Mythology: Spiritual Ruler

Chapter 310 Welcome to the New Era and... the Alchemy Association?

Looking down at the earth from the sky, the world is like a silent film.

Life and death, barbarism and civilization. Beasts like ants chase each other on the ground, and birds that occasionally fly across the horizon flap their wings and fly high. There are even powerful humans with great momentum, who have a "war" on the ground for various reasons.

When a hundred years are shortened to a day, the earth itself is the most wonderful image. You can see the green fade away and be stained with rows of artificial colors; you can see the spider-web-like road as if it was outlined by an artist's brush, extending from a few strokes at the corners to the center of the masterpiece. The world is stained with all kinds of wonders, as well as countless love and hatred, heroes in their twilight years, and beauties with white hair, rise and fall.

And in this floating world painting formed by the intersection of all living beings, the closer to the center, the more magnificent and fantastic it is; the closer to the edge, the more ordinary and common it appears. Although they are in the same world, they seem to be in two different eras... But there are always exceptions.

Just like this day, a fire meteor fell from the sky and landed in a suburb in the northeast of the continent.

Perhaps because it was daytime, the meteor seemed so inconspicuous. So that only a few people noticed its existence until it landed.

"Fire falling from the sky... there will be disasters."

...

In the summer of 852 in the new calendar.

On the outskirts of Thuringia.

From time to time, a few beast roars were heard among the sparse trees, and occasionally a few summer insects made annoying buzzing sounds.

At the end of the dirt road near the woods, a flame flickered, illuminating the surrounding roads in the night.

Holding a torch, a sturdy middle-aged man, he was wearing a patched coarse cloth long coat, his hands were covered with calluses, and he was obviously a worker engaged in physical labor.

The other man with him was not tall, but he also looked strong. But judging from his walking posture, just like the former, his strength was only developed through labor.

"Nike, are you sure this is the place? We have been walking for half a night. You know, I gave up the guard selection tonight..."

"Don't talk nonsense, Samuel. Everyone knows that it is not prepared for people like us."

Waving his hand to interrupt his companion's complaints, Nike raised the torch higher, hoping to see farther.

"Hehe, to pass that test, either you have a good ancestor, your ancestors have some noble blood, or you have undergone real training - that still requires you to have a good ancestor, and this requirement is much higher."

"So instead of holding such unrealistic ideas, you might as well gamble with me. A meteor... Do you know how valuable this thing is?"

"I don't know, and I guess you don't know either."

Waving the pitchfork in his hand, Samuel shrugged.

"But Nike, legally speaking, everything here belongs to the Lord of the City."

"So why did you follow me instead of reporting me? "

With a mocking smile, Nike saw his old friend grit his teeth in the light of the fire.

"You're right, I should have reported you... Damn it, come on, let's try our luck and see what we can find. If there's nothing, I will never let you go!"

In this era when history has taken a big turn, the classical republic coexists with the early feudal system, and even slavery and public ownership are maintained in some countries... In short, at least in Thuringia, all the wealth on the land belongs to the owner of the land, and any unauthorized act is a felony, and can even be directly executed. Even the Church of the God of Justice and Law will not object to this regulation.

But for two farmers who only know how to farm, this is almost their only chance in life. After all, although they are not slaves, they are far from being "citizens". Or to use a more official term, they should be called "free people" or "semi-free laborers".

And this is also a link in the "peasant discrimination chain", because the city The farmers around are formal citizens, but those who live in nearby villages and towns and only go to the city occasionally are not. Therefore, they cannot enjoy the rights of citizens under the classical republic.

If it were a few years ago, they would not enjoy it. After all, this is an era of "born noble", and Sammer may not choose to gamble. But after witnessing the changes in the city in recent years, he is more and more unable to tolerate his current mediocrity.

To put it poetically, it means "I can endure darkness if I have never seen light." The city of Thuringia changes every year, but the village where he lives has not changed at all. The two sides are like in two different worlds, intertwined and isolated.

"Speaking of which, Nike, if you really get rich this time, how are you going to spend it? "

In a world without light pollution, the night is much darker than what mortals in later generations imagine. Even under the illumination of torches, the two felt like they were walking on a road with no end.

That is, both of them are locals and are very familiar with the nearby terrain. Otherwise, when walking at night, no one knows whether they are moving forward or backward.

"Of course, enjoy it first - but to be honest, Summer, I don't know what enjoyment is. It can't just be eating and drinking - so what about you?"

Shrugging and shaking the torch, Nike told the truth.

"I want to test whether I have the qualifications to become a 'knight'...I mean a more sophisticated test. You know, this is my dream."

Summer's voice was a little low, and he didn't know what he was thinking of. After listening to his words, Nike fell silent immediately.

Dreams...everyone has them. But for most people, this is really just a dream.

"It seems to be almost there, right in front."

I don’t know how long they walked, but Nick, who was holding a torch, suddenly stopped.

Under the light of the fire, both of them vaguely saw the bottomless circular pit in front of them.

The effect of the firelight was not very good, and they could not tell how deep or how big the pit was. However, if a knowledgeable person came here, he would never dare to approach this pothole.

The meteor hit so close to the city of Thuringia and made such a big hole. The loud noise it made was theoretically enough for everyone in the city to hear it clearly. But in fact, except for Nick, who happened to see the flash of starlight, few people noticed the falling bolide.

"Hi-Hey, Nike, I'm afraid you really found something amazing."

Looking a little surprised, Summer lowered his voice subconsciously: "There is actually a meteorite...I heard that there may be something called a star core in it, and even if there isn't, its shell can still be sold for a big price. "

"Don't be stunned, go down and take a look."

Inserting the farm tools into the soil, the two of them immediately climbed down the huge pit wall little by little.

The surrounding soil was a bit soft, not like a crater formed by the shock wave at all, and the two almost rolled down several times.

Fortunately, after working hard for several hours, they arrived near the bottom of the pit without any danger.

"Be careful... Damn it, the torch burned down."

Looking at the dimming fire in his hand, Nike cursed, threw it aside, and moved on.

Fortunately, the weather was sunny today, and they could barely identify each other's positions through the moonlight...

"——Fuck, get out of the way——!"

"ah--"

With one step in the air, Samer took Nick along with him in front of him, and the two of them rolled down together.

boom--!

With a muffled sound, the two collided at the bottom of the pit.

"Hiss... I told you to be careful!"

"Of course I was careful, do you think I wanted to fall down... If you had brought an extra torch, this wouldn't have happened."

After replying harshly, Summer struggled to stand up. In the dim moonlight, he looked around.

There was no huge meteorite as he expected, and there was no feeling of heat. It was just like a pure pit, and they were at the apex of this conical pit that had been cut out abruptly.

There is nothing around, only a little reflection in the distance...

"gem?"

Nike shouted in surprise: "Are those gems, gems falling out of the stars? Oh my god, it turns out that the stars are really made of gems. I thought it was just a delusion in a bedtime story!"

"Stop talking nonsense, that's not a gem, look clearly, it's transparent!"

Summer walked up. His eyesight was better and he could see more clearly.

It was not a giant gem, but an oval crystal layer, only a thin layer. It looked like some kind of gem, but it was actually 'melting' slightly.

Although he didn't know what it was yet, Summer had an ominous premonition. Fireballs falling from the sky, unreasonable potholes, fantastic and magnificent crystals, no matter how you look at it, none of this is normal.

Besides, according to some ancient legends from the north... stars falling in the wild is not a good sign.

"Wait, there's someone inside, did you see it?"

His expression suddenly changed, and Summer shouted loudly.

As the distance got closer, through the moonlight, he vaguely saw something underneath the crystal layer, which was a humanoid being.

It seemed to be a young man - maybe a young man, but he looked young anyway. He has a handsome appearance, with no traces of work on his skin, and is wrapped in a silver-white robe. Golden patterns are embellished on it, which looks so gorgeous and noble.

"A living person, the great goddess of wisdom... Could it be that what you saw was not a meteor, but someone who was seriously injured... Nike, what are you going to do?!"

"Bang——!"

The pitchfork collided with the transparent crystal wall. Under the moonlight, Nick's smile looked a little ferocious at the moment: "What else can I do, of course open it!"

"I don't care who he is, but now he is my trophy. Have you seen this dress? I have never seen such exquisite workmanship. One of its sleeves may be worth five - no, Fifty gold coins (Note 1)!”

"But--"

"No, don't you want to be a knight? If this is really a seriously injured strong man, your chance will come!"

Boom——

Another click, and cracks appeared in the crystal shell. Nike seemed to be encouraged, but Summer felt that the crack might not have been caused by him.

But no matter what, they came together. If today's behavior is discovered, then none of them can run away... Gritting his teeth, Summer also joined the tapping work, as mentioned before, what if?

Boom——

Bang——

Bang——

…

One after another, as time slowly passed, the sky glowed, the crystal shell became thinner and thinner, and the cracks became more and more.

Until a certain moment, with a sound that seemed to ring in the soul, it shattered and then dissipated in the air like water vapor.

"Huh——Finally opened."

Wipe the sweat from his head, Nike's spirit became more and more excited. He looked at the young figure who had lost his protection, and a touch of ecstasy flashed through his eyes.

"Wait, don't be anxious."

"What are you waiting for? You don't want to regret it now, do you?"

"Of course not," his face was heavy, but Summer just shook his head, and then raised the pitchfork: "No matter who he is, we must have offended him..."

"So whether he is dead or not, kill him first, and then see what he can get from him."

Without hesitation, in Nike's somewhat surprised but approving eyes, Summer used the pitchfork to stir the mysterious young man's neck fiercely.

It is said that as long as the caster's mind can still work, he can mobilize magic or holy power and easily kill hundreds of mortals... Sammer didn't know how that was done. The only caster he had ever come into contact with in his life was a low-level priest in the temple, and they had never shown such powerful power.

But what if, who knows what this young man is. Kill him first, Sammer at least knows one thing, that is, a dead person must not be able to mobilize anything.

······

It was like a replay of the scene in the deepest part of memory, crossing a distant time and space in chaos and mist.

Ryan still didn't know how he came to this world. It wasn't until he woke up from a long sleep that he began to understand this world again.

Now, he experienced a similar scene again, but this time, it was an opportunity he created for himself.

"Swish--"

The mind was still not clear, but the sound of the sharp weapon breaking through the air made Ryan instantly realize his situation.

Almost subconsciously, he reached out and grabbed it in the direction where the sound came from.

The pitchfork covered with mud was not sharp, and it might not be able to pierce Ryan's palm, but he still bypassed the tip and accurately grasped the connection between the sharp teeth and the long handle. Then, in the instantly horrified eyes of the visitor, he first pulled back hard, and then stretched out his hand to push.

Cluck——

Summer, who was holding the pitchfork, was startled by Ryan's sudden movement, but before he could react, the sudden force brought his body forward, and the pitchfork almost slipped out of his hand at the same time.

The next moment, he saw that the long handle that had slipped out of his hand had become someone else's weapon and attacked him again. However, Summer, who had lost his balance, had no time to respond, and it hit his fragile throat directly.

With a sound that made people's teeth ache, his larynx was shattered on the spot, and then he fell directly to the ground, making a "ho ho" gasp. Everything happened in a flash, and it was not until everything was over that Nike, who was standing aside, just reacted.

"No, wait, this is just an accident. I mean - spare my life, I -"

Shh -

Turning the pitchfork in his hand, Ryan accurately inserted it into the chest of the farmer who was trying to escape, blocking his unclear words.

Squinting his eyes, Ryan slowly looked around and determined his current situation.

He didn't see a familiar primitive god or other gods as soon as he opened his eyes, and there were no large crowds of onlookers, such as the guards of the mortal country... It seems that the result is not bad, at least there is no big deviation, otherwise he might have to delete the account and start again.

In fact, when Ryan realized that the power wrapped around him had crashed into the special space-time bubble, he was ready to fail. But this was just an attempt, and he didn't decide to die if he didn't succeed.

Fortunately, everything is going well now, which saved him a lot of effort.

"Very good, the first step of the plan,"

Standing up from the ground and stretching, Ryan felt that his mind was much more active for a while.

At this time, the morning sun completely rose from the ground, and the huge pit became bright.

Looking at Summer, who was covering his throat with his hands, his body twitching subconsciously, and blood flowing from the corners of his mouth, Ryan had no sympathy. No matter what the reason was, since he dared to attack him, he must have been prepared to die.

"Well, to be a 'human' again, I need to solve three problems first."

"Who am I, where am I, and what am I going to do."

The first problem is easy to solve. In human terms, it is to give yourself a new name. After all, he can't walk in the world with the title of 'Ryan', so it is natural to change to a suitable name.

So without thinking about it, Ryan just changed the pronunciation. From now on, he will be called 'Ivan'. As for identity... it is the heir of any defeated family/school/organization, if this era already has all of the above.

As for the second problem...

Rubbing his forehead, Ryan also had a headache.

Because he accidentally hit the space-time bubble, his landing point and landing time were greatly changed. In his original plan, he intended to land directly near Silver Moon City and start his subsequent plans from there... But now, even if there are no stars to identify during the day, he knows that he is definitely not in the south of the continent, but in a direction slightly north.

In the north of the continent, Ryan can't say that he has no impression of this place at all, and he has basically no concept of it. After all, before, this place was completely a primitive continent with no people. So if you want to solve this problem, you can only sacrifice this guy who dares to trouble you.

Using the tip of the pitchfork as a pen and the blood of the dead as ink, Ryan drew a terrifying array like a cultist in the horrified eyes of the struggling person.

Then he walked up with a smile, easily solved Sammer's useless struggle, and then threw him to the center of the array.

As the array lit up in a special form, the blood and qi in the flesh and blood of the dead were continuously converted into controllable spiritual power. Just like a primitive burnt sacrifice, except that there was no natural spirit to accept the sacrifice, this spirit mixed with the resentment of the living beings was only used as a driving force to touch the ubiquitous shallow magic network.

With a flash of spiritual light, the witchcraft [Advanced Detection Thinking] was easily performed, and this was the only value of Sammer's extra life.

Like a movie, a lot of useful or useless information flashed before Ryan's eyes. Although most of these were worthless, even as a farmer at the bottom of society, Ryan still understood this familiar yet strange world.

"The church, the evil god, the nobles of the gods, the wizards..."

"The new calendar, a calendar marked by the establishment of Athens and based on the movement of the stars..."

"The country of God, Olympia... Argos, the sanctuary of the Queen of Heaven... blood sacrifice, natural disasters... the barbarians in the north who believe in the evil god, claiming that all things have spirits and can become gods?"

"And the city of Thuringia, which is the northernmost city-state in the sphere of influence of Athens... This city has changed a lot recently, because the King of Athens signed an agreement with the [Emerald Ring] Alchemy Society, resulting in the gradual outflow of alchemical products from the capital - what is going on, the humans in the Chaos world are so powerful, have they already researched this level of alchemical works out of thin air?"

One after another, news that I don't know whether to consider as surprise or surprise flowed out of memory. In fact, Ryan was a little incredible. He didn't expect that a mortal he picked up casually was actually quite knowledgeable.

However, he didn't have time to pay attention to the other party's love and hatred, and why did he know these information that had nothing to do with him. He just locked his eyes on this [Emerald Ring] Alchemy Society.

Developing alchemy from scratch, it would be easy if it was a god, but how did humans do it? He wanted to know...

While thinking, Ryan was instantly attracted by the content in his memory.

That was exactly what he wanted to know before, that is, the inventor of alchemy and the president of the [Emerald Ring] Alchemy Society.

"......?"

Slowly typing a question mark, Ryan once again felt that this world was really interesting.

"... a child from a village outside Eleusis, who later went to the southeast of the continent to study... He learned the secrets of witchcraft in Condenia City, and after becoming a great wizard, he refused the invitation of the White Tower and studied the secrets of witchcraft alone."

"Finally, after countless failures, he proposed the concept of 'the equivalence of all things', believing that everything in the world can be transformed into each other, and personally completed the feat of 'turning stone into gold', completely creating a school of alchemy, and his name has therefore spread among the countries..."

"Heh."

With a low laugh, the memory in front of him came to an end. Ryan gave this unfortunate guy a good time, and then patted his clothes.

"Great Alchemist Hermes, very good, such an interesting development... Sure enough, going offline appropriately will help the development of the world."

With a slight smile, Ryan decided to go to the nearest Thuringia City first to take a look.

Memory is just memory after all, and [Advanced Detective Thinking] is not a high-level witchcraft like [Soul Insight] or [Memory Weaving]. Of course, maybe someone invented some more powerful low-level witchcraft during the time he was offline. Anyway, browsing his version of memory is like reading a book. Not only are there no illustrations, but the results given are not prioritized, and 99% of them are redundant.

In short, the ancients... and later generations said it well, "What you learn from books is shallow, and you must practice it to know it thoroughly." Ryan still plans to use his own eyes to personally witness this mythological world that has deviated a lot from the original history.

...

Note 1: There are different names for coins in ancient Greece. Here, the gold coin is stater, the silver coin is drachma (Drachma, there are also gold coins, but there are more silver coins, and the Greek currency is also called this name now), and the copper coin Lepta (LePta, strictly speaking, it is a subsidiary coin, not a copper coin, but it is regarded as a copper coin here. Similarly, modern Greece also uses this name). As for the conversion ratio, please refer to this book.