The Star Sea Invitation, the Philosopher's Stone, and the Shackles of Civilizational Development
Logo, who had just received the invitation to the Star Sea Auction, was looking at the screen in front of him with a playful smile.
The scene shown above is the warehouse that was Destruction by the meteorite.
A desolate ruin, billowing black smoke, and destructive Void turbulence everywhere, with spatial rifts appearing from time to time, swallowing up living beings.
Unlike the heavily fortified Hexagon Mountain, the Staphis Continent is too vast to be transformed into a similar safe zone.
As a transportation hub in the Prado Universe System, the continent has too many ports to defend them all, making attacks by space pirates a common occurrence.
However, the scene before his eyes and the various messages he heard made the experienced Logo certain that this meteorite impact incident could not have been accidental; it was probably a premeditated and organized attempt to cover up the crime!
"As expected, where there are people, conflict is commonplace, especially in a super economic organization like Star Sea Bank..."
After reflecting on it, Logo put the matter aside, since it wasn't his business anyway.
"This invitation to the Star Sea Auction is quite useful; I should be able to buy some good items..."
With that thought in mind, Logo carefully put the invitation away.
This item was sent to him by Star Sea Bank after news of his becoming a core member spread, as a form of recognition of his current status.
After all, those who receive an invitation to the Star Sea Auction either possess Demigod- level strength or hold a corresponding status.
Originally, Logo was just an unknown nobody, but after becoming a core member of the Alchemist Association, he immediately rose to prominence and gained fame on the Staphis Continent. Many forces rushed to befriend him, and the doors to the upper echelons of society slowly opened. As for his original background, no one mentioned it anymore; his status as a core member was enough to shut everyone up.
"Fame and fortune may come rolling in, but all of this is ultimately based on my own value. If I become arrogant because of it and indulge in illusions, I will lose everything sooner or later..."
Muttering to himself, Logo rationally cleared the noise from his mind, flipped his hand, and took out a prismatic crystal.
This crystal is extremely peculiar. At first glance, it looks like it was cut from white glass, but upon closer inspection, one can discover its magnificent and dazzling iridescent colors.
"Is this the famous Philosopher's Stone? I've heard of this treasure more than once in my past life. Judging from its appearance alone, it's truly extraordinary..."
Holding the crystal between his index finger and thumb, Logo's eyes gleamed. One of his biggest purposes in coming to the Astral Realm was for this small stone.
[Philosopher's Stone]----
A special substance, a unique product of the alchemist faction, is a special resource [Fantasy Essence] produced by alchemists using the Fantasy Dimension, combined with a certain amount of pure souls (soul crystals or soul liquids) and an extremely high concentration of Void Energy (other types of high-level energy can also be used), and synthesized using a special alchemy array.
To use the Philosopher's Stone, one must possess the Fire of Birth, meaning that only professional alchemists can use this resource.
The method for crafting the Philosopher's Stone is a closely guarded secret within the Alchemist Association. It can only be obtained by joining the guild's core membership and achieving a certain level of contribution.
The Philosopher's Stone can replace most known substances in the Astral Realm. With the Philosopher's Stone, alchemists can quickly create various alchemical artifacts.
The Philosopher's Stone played a crucial role in the alchemists' rapid rise to their current status during the Third Age.
The reason is that with the Philosopher's Stone, one can freely transform various substances and create weapons and equipment at will, no longer worrying about scarce resources. In other words, the Philosopher's Stone directly solves the logistical problem that is most troublesome for alchemists.
With the Philosopher's Stone, an alchemist's combat power will be fully unleashed, making them no less powerful than other combat-oriented classes.
Philosopher's Stone do not have grades, only quality. The highest quality Philosopher's Stone can even be used to create materials of level 10 or higher.
The detailed division is as follows--
Common Philosopher's Stone: Can be used to craft materials of three stars or lower (white).
Fine Philosopher's Stone: Can be used to craft materials of six stars or lower (cyan).
Rare Philosopher's Stone: Can be used to craft materials of level 8 or lower (pink).
Legend Philosopher's Stone: Can be used to craft materials of 10 stars or lower (gold level).
Immortal Philosopher's Stone: Can be used to craft materials of eleven stars or lower (orange).
Miracle Philosopher's Stone: Philosopher's Stone of this quality has ever been created yet, but there is a theory that the [Chaos Stele], wielded by the Goddess of the Earth, is the ultimate form of the Philosopher's Stone, capable of creating all matter, and that the inspiration for the Philosopher's Stone comes from this.
(Note: All figures above and below include the stated number!)
Logo didn't delve into the speculation about the origin of the Philosopher's Stone, because it was meaningless. It was like a tiny ant trying to understand the workings of the Starry Sky; if you're not of that status, you shouldn't concern yourself with matters of that level.
"Speaking of which, becoming Son of Truth has saved me a lot of steps. I don't need to painstakingly grind contribution points anymore; I directly obtained the [Common] quality Philosopher's Stone recipe. I can also exchange for [Fine] and [Rare] quality Philosopher's Stone recipes at my rank, but that requires a massive amount of merit points... It seems I need to keep a clone at Hexagon Mountain and focus on grinding quests to try and obtain these two quality recipes as soon as possible."
"My [Eye of Insight] and [Philosopher's Stone] are a perfect match. The former analyzes the composition of matter, while the latter fills in the framework and shapes it. I doubt any other alchemist could maximize the power of the Philosopher's Stone like I have..."
While the Philosopher's Stone is a versatile "all-purpose substance," its use requires a thorough understanding of its structure.
For example, if you want to use the Philosopher's Stone to create a diamond.
The steps are as follows--
First, you need to understand the arrangement of carbon atoms inside a diamond, as well as its various microstructures, before you can use the Fire of Birth to catalyze the Philosopher's Stone and transform it into a diamond!
Diamonds, being the simplest of substances, are not even considered a first-level substance; any alchemist could analyze them.
But what if it's a little more difficult?
Two stars, three stars...
The Star God's Matter...
The higher the star rating of a resource, the more outrageous the "analysis ability" required to understand its basic structure!
This means that although the Philosopher's Stone is extremely powerful, not all alchemists can realize its full potential.
Logo, however, is different.
The Eye of Insight excels at analyzing everything.
He can easily figure out the composition of a substance, and then he can shape it using the Philosopher's Stone.
what does that mean?
As long as there are enough Philosopher's Stone, Logo will be free from material constraints and can create all sorts of powerful alchemical artifacts at will.
How many powerful creations did the Aslant Civilization possess?
Here are a few typical examples.
[Aslant Pyramid]: A hybrid super war fortress, combining the features of Mage tower and a technological spaceship, capable of fighting the "Main God" head-on.
[Extraordinary Talent Assisted Awakening Device]: By injecting high-level life energy, this device assists in awakening Rare talents, significantly enhancing their strength. Bloodline talents automatically awaken after reaching a certain stage, but talents are limitless, some good and some bad, with the bad outnumbering the rest. The purpose of this device is to select top-tier talents from the genes. For Transcendent races, this is a strategic resource!
[Sea God-Class Energy Engine] -- Mechs built using this as their energy core can unleash God Level combat power.
[Orbital Base Station]: A transportation device consisting of interconnected columnar metal towers forming a subspace orbit. Spacecraft can achieve rapid space jumps in the orbit, which not only saves energy but also increases speed, greatly improving the efficiency of resource deployment within the territory, and has extremely high strategic value.
The technologies mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg of the Aslant Civilization.
Any one of them, once created, could bring immeasurable benefits to Logo's forces.
But why hasn't he made a move yet?
Two reasons!
First, conceal your shortcomings.
Second, there were no materials.
The former, needless to say, involves concealing one's talents and waiting for the right opportunity to avoid being targeted by those who are envious.
The second type is the core and key.
Many materials from the Aslant Civilization simply cannot be found in the Elven Plane!!
There isn't even a substitute.
This is not surprising.
Even a single planet can have different environments?
It's perfectly normal for each dimension to have its own unique rules!
Different rules naturally lead to vastly different substances.
Just like the endless debates about whether northerners eat noodles, southerners eat rice, and whether tofu pudding should be savory or sweet.
The influence of environmental factors is enormous!
Even considering iron as a single element, there are subtle differences between iron in different dimensions.
This difference is not noticeable at lower levels, but it becomes immediately apparent once you move up to the manufacturing of ultra-high-precision equipment like six-star or seven-star equipment.
Why is the development of civilization so difficult?
Why is it that even with the support of God Level Mage, the Elven Plane still struggles to join the ranks of the Astral Realm- level civilizations?
The Elven Plane can communicate with civilizations in the Astral Realm plane, and the difficulty of acquiring knowledge is far lower than that of the natives of unexplored other planes!
With knowledge, wouldn't it be much easier to advance to a higher level of civilization?
The answer is right here!
No corresponding resource found!
The parent plane has a crucial impact on a civilization!
As long as your civilization is based on the environment of the mother plane and expands and develops accordingly.
Therefore, the various technologies you develop must rely on the resources produced by the parent plane.
All of these factors combined to establish the independence of a civilization!
Independence has its advantages, such as being difficult to imitate and having autonomy.
However, independence also has its drawbacks. Other advanced civilizations possess a wealth of technology that you simply cannot adopt and use directly!
Because the resources you produce locally are incompatible with this technology!
These constraints inevitably led to a slow pace of civilization's development.
Even with a wealth of advanced technological data for reference, it's impossible to leap from the dimensional level to the advanced Astral Realm level in an instant; we can only proceed step by step, with our feet firmly on the ground.