The most shameless alchemist in history

"Are you ever going to stop? You've been talking about your hometown for hours, and I haven't gotten any clues. Just tell me directly, what am I doing here? And who told you to wait here?" Du Lei was practically going crazy.

He waited for the guy to squat on the ground for two or three hours. Finally, he got his turn to speak, but the guy started talking about his hometown, from civilization to food, and then to his neighbors. He talked for three or four hours and still didn't finish, without even taking a sip of water!

"I'm waiting here for an adventurer to arrive, for he can save my ruined home and vanquish the evil monsters." The bearded man spoke for a long time, then seemed to have returned to the distant point, which almost drove Dure to the brink of collapse.

"I know you're waiting for adventurers or something, I've heard you say that eight hundred times... Wait, what did you say? Evil monsters?" In his moment of despair, Du Lei finally caught something new and immediately became interested in asking.

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298 Mine entrance

Ever since Du Lei arrived at this ruin located in the scorching yellow sand, there has been something strange about this place. The first strange thing is the weather. The place where he was originally, Maple Leaf Academy, should be in early spring, although it was indeed unusually sunny when he went out in the morning.

Even on a sunny day, it was certainly not the scorching sun he had experienced. While this could be explained by the environment simulated by magic, the behavior of the only person he encountered in the ruins—the stubble-bearded man with a headscarf—could not be explained by common sense.

He first lay motionless on the ground, while Du Lei waited for more than two hours, getting unbearably hot from the sun. He was still lying there, seemingly listening to something. Then, he finally managed to talk to Du Lei, but they talked about his hometown for hours on end.

Durek had never met such a talkative person before. He talked from day to night until Durek could no longer bear it. Finally, the eloquent uncle, who didn't even take a sip of water, stopped and told him some information that was of a tiny bit of value.

"Oh, right, it's an evil monster. Adventurer, you've come here to eliminate monsters too?" The middle-aged man with a full beard put on a look of sudden realization, which made Du Lei want to give him a good beating. He was so angry that he could kill him.

"So where exactly is this evil monster you're talking about? You've been rambling on for so long before finally getting to the point. Why didn't you say that from the beginning?" Du Lei was about to lose his temper. He was already considered a very patient person, but this middle-aged man was a real slow-paced killer.

"Shh." The middle-aged man made a shushing gesture again, just as he had when he first met Du Lei.

"Why are you here again? After all this time, you've come full circle? My patience has reached its limit. To get the information, I'm not afraid to take necessary measures..." Du Lei had no time to waste with him any longer and was determined to teach this chatterbox a lesson.

“It’s underground.” The middle-aged man pointed to the ground beneath his feet, causing Du Lei to abruptly retract his outstretched fist.

"Underground? You mean...underground in these ruins?" Dure noticed that his reaction was different from before, which at least proved that he was not trapped in a strange vicious cycle. This relieved him, and he began to examine the ground.

“That’s right, it’s underground, listen.” The middle-aged man lay down on the ground again, a position he had been doing for two or three hours.

At first, Dure didn't know what he was doing and just thought he was acting crazy, but now it seems that he was listening to the sounds underground.

"Is there...something wriggling underground?" Realizing that something might be underground, Du Lei immediately lay down on the ground and listened carefully to the sounds beneath his feet. His hearing was excellent; the sand, which was scorching hot during the day, became icy cold after nightfall, and its roughness made his face ache.

However, Du Lei didn't care about such things at all. What he cared about was the sound under his feet. After listening carefully for several dozen seconds, he did hear a "rustling" sound of something wriggling under his feet. This made Du Lei's expression turn serious, because his experience told him that the thing underground was not small.

The reason for this conclusion is twofold: firstly, the ground is covered with sand, and beneath the sand lies a layer of minerals. The fact that the noise could still be heard even through these two layers proves that the noise underfoot was very loud; secondly, the middle-aged man had been lying down listening to the noise since the afternoon.

Several hours have passed, but the noise is still going on, which means that the commotion underground is not something that will stop after a while. In fact, the noise is getting louder and louder, which makes Du Lei realize the seriousness of the problem.

"Monsters have destroyed our homes and killed our people. Adventurer, please save us!" the middle-aged man pleaded.

“I’m not an adventurer. I’m just here to complete my level assessment. Speaking of your reaction and your movements… since there are puppet creatures here, and everything here is generated by magic energy… could you be a puppet generated by magic energy as well?” Dure thought of a possibility.

"Monsters destroyed our homes and killed our people. Adventurer, we hope you can save us." The middle-aged man repeated this sentence.

"That's enough. I think I've figured it out. With your face pressed against scorching sand for hours without moving, and with stiff movements and mechanical speech, you're definitely just a puppet generated by magic energy. I waited for you for hours and listened to your nonsense for so long..."

After thinking it over, Du Lei finally figured out the identity of the middle-aged man in front of him. He wasn't a person at all. This was a huge blow to Du Lei because it meant that his previous hours had been wasted. He held his forehead and regretted not realizing it sooner.

"Monsters destroyed our home..." The middle-aged man mechanically repeated that sentence.

"Alright, alright, I understand. I'll come and save you. Who was the bored person who set up this plot? It's so boring. You can get some sleep here. That big guy underground should be the one we need to deal with in this level assessment, the so-called boss."

After realizing that the middle-aged man was not a living person but a puppet created by magic energy, Du Lei punched him, knocking him unconscious. After observation, Du Lei found an entrance to the underground, which was an abandoned mine not far to the right.

"I think this is the entrance to the underground. No matter what kind of monster is underground, I have no choice but to bite the bullet and go for it. Well, it's time to test the results of my special training. I hope you won't disappoint me." Du Lei looked at the dark and deep cave entrance, quickly entered, and soon disappeared.

Meanwhile, in a conference room of a research department within Maple Leaf Academy, different images were displayed on a water screen. These images depicted the tests experienced by students participating in the level assessment, and a man was watching one of them with great interest.

"There are quite a few remarkable individuals among this year's freshmen. In less than a day, many have already completed their level assessments, and so far, the highest level achieved is two-star high-level." A voice came from behind the man.

This was a woman with a voluptuous figure, wearing a long red dress, her red lips as red as blood, appearing especially scarlet in the night.

"It's those two people named Sterling and Bailing, right? Originally, they only needed to reach the mid-level of two stars to complete the test, but they weren't satisfied with that and wanted to take on a higher-level challenge. Under the old rules, they would definitely have to take on the challenge step by step, but this year, an exception was made."

A man dressed in black, with long hair that reached his waist, stood with his back to the woman, looking up at the water screen and speaking slowly and deliberately.

"The reason for making an exception is because of that freak. If it weren't for him, the rules wouldn't have been changed this year. It's a real pity we couldn't get him into Maple Leaf Academy." The woman's words carried a hint of regret.

"With his potential, he wouldn't even bother going to Maple Leaf Academy, would he? But even without his talent, which shines like a star in the night sky, Sterling and the others are no less impressive. They can already be considered geniuses, one in a million, and given time, they will surely achieve great things," the man said with emotion.

“If Sterling could achieve even half of what you have, he would be considered ‘great.’” Women understand men very well.

"Please spare me. I'm not as amazing as you say, otherwise I wouldn't be just an ordinary researcher at Maple Leaf Academy." The man chuckled and shook his head, clearly disagreeing with what the woman said.

“If you wanted, the entire Snow Country would grovel at your feet and tremble. I don’t understand why a man like you would condescend to stay in a place like Maple Leaf Academy.” Even though the woman knew him very well, this was the only choice that puzzled her.

"Those are all old stories, let's not talk about them. Why are you here so late?" The man asked instead of bringing up the previous topic.

"I'm just curious why you're up so late. Whose ranking assessment are you watching? Sterling, Bailing, or Keita?" The woman revealed her purpose and stopped beside the man, looking up at the water screen he was observing.

"Neither. It's a boy named Du Lei," the man replied with a smile.

"Du Lei? I seem to have heard someone mention this name before, but he doesn't seem like a powerful figure. Is he really worth your attention?" The woman was taken aback. She carefully went through her memory, but unfortunately, she didn't have a deep impression of Du Lei.

This, to some extent, also shows that there was nothing about that guy that she should remember.

"Perhaps I saw a familiar shadow in him?" the man gave an ambiguous answer.

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299 I haven't thought of that yet.

ntent

After careful consideration, Du Lei figured out the surrounding environment. Whether it was the characters or anything else, they were all products generated in advance using magic energy. His task was simple: find the puppet creature that served as the boss and defeat it.

He had previously inquired about the level assessment, which involved finding a puppet creature in an open area and engaging in combat with it. However, with the introduction of the new rules, the latest rules have changed to requiring participants to actively search for clues, and the time frame has become longer and more complex.

"I don't know who was so weird as to come up with this kind of level assessment method, which requires going deep into the mine to find the boss's whereabouts. This is really troublesome. I wonder how Lance and the others are doing, whether they are making good progress... Oh well, I should worry about myself."

Du Lei carried the torch forward. Since it was already night, the light was very dim, and there was hardly any light entering the mine. The air was filled with a musty smell, and the surroundings were empty. Only the sound of his footsteps and the sound of his footsteps hitting the gravel could be heard.

"Oh no, there's a fork in the road here. Which way should I go?" After walking for about ten minutes, Du Lei came to a fork in the road with two entrances. Without any signs, he was caught in a dilemma and had to stop to think about the route forward.

“In this situation… this is indeed the only option.” Du Lei lay on the ground and listened carefully. He could hear the noise on the surface, but now that he was underground, the noise was even stronger. He quickly identified the path.

"It's happening over here, and the commotion is getting bigger and bigger. I really don't know what kind of guy we're about to face. Although this isn't the real world, and even if we get injured, we'll have magical energy to protect us, only one-tenth of our normal level, we still need to be careful. At least we need to get past the level assessment."

Du Lei steadied himself and cautiously made his way deeper into the mine. Although it was a bit cold at night, his palms were sweaty. Apart from the sound of his footsteps and the noise coming from the depths of the mine, he could even hear his own breathing and heartbeat.

This situation lasted for more than ten minutes. He could clearly sense a powerful magical energy fluctuation coming from ahead, and he was indeed ready to make a move.

"Is it just ahead? I can sense it, it's on the other side of this wall. So, let me see what kind of creature is hiding in the deepest part!" Du Lei took a deep breath and immediately lunged towards the corner of the cave, trying to catch his opponent off guard!

Meanwhile, inside a secluded two-story building somewhere in the academy, someone was watching the water screen display. The academy didn't have many forms of entertainment, and the annual freshman level assessment was one of them, as it was broadcast live and everyone in the academy could watch it.

Even though it's nighttime, people are still paying close attention to the progress of the assessments, anxiously watching how far their favorite students' assessments have gone.

"How could Dure be so stupid? He wasted so much time talking to a puppet. This guy is obviously just a messenger. He has no presence at all. He actually waited there for hours. I even took a nap this afternoon and he was still waiting."

Nono, who was watching Du Lei's progress from inside the small building, cursed as she watched, clearly intending to express her anger at his lack of ambition.

"Huh? Is that man a puppet? I thought he was a real human. I was just feeling sorry for him." Muna, who was next to Nono, was surprised. Before Nono told her the answer, she hadn't realized that the middle-aged man wasn't a living person.

"Muna, you're so adorably silly. I don't know who changed the rules for this ranking assessment, it's such a mess. It was never this complicated when I participated in ranking assessments before," Nono complained. She was on the side of the opposition to the rule change.

"But that person... is Dure really alright?" Muna had also dealt with Dure before. Although she wasn't very familiar with him, she had heard Nuonuo talk about him all the time, so it was hard for her not to know him.

“No problem. Although his magical power doesn’t reach the standard of mid-level eight stars, he has crossed the threshold of alchemy.” Nono affirmed this point.

"Alchemy? Like... my sister's man?" Muna didn't know much about alchemy, but she remembered that the man her sister admired was an alchemist. Thinking of this, she frowned. She didn't have a good impression of alchemists.

“Muna, I know you have a prejudice against alchemists, but that guy Dure… he’s just a half-baked alchemist, he’s no good.” Nono saw Muna’s dislike for alchemists and quickly waved her hand.

“I understand, but what can an alchemist do?” Muna knew that the alchemist was different before, so she shook her head to indicate that she didn’t care too much about it. She still couldn’t understand why Nono would say that Dure would get through by being an alchemist.

"Because alchemists are a very magical profession, they can always do things that seem impossible very quickly. For example, Dure's magic power is extremely scarce, which makes it impossible to convert it into usable magical energy. This can be remedied by alchemists," Nono explained with a smile.

"Make amends? How exactly can we make amends?" Although Muna was not an alchemist, she knew the relationship between magic and magical energy. She also knew that Dure's crystal bottle had a natural flaw of cracks. Without overcoming this flaw, all the fancy tricks were meaningless.

"Actually, the answer is very simple; all you need is a crystal bottle," Nono said mysteriously.

"Crystal bottle?" Muna was confused for a moment about what Nono meant.

“It’s not the crystal bottle inside his body, but the crystal bottle that stores magical energy. It’s true that the crystal bottle inside his body is cracked. The so-called crack means that it cannot store a large amount of magical elements. Without magical elements, it cannot be converted into magical energy, which is the most fatal point.” Nono understood Durei’s predicament.

"But if you have a crystal bottle, that's a different story. You just need to use the magic energy stored in the crystal bottle when you need to use magic energy, which can replace the crystal bottle in your body to a certain extent, thus overcoming the problem of crystal bottle leakage in a short time," Nono explained in detail.

“But… isn’t using external tools cheating?” Muna questioned this point.

She knew that during the level assessment, even foreign weapons were not allowed, let alone something like a crystal bottle.

“What might be considered cheating by others isn’t necessarily cheating by him, because he’s an alchemist, and crystal bottles are originally made by alchemists. He just needs to make the crystal bottle himself in the ranking assessment venue, and that won’t be considered cheating,” Nono said enthusiastically.

"But... Nono, didn't you just say he was a half-baked alchemist? How could a half-baked alchemist know how to make crystal bottles? And crystal bottles are very precious things; only high-level alchemists can make them, right?" Even though Muna was a layman, she still knew some basic common sense.

"Huh? This...this..." Nono was speechless for a moment.

"What's wrong?" Muna asked, puzzled by her reaction.

"I don't think I thought of that..." Nono said shyly.

This book comes from

Does 300 make you look old?

Du Lei went through so much trouble to get to the depths of the mine, all for the purpose of defeating the behemoth hiding there, so that he could pass the level assessment and resolve the crisis of being expelled from the academy due to his long-term absences. In fact, his actions before this could be described as smooth.

However, when he arrived at a place just one wall away from the monster that was making the loud noise underground, he was ready to rush around the corner and confront it head-on. But at that moment, a shadow suddenly rushed towards him from directly in front of him. The shadow was very fast.

He kicked Dure, sending him flying back into the mine shaft where he had been. This surprised and angered Dure, because he clearly saw that what had knocked him down was not some hideous monster, but a person, a man with a full beard.

"What are you doing? You're just a puppet, how dare you disrupt my plans? I haven't even settled the score with you for wasting my time before!" Du Lei recognized the man who kicked him as the middle-aged man he had encountered on the ground, and he cursed angrily.

Normally, Dure wouldn't be this angry, but firstly, he had indeed suffered a loss before, and his anger hadn't completely dissipated; secondly, the person he was communicating with wasn't a living person, but a puppet created by magic energy, which made it impossible to deal with him in the usual way.

"What puppet? What do you mean by wasting time? Hey buddy, what are you talking about?" The other person scratched his head, looking somewhat confused.

"What I say is none of your business. I have important business to attend to now, to avenge your so-called compatriots and restore your homeland. So don't interfere with my actions, or I won't hesitate to beat you up again." Du Lei recalled the middle-aged man's incessant chatter that afternoon and was furious.

“Fellow countrymen…homeland…oh, I see, so you’re an NPC here. Have the NPCs leveled up again? You even know how to fight monsters now.” The middle-aged man scrutinized Du Lei from head to toe and came to a conclusion.

"Huh? NC? What NC? What kind of nonsense are you spouting?" Du Lei, whose good time had already been interrupted and whose mood was already not very good, was completely stunned. He couldn't understand what the other person was talking about at all. Their conversation was completely nonsensical.

"People like you, who are generated from magical energy, are just 'nc' (idiots). What's the point of me explaining to an 'nc' like you? It's pointless to talk to you no matter how much I say." After explaining what "nc" meant, the other person shook their head, not intending to continue the conversation with Durei.

"How did I become someone generated by magic energy? Shouldn't it be you? We just met a moment ago, and you went on and on for the whole afternoon. It hasn't been long, and you're already turning your back on me?" Du Lei was furious. This was clearly a case of the pot calling the kettle black!