If there was one thing Annan cared about most in Free City right now, it was the Goblin Golem.
Michael wanted to tag along with Annan, but Annan sent him back.
Annan had been in the Southlands for nearly half a year, and Michael still hadn't developed a third kind of Magic Gunpowder. How could he have the nerve to go play with the Goblin Golem?
Michael had plenty of excuses: he wasn't even an Elite, for one, and the apprentices Annan had found could work with their hands but not their heads.
They lacked a solid foundation, but fortunately, money could make up for that.
That gave Michael every opportunity to go astray. Ever since he discovered that Magic Gunpowder burned more fiercely when mixed with sugar, he had acquired all kinds of sugar to test. He had even asked for some Maple Syrup.
Maple sugar actually burned a little more efficiently than cane sugar, though it still couldn't pull ahead of the improved Magic Gunpowder.
The side effect was that Michael's Alchemy Laboratory sounded like Martin after he'd stolen the horses' beans: it popped and crackled all day long.
Annan planned to move Michael's Alchemy Room to the Outskirts so the explosions wouldn't disturb the residents' rest.
Beside Michael's Alchemy Laboratory stood Dumbledore's Alchemy Room. That obviously wasn't his real name, but he insisted everyone call him that.
As the second Alchemy Room, built a little later than the first, it and its neighbor were known to the locals as the Mushroom Twin Houses. They looked like two mushrooms growing side by side.
When Annan arrived, they were carrying the fourth Goblin Golem into the Alchemy Room.
"So soon?"
A Musket Corps soldier helping carry it said, "Lord Jack let the Goblins trade golems for an equal weight