Wizard Earl

Chapter 398 A Basic Mistake

When Martina thought about how she had crafted the top-tier level 2 enchanted item that Connor had used to trap her in the array during their fight, she was completely stunned. She had always thought that the staff and the combined enchanted item in her hand were both given to her by the secret society!

"Connor's talent in alchemy is extremely high. Now that he has become a senior wizard apprentice, I believe his alchemy skills have reached a new level. However, the surveillance cameras installed in that house were made by Lord Southgate. I wonder if Connor will be able to recognize them..." A cold glint flashed in old Victor's cloudy eyes.

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"Impossible! ...Absolutely impossible!"

As he manipulated the alchemy furnace to refine Gotham Steel, the main material for forging the Soul Spear, Connor internally denied it:

According to the map, there was only one area along the west coast of the Empire that fit the description of being close to the sea and located in the jungle: Norwich Forest, which was only five kilometers away from the port of Southampton. Norwich Forest was only five kilometers away from the sea, and one could feel the sea breeze from the west coast. However, the reason why Connor was so determined to believe it was impossible was that the distance between Norwich Forest and the city of Loen on the map was a full three hundred kilometers!

In this era, trains were still in their infancy, powered by steam. The fastest train, the Saint Raul of the Kaman Empire, could only travel at a speed of twenty kilometers per hour. Theoretically, even by taking the Saint Raul, it would take at least fifteen hours to travel from Rune to the Norwich Forest! If he were truly deep in the Norwich Forest now, it would mean that the carriage had covered the distance that the Saint Raul would take at most fifteen hours in less than two hours!

Although Connor was certain that the carriage was an enchanted item, for that to happen, the carriage would have to be at least Tier 3, which was simply impossible. Putting aside the question of whether an unofficial, non-church Tier 3 enchanted item could be openly driven in the city of Rune, Connor was confident in his alchemy skills that if he were riding in a Tier 3 enchanted item carriage, he would definitely not have failed to notice a single clue!

"Sizzle... sizzle... sizzle"

Just as Connor was getting more and more excited and his mental control over the alchemy furnace was deviating slightly due to his excitement, a slight abnormal fluctuation sound came from the alchemy furnace that was refining Gotham steel. Although these sounds were very faint, they were like a bolt from the blue in Connor's mind.

Upon hearing this sound, Connor quickly took a deep breath, cleared his mind of distractions, and calmed himself down. As his mental energy to control the alchemy furnace returned to normal, the abnormal fluctuations within the furnace gradually subsided.

After carefully checking and confirming that the anomaly had disappeared, Connor immediately felt a sense of relief. Fortunately, he was only performing a simple alchemy operation—refining Gotham Steel—in the furnace. If he had been performing the more difficult alchemy technique of "mental micromanagement," his furnace would likely have fared much better than just experiencing slight abnormal fluctuations; it could very well have exploded on the spot!

Concentrating on his work, Connor skillfully and efficiently transformed a large lump of Gotham Steel in the alchemy furnace into a Gotham Steel essence the size of an adult's fist.

Connor retrieved the Gotham Steel from the alchemy furnace, admiring the faint patterns on its surface, and nodded slightly in satisfaction. In the Persis Empire, bordering the Kaman Empire to the south, lies a city called Gotham. The area around Gotham is dotted with iron ore mines of varying sizes, making its steel industry and steelmaking technology highly developed since ancient times. Steel forged using iron ore from the surrounding area and employing Gotham's traditional steelmaking techniques is known as Gotham Steel!

Gotham Steel is characterized by its high hardness, excellent conductivity of magical and spiritual energy, and special restraining effect on souls. In addition, due to its complex and intricate manufacturing process, its annual production does not exceed ten tons. Therefore, it is a highly valuable hard currency in the wizarding world, with a value that fluctuates around ten grams of Gotham Steel per magic stone.

Because Gotham Steel has a unique ability to suppress spirits, it became the primary raw material for forging the Soul Spear. The Gotham Steel that Connor extracted was several times stronger than ordinary Gotham Steel in terms of hardness, magical and mental energy conductivity, and its ability to suppress spirits.

Connor placed the freshly refined Gotham Steel and several other materials for forging the Soul Spear in front of him, closed his eyes, and fell into deep thought.

"There really was a surveillance camera in this house!"

At this moment, Connor appeared to be contemplating how to forge the Soul Spear, but in reality, he was certain that his every move in the room was being monitored.

The reason Connor made such a mistake in refining Gotham Steel, a very simple alchemy operation, was not because Connor lacked ability, but because he committed a major taboo in alchemy. He was so confident in the simplicity of the operation that he tried to do two things at once, which led to the mistake!

One cannot do two things at once when alchemizing. This is a principle that all wizards who are new to the world of alchemy understand. But why would Connor, who has already created countless enchanted items, make such a mistake?

The reason lies in the fact that Connor, being a psychic wizard, possessed a powerful and keen intuition that made him vaguely aware that he was being monitored through surveillance cameras. Therefore, he dared not stop to consider his location, fearing that it would arouse suspicion from those monitoring him. He could only pretend not to notice that he was being monitored and multitask, refining Gotham Steel normally while thinking about things. In addition, the things he was thinking about were too terrifying and unsettling, which led to Connor's alchemy failure.

However, it seems that "every cloud has a silver lining!" The mistake was certainly a blow to Connor, but when Connor made the alchemy error, the items monitoring Connor seemed to generate a slight energy fluctuation in order to observe the situation in Connor's alchemy furnace more clearly.

Although the resulting energy fluctuations were so subtle that they could easily go unnoticed, Connor's keen intuition still managed to capture them!

(End of this chapter)