A brave man may not live, but he cannot die

Chapter 158 The Pizza Girl's Arcane Festival Dream (4)

"This is a miniature model of the slime farm. With the technical support of Grindelwald Academy, the Aiswell City Investment Company built the first monster breeding farm in human history in 1329. From then on, slime slime blocks could be obtained efficiently and stably. This material, which is heat-resistant, elastic, and sticky, replaced springs, driving innovation in steam engine manufacturing and reducing costs."

A miniature architectural model is displayed in a glass case. Bright yellow gas spotlights clearly illuminate the separate structure of the slime farm. The ingenious gravity one-way valve allows adult slimes to automatically fall into the slaughterhouse, be cut and slaughtered by arcane magic, and then come into contact with the workers, thus safely separating humans and monsters.

Listening to the guide's sweet voice, Celia curiously peered at the model through the glass, while Quinn stood idly by, lost in thought. He recalled a sandbox game on Earth where the redstone devices had a similar structure.

Why are slimes called monsters?

Celia asked in a low voice, "According to the classification system, shouldn't they be classified as magical creatures?"

Museums always have a magical atmosphere that inspires awe and reverence for the history and culture on display.

Two months ago, Quinn definitely wouldn't have been able to answer this question, but thanks to the daily accumulation of reading, his own memory, and the help of the encyclopedia system, his knowledge of occultism has advanced by leaps and bounds, reaching a level of broad but not deep knowledge—he knows a little about everything, but only a little bit about everything.

The organisms in the Taymourne can be roughly divided into four types.

The most common species are animals, including cattle, horses, sheep, cats, dogs, livestock and poultry for consumption, and even terrestrial birds and unique species such as winged snakes.

Secondly, there are magical creatures, which, as the name suggests, are animals with extraordinary abilities, capable of manipulating arcane magic or even supernatural powers.

These creatures are rare and dangerous, and some are even highly intelligent. In Grindelwald's "Fantastic Beasts Act," the criterion for determining whether a creature is a magical beast is whether it can produce arcane or extraordinary materials; owls, which are often kept by arcanists, fall into this category.

Monsters are a type of magical creature, but in addition to possessing strange abilities, they also have a demonic faith and are mostly hostile towards humans.

Goblins, trolls, and even the mountain dwarves who were slaughtered by the empire hundreds of years ago are all evil creatures born to worship the Demon King or heretics. Monsters are the main targets of the Adventurers' Guild and the Cult of God. They usually hide in dungeons or wilderness far from cities. Their numbers gradually decrease in peacetime, but they will explode during the war against the demons.

The last type is the so-called mythical creatures, such as dragons, banshees, and even cloud whales—legendary ancient species.

In the common understanding, such creatures only exist in the stories of bards. A mythical creature can often transform its habitat into a secret realm under its rule, which is translated as "a place that cannot be explored in this world" in the ancient Terran language. Like the abyss, it is regarded as a forbidden existence in the mystical world.

“Ordinary slimes are indeed hard to call monsters, after all, they have little intelligence, no faith, and will not actively harm humans.” Quinn played with the slime cube placed in front of the display stand. It felt somewhere between a spring and jelly. It was green and soft to the touch, yet surprisingly solid.

"These creatures can reproduce asexually and are not picky eaters; they can even be fed feces. In an environment with ample food, a slime can split into three or four every so often, grow bigger, and split again. This is the principle behind slime farms."
Quinn put the cube back. "However, once the slime population becomes too large, blue individuals may emerge from among them—this is what's called evolution. A blue slime will devour its entire population in less than a week, and it will develop intelligence and demonic faith, possessing mimicry and the ability to devour. It's a very troublesome, growing monster; there are even legends in ancient texts about slimes that devoured Sequence 3 transcendents."

"Wow. No wonder the textbook said that if slimes disappear from a slime colony, you should evacuate immediately. So that's why. Slimes can also grow demonic faith."

Celia covered her mouth, her eyes slightly wide open, looking quite adorable.

Then, she asked curiously, "Can humans who have faith in demons be considered demons?"

Quinn was speechless for a moment.

He subconsciously thought of Ankuya; wasn't a monster smoking cigars and drinking whiskey a bit too trendy? Just as he was pondering his answer and preparing to reply, he heard a gentle and refined male voice behind him—

"Of course it's a demon. The Father said that all who rebel will be judged, their flesh thrown to the feathered beasts of the sky and the wild dogs of the ground, so that calamity will befall their bodies and souls, and they will not be forgiven."

Tall, with long hair and deep, captivating features, a rather young priest stood behind the two, holding a black box, and nodded in greeting: "Mr. Quinn, it's nice to see you again."

Quinn's eyes flickered slightly. He had seen this person at the banquet yesterday. More than two months ago, the person who had helped him solve the problem of the Abyss Transcendent Jack was none other than Father Sisa of the Sacred Tree, who had been listed by Ankuya as one of the suspects of becoming a hero.

Was he here to see the exhibition at the museum?

“You said before that a staff member from the school administration would come to me to understand the situation, so I waited at the church all day that Monday.”

Sissa's tone wasn't reproachful; this was the third time Quinn had seen him, and each time he was so indifferent. He shrugged: "I've already decided to share half of that Abyss Specialty bounty. Fortunately, the Heavenly Father is watching over me; the people at the Academy are very busy."

“Indeed.” Now that they had found the hero, Quinn and Ankuya naturally wouldn’t provoke the cult any further. He went along with it: “At that time, we had other leads, and the robbery case was solved. However, I’m not very clear about the school administration’s affairs.”

Celia's gaze swept back and forth between the two. Most of the teachers in the academy believed that gods were just stronger humans, a view that was considered extremely blasphemous by any religion, so it was rare to see teachers and clergy together.

"Mr. Quinn, is this priest your friend?"

Quinn introduced, “Mr. Sissa. He’s from the Church of the Holy Tree. I’ve met him once before.”

“Actually, it’s two sides. I also attended the dinner last night, but I didn’t have time to greet an elder because I met him.” Xisa then turned to Celia and said kindly, “I met your teacher in a brothel, and we both slept with the same person.”

Celia's suspicious gaze instantly fell on Quinn, who snapped, "Arresting a suspect? It's a damn suspect arrest—I went in because I had something to do, I didn't solicit anyone!"

Sissa nodded again and chimed in, "I only went in because I had something to do. I didn't go to a brothel either. What a coincidence."

Celia's gaze became even more suspicious.

Quinn thought to himself that this guy was truly amazing. He couldn't get entangled in the topic of brothels. This guy's strange habit of purifying prostitutes was too unfriendly to a minor like Celia. He had to change the subject.

"Is that square box you're holding a camera?"

“Oh? Not many people can recognize this structure now.” Sissa gave Quinn a meaningful look, then held up an old, box-shaped camera covered in black leather and with a large lens, and introduced it: “This thing is seven hundred years old. It’s the Empire’s ‘Seagull’ brand, and it’s the last improved product of the Third Hero, the inventor of the camera.”

Quinn examined the camera, which had a rather mechanical aesthetic. He thought of a camera brand on Earth called Nikon—Quinn didn't pay attention to these things, but he inexplicably had a historical impression of the corresponding old cameras. He also thought of comic conventions, as if this kind of camera should be taken to comic conventions to photograph girls dressed in revealing clothes.

strangeness.

Even after reading a large number of history books in the Whale Skeleton Library, the richest collection of books in the arcane world, over the past two months, Quinn still knows very little about the third, fifth, and sixth heroes whose lives are shrouded in mystery. To find out more, he would probably have to go to a higher-level forbidden zone.

Judging from the clues in the books, the Third Hero is closely related to the revival of the Phileased Empire, but Quinn has never heard of him being the inventor of the camera before.

"I love the Third Hero's photography style. Even without using a black and white camera with arcane recording, he can still capture full and delicate compositions. His perspective on the world is also unique. This camera retains his tuning. Although finding film and developing photos is troublesome, that's part of the fun."

When the topic turned to photography, Xisa became more talkative, as if sharing her hobby.

"Photography style. Have you seen photos of the Third Hero?" Quinn asked in surprise. "..." Sissa smiled silently, "They're not found in the Southern Continent. But perhaps a few are still kept in the homes of some nostalgic old people in the Empire."

If Quinn weren't about to leave this world at the end of the day, he might have asked more questions like "Where can I find it?" But at this moment, he simply nodded slightly, maintaining his persona as an academy teacher.

"So you're here today to photograph the exhibits?" Quinn chose to exchange a couple more polite words before ending the conversation. He needed to give Celia her final piano lesson and didn't want to waste time here.

"No, I have no interest in these boring products of capitalist development. What I want to photograph is her."

Sissa adopted a solemn, pilgrimage-like expression, pointing to the official with the woman that Quinn and Celia had seen earlier at the museum entrance, "I bet that woman wasn't wearing—"

"Stop, stop, stop."

Seeing that things were about to turn completely yellow, Quinn quickly patted Celia on the shoulder.

"Go get me a glass of water."

"Oh." The girl nodded obediently, looked around, and walked toward the nearest staff member.

“Mr. Sysa, I respect your sexual preferences, but please be mindful of the impact, as my student is still a minor.”

"Students?" Sissa raised an eyebrow, then looked apologetic. "Sorry, I thought you two were a couple. After all, there was a certain atmosphere between you two, and I rarely misjudge people."

“My photography is not a sexual fetish. I can’t reform that woman now because she’s enjoying the benefits her sugar daddy brings her. I’m going to use the photos to blackmail that official into breaking up with her. Nobody wants to have a photo of themselves walking around with a prostitute in the newspaper. That way, I’ll have a chance to persuade her to leave the profession.”

Xisa spoke with great conviction.

"What good will it do you to do these things?" Quinn asked疑惑地. "Is it a divine duty bestowed upon you by the sacred tree?"

According to the doctrines of the Sacred Tree Cult, every person is given a mission by the World Tree from birth. They advocate that everyone should have their own role in the world, and that major events such as birth, education, work, and marriage must be in accordance with the 'arrangement' of the law.

The clergy of the sacred tree call this their "calling".

However, Sissa is not a clergyman of the Holy Tree Church, but rather a 'secret messenger' in the war order.

“My calling hasn’t even begun yet,” Sissa said as if it were something trivial. “That’s too difficult. I might give up in the end. As for persuading prostitutes to reform themselves… well, that’s just my hobby.”

"I won't say much more. This month has only just begun, and I have to work hard. If you're interested, I'll be going to the Eye of Grindelwald tonight to see the Arcane Festival performance, and we can chat then."

He waved to Quinn and disappeared into the bustling crowd.

Quinn frowned slightly. What did he mean by 'this month has only just begun, we must work hard'? It sounded like he was trying to meet KPIs. Was the work of the Holy Tree Cult really that strange?

He couldn't help but wonder if this guy also had a system in his head, where he could accumulate a certain number of acts of persuading prostitutes to reform themselves, and then exchange them for some kind of reward.
Has he left?

Celia returned with two glasses of water, one of which was intended for Sissa.

"He's off on a mission, trying his best to stay alive."

Quinn took the water glass with a sigh, took a sip, and then his gaze fell on the slightly steaming water.

It's warm water.

“Mr. Quinn, is it too hot?” Celia looked down at her toes somewhat embarrassedly. “I’m so sorry, I’m not very good at heating magic yet, but there’s no hot water in the museum. They only gave it to me because I’m Grindelwald’s student.”

"No, I was thinking about the first time we met."

Oh, at the bookstore!

Celia's gaze suddenly drifted for a moment, sweeping over Quinn's lower body, before she withdrew it slightly, her pretty face flushed.

"You brought me a glass of lemonade back then, and it was warm."

Aside from drinking tea, Quinn had never seen anyone in Ashwell City who had the habit of drinking warm water, which reminded him of his hometown—one of the ways to distinguish Chinese people from other Asians was whether they drank warm water.

“It’s just my family’s habit, haha,” Celia seemed unwilling to dwell on the matter, pulling Quinn towards the next booth. “Let’s go check out the airship exhibit; they seem to have cannons mounted on airships there—”

Although the purpose of coming to the museum was to use the piano in the museum.

But Celia still dragged Quinn along, and they strolled around the museum’s various exhibits for almost two hours, like on a date. Quinn was strangely familiar with this kind of thing where someone used practicing piano as an excuse to actually forget about the piano, but he let Celia wander around.

He could tell the girl wasn't in a good mood, and since he had nothing else to do that afternoon, he accompanied Celia for a stroll.

Textile table, glass furnace, giant wing of airship, difference engine, animal and plant specimens used for cosmetics, design drawings for a horse-drawn carriage meter.
If you look at it from the perspective of someone about to leave, it feels quite like sightseeing; these traces of otherworldly civilization are quite interesting.

It wasn't until the museum closed for maintenance at noon that the two of them came to the second floor of the museum. They had been chatting on the large terrace there the night before, and there was a piano not far behind the terrace.

It couldn't compare to the one in the academy; it was from a defunct musical instrument company called Axwell, and was displayed as an exhibit, but it was still usable. Quinn didn't expect that as soon as he entered the room where the pianos were displayed, he would hear a fairly smooth piece of music.

And, the familiar melody.

His eyes suddenly trembled, and Celia stopped at the door of the cubicle as well.

This is the melody of "Dreaming of Home and Mother" by American composer Ordway.

In China, it was given a more well-known name by the lyricist Li Shutong.

"farewell".

(End of this chapter)