Mechanical Alchemist

Su Lun chose a path that delved deep into the underground caverns, already entering the city's sewer system where sewage flowed chaotically. He had intended to search in this direction for the scythe, and now it also served as a perfect place to avoid the assassin, whose pursuit was uncertain.

Although the environment was foul-smelling, the sewage effectively concealed the traces of their movement.

Unexpectedly, before encountering the pursuing assassin or finding the scythe, they first stumbled upon a corpse at a drainage pipe.

It was the half-naked body of a woman, entirely wrapped in cobwebs, pallid and lifeless, being pierced through the skull by the venomous fangs of a giant spider with red eyes, which was sucking on the brain matter...

Miss Lena stared at the body, wanting to scream out but then remembering something and quickly covering her mouth, her crystal-like eyes trembling with unhidden sorrow.

The corpse was unmistakably that of the previous female assistant, Rosa.

As Su Lun looked at the corpse, now cloaked in a gray mist, his eyes brightened, "Just died, still very fresh?"

He had harvested so much knowledge from Jack's corpse before, so why not from an assistant who could have been a teacher to the students?

....

To Su Lun, such a corpse was nothing short of a godsend, its value a hundredfold that of an ordinary professional's corpse.

However, Su Lun did not make a move. Instead, he squinted at the red-eyed spider about to feast, and identified the monster's attributes. "Is it yet another elite beast?"

At that very moment, the spider also looked his way.

Something crossed Su Lun's mind, but he did not avert his gaze.

In an instant, the six crimson spider eyes regarded him, and it felt as though an invisible hand was caressing his soul, but the sensation vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

At the same time, the All-knowing Eye displayed a negative body status.

"You have been subjected to a mental attack. The psychic fluctuation is weaker than your spiritual power, and you have resisted this negative status..."

As Su Lun saw it, just as the All-knowing Eye indicated, the mental attacks of these aberrant elite spiders were not enough to threaten his exceedingly high spiritual power.

"High spiritual power can resist low-level psychic spells... It seems that in this spider's lair, as long as I'm not surrounded by a swarm of monsters, it's not too deadly for me..."

Having encountered a live monster, he deliberately tested some theories.

Now, Su Lun felt confident in continuing the search for the scythe.

But Miss Lena behind him wasn't as fortunate. The girl had inadvertently locked eyes with the spider, and it was as though her soul had been siphoned away, leaving her standing there, dumbstruck.

Moreover, it seemed she was envisioning some sensual hallucination, for her cheeks flushed rapidly, and she began emitting strange little moans.

Su Lun watched Miss Lena, now stupified and walking towards the spider, without rushing to her aid. Instead, he observed her carefully.

While watching, he analyzed in his mind, "So this is what happens when one is affected. The monster's mental attack purely influences lust. If I block out the emotion of 'lust,' would that render this kind of psychic attack ineffective?"

The All-knowing Eye made it clear to him the methods of attack employed by the ghoulish spider; a direct gaze would stir up base desires, causing instantaneous loss of consciousness and easy capture as prey.

Just like the lady now in heat before him.

Miss Lena's breathing techniques were among the best for a first-order professional, and yet she was so easily bewitched. This meant that even second-order professionals, if lacking in spiritual power, would probably fall under the influence of these elite spiders.

Su Lun's gaze grew deeper as he seemed to ponder something, "Tsk tsk... It seems this young lady's fate is not yet sealed..."

....

Feeling he had observed enough, Su Lun raised his hand with a silencer-fitted pistol and shot the giant spider's head to pieces.

Just as the reconnaissance had shown, although deadly, these mutant creatures had extremely weak body defenses. Even ordinary bullets could easily blast large holes through them.

With the monster dead, Miss Lena snapped out of her obsessive state.

She instantly felt an embarrassing and unusual sensation in her body, and with her face possibly blushing out of modesty, she asked timidly, "What... What happened to me just now?"

"Don't look directly into the red eyes of those ghoulish spiders, or you'll be subjected to mental manipulation," advised Su Lun, without going into detail.

He didn't dwell on her current bashful appearance, which could have stirred the hearts of many young men, but went straight to the body of Assistant Rosa.

"Oh... the spider even dropped curse-material loot."

Su Lun looked at the cow-sized spider's corpse which was emanating a glow, and from it, there were actually two cursed glowing spider legs.

However, their quality was not great, merely common dark iron materials.

Disregarding the spider legs, Su Lun approached Rosa's body.

The gray mist on the body would dissipate over time, and each second's delay meant the loss of high-quality fragments.

He had to harvest quickly.

Then, drawing closer to the mist, he triumphantly separated a great deal of valuable information.

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"Acquired 'Rosa Williams' Memory Fragment*5'

'You have gained some information: 'Daniel has been acting a bit strange lately, I saw him secretly opening some kind of signal device in the tunnel...''

'You have mastered a vast amount of 'Advanced Alchemy Knowledge'...'

'You have mastered the Arcane Alchemy Art [Wu-Shi (incomplete)]...'

'You have grasped a large amount of 'Alchemy Theory'...'

'You have mastered the skilled [Quick Sorcerer's Seals Technique]...'

'You have gained some 'Advanced Alchemy Spells Casting Techniques', Alchemy Experience +111'

'Spiritual Power +0.35'

It was an anticipated bumper harvest.

Su Lun felt his mind overflowing with an excess of "knowledge".

It was as if a large chunk of a shattered puzzle had suddenly snapped into place, giving him an indescribable sense of accomplishment.

....

"Did I actually grasp Rosa's arcane technique [Wu-Shi]?"

Su Lun, looking at a new skill that had appeared on his panel, immediately thought of the image of Assistant Rosa dragging countless strange moths by herself in the cave before.

The wraithlike cold fire that burned the creatures kept them at bay, leaving him still feeling uneasy to this day.

He was no longer an alchemy novice, and naturally, he knew that a skill dignified with the title "arcane" represented top-tier, scarce, and precious knowledge. Not only is it difficult to obtain the skill, but the learning curve is also steep, and mastering it depends on one's comprehension!

This [Wu-Shi] would be considered a top-level arcane secret technique even within the Inner City. To learn it would be like finding one in ten thousand.

However, because of his gift as a Reaper, Su Lun easily mastered this arcane level of alchemy.

A flash of curiosity crossed Su Lun's mind. At that moment, the dark spiritual power inside his body circulated in a special yet familiar manner, causing a small wisp of pale blue cold flame to suddenly appear on his fingertips.

"It actually worked..."

Su Lun looked at the flame, similar to one from a lighter, and his face lit up with joy.

This cold flame was not only an elemental dark spell that scorched, but it also imparted a "break defense" effect on physical attacks.

It allowed the user's "normal attack" to cause both physical and magical damage, drastically increasing the damage!

Since it was an incomplete secret technique, Rosa had only managed to summon two flame arms, achieving only a minor mastery in the arcane arts. If the technique were complete, one could even condense a full "Servant of Void" to envelop their entire body, as if a deity possessed them...

"What a powerful arcane secret technique."

After carefully sensing the specialty of the cold flame, Su Lun couldn't help but comment inwardly.

He felt that he could probably punch a hole through a concrete wall with just one finger now.

Although he didn't have Rosa's exaggerated flames, it was enough to make his normal attacks critically hit.

At the same time, he also reflected that assistants really lived up to their names, possessing a wealth of knowledge far richer than that of elite students.

The surge in alchemy knowledge made Su Lun feel as if he had "skipped grades," jumping from third grade directly to sixth grade in an instant.

But before he could fully digest all the knowledge he had acquired, his expression turned solemn when he saw one particular piece of information in the memory fragment, and he wondered with alarm, "Is something wrong with Assistant Daniel?"

....

There had always been suspicions of an insider within the trial team.

Otherwise, the enemy wouldn't have been able to accurately grasp their movements and precisely send that shapeshifting bug after Miss Lena.

However, he was not certain whether the traitor was a student or an instructor.

After Daniel had disappeared without a trace and Instructor August had never shown his face, Su Lun had preemptively assumed they had died.

But now, from Rosa's memories, he found doubts.

Lena was still immersed in grief, after all, Assistant Rosa had died saving her.

Su Lun's eyes shifted as he directly asked, "Miss Lena, what are Assistant Daniel's profession and talent? Does he have any particularly powerful trump card?"

Lena had been confused before, but she wasn't dumb.

Hearing Su Lun's question, she instantly guessed something and said, "Assistant Daniel's advanced profession is a 'Ranger', skilled in tracking and counter-tracking as well as close combat. Many of our combat practice sessions were taught by him..."

Upon hearing this, Su Lun's expression turned icy at the mention of "skilled in tracking".

And just then, he felt as if a pair of crimson eyes were staring at him from the darkness, muttering to themselves, "Scythe, Assassin, mutant monster..."

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