heng opened his Artisan skill—this was the first time he was crafting under the system framework, and he was still a bit unskillful, his movements slightly awkward. However, this minor issue wouldn't stump him; after all, he was once a hardcore player without a system.

With just a thought, he projected the blueprint for the outer shell and then adjusted its shape bit by bit, forming a spherical phantom in front of Tata.

"Is this the outer shell of a Clockwork Sprite?" Tata asked, somewhat surprised.

Fang Heng nodded.

Crafting in Aethelria isn't rigid—a design blueprint doesn't mean it can only be made in one way. In fact, a set of blueprints is composed of multiple parts. As long as the Chosen fully deciphers the blueprint, they can choose and combine them as they see fit.

Fang Heng had only mastered a few blueprints over the past few months, and he knew them by heart.

A Walker construct has only two key points: first, the chassis, which comes in two types, a six-legged system and a four-legged system. These chassis types determine the construct's maximum combat load. Second, the core crystal, which determines the construct's maximum output power.

As long as these two conditions are met, the shape of other components doesn't matter.

Compared to the Clockwork Sprite, which primarily considers a lightweight outer shell, the Walker leans towards a more defensive outer shell that is much heavier. Therefore, using the former to replace the latter has no issues, aside from the lack of consideration for armor value.

Then, all that's needed is to adjust the center of gravity.

Fang Heng methodically moved a pre-prepared rock to serve as a makeshift workbench. He then placed the spherical phantom in the center of the workbench and put the disassembled watch face into it. The brass watch face immediately became semi-transparent, and within it, numerous stars appeared, like a universe.

The light spots, large and small, were actually the material structure of the brass. The better the quality and higher the strength of the material, the more structural points there would be. During crafting, the artisan needs to concentrate to connect these light spots. Each successful connection advances the crafting progress.

However, if all structural points have been used, but the crafting progress has not reached 100%, it means the material structure is damaged, and the crafting fails accordingly. Conversely, the more structural points remain after successful crafting, the higher the durability of the finished product.

Since the watch face itself was already a finished product that had been crafted once, most of its structural points were dim and lifeless, with only a few still usable. Fang Heng frowned slightly as he looked at them.

He calculated the crafting progress.

The total crafting progress required to make a Clockwork Sprite outer shell was as high as 180. With his current Artisan skill, each successful connection would yield 15 to 17 progress points. The remaining structural points on the watch face were less than thirteen, meaning he basically had only one chance of failure.

Fang Heng took a deep breath.

Whether he could get out of this forest depended on this gamble. If he failed, he might have to die once. As a stowaway, he already had little Starlight, and another death would mean no chance of revival.

So, even he couldn't help but feel a little nervous.

Tata looked at him, then at the watch face, opened her mouth, but ultimately said nothing. She was also worried about disturbing Fang Heng.

Unexpectedly, Fang Heng spoke first, "Tata, can you see this system?"

"Yes," Tata nodded. "It's generated by the Carrier Crystal and Dragon Soul together, a system for managing information."

"Managing information—" Fang Heng said as he successfully connected a structural point, as if it were effortless.

Then came the third and fourth, and it wasn't until the seventh that he failed for the first time. But Fang Heng let out a sigh of relief.

He realized that each connection felt like a long-range attack targeting the structural point. The landing point was a spread area; it didn't require 100% accuracy and allowed for some deviation. However, the greater the deviation, the lower the working precision of each connection.

Different designs have different minimum precision requirements, and the Clockwork Sprite outer shell's requirement was clearly very low.

He felt he could handle it with ease.

He immediately went for the eighth node, and after succeeding, he directly connected to the last one in one go. When the final structural point was connected, Fang Heng finally relaxed. The watch face had already transformed into a gleaming brass hemispherical outer shell by his side.

Fang Heng picked up the outer shell and examined every inch of it in the campfire's glow, a sense of accomplishment rising within him.

In the past, when he made Clockwork Sprites, he was basically only responsible for blueprint design and assembly. After all, the outer shell and various internal parts, including hinge structures, were intricate blacksmith work, not something apprentice alchemists who had only studied for a few months could handle.

But with the system, it was completely different.

This was the power of the Chosen.

"Sir Knight is the most talented alchemist I've ever met," Tata said suddenly, having watched the entire crafting process in silence.

Fang Heng turned around and asked her curiously, "Have you met other alchemists before?"

Tata nodded. "I have some memories, though I can't distinguish whether they come from books or my own experiences. But in my impression, no alchemist could be this stable."

"Stable?"

"The Artisan System uses magic power to alter the internal structure of materials, built upon a framework of high-intensity spatial analysis and distance judgment. Apart from attributes and Artisan-related skills that can provide a boost, I can only say that Sir Knight has extraordinary talent in this area."

Fang Heng was taken aback. He remembered Mr. Scarpe and Mr. Quilod saying similar things to him, but they were about his manipulation of agile constructs.

He couldn't help but look at his own hands, wondering if he truly had good talent in this regard.

Organizing the outline for the second volume took a bit of time. I'll post earlier tomorrow.