The wizard era begins with the alchemist wizard

Chapter 551 Opening the Treasure Box
After arranging the tasks in the laboratory, Richard glanced at the laboratory warehouse.

After millions of years of erosion, even the forerunners' creations were inevitably damaged. During these millions of years, the Shengong Laboratory had experienced several large-scale space storms, and with the power furnace operating at a low load, damage was inevitable.

As the part with the lowest protection priority in the Jingu Laboratory, the warehouse naturally became the part of the laboratory that was most severely damaged.

For laboratories, resource materials can be replenished, but if the machinery breaks down, that would be a problem.

Even in the days when pioneers were still around, a laboratory instrument would take decades or even hundreds of years to manufacture.

However, even so, there are still some remnants in the laboratory warehouse.

……

The crystal wall broke into tiny cubes and dispersed, and a very dilapidated warehouse appeared in front of Richard.

After entering, the first thing that caught Richard's eyes was a dozen space bubbles of different sizes.

"Due to the data loss caused by my failure, I don't know what the items in the laboratory warehouse are. But for safety reasons, please be vigilant. Although the Jingu Laboratory is a second-level laboratory, many of the research products collected there are enough to cause fatal harm to the Lord of the World."

Lan's suggestion rang in Richard's ears, but there was no need for it to be said, as Richard was always extremely wary of things from the pioneers.

It was nothing else. The blue flame he made into the Evolution Illuminator was one of the pioneers' experimental products. If Richard had not been protected by Ulises at that time, he would have never been able to get the flame.

Coming to a space bubble, Richard set up a magic barrier in full readiness. In the space bubble was a black stone the size of a human head that looked ordinary, but before opening it, no one knew whether it would be harmful to people.

Under Lan's control, the space bubble was dissolved.

The next moment, an extremely strong decay radiation instantly filled the entire warehouse.

Richard was certain that if this radiation erupted in the secret realm, it would be enough to leave the entire secret realm barren except for the World Mushroom.

However, this does not mean it is dangerous.

"It's okay, not very dangerous."

After determining the intensity of the decay radiation, Richard breathed a sigh of relief.

Decay radiation may be a natural enemy to other creatures, but to Richard, it is no better than ordinary energy radiation.

A regular fluctuation came from Richard's body, and a magic bubble with vigorous vitality flew out from his hand and wrapped the entire stone.

Under the filtering of the rules of life, the decay radiation emitted by the stone instantly turned into normal energy radiation. And energy radiation is much easier to handle.

Richard took out a metal ingot from his pocket and made an enchanted lead box on the spot. After putting the stone in it, Richard turned around and came to the next space bubble.

The items inside this space bubble are very ordinary.

This space bubble is very large, and contains fifty mithril bricks of approximately ten by twenty by five centimeters. Judging from the purity, it is estimated to be comparable to the ones refined by Richard using the miracle furnace.

I looked at a few more large space bubbles, and the items in them were all rare alchemical materials. These things were excellent materials no matter which race they were in, so there was no such thing as wizards thinking they were great while the forerunners regarded them as garbage.

Soon, there were only two of the dozen space bubbles left. Richard supported the magic barrier and came to a small space bubble the size of a palm.

The space bubble contained a palm-sized black beetle, but just by feeling, Richard knew that it was definitely an extraordinary creature.

Taking out the Hand of Balance, Lan unleashed the space bubble.

The next moment, a pressure that was comparable to Richard's immediately burst out from the insect.

Under Richard's shocked gaze, the insect actually moved.

"Can the space bubble also have the effect of stopping time?" Richard asked in shock. Otherwise, after millions of years, this insect would have died of old age even if it was the master of the world.

"Of course not. To stop time requires a special stasis chamber, which is very precious."

Richard waved the Hand of Balance, and in an instant, a khaki spherical force field appeared out of thin air, accurately wrapping the black beetle.

This is the elemental force field in earth element witchcraft. By borrowing some of the properties of the earth element, the force field composed of the earth element has a strong hysteresis effect. If the life wrapped in the force field is weak enough, this force field is comparable to the imprisonment spell.

Under the amplification of the Hand of Balance, the strength of this sorcery has been qualitatively improved. Although the effect of the elemental force field cannot be calculated by energy level, the amplification equivalent to 30,000 energy levels is enough to increase the force field that can only delay wizard apprentices to a level that is enough to delay the Lord of the World.

In the elemental force field, the black beetle continued to struggle. But strangely, the beetle did not have any regular energy fluctuations, nor did it show any obvious intelligence.

As if it were a bug.

As a master of physical studies, Richard immediately understood the secret.

"The soul is dead, but the body is still alive?"

There was amazement in Richard's tone. If his inference was true, then he might have found something that even the Corona would be jealous of.

Under normal circumstances, a creature's body and soul are closely connected. If this connection is not actively severed, the death of the body will also lead to the death of the soul. This is also the fundamental reason why wizards protect the body.

Except for soul wizards and necromancers, few wizards can disconnect instantly.

The same can also be said about the reverse. When the soul dies, the body will also die.

But after research by the great wizard Garlon, he discovered an extreme situation, that is, some lives with too strong vitality may be resurrected after death under certain special circumstances.

This kind of resurrection is the resurrection of the body, and the soul of the creature will not be resurrected along with it. Therefore, the resurrected creature will be limited by the characteristics of its race and will not be able to perform some of the abilities of having a soul.

For example, insects cannot think, have no mental support, and have difficulty mobilizing energy, etc...

However, this is just an inference. Even if it becomes a physical corona, the great wizard Garlon has not found a single example.

Richard took the bug out of the laboratory and called on the World Mushroom to raise the bug. His sealing skills were not good enough to seal a life of the world master level. After sending the bug away, Richard came to the last space bubble.

The thing inside this space bubble is very strange. It is a mass of amorphous black substance that looks like a thick smoke.

After taking precautions, Lan opened the last space bubble.

At the moment of opening, Richard's body suddenly tensed up. But the danger he expected did not appear. The black substance stayed in place after the space bubble was opened, as if the space bubble was just a box.

"Master, explore it."

"Yes, Sir Richard."

Soon, Lan's voice sounded in Richard's ears.

"Sir Richard, this cloud of smoke is a group of ultra-microscopic organisms. For the time being, they pose no threat to you."

"Explain this term."

"Collective biology is a special biological model, and a group of them can be regarded as an individual. Ultramicro refers to the fact that the individual organisms in this group are very small, reaching the nanoscale."

"Gestalt creature. I call this creature a Gestalt creature."

"Yes, Sir Richard."

After putting away the magic barrier, Richard waved his hand and another earth element force field appeared out of thin air, enveloping the black smoke. But after the element force field appeared, the black smoke suddenly changed its form. A weak spiritual wave came out from the smoke.

The implied meaning of that mental fluctuation seemed to be... begging for mercy?
"Have intelligence?"

Richard was startled, and his right hand holding the staff unconsciously exerted force. But soon his expression turned into surprise - it's a good thing to be wise!

Richard's mind moved, and a subtle mental wave emanated from between his eyebrows.

"You have wisdom?"

"Spare my life."

"Can we communicate?"

"Spare my life."

“…I didn’t eat breakfast.”

"Spare my life."

After some testing, Richard came to a ridiculous conclusion: This creature had intelligence, but only a little.

But this is enough.

Compared to Wuxiang, who only had an instinctive reaction, this cloud of smoke has completed the transformation from zero to one.

Richard took out a small metal ingot from his pocket, flicked his finger, and the ingot fell into the smoke. The moment the ingot fell in, the smoke suddenly rioted.

This Gestalt creature instantly condensed from a smoke state to a solid state, wrapping up the entire metal ingot.

Richard checked his watch and saw that a minute later the Gestalt creature had returned to its smoke state, while the ball of metal ingot had disappeared.

The Gestalt creature emitted a wave of joyful spirit, and Richard noticed that the creature was slightly larger than before.

Then he fed it some different materials, from stones to wood, and then to the mycelium of the World Mushroom. Except for the mycelium of the World Mushroom, which was particularly slow to devour, the creature devoured other substances very quickly.

It only takes ten seconds to devour a fist-sized stone, and less than a second to devour a piece of wood of the same size.

"Its devouring efficiency is much better than Wuxiang, and it is not picky about food. But what use are you?"

Richard's mind moved, and a tiny wind blade was about to cut off a piece of the corner of the Gestalt creature. But at the moment the wind blade approached the body, the creature materialized again.

The wind blade cut on it, leaving a faint mark.

“It’s not strong enough to be a material.”

Richard snapped his fingers, and a ball of fire was born under the smoke. Under the burning of the flame, the creature shrank back into substance. Through his mental power, Richard could clearly see that the smoke was partially consumed by the burning of the flame.

"Yes, it is confirmed that it is not worthy of being used as material."

Richard was a little disappointed and was about to seal the smoke, but Lan's voice interrupted him.

"Sir Richard, I think you will find some of my observation data useful. When you were feeding it, I noticed that the free elements in the unit space of this cloud of smoke decreased a little. And its volume also increased by 0.001%."

Richard shuddered. "You mean it can devour free elements to replicate itself?"

"Probably."

After getting a positive answer, Richard's eyes turned fiery as he looked at the smoke.

The basis of matter is elements, and elements will not disappear out of thin air. If this creature can devour free elements to replicate itself, then when its number reaches a certain level, any elemental attack will be directly digested by it.

Richard's mind flashed through the image of this creature expanding to the size of a tidal wave.

In this black tide that can devour elements, any legion that stands in its way will be devoured.

(End of this chapter)