Star Forge Titan

Then he paused, turned his head at a rather provocative 45-degree angle, and glanced up and down at Catherine, who was sitting on the chair with her legs crossed.

It must be admitted that this Duchess, who has just reached adulthood, does have the vitality and graceful figure unique to young girls. She is the kind of beautiful girl who can inspire the courage of young troubadours to challenge climbing the vines on the outer wall of the castle with her bare hands.

"Ha~!?!" Catherine gritted her teeth, feeling that the other party was deliberately provoking her, but in order to prevent the topic from being controlled by the annoying black-haired man in front of her, she forced herself to suppress the dissatisfaction in her heart.

At this moment, the meteorite soaked in the potion suddenly emitted a strong magical reaction, the intensity of which was as if more than a dozen high-level magic gems were activated at the same time.

Catherine instinctively wanted to activate the defensive spell on the ornament, but she saw that Ivan stood motionless in the face of this strong magical reaction, just raised his hand above the beaker, and then pressed down!

It was clearly a magical reaction stimulated by the material, but under the cover of a certain dark golden light visible to the naked eye, this magical reaction was forcibly suppressed. The magical pressure emanating from the black-haired boy was like a heavy hammer hitting an anvil, powerfully slowing down the intensified magical reaction to a normal level.

"What did you do?" Catherine asked incredulously.

"Alchemy." Alvin calmly continued to process the materials in his hands.

Before he went to chop off the Earl's head last night, he had already found time to process the Phoenix Feather, successfully turning it into the highest-grade Burning Ash. Then, when the midday sun shone brightest, he planned to use a method that combined modern optical theory to produce high-purity Skyfire Light.

By the way, when Khayon came back last night and sorted out the spoils, he coincidentally discovered a natural ruby ​​that could focus the light passing through it to an extremely high degree. If it is used in the preparation of the Light of Heavenly Fire, perhaps the purity can be further improved.

Can alchemy do such a thing?

Catherine thought uncertainly, and at the same time she raised her hand and gestured, indicating that she could still control the situation and told the other agents on guard outside not to take action immediately.

This was definitely not something that current alchemy could achieve. Ivan had just used a very rough method to directly activate the magic stored within the Falling Star - Luciferna.

Normal alchemists would often use more gentle traditional methods, but he was unwilling to wait that long, so he relied on the player's unconventional method. While purifying the materials, he forcibly activated the powerful magic contained in them, and then forcibly suppressed it with his own magical pressure.

Considering the high risk of this operation, only fearless players can afford the high cost of trial and error to figure out this efficient and dangerous activation method.

Gradually, the medicine in the flask turned into white water vapor and rose up and disappeared, and the volume of the meteorite continued to shrink. The stripped impurities were mixed in the evaporating medicine and were pulled into another bottle by the extraction tube connected to the mouth of the flask.

In the end, all that was left of the meteorite was a light golden square with a faint metallic luster.

"Heavenly metal? And it contains high-purity void essence. This result is really a bit surprising." Picking up the small piece of metal with tweezers, Ivan said with a little surprise:

This may be why the discoverers and collectors called this meteorite "Luciferna".

This name means the first ray of light in the morning in ancient language, and also symbolizes hope, beauty and light.

As for the prefix "Falling Star," it likely stems from the fact that this meteorite originated from the heavens. After all, so-called celestial metals are actually special metallic minerals from the upper planes, while "void essence" is the highly concentrated magic power contained within the interlayer between different planes.

Unfortunately, he is only at the first level now and cannot perceive the various concepts contained therein, otherwise he would be able to deduce its origin more accurately.

"Wait, is this the time to leisurely conduct alchemy experiments?" Catherine's tone became increasingly unfriendly.

"You're a suspect in a serious case! I'm here to take you back to the police station for interrogation!"

"Don't worry, there's no need to go to the police station, and there's no need to rush to find the murderer. Just ask and find out that it was done by an unknown fake cultist." Ivan's simple and rude answer stunned Catherine.

"By the way, can you lend me a place to hold the promotion ceremony later? Considering confidentiality, a place like the seals below the National Library would be very suitable." Ignoring the stunned look on the other person's face, Ivan continued in a familiar manner:

Hearing his request, Catherine laughed in anger:

"You killed my cardinal minister in my own country, and you want me to help you find a place for promotion?"

"Hey? Isn't Emperor Lind Conrad?" As if he didn't hear the anger in the other party's words, Alvin's attention was focused on another place.

"Hey, since you know he is the emperor, why are you still calling him so casually!!!" Catherine's face darkened and she forced the topic to change to another direction.

"I'm sorry, I know he's the emperor, but it's hard to be serious when facing such a king." Ivan spread his hands and said innocently:

Hearing his answer, all kinds of embarrassing memories about her brother automatically popped up in Catherine's mind. In the end, she had no choice but to raise her hand and slap her forehead, revealing a headache and helpless expression.

"... Damn it, this isn't really your problem."

"About the murder case you mentioned earlier." Alvin put down the purified heavenly metal in his hand and turned to walk towards Catherine.

Even with the disguise of a diplomat's ring, he was still very tall, and his handsome face became more mature with age. The Duchess, who was being looked down upon, subconsciously held her breath for a moment.

Suddenly, Alvin stretched out his arm to her, and at the same time, the distance between them quickly closed. The latter was frightened by this sudden movement and almost fell off the chair. The strange twin ponytails combed into a drill shape almost exploded upwards.

But in reality, the black-haired boy simply reached out and took a document from the table behind the young Duchess.

With a bang, the document was thrown into the arms of Catherine, who was completely stiff.

"Look, your Minister of Agriculture deserves to be put to death."

Hearing the implicit meaning in his words, Catherine quickly put away the other messy thoughts in her mind, blushed, lowered her head and quickly read the contents of the document.

Before long, the expression on the Duchess's face changed again and again, and finally she slammed her palm hard on the laboratory table beside her.

As the glassware bounced and made various crisp noises, Ivan also heard Catherine's angry growl:

"How dare he!?!"

Chapter 184 Concentrated Light

Just as Ivan had said before, after further revealing the twisted souls left by the cultists, he acted like a cold-blooded murderer, bursting into a cardinal's home in the middle of the night and brutally beheading him...

Well, this summary made a model student like him feel really bad, as if he had let down the teachings of his teachers and family.

But having said that, Catherine, who appeared here as an official representative, did have to say thank you to him.

Otherwise, according to Count Jim's plan, or more precisely, the distorted political conspiracy influenced by the Whisperers' followers, the entire Lind might be involved in a man-made disaster as serious as a natural disaster.

"Relax, no matter what, his plan can no longer be realized." Ivan comforted the furious Catherine:

The blond, diamond-haired Duchess was both irritated and worried about this. She was angry at politicians for putting their own interests above the common interests of the country and citizens, and she was also worried about the increasingly serious problem of cultists.

However, she took a deep breath, and the second button of her uniform bore a pressure that was not anticipated when it was first designed. Then Catherine nodded solemnly to Ivan.

"Thank you for your action, although it makes you look even more suspicious." As she spoke, she glanced at the material that had just been refined, which was originally a meteorite.

Although it sounds incredible, Catherine couldn't help but feel absurd when she thought that Earl Jim and the Whisperer believers, who were very hidden conspirators, were actually visited by complete strangers because of a meteorite collection that was not excessive in their private hobby, which led to the destruction of the entire conspiracy that had been planned for a long time.

"This is really sad. I just want to learn something new." Ivan spread his hands and said innocently:

"Hmph, I hope you're as innocent as you say." The Duchess snorted and didn't continue to dwell on the issue.

It was hard for Catherine to continue to believe that the other party was just an ordinary young alchemist, but due to the conflict of interests, the alliance between the two parties would obviously need to be maintained for quite some time, so there was no need to point this out immediately.

So, after saying goodbye to Ivan, Catherine hurriedly led the team back to the city of Lutetia.

A certain ruthless 'Knight Errant' killed people easily and happily, but she was the one who had to deal with all the subsequent tedious matters.

Damn it, this familiar feeling of helping others clean up their troubles...

Catherine's forehead veins bulged, and she felt increasingly unhappy and irritated. She was clearly just an adult, but at this moment, she felt as if she were experiencing the emotions of a middle-aged woman going through menopause.

"Your Highness, are you just going to pretend nothing happened?" Togusa, who was standing next to him and looked exhausted after working late at night, couldn't help but ask.

Although they are both sheriffs in the Special Response Department for Extraordinary Crimes, and they do not have a superior-subordinate relationship in terms of their duties, the other party is a duchess after all, and her work ability is extremely excellent.

Therefore, all the other sheriffs in Section 9, except for the section chief, Ms. Scarlett Jost, could not help but regard this young female sheriff as the core of the team.

"What else? And don't call me Your Highness." Catherine asked angrily.

"Have you forgotten what you saw at the scene? More than twelve elite guards who had been promoted to Transcendents were knocked down, including a second-level one. In addition, nearly a hundred ordinary guards fell into a coma for unknown reasons."

"Don't forget, that's a defensive force used to protect cardinal ministers. I still don't understand how that guy got in." A trace of worry flashed in the Duchess's eyes.

"Besides, Earl Jim himself is a renowned swordsman."

Upon hearing this, the dissatisfaction on the faces of the other sheriffs and detectives immediately disappeared as quickly as snow in the sun.

When they came to their senses, they even felt sweat in their palms, finally realizing that they had just brushed past some extremely dangerous beings.

"Wait, he said last time that he was collecting materials for promotion, and he also mentioned that he needed a venue to hold the ceremony." Catherine was suddenly startled.

If such a formidable individual were to continue ascending, what rank of Transcendent would he become? Third rank? Could it be fourth rank?! Damn it, that would be a superior being capable of single-handedly taking on an entire army.

Cold sweat rolled down the Duchess's temples, and she couldn't help but look back at the inconspicuous alchemy workshop.

I hope my choice is not wrong...

At this moment, seeing off the blonde lady with a diamond head who came to the door with a banner (big mistake), Ivan couldn't help but stretch and focus his attention again on the heavenly metal he had just refined.

The material itself does not affect the promotion ceremony. After experiencing high temperatures and the natural disasters that followed, the meteorite has fully met the definition of the formation of "Ashes of Destruction". What he is doing now is nothing more than removing the impurities that are not needed for the ceremony.

But what was left after refining the meteorite was actually celestial metal, which made Alvin curious about its true origin.

You should know that the metal block in front of you is not the original metal ore, but a metal sheet that has been forged and purified. For example, the difference between the two is equivalent to that between iron ore and armor parts made of steel.

A mixed meteorite composed of refined celestial metal and other substances that is so large that it can cause an explosion when crossing the boundary, then its origin may even be directly from a distant foreign battlefield, and only there will be war waste of this scale.

"Forget it, it has nothing to do with me." Alvin smiled and suppressed the thoughts that were running away in his mind.

Next, what he had to do was to prepare the last material needed for the Ash Knight's promotion ceremony - the Light of Heavenly Fire.

There were still a few hours until noon, and Alvin, still energetic after staying up all night, immediately began to mobilize the power of [Core: Reshaping the World]. He first constructed a sturdy metal frame in the courtyard, and then based on it, he built a large composite lens group that was fifteen meters high and looked like a glass tower.

Lenses are superimposed on each other and combined to gather sunlight from a larger range towards one point. Although the sun has not yet risen to the center and the light intensity has not reached the strongest time of the day, the gathered sunlight has still turned into a bright white light.

According to the description in ancient documents, this can be called the light of heavenly fire, but Alvin was obviously not satisfied with this ordinary purity.

As for the Necromancer who had just woken up from his nap and saw this scene through the window, he immediately jumped up from the bed as if he had been electrocuted.

With his hair as messy as a bird's nest, Khayang slammed the rear window shut with an agile movement that was totally unlike that of a mage, and then piled all kinds of things that could block the transmission of light into the window. At the same time, he tried his best to suppress the activity of the negative energy magic in his body, so as not to be set on fire (literally) by someone while he was dazed like last time!

The hairy druid, who was also catching up on his sleep in the attic, only felt a sense of comfort. The positive energy from the sunlight, which was gathering in increasing concentration, dissipated outward, allowing him, a profession so close to the natural environment, to adapt to the environment and even sleep more soundly than usual.

Without having time to care about what the other two guys were doing, Alvin carefully controlled the high-temperature resistant alloy prepared in advance to create a large disc-shaped reflector.

If the multiple lenses completed the initial focusing, this reflector, similar to the solar cooker of the past, could further focus the light already focused by the multiple lenses. Furthermore, in the true center of this reflector was a small base, seemingly capable of housing some small components.

After obtaining the ruby ​​suitable for focusing light, Alvin did not intend to stop after producing high-purity heavenly fire light similar to flames. He decided to further improve the purity of the heavenly fire light to reach the same specifications as the other two materials.

Relying on the scientific knowledge from his previous life, although he didn't know how the ancients prepared this material, after the last experiment, Alvin had confirmed that his method was indeed highly feasible.

By the time he finished all his preparations, the sun had gradually risen to the center of the sky.

At this moment, the sunlight, which has been focused twice by the lens and reflector, has gathered into a ball of bright white light that fluctuates rapidly like a flame at the focus point.

Relying on the energy control of the [Reshaping the World] talent and the magic resistance provided by the invisible scales, Ivan was not afraid of the "flame" in front of him, which was essentially a high concentration of photochemical positive energy, like Khayon. Instead, he felt a warm feeling as if he was soaking in hot water.

However, what I am going to do next may be a little dangerous.

For safety reasons, Alvin put on a layer of high-temperature protective clothing made of rock.

After adjusting the position of the lens and reflector again and confirming that the light could be focused at the most appropriate angle and distance, he carefully took out a ruby ​​no bigger than two knuckles from his pocket.

In the sunlight, this gem, carefully polished by a skilled craftsman, appears exceptionally magnificent.

But the black-haired boy wearing armor made of rock did not care about the beauty of the gem. He shielded his eyes with his left hand, and with his right hand, he held the long-handled pliers made of high-temperature resistant alloy, clamped the ruby ​​and placed it on the base in the center of the reflector.

When the ruby ​​was stuck on the base and completed the third round of focusing, the light of the heavenly fire, which originally appeared as a white flame, suddenly went out for a moment.

Immediately afterwards, a strong white light radiated in all directions. Alvin felt his vision being temporarily deprived, and the hand holding the long-handled pliers also felt lighter.

The long-handled pliers made of high-temperature resistant alloy melted quickly like icing sugar dropped into hot water. The tower made of glass lenses and the metal frame supporting the tower also softened and collapsed with a sharp creaking sound.

Even the dish-shaped reflector, which was also made of a heat-resistant alloy, turned into a ball of softened scrap iron emitting a dark red light at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The thermal insulation protective suit made of rock on Ivan's body was also undergoing a melting reaction, and the outermost layer had begun to become similar to lava.

You know, in most cases, the melting point of stone is much higher than that of ordinary metal!

But he did not retreat. Instead, he continued to stand there in the high temperature.

Not long after, the temperature and strong light in the air suddenly shrank back to one point at the same time.

When everything calmed down and the bright light was no longer blinding, Alvin finally slowly opened his eyes and looked towards the place where the light was originally focused.

The collapsed lens shattered into pieces all over the ground, and everywhere was liquid glass that had melted into dark red. The metal frames and reflectors also became strange shapes due to the high temperature. Even the wooden structure on the surface of the alchemy workshop in the distance had faint traces of burning.

From the attic could still be heard the painful screams of a hairy druid whose hair was burnt by the sun, and the gloating laughter of a necromancer who had taken precautions in advance and therefore did not suffer much damage.

And in the messy courtyard, a ruby ​​lay quietly.

No, it should not be called a ruby ​​now, because the color of this crystal has completely turned into a transparent color like diamond. Although it still looks red, that is not the color of the gem itself.

Unlike its previous crystal clear appearance in the sunlight, the 'ruby' now radiates bursts of light from the inside out. The source of this light is a ray of golden-red light that converges in the center of the gem and seems to be substantial. This makes the ruby ​​seem to be breathing and spreads a flickering red light around it.

How did it become... solid?

The unexpected result made Alvin, the instigator, stand still, and the container he had prepared was completely useless.

"What the hell did I end up doing?"

Chapter 185: Overflowing Magic

"Isn't that a bit too exaggerated?"

Looking at the three main ingredients in front of him, Alvin, who was sitting at the table with his chin supported, couldn't help but look pensive.