Chapter 113: Mass Production

A small piece of pale gray metal floated at the center of a small magic circle, slowly spinning.

Long, melodious Divine Script chanted from Archmage Vernal’s mouth. Within the magic circle, the intricate, flower-like patterns constantly shifted and transformed, dazzling any observer. As the chanting continued, the small piece of Mithril suddenly seemed to gain life, rolling and deforming until it formed a rugged script. Countless Runes then condensed from the air, attaching themselves to the Mithril. The silver Mithril strip, as if infected by the magic script, quickly turned silver-gray. The Runes burned with a silver flame upon the Mithril, making it appear even more pale. As the chant neared its end, countless delicate magic symbols rose one by one from the Magic Array, neatly arranged around the Mithril script.

“Hold out your hand!” the old Mage commanded. Then, the formed Mithril shot through the air and landed in Constantine’s hand—more precisely, it slipped directly onto the little finger of his right hand!

“Honestly, old man, your sense of aesthetics really isn’t the best…”

Watching the small metal ring gradually darken to a deep black, Constantine couldn’t help but shake his head with a bitter smile. Things in the world were truly strange. Just hours ago, he was selling rings he made himself, but in the blink of an eye, he was the one wearing a ring.

“Good looks don’t fill your stomach… If you insist on being vain, then forge one yourself.” Putting away the small transmutation Magic Array, the Black Robe Mage tossed the harsh words at Constantine without concern.

The youth could only rub his nose, having no desire to argue. Although the ring looked inconspicuous, it was said to contain both an Avoid Dragon spell and an immunity to detection. The latter was one thing, but the former was a Seventh-Level Spell. A Magic Item capable of holding a spell of that level couldn’t be described simply as worth a fortune.

This spell was naturally prepared for that unlucky Silver Dragon. Although as long as Constantine stayed in Hayton for a day, the Mage Guild and Duke Connalyvis would never allow the Silver Dragon Lady to lay a finger on him, the Mage Tower wasn’t his private property, and the Archmage couldn’t guarantee his safety twenty-four hours a day. With this ring that allowed him to be overlooked by Dragonkin, the youth’s safety factor undoubtedly increased significantly.

Thinking of this made the youth feel a headache. Being targeted by a powerful creature at the top of the magical beast food chain was definitely not an exciting thing… Ever since he arrived in Hayton, various events had piled up one after another, leaving him with no peace. Although thanks to these events, his power had greatly improved, and he was no longer the greenhorn who first arrived, the successive dangers made Constantine feel an inexplicable fear every time he recalled them—he had survived thanks to his usual bit of cleverness and a bit of luck. But Constantine knew well that cleverness couldn’t be used every time, and good luck didn’t come every time. Fighting fate was like gambling. In terms of his own strength, the chips in his hand, his cleverness and adaptability, his strategies and planning, he wasn’t the best. And even if he won a thousand times in this game, countless more gambles lay ahead. Losing just once meant total collapse, with no place to be buried.

For now, the only plan was to increase his own chips as much as possible. Therefore, he had to improve his power quickly.

“Old man, let’s make a trade… with this.” The youth pulled a crystal from his pouch. It was a large piece of ice crystal emitting cold air, with a strange deep red color.

“This… oh oh, your luck is quite good.” Mad Dog Vernal’s gaze swept over the crystal, and he immediately showed a delighted expression. He peeled off a small piece of the crystal and put it in his mouth… A pungent, fishy smell spread the moment it melted, and the Arcane Arts fluctuations in the air immediately became chaotic. The scent of the liquid, even just passing through the nostrils for an instant, brought a warm, burning sensation.

“Fresh Dragon Blood, collected less than a day ago? What do you want to trade for? Speak…” Making a rare generous statement, the Archmage’s scar-covered face already showed a fierce fanaticism.

In a way, this conflict with the Silver Dragon wasn’t entirely misfortune for Constantine—at least it yielded a considerable harvest. The unique Gust of Wind Constantine unleashed at the last moment scraped at least two liters of Dragon Blood from that lady. Half of it was immediately divided between the Duke and the Archmage, and the rest was all here now.

And undoubtedly, for an Alchemist, this was like a huge piece of fat in the eyes of a glutton!

Dragons were innate Spellcasters; to paraphrase, they were “treasures from head to toe.” Whether Dragon scales, Dragon skin, Dragon teeth, Dragon bones, Dragon Blood, etc., all were precious magical materials. Dragon skin could make armor, Dragon Blood could make potions, Dragon bones could serve as magical materials, Dragon meat could be eaten, Dragon… certain parts were said to have invigorating properties… The common functions of Dragon Blood were forging Magic Items and brewing potions. In the hands of a skilled Alchemist, combined with other precious materials and carefully formulated into a magic potion for consumption, it could possibly permanently enhance a person’s strength, or constitution, or grant some magical ability, even allowing one to spit fire from their mouth like a Red Dragon for no reason. Although that was almost equivalent to turning a person into a monster with Dragon lineage, in this world, the pursuit of power was almost the norm, and few truly cared about the essence behind it.

“Various potions that can permanently increase physical attributes through synthesis, I want half…” Blinking, Constantine made a demand.

“No problem… but it will probably take a few days. You can stay here with me.” As Vernal waved his hands, bottles rose into the air, and countless unseen servants began dividing the ice block formed by the Dragon Blood. “Perfect. I’m always short of an assistant for my usual experiments. You can just live here with me…”

“That… that, I appreciate your kindness, Master, but, I’ve never been very healthy since childhood, this… I need to live somewhere… less damp and chilly!” The youth immediately refused firmly—was he joking?! Every single one of your experiments is troublesome! Last time I helped you with a Shield, you almost crushed me to death with a Battering Ram! A new set of clothes was ruined. Now you want me to live in your haunted laboratory? I wouldn’t have enough lives for you to mess with!

“Also, I need some spell Scrolls, and Magic Items…” In this recent battle, the Scrolls looted from Christine’s hands had proven incredibly useful.

Although he had also studied the Transmutation School spells, given Constantine’s current abilities, he could just about manage to scribe Scrolls and barely brew some low-level potions. He basically couldn’t create true Magic Items. He didn’t dare either; those things consumed too much power.

The Law of this world granted Spellcasters great power but also imposed limits. Even Mages couldn’t use too much power in a single day. From some perspectives, Scrolls, potions, and Magic Items were born to make up for this shortcoming. Using these items to release magic was actually a way to forcibly increase one’s spellcasting capacity. This, of course, came at a great cost; nothing good in the world was that cheap. Generally, creating Magic Items would weaken the wizard’s power to varying degrees, harm their body, and if done poorly, could even be life-threatening.

Both the Alchemist Vernal and the Lich had warned Constantine not to attempt such dangerous work before he could touch the fifth layer of the Weave of Magic. If he needed Magic Items, he should rather spend money to buy them.

Of course, we know Constantine was lucky; he neither had to make them himself nor spend money to buy them—actually, slightly higher-level Magic Items couldn’t really be bought in ordinary places; they often circulated in underground black markets at outrageously high prices. But he had a guide skilled at making Magic Items and possessing formidable strength. Even the occasional scraps that fell through the other’s fingers were enough for a Sorcerer Apprentice at his current stage. For example, the Shield strapped to his arm and those gloves that increased agility.

But the encounter hours earlier made the youth feel that it was far from enough.

“I’ll give you some Magic Scrolls.” The Archmage pondered for a moment, then said, “However, due to guild regulations, I can only give you Scrolls of third level and below.”

“Scrolls of third level and below…” Constantine mused slightly. Magic Scrolls were quite necessary for a Sorcerer, supplementing the limited variety of his spells. “Master, you’re really not generous enough… considering I gave you Dragon Blood, an Alchemist’s dream treasure…”

“Greedy brat!” Vernal gave a sinister laugh, but their time together had let Constantine know this held no negative emotion. “Fine then, I’ll give you one extra fifth-level Magic Scroll. I hope you use it well. But don’t say I gave it to you. If it causes dissatisfaction among some in the Mage Tower, I won’t take responsibility for it.”

A fifth-level Scroll!! Constantine felt a secret joy in his heart. A standard fifth-level Magic Scroll was worth at least a thousand gold coins, but at that price, it was generally absolutely unavailable. Such high-level Scrolls were trump cards for survival or killing enemies, regardless of a Mage’s level, or even ordinary people who could use magic devices. In fact, even third-level Scrolls were worth around five hundred gold coins. The cheapest first-level Magic Scroll cost about twenty-five to fifty gold coins. On the black market, those prices would multiply five to ten times.

“You cheater! This… this… what kind of thing is this?!”

But a few seconds later, Constantine’s mood plummeted to the bottom with a cry of despair. According to the Lich’s identification, the fifth-level Scroll the Black Robe Mage shoved at him contained a Dream spell—this spell could make a sleeping person experience a dream fabricated at will by the caster, but in terms of attack… unfortunately, it had zero killing power—of course, one couldn’t rule out the possibility of the target being scared to death by a terrifying dream… but unless the target was a super coward or had a heart condition, that possibility was extremely slim!

But the youth couldn’t come up with a solid reason to refute—although this spell was boring to the extreme, it was a genuine fifth-level spell. He could only blame himself for being dazzled by visions of gold at the mention of “fifth-level spell,” forgetting the vastness and depth of magic.

Helplessly, for second-level spells, Constantine chose Protection from Energy, Mirror Image, Web, and a Hypnosis spell to match the Dream spell—after all, the Dream spell required the target to be asleep, and Constantine had no mood to wait for someone to fall asleep. Additionally, the youth cunningly selected a Touch of Fatigue Scroll. For third-level spells, the Mage only gave two: one Sleet Storm and one Phantom Steed.

“Your eye is always quite good.” The Black Robe Mage said dryly; clearly, he rarely praised anyone, and his vocabulary in this area was lacking.

“Protection from Energy” could help a wizard resist a certain type of energy; “Mirror Image” could create Avatars; “Web” could trap enemies—all were good, cost-effective protective spells. “Sleet Storm” not only caused damage but could also freeze opponents, practically the best means to bully Knights. And “Phantom Steed”—it was said even a True Dragon might not be able to catch up with it, truly a must-have for escape.

Stuffing these Scrolls into his pouch, Constantine hadn’t yet made his next demand for extortion when a white light flashed before him!

“Come with me!” A familiar voice rang out. A slender, delicate little hand grabbed the youth, and as he overcame the dizzying, spinning sensation…

The first thing that met his eyes was a Golem. How much change could a dozen or so days bring to a Golem? Constantine probably didn’t know before… but now he seemed certain: anyone who had seen Christine’s Golem before would absolutely be unable to accept the transformation of that originally clumsy iron lump. In fact, an uninformed observer now, even examining this big fellow up close, might not find any trace of that previous ugly thing…

The spiked-ball-like hands had long been replaced by three horn-like metal pieces. Actually, upon closer inspection, the curved metal ends had evolved into three Scimitars with slight edges. Their main task was obviously to close and grasp objects, but Constantine the designer knew that when the wrist was driven by a certain small magic, they would spin at high speed, producing effects like a circular saw or a drill bit!

From the wrist to the upper elbow, the originally encasing clumsy metal armor shell had been replaced with dense metal plates. The plates weren’t smooth but layered like animal scales, shimmering with an oily gloss under the light… Their function hadn’t changed much. When the longest chain on the elbow part extended, driven by the powerful rotation of the Golem’s main body, these two thick arms were enough to churn up a storm of carnage in a dense crowd! And at Constantine’s suggestion, these two arm sections were now more resilient and slippery; even blades enhanced with sharpness spells could hardly leave scratches if the angle wasn’t right.

The original small round head had been reshaped into a helmet-like form, looking much more pleasing. However, the biggest significance of the external change was to conceal the small spray nozzle below the mouth armor—through a simple spring nozzle and flame Magic Array mechanism, this device could spray ten pounds of Alchemist’s Fire into a cone-shaped mist, easily creating a flame effect similar to Burning Hands but several times more powerful!

Then there were those non-reflective surface armors… The curved armor plates with a Grease Spell effect had good deflection against thrown weapons; even flying stones the size of a human head couldn’t make dents on them. And at the most needed moment, this armor could detach in an explosion. Not only would that reduce weight, but the scattered flying armor fragments were excellent materials for distracting attention and causing casualties!

Of course, this part was still incomplete. Only about a quarter of the Armor was done. The opened shell revealed the Magic Array underneath, covered with lines and Gemstones, giving a dreamlike feeling.

“Looks pretty good, but this should be not yet finished…” Constantine stroked his chin, slightly squinting his eyes. The modifications seemed to be going smoothly. At the current combat level, with about a hundred—no, with about fifty such Golems deployed on the battlefield, plus a not-too-clumsy commander, they should create a considerable attacking advantage. Of course, that was assuming the enemy didn’t use a group of high-level Mages specifically to counter them.

Should he think of a way to get one for himself? The youth even narrowed his eyes. Having such a thing would be more useful than any bodyguard. If he modified it, creating a space inside to fit a person…

This monster’s main weapon was a huge Aegis Shield. The outer surface of this large metal Shield was cast with spikes, and its edges were embedded with saw-tooth-like Fangs… These movable saw-teeth had considerable cutting ability. So, although nominally a Shield, depending on the angle of use, this thing could also be used as a Greatsword or a short Battle Axe-type weapon.

Additionally, there were wheels on the heels for quick movement, and a Fireball Spell necklace hidden in the chest within three small barrels of shock-absorbing oil… Combined with some original spell mechanisms, although this Golem didn’t use any high-level spells, the effects it could produce were extremely terrifying! Especially when it appeared in a crowd, it signaled the start of a slaughter!

But this still wasn’t the most terrifying part. What was even more frightening was that in this large room… five such Golems stood in a row…