Mechanical Alchemist

Chapter 8: Statue, altar, offering

Saying goodbye to a friend that he had only known for a few hours, but would probably never see again, Su'en felt a bit down.

The surroundings suddenly changed from the luxurious mansion to ruins.

"Is this... the remains of the mansion from before?"

Although everything inside the house had decayed, from the intact framework of the house, it was the mansion where he had stayed before.

The banquet hall, the corridors, the study... the layout was all familiar.

"It must have taken hundreds of years for it to decay like this..."

Su'en found it unbelievable.

He thought he was mentally prepared, but seeing the scene of destruction in front of him, he still couldn't fully process it.

Could it be that the previous mansion was an illusion, and Pestoya and the others he encountered were also illusions?

But when he looked down, he saw that he was holding a wooden box, the same one that contained the "rune doll".

And on his chest, he was wearing the butterfly brooch adorned with a black gem.

"The items are real..."

Su'en touched the box in his hand, feeling like he had woken up from a dream and brought something from the dream into reality.

"Could it be that the brightly lit mansion just now was like a special space, like a game instance?"

Su'en looked around but couldn't figure it out.

His knowledge of this world was too limited, and many questions couldn't be understood just by thinking.

However, now he was faced with another question: where should he go from here?

And the first thing that came to his mind was the information on his retina.

"The original owner came here to find something called 'Sir Isaac's relic'..."

With some free time, Su'en finally had the opportunity to carefully read the obscure and difficult-to-understand information on his retina. He also realized that the "treasure" the original owner was looking for seemed to be quite extraordinary.

Coincidentally, he was also very interested in that "transcendent ability".

After some thought, Su'en decided to go and take a look. He speculated that there shouldn't be any other dangers in this mansion. If there were, Pestoya would probably be the biggest boss.

...

Based on his memory, Su'en found the banquet hall of the mansion.

Then, counting from his left, he found the seventh room.

The door of the room had completely decayed, and there were spider webs everywhere, giving it a gloomy appearance. But the structure of the room was still stable, except for the peeling paint on the walls, it could still be recognized as a storage room.

Su'en cautiously walked in, and besides occasionally hearing the squeaking of mice, there were no terrifying monsters that would appear in horror movies.

He took in the sight of the furnishings in the room and saw the hexagonal lamp on the wall.

Finding the correct lamp, he turned it clockwise, and heard the sound of gears clicking. A hidden door appeared.

"After hundreds of years, this mechanism can still work..."

Su'en was slightly surprised by the deep passage that appeared in front of him.

Without hesitation, he walked in.

The passage seemed to be isolated from the outside air and was very well preserved.

He tested it and found that it wasn't stuffy and he could breathe normally.

The passageway was built with green bricks, and every few meters on the walls, there were wall lamps. The faint yellow light from the gemstones, whose material he didn't know, was weak but enough to illuminate the entire secret passage.

Su'en didn't dare to touch anything. Since the hidden door could open normally, the mechanisms in the secret passage should still be functioning.

The information on his retina specifically warned him not to touch anything outside of the safety lines.

In this way, after walking for a while, Su'en noticed that the passageways around him became strange, as if they were all the same.

He knew that he had entered a maze.

There were mechanisms that caused visual disturbances here.

He carved some necessary directional markers on the ground and continued forward.

"After the first intersection, left, left, right, up, down..."

Luckily, the correct path through the maze was left on his retina. Su'en didn't encounter any trouble along the way.

After about fifteen minutes of walking, he arrived at his destination, a spacious sealed stone chamber.

There were large glowing gemstones here, illuminating the entire room.

"So this is the 'Hermit's Altar' marked on the treasure map?"

Su'en didn't immediately step into the stone chamber, but carefully observed it.

In the center of the circular chamber, there were five tall stone statues. They were wearing cloaks that covered their entire bodies and most of their faces, giving them a mysterious appearance. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that three of the statues had cracks, while two were intact.

And behind the cloak of each statue, there was a special symbol carved: , , , , ...

They seemed to be special codes.

What surprised Su'en was that just by gazing at these statues, he felt a sense of sacred majesty, as if he wanted to bow down and worship.

That feeling was as if he was being watched by a god, making him feel insignificant like dust.

"These statues are really peculiar..."

Su'en sighed as he looked at the scene.

The unveiled world was gradually revealing its mysteries to him, and his curiosity was growing stronger.

...

There was nothing unnecessary in the sealed chamber.

The five statues stood in different positions, facing the center where there was a circular altar with a diameter of about five meters.

The altar was engraved with an eight-pointed star magic array, surrounded by some unreadable special words and runes. In the center, there was an engraved pattern of a "coiled snake" and a "balance".

"The secret to obtaining the 'talent' that allows one to withstand bullets like the bald man is hidden on this altar?"

Su'en looked at the well-carved patterns on the altar, his face showing a pensive expression.

The retina still had this message: "My dear Fick, I'm sorry that you have lost everything; through deciphering and decrypting, I discovered an astonishing secret from the mysterious 'Isaac's Alchemy Manuscript' that I obtained from the family: besides natural awakening and bloodline inheritance, there is actually a third way for transcendent talents to awaken, through specific conditions... Although it's just an unconfirmed 'treasure map,' it's the best compensation I can think of for you..."

Su'en didn't think too much about this passage, as the cause and effect were no longer important.

He caught a few important keywords: sacrifice medium, directional awakening, talent.

It said that after "sacrificing one's own eyeball," he "might" obtain an extremely powerful S-level talent. A highly rare ability that everyone in the alchemy world dreams of.

If it were on Earth, Su'en would have definitely taken it as a joke.

Remove his own eyeball as a sacrifice and gain superpowers?

Fuck those superpowers!

But after witnessing so many transcendent powers just now, Su'en thought carefully about this question.

As for the word "might," it carried a gambling element.

Because no one had tried it before.

"I remember the bald man called his ability 'C079-Steelized Bones'? It seems more powerful than 'S-level'..."

Su'en weighed his options for a moment, not knowing how the talent ratings in this world were distinguished.

But if he could obtain the "transcendent power" like the bald man, it seemed worth it to pay some price.

Certain thoughts had already begun to stir in his mind.

And what made Su'en determined was another reason.

He also thought about the background of the original owner, which seemed extraordinary. The person who left the information on his retina acknowledged the high specifications of this altar with respect. Perhaps the awakened talent here would be even stronger than the "steelized bones".

Opportunity, no matter which world, always had a gambling element to it.

The worst result would be blindness, without gaining anything.

After experiencing a life-and-death battle, Su'en felt that this was not an unacceptable price.

To obtain something, one must pay a price. This was a basic rule in any world.

Thinking this, he raised his eyebrows and reassured himself, "Since I'm already here... let's give it a try."