Learning the Craft

Kronos had contact with many Artisan, from Sharf to Roel to Van Aisting.

They all crafted Beyonder Item for Kronos, yet Kronos never directly witnessed them crafting Beyonder Item.

This isn't Kronos's fault; it's mainly because it wouldn't have made any sense for him at that time.

Now Kronos may need to craft Beyonder Item himself, which naturally requires him to catch up on his studies.

The area that Kronos entered was the area where the Cathedral of Machinery crafted Beyonder Item.

Within this area, the Cathedral provides a suitable place for all members.

Many of the Beyonder Item in the Mid-Sequence of the Treasury originate from here.

Although there is currently no one in charge of the Cathedral of Machinery, as most of them have been dispatched on missions.

However, there is still no shortage of people in the Mid-Sequence, because people at this level are not very meaningful to the battle.

Therefore, there are still many Artisan in the Cathedral of Machinery, honing their skills.

Given Kronos's status, there would naturally be no hindrance to him entering this area.

Some of them even hoped that this "Horamick" Monastery Director could give them some guidance.

Providing guidance would definitely be difficult, since even Kronos himself doesn't understand it.

But standing behind them and silently nodding is something you can do.

Even this illusory facade can keep them highly motivated.

Since they were all Beyonder of the Mid-Sequence, they naturally could not detect the difference in Kronos.

As he watched them craft Beyonder Item, a subtle glint appeared in Kronos's eyes.

If one could make eye contact with Kronos at this moment, one would see that his eyes seemed to be shimmering with several Wings of Light.

To Replication the Artisan's skills, one must invoke God Almighty's Substitute.

However, directly activating it would be too high-profile, so Kronos used this less discreet method.

Although Kronos's body may appear unchanged, completing this task will not be easy.

The first step is to restrict the form of these five Wings of Light, preventing them from appearing in the outside world recklessly.

If Kronos were to take off his clothes at this moment, one would find that the five Wings of Light seemed to be clinging to his body, and the whole thing was Distortion.

Even if Beyonder Item are destroyed, they will not have much impact on the user.

But these Wings of Light are indeed quite different.

Because it is usually hidden on Kronos's back, and Kronos can control them directly with just his thoughts.

Therefore, before Kronos actively expelled it from his body, the Wings of Light were as if they were part of Kronos's body.

Now, it has no choice but to appear in a Distortion form, and Kronos himself can feel the pain of the Distortion.

That's because he's already Angel, with a high resistance to pain, which is why nothing went wrong.

Kronos strolled around the area as if nothing was amiss, observing more than a dozen Artisan at various stages of creating Beyonder Item.

To avoid attracting too much attention, Kronos simply strolled around for a bit before leaving.

After just a quick glance, Kronos had already thoroughly Analysis this ability. With a little practice, he would become a qualified Artisan.

But that wasn't enough; Kronos also planned to find an opportunity to see the Alchemist's abilities.

These are the cornerstones of the Paragon Pathway; only by piecing them together can one truly master the power of this Pathway.

However, there were no longer any Demigod in the Cathedral of Machinery.

There is a Demigod in charge of guarding the Cathedral, but he is God of Combat Pathway, not Alchemist.

It's perfectly normal for every church to have a large number of Beyonder who come from other Pathway.

In the early stages, those Paragon Pathway are essentially powerless, and their abilities are only average in the mid-game. Therefore, the Church is quite happy to recruit Beyonder with strong offensive capabilities.

Since it's not available in the Cathedral of Machinery, the best choice is Backlund.

Old Fan's condition is clearly abnormal, and even if Analysis his abilities, it's hard to say whether it will be misleading.

However, Backlund had another person at this time, and that was his beloved student, Nosk.

After some twists and turns, Nosk has been recalled to Backlund and appointed Archbishop of the Backlund Diocese.

Nosk was delighted with the church's relocation, as it meant he no longer needed to risk his life at sea.

Old Fan, on the other hand, had been assisting him in managing the Backlund Diocese.

Nosk was unaware of the details; he simply felt that his teacher was truly powerful, capable of performing such tasks even with a Mechanical Puppet.

Now, if Kronos returns to Backlund and Nosk completes the creation of a Mechanical Puppet, he will be able to Analysis this ability.

Kronos was somewhat impatient, wanting to gauge his chances of completing this Beyonder Item.

He did not return to his Enlightenment Monastery, but went straight to Backlund.

Backlund was shrouded in panic at this time; the death of George III had indeed caused a great uproar.

Even the people of the capital, Backlund, believed that the war was difficult to win, which shows how confident others must have felt.

George III's eldest son Gawinton, hastily succeeded to the throne and then witnessed firsthand what the mess the Loen Kingdom truly was.

In order to fulfill George III's ambitions, the entire Loen Kingdom had almost no time for anything else.

Therefore, both the military's preparations and the national treasury's funds are insufficient.

Gawinton had no other options but to seek help from outside.

During George III's reign, he consistently supported the New Party, but the New Party nobles were still poor.

Of course, it would be a joke to say that Earl Hall was poor, but it depends on who you're comparing him to.

Both the Negan and Argel Family could absolutely crush Earl Hall.

These truly wealthy families are mostly Conservative Party aristocrats.

They were not only wealthy, but also mostly nobles with fiefdoms.

Unlike the merchants and bankers of the New Party aristocracy, the most important thing for the old traditional aristocracy was their land and the grain grown on it.

Otherwise, the Corn Laws would not have nearly bankrupted so many nobles.

These old noble families were born to be bound to the Loen.

Because once the country is gone, their fiefdoms will naturally disappear as well, so they will fight desperately for the survival of their country.

On the contrary, the nobles of the New Party, as well as the merchants who supported the New Party, had already begun to take stock of their assets and were preparing to flee at any time.

After some time, when the war situation truly deteriorated significantly, even Earl Hall was prepared to surrender.

This is actually why many noble families look down on merchants.

A businessman's stance is never certain; Loen can do it, why can't Feysac and Intis?

Gawinton may not have been particularly capable, but he understood this point, so he chose to reunite with the Conservative Party immediately.

He needs the Conservative Party to help him stabilize the situation and provide sufficient military funding to fight the invaders.

Although Kronos had not discussed his plans with Earl Levett and Prime Minister Aguesid Negan, as seasoned politicians, they possessed considerable political acumen.

After decisively agreeing to Gawinton's demands, he also forcefully secured many benefits for the Conservative Party.

Based on the benefits they secured, even without Kronos's plan, Loen would have remained a Conservative Party stronghold for the next one or two hundred years.

Gawinton didn't want to be so controlled, but he had no other choice.

With the Royal Family's current strength, it would be very difficult to defeat the Feysac Empire.

Moreover, the Republic of Intis is also poised to act.

After Gawinton agreed to all the conditions, the Conservative Party sprang into action.

Whether it's the support in terms of military spending or the influence in terms of public opinion, at least the entire Loen Kingdom has been able to stabilize for the time being.

Kronos had no time to care about any of that.

Because he knew very well that Loen was no match for Feysac and Intis at this point, and the decisive game would depend on the War of the Gods.

Now that the general outcome is already clear, why worry so much about it?

Kronos went directly to the Saint Hilleran Cathedral.

Kronos's sudden appearance surprised both Old Fan and Nosk.

The situation is very delicate at this point. If the Augustus Family discovers that the Angel of the Church of Steam and Machinery have entered Backlund, they may very well choose drastic measures.

Given the current situation, it's pretty clear which sides the major churches have chosen.

Since the Church of Steam and Machinery didn't surrender to the Royal Palace, it's highly likely they've sided with the Republic of Intis —making them enemies.

Currently, only Nosk a Sequence 4 member in Saint Hilleran Cathedral; the others are ignored.

But the Angel's Descent was seen as a provocation by everyone.

However, Kronos didn't care about that and started chatting with Nosk.

The conversation was all rather mundane, leaving Nosk wondering about his teacher's true intentions.

Following that, Kronos briefly explained the Cathedral of Machinery's decision and cautioned Nosk to be careful.

This single instruction convinced Nosk that his teacher had come because he was worried about him, which deeply moved him.

However, unlike Nosk, Old Fan knew very well that Kronos didn't care whether Nosk lived or died.

Therefore, when Kronos asked to see Nosk build the Mechanical Puppet, Old Fan realized that this was Kronos's real purpose.

Creating Mechanical Puppet is not as easy as creating Beyonder Item; it requires quite a few things to prepare.

Nosk's assets are only average; to date, he only has one very ordinary Mechanical Puppet.

However, since Kronos made such a request, he would naturally help provide the materials.

Of course, although Kronos is wealthy and might not care about such a small thing, he doesn't want to give it away to Nosk for nothing.

Therefore, Kronos chose to use his authority Enlightenment Monastery the Monastery Director of the monastery to allow Nosk to use the resources of the Saint Hilleran Cathedral.

Saint Hilleran Cathedral, after all, the largest Church of the Church of Steam and Machinery in the Loen Kingdom, so providing such a small amount of resources is certainly not a problem for them. However, as the person in charge, Nosk is not authorized to make such a request on his own.

Now that we have Kronos's support, it's no longer a problem.

With the materials sorted out, the only remaining issue is one's own physical condition.

Nosk suggested taking a day off to maintain his best condition so that he could succeed on the first try.

In fact, Kronos himself doesn't care much about these things. As long as Nosk makes good use of his abilities, Kronos can Analysis whether he succeeds or not.

However, since Nosk brought it up, Kronos had no reason to refuse.

Since Nosk needed to rest, Kronos didn't linger in Backlund any longer. Instead, he returned to the Enlightenment Monastery to continue extracting value from the monastery.

On the morning of the third day, Kronos once again visited the Saint Hilleran Church.

Nosk does look much better now than he did a couple of days ago.

Old Fan secretly told Kronos that in order not to waste these materials, Nosk even went to the Sanguine to buy Potions, just to bring himself to the peak condition.

After Nosk began making Mechanical Puppet, Kronos quickly discovered the difference between Alchemist and Artisan.

The Artisan uses his ability to shape Beyonder Characteristic, thereby creating a complete and Beyonder Item.

Alchemist, on the other hand, use spirit as their core, Beyonder Characteristic as their foundation, and special materials as their framework to complete the structure of Mechanical Puppet.

Alchemist are better able to utilize spiritual power, which is why they are able to create sentient Puppet.

Since Nosk was the only target of observation, Kronos had to observe it from beginning to end.

Fortunately, the whole process didn't take too long in the end, otherwise it would have been a real waste of Kronos's time.

After the spirit possessed the Puppet made of special materials, Nosk unleashed his Beyonder Characteristic, which he had been preparing for a long time.

Kronos immediately recognized the Beyonder Characteristic of this somewhat incomplete Iron-Blooded Knight.

The power within Beyonder Characteristic may be incomplete, and the most likely explanation is that this person died at the Marauder Pathway, with a portion of their power stolen before their death.

Such extraordinary special effects can maintain one's status, but will reduce one's power.

However, it has one advantage: it's very cheap.

For Nosk, a newly promoted Demigod, this is indeed a cost-effective option.

If one day his strength increases, he will be able to change or enhance this Beyonder Characteristic.

Therefore, Old Fan expressed his appreciation for Nosk's choice.