Chapter 127: “World Conduit”
Abyss saw a shift in Lannis’s demeanor.
Her eyes, initially wild and filled with the thrill of explosions, mirroring her reputation as a crazed explosives expert, now held a flicker of nostalgia, a hint of joy, even a touch of nervousness. Hope had rekindled the spark in her once-clouded gaze.
Lannis wasn’t truly mad. She had simply been masking her pain, her loneliness, with a facade of madness. Losing Rebecca must have been devastating for her.
“May I enter now?” Abyss asked, smiling gently.
“Yes… No! Wait!” Lannis exclaimed, about to agree, then abruptly changed her mind. She frantically rummaged through her collection of bottles and vials, spraying and splashing potions, triggering reactions with unseen objects within the basement. Small explosions and crackling sounds filled the air as smoke billowed around her small frame, her movements agile as she navigated the cluttered space.
After a few minutes of frantic activity, she stood before Abyss, panting. “Alright, you damned necromancer, I’ve disabled all the traps. Get in here!”
Abyss calmly pushed open the stone door, now loosened by the explosions, and entered the basement. He casually chanted a spell, a gust of wind dispelling the smoke.
Bright magical lamps illuminated the basement walls, revealing a large cage in the center of the room. Inside the cage sat a machine, over two meters tall, resembling a rectangular loaf of bread, its surface smooth gray metal, devoid of any markings or seams. A single hole in the center, with a spout for liquid to flow out, and a circular plate beside it, embedded with magic crystals, hinted at its function. It seemed simple enough: pour magic into the plate, and free alchemical solvent would flow from the hole.
“Behold! Miss Rebecca’s masterpiece! I call it the Spatiotemporal Solvent Machine, but Miss Rebecca called it the ‘World Conduit’,” Lannis said proudly, gesturing towards the seemingly ordinary machine. “The concept was initially mentioned in Baron Bottel Viper’s notes. He described a machine that could produce alchemical solvents automatically, but he also stated that such a machine didn’t exist in this world. It came from a place called ‘xitong(System).’ No one understood what that meant, but Miss Rebecca, with her genius intellect and Baron Bottel’s descriptions, created this unparalleled machine! I assisted in its construction, but the core components were all her work.”
“May I activate it?” Abyss asked, his eyes gleaming with curiosity, as he observed the machine.
“You can, but I’d rather you didn’t,” Lannis said, shaking her head. “Because its lifespan is nearing its end.”
“Lifespan? Doesn’t it simply transport matter from another world?” Abyss asked, looking at her, puzzled. “Or is there… an irreplaceable component?”
“Hehe, you guessed it. There is an irreplaceable core component—a special magic crystal,” Lannis said, walking towards the cage and gently tapping the machine’s outer shell. “I recently discovered a fragment of Miss Rebecca’s notes. I was about to burn it, but it mentioned this machine, forcing me to act. According to her calculations, if this machine continues to operate, the magic crystal at its core will shatter, within a few days at best, next year at worst.”
“Let me guess, ever since the Goat Eyes Gang acquired this machine, they’ve been using it non-stop to produce solvents, haven’t they?”
“Ha! Those money-grubbing fools! And the idiotic alchemists who serve them!” Lannis cackled, her laughter grating. “I couldn’t allow that crystal to shatter. After numerous experiments, I discovered there’s no substitute for it! It utilizes a unique mechanism to connect this world to another. It’s the only way to find Miss Rebecca! So, I took on a little job—oh, the one who hired me is now a charcoal briquette—and infiltrated the Goat Eyes Gang’s territory, giving them a taste of their own medicine. I blew up all their potion warehouses, not leaving a single bottle intact.”
Lannis then recounted the events that followed, much to Abyss’s amusement. Eugene, the notoriously stingy leader of the Goat Eyes Gang, was predictably furious. He led his men to capture Lannis, who was waiting patiently outside her house, and imprisoned her in his factory, demanding she produce ten times the amount of potions she had destroyed, or face death. He was unaware that the magical machine he had acquired from an auction was Lannis’s mistress’s creation, and that Lannis had orchestrated this entire scenario to infiltrate his factory and retrieve the crystal.
“I’ve been trying to figure out how to break open the machine’s casing and retrieve the crystal, so I can escape and study it at my leisure, hoping to find a way to recover Miss Rebecca’s body. I had it all planned out. I even bought a small manor in the Western Empire. Those Westerners hate gangs. Eugene’s reach doesn’t extend that far. He’ll never find me,” Lannis said, chuckling. “I can imagine his frustration. Boom! Hahahaha!”
“By the way… Why did you burn all of Rebecca’s notes?” Abyss asked, curious.
“Oh, you inquisitive little brat!” Lannis said, wagging her finger at him. “If you’re truly capable of resurrecting Miss Rebecca, why don’t you ask her yourself?”
“Ah, that’s true,” Abyss said, scratching his head.
“So? Are you going to help me move this machine?” Lannis asked, patting the cage. “I can easily open it, but I’ll need your undead servants to carry it—and you’ll have to figure out a way to avoid detection.”
“No, that’s too troublesome,” Abyss said, shaking his head. “We’ll dismantle it right here. I have a more efficient and less destructive method than explosions. Look.”
He extended his hand, and a bony gauntlet materialized, covering his entire hand. Sharp bone spikes protruded from each fingertip.
“Ha, you necromancers always have your tricks,” Lannis said, chuckling after a moment of surprise, revealing her tobacco-stained teeth.
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