Chapter 1 The Royal Library

The Royal Luying Academy Library was located in the northern district of the academy.

It took Suren and the others almost half an hour to walk there.

It was a white building nestled in a botanical garden, surrounded by lush greenery. The architectural style was ancient, resembling a magical castle from a bygone era, with various restrictions emanating magical fluctuations everywhere.

Oh, no!

Upon closer inspection, they were indeed several elemental magic towers identified as belonging to some ancient magical era.

It was unclear which ancient ruins they had been excavated from before being moved here as a whole.

This was the Royal Library, and also a museum.

These magic towers were private collections of the Bona royal family.

Jike was quite familiar with the grand library, leading Suren and the others on a tour.

This was the Royal Library, reputed to be the most profound foundation of Luying, even more extravagant than the "Parliament Library" where Mr. Black worked. Because it was almost exclusively open to nobles, the environment and materials used were of the highest quality, making it truly magnificent.

Besides the hundreds of millions of books on display on the shelves, there were countless treasures in the warehouses.

Most importantly, the library also had a special collection area, where many of the items were unique masterpieces, including manuscripts, relics, and cursed objects left behind by alchemy masters of various eras...

Before coming, Suren had heard that there was an exclusive treasure room dedicated to the relics of Sir Isaac in the collection area, housing over four hundred pieces of the alchemic demigod's handwritten manuscripts and various instruments he used.

…

Suren followed Jike on a tour and saw almost everything, except for a few classified data areas.

Besides marveling at the foundation of this great Luying Empire, his Eye of Omniscience was also identifying the various restrictions in the library.

The library appeared to be a public area, but in reality, it concealed various anti-theft measures.

Sure enough, just as they reached the entrance of the treasure room, Suren spotted a peculiar cursed object.

It was a bronze statue of a hairless cat, its eyes scrutinizing everyone entering the collection hall.

This was the renowned [Sphinx Cat Statue].

Others only knew that this was an ancient artifact in the library's collection, but in the professional thief world, it was a magical object that caused a great headache.

The "ultimate challenge" certified by the Thief Emperor had this as one of its difficulties.

Suren glanced at it and identified it as a dark gold quality magic item with the characteristic of a causal curse.

The nearby display plaque had a detailed description of its origins: it was a funerary object excavated from an ancient king's tomb.

Besides its function as an ornament, it was also an alarm to prevent tomb raiding.

It could predict specific futures by sensing humans approaching.

The specific future was: if someone wanted to come in and steal something.

Before the act of "stealing" was even carried out, it could foresee that this result would happen in the future, and then issue a warning in advance, triggering the anti-theft devices originally in the tomb.

Here, that meant being caught by the librarians in advance.

This was supernatural power that alchemy currently couldn't explain.

Many thieves with ulterior motives were stopped at this hurdle before they could even get a glimpse of the treasure hall.

Suren had learned this information from that guy, Kit.

But ultimately, this cursed object caught too many people, and its function was also speculated by the outside world. This could be considered one of the top-secret intelligence in the professional thief world.

Suren looked at it and, sure enough, it was so.

Fortunately, he was only there to scout, and Kit would be the one acting in the future, so there would be no fact of "stealing", and this magical alarm wouldn't be triggered.

…

After passing the cat statue, Suren and the others entered an ancient mechanical elevator.

This was also the only way to access the treasure collection room.

"Clunk," "clunk"...

With a series of gears meshing, the elevator slowly descended.

This elevator also looked like an antique with several hundred years of history. Even with a rust-proof coating, there were still patches of rust on the mesh cage.

Jike was enthusiastically introducing some information about the elevator to his teacher.

The energy was not provided by a steam boiler, but by a special alchemy device similar to a perpetual motion machine.

Coincidentally, this ancient mechanical elevator was designed personally by Sir Isaac.

After descending about four floors, the elevator stopped.

This was the library's collection area.

The collections were mostly antiques such as manuscripts, secret scrolls, and ancient magic books.

As soon as he entered the collection area, Suren sensed the surroundings and muttered to himself, "No wonder Mr. Black said there was no way. This place is truly impregnable if someone wants to come in and steal something."

Suren's understanding of spatial laws was very high, but as soon as he entered, he felt like he had stepped into a confined space filled with "glue", which was very uncomfortable.

Here, teleportation was very difficult, consuming a hundred times more energy than outside, and there were space traps everywhere. Those traps would most likely throw anyone who teleported into unknown spatial turbulence.

Moreover, after sensing it, Suren also discovered that the energy particles in the collection room's space were constantly in a disordered state. In other words, a large "magic nullification field" had been set up here.

Internal circulating air circulation device, independent sewer system, the most advanced fire-fighting equipment...

The managers had thought of almost every possible way for people to break in.

Suren raised his eyebrows slightly, feeling troubled, but not surprised.

Because this was all known information.

Moreover, the troubles didn't stop there.

Scanning around again, he also saw that each collection was placed in a display case that looked like a glass罩 (zhào - cover).

A look with the Eye of Omniscience revealed that these covers were even more extraordinary.

They were alchemical anti-theft罩 (zhào - covers) made of [Thunder Crystal], the hardest known enchanted material, engraved with various solid runes and magical marks.

While considering aesthetics, these罩 (zhào - covers) had absolute defense that even cannons couldn't crack.

And the most incredible thing was that these display cases also had the seventh-order space術式 (shùshì - formula) [Spatial Spider Web Bonding] solidified on them!

These collections looked independent, but in fact, their space was solidified together with the entire treasure hall.

Imagine it as the tip of an iceberg on the sea, but if you want to take it away, you have to lift the entire iceberg from the seabed.

Even if high-level cursed objects like the Black Scythe were used to cut open an item, even spatial power users couldn't put it into another sub-space.

In other words, whoever stole it would have to keep holding it in their hand.

With various tracking and positioning devices, even if someone really stole a collection, it would be enough for the Luying Military Intelligence Agency to hunt them down to the death.

However…

Suren looked at it and saw that these spatial restrictions didn't seem to affect putting something into another plane within his domain.

This was the only good news he had seen so far.

But also because of these strict anti-theft measures, there had been hundreds of recorded theft cases in the Luying Royal Library in recent centuries, but almost none had succeeded.

In the last twenty years, only the Thief Emperor, Carlo Meldis, had succeeded, stealing a famous painting.

Because of the extremely high difficulty, it had become the "ultimate challenge" certified by the Luying Thieves' Alliance.

Seeing this, Suren felt troubled: "There are no loopholes at all... Even if that guy Kit comes, I'm afraid he'll be helpless."

…

Coming here, Suren really had his eyes opened.

Just the energy consumed to maintain such a huge restriction all day long was an extremely exaggerated number.

This also showed how wealthy the Luying royal family was.

[Gnome's Gold Gathering Ring], [Loki's Helm of Deception], [Heimdall's Horn - Gjallarhorn], [Freya's Golden Necklace], [Will of the Overlord], [Norn Sisters' Web of Fate], [Magic Ring Draupnir]...

One by one, rare and exotic treasures that only appeared in various books were placed in front of him.

Suren felt that he already had enough treasures.

But here, there were no less than eighty, if not a hundred, cursed objects of the "sealed object" level.

There were also several legendary and epic-level treasures of the museum.

Suren's heart was burning with excitement.

These top-level cursed objects with unique effects were placed here, like witnesses of time.

The Luying royal family's foundation was really exaggeratedly scary.

Suren's eyes were burning...

However, he had now moved beyond the level where he needed to rely entirely on external objects to save his life.

Although these cursed objects were good, almost none of them were compatible with his class.

Even if he held them in his hand, they would still be just collectibles.

It was precisely because most of these cursed objects had exaggeratedly scary curse characteristics and great restrictions on use that even seventh-order or higher professionals would lose half their lives if they used them. That was why they could be placed here to gather dust.

Thinking of this, the agitation in his heart calmed down a lot.

…

When Suren and the others came to visit, there were several other groups of people visiting the collection hall.

The most eye-catching was a group of eight or nine-year-old children.

They were wearing the same school uniform, about forty or fifty of them.

They were chirping and chattering, constantly making noise.

Jike also recognized those junior students and introduced them, "Those are students from the Fourth Royal Preparatory Academy of Lingdun, where I studied before. The academy organizes freshmen to visit the library every year."

Suren nodded, thinking it was good.

These noisy little guys could also attract the attention of those managers.

He followed along the way to watch.

The group of children were also curious about everything, asking questions about this and that, and Suren also got some useful information.

"Mr. Guide, why are these collections covered?"

"Because it's to protect them, and also to protect visitors. The curse characteristics of any alchemical object will dissipate and pollute the outside world..."

"Why does that [Crystal Skull] glow?"

"Because it's an evil cursed object. That's the manifestation of its curse characteristics overflowing, not real light..."

"..."

Suren wanted to observe every detail here, so he looked very carefully.

Moreover, these collections were really interesting.

The higher the level and the more knowledge one had, the more inspiration and gain one could get from these wisdom crystals of ancient great alchemists.

Refining techniques, runes, design ideas, curse characteristic processing... and everything else.

Suren walked and watched, like a human camera, recording everything in this treasure hall.

Finally, he came to the "Sir Isaac Exclusive Collection Room".

Although the room wasn't big, there were many alchemical manuscripts on display in the display cases, as well as some mechanical models made based on those manuscripts.

And the most eye-catching of them was naturally that black, ghostly notebook.

Suren walked over and identified it as [Isaac's Alchemical Manuscript 2]!

Like the one in his hand, it also described special cursed objects involving causality and fate, and also came with a learning enhancement aura.

It was itself a good treasure for assisting knowledge comprehension.

Suren also knew in advance about the content recorded inside, which was the alchemical blueprint mastered by the Luying military—[Isaac's Giant Strength].

A kind of alchemical殖裝 (zhí zhuāng - equipment) that enhanced physical strength to an exaggerated degree.

He happened to have a [Hundred-Armed Giant King's Arm] in his hand, which was perfect for refining this殖裝 (zhí zhuāng - equipment).

Although he didn't know if they could be fused, he thought he would refine it first.

"It's really the real thing."

A slight change flashed in Suren's eyes.

The reason why he had to come here in person was actually to confirm whether the things displayed in the library were genuine, and not high imitations made for exhibition.

Suren silently observed the various restrictions in the exhibition room, and then carefully looked at the contents of those manuscripts.

His martial uncle's attainments in the field of alchemy were unmatched in the world, and the value of his manuscripts could be imagined.

But after all, it was something from a thousand years ago, and although there were many things here, they were incomplete and very miscellaneous.

There were design drawings, potion recipes, alchemy, and some graffiti, etc., scattered fragments of various kinds.

After identifying them, except for a few high-imitation fakes, the rest were also genuine.

Suren thought that when Kit came to visit, it would be better to take them all away.

…

Because it was his martial uncle's relic, Suren looked at it for a while longer.

As he was looking at it, the group of visiting students also poured in.

Suren didn't want to join in the fun with these people, and wanted to call Shabina and Jike to leave.

But he didn't expect the accompanying fat guide to say something that made people's jaws drop.

One of the elementary school students asked, "Mr. Isaac, I heard that you are a descendant of the great alchemical demigod Sir Isaac from a thousand years ago?"

The guide replied, "Of course! You are my great-great-great-great grandfather. Many of these collections were donated to the library by my grandfather, and they are family heirlooms of our Isaac family. Look, the name of the donor next to it is my grandfather, Dodolulu Isaac. Look there, there is also the year when His Majesty granted my family the hereditary nobility title, Luying calendar 921. Oh, that was a grand investiture ceremony..."

"Wow... It's really true! You're so amazing!"

"..."

A group of little guys instantly became excited.

The fat man was also complacent in the midst of various envious gazes. Just this identity alone had brought him too much honor and praise.

This operation, this scene left Suren dumbfounded.

Before, he had heard someone call that fat man "Mr. Isaac" and thought it was the same surname.

After all, although this surname was famous, it wasn't rare.

He originally guessed that it was some collateral relative of his martial sister who had passed down a lineage, and wanted to find out more. But after hearing this, the fat man said with certainty that his great-great-great-great grandfather was Isaac's own son.

Hearing this, Suren knew that this was an imposter.

Jike, who was on the side, had obviously heard of this legendary figure's boasting, and excitedly introduced Suren and Shabina, "That guide is very famous in Lingdun, because he is a true descendant of Sir Isaac, and was even conferred by the royal family! The Isaac Family Memorial Hall in the Queen's District was established by this gentleman's family..."

Hearing this, even Shabina showed a strong interest and looked at the fat man more closely.

After all, the halo around Sir Isaac was too dazzling, and the descendant of that demigod had a genius halo of his own.

Suren shook his head with a smile, completely uninterested, "Let's go."

Jike was a little puzzled. His teacher wasn't interested in Isaac's descendants?

But he followed him out.

Shabina looked at Suren's expression with a subtle look, and guessed something, hooking his arm and whispering, "Sir, do you think there's something wrong with that man just now?"

Suren shrugged and showed a helpless expression, "Although I don't know where that guy's ancestors got the Isaac relics, and how they persuaded the royal family to get conferred, as far as I know, Sir Isaac only had two daughters and no sons."

Only then did Shabina understand why Suren had that expression just now, "So, you're saying that's a liar?"

Suren nodded, "Yeah."

"Ah..."

Jike, who was on the side, heard this, with a look of disappointment and confusion.

Although he wouldn't doubt his teacher's words, he was also curious, "Teacher, how do you know that Isaac only had two daughters and no other children? What if there really were..."

"There are no ifs."

Suren interrupted Jike.

After hesitating for a moment, he casually said a sentence, "Because... I know both of Sir Isaac's daughters."

"???"

Jike's expression instantly froze upon hearing this.

He felt like his brain had come into contact with some incomprehensible information, and couldn't digest the meaning of Suren's words for a long time.

Shabina, who was on the side, turned her bright eyes and guessed something, "Is it... leader?"

Suren nodded, "Yeah."

Jike was stunned for a long time before he realized that he hadn't misunderstood just now.

His expression suppressed some great shock, and his voice was slightly trembling as he asked, "Teacher, are you saying just now...?"

Suren shook his head, not intending to continue speaking, "Let's talk about it outside."

Now that "Dawn" had gained momentum, and he had the power to protect himself, it was time to tell his disciple some of his background.

But there were restrictions everywhere in this library, and it wasn't convenient to talk about too many secrets.

…

Not long after, the three of them finished visiting the collection room and walked out of the library.

Walking on the shady boulevard of the campus again, Suren told Jike some simple details, "My teacher is Ms. Sereia, the founder of the Puppet Master, who is also Sir Isaac's wife. So Sir Isaac is your martial grand-master. You also have a junior brother and a junior sister. I'll take you to see them in a few days. You'll follow me from now on. My war workshop also has a few 'Ammunition Masters' from瑪法 (Mafa - presumably a place name). Their professional inheritance in explosives is only higher than the Royal Academy, and they don't lack materials and equipment..."

Some people are suitable for training, and some people are only suitable for being宅 (zhái - stay-at-home) scientists.

Suren observed Jike for a long time, and also knew that his personality was more suitable for staying in the laboratory to do research.

Jike was shocked beyond words listening to Suren's words.

He never expected that his teacher's lineage would be so awesome!

He looked at Suren, too shocked to speak, "I... I..."

Suren knew that it would take some time to digest these things, so he didn't say much, and said again, "These few days, you should deal with the academy's affairs. If it's not necessary, you may rarely come to the academy in the future."

The Luying Empire was very backward in the field of ammunition engineering and explosive technology. Jike was mostly self-taught in the Royal Academy, which would be very restrictive and a waste of his talent and passion.

The reason why he stayed in the Royal Academy before was because it had advanced laboratories and low-priced materials that were not available elsewhere.

But in Suren's war workshop, materials and laboratories were not lacking for the time being.

The only thing worth missing was those ancient books.

But as long as he was still an academy student, he could still borrow them if he had nothing to do in the future.

As for those classmates, it didn't seem to be better for Jike.

Suren had obviously considered everything. Thinking of something, he smiled and said, "As for that classmate Phoebe... I think you can ask her out for dinner first. Contact her more."

Saying that, he looked at Jike again and said, "Be confident. You are my disciple, and you are not inferior to anyone."

"Yeah!"

Hearing these words, Jike's eyes trembled, and an indescribable excitement surged in his heart.

At this moment, he inexplicably had confidence in his heart!

Only then did he understand why that lady would say such a thing.

He was his teacher's disciple, and he was no worse than any noble!

.....

The three continued to stroll around the campus.

Suren had observed the various layouts of the library, but the clearer he was, the more he felt that the possibility of getting that [Isaac Alchemy Manuscript] was slim.

Jike looked at his teacher's thoughtful look all the way, and guessed something, tentatively asking, "Teacher, you said you came to the academy this time because of something. Was it for the library's martial legacy?"

There were many treasures in the library, and many manuscripts and relics of various alchemy masters.

But now that he knew that his teacher was a descendant of the Isaac lineage, it was not difficult to guess what it was.

"Yeah."

Suren never intended to hide anything from his disciple.

The reason why he didn't tell him before was because he was afraid that if this disciple knew, he wouldn't be able to hide it from some high-level professionals, and he would reveal his flaws in advance.

Now that they were out, it didn't matter.

He said directly, "That manuscript is very important, and I must get it. But now it seems that it's a bit difficult."

Jike thought of something and asked again, "Teacher, do you think the library's security restrictions are difficult?"

"Yeah."

Suren said the information he had observed.

His intention was to let Shabina, the professional intelligence agent, refer to it, after all, she was a professional in this field.

He said, "The restrictions in the library are the most complex and perfect multi-layered defense I've ever seen. There are anti-magic restrictions, space traps, and anti-theft covers... Even fire prevention, ventilation, and drainage don't have any chance to take advantage of. If we break them one by one, there won't be enough time. And once we go in and trigger some hidden security restrictions, we may even be trapped inside..."

Shabina also listened with a grave face, thinking that she couldn't find any solution, and didn't respond in silence.

This was the "ultimate challenge" of the thief profession, so naturally it wouldn't be so easy.

Jike looked at the solemn and bitter thinking faces of the two elders, thinking that he might be able to help, and weakly said, "Um... Teacher, I have an idea."

Suren looked at him and showed an inquiring look, "Oh?"

Jike said, "Actually, if we just want to go in, we don't have to worry about those defense barriers, so it won't be so troublesome."

Suren didn't understand for a while, "You mean there are loopholes that can be bypassed?"

"No, there are no loopholes. We learned in the engineering course before that it was a series of barriers designed by the empire's top security experts, and no one can break through. What I mean is..."

Jike shook his head, and then said, "Actually... it can be broken through with explosives."

Suren listened in a daze, "???"

It wasn't that he hadn't thought of explosives, but it wouldn't be possible to blast open the library's level of defense even if he stacked tens of thousands of tons of explosives.

At that time, the entire academy might be blown up, and the treasure room's barriers might not be broken.

If he really made such a commotion, not to mention hurting the innocent, the entire Luying would have to fight him to the death.

Jike obviously knew that Suren had misunderstood him, and he quickly explained, "The engineering teacher before put forward a hypothetical topic, saying that the collection room structure can't be broken by any external force at present. But I think it can. Then I calculated it in detail with the mentality of trying it out... The final conclusion is that it can be completely broken with explosives as long as the method is appropriate."

Hearing these words, the corner of Suren's eyes twitched inexplicably.

He suddenly realized that his disciple seemed to have discovered a blind spot, and asked, "How exactly do you operate it? Do you have a plan?"

Jike nodded and said, "Actually, for any solid object, we can destroy it by changing its stable structure. The library collection room is a perfect thirty-two-sided structure. It itself has super stability. The material cast on the outer layer has reached the level 8 blast resistance standard known as absolute defense... Of course, that's not important. The important thing is that if ultra-high temperature and high-frequency vibration can directly dissolve this stable structure. There is a 'Overrast singularity blasting theory' in goblin engineering. As long as we find eight of the thirty-two-sided bodies, and directional blasting, we can use one-thousandth of the energy to achieve the same blasting effect..."

Hearing this series of professional descriptions, Suren frowned.

Although he was not proficient in explosion engineering, he understood roughly.

He discovered the problem again and asked, "However, even if it's one-thousandth of the blasting energy, at least several hundred tons of explosives are needed?"

This was a theoretically feasible plan.

But that amount of medicine could not be installed on any singularity at all.

Jike obviously knew it long ago, and said again, "Ordinary high explosives do need this much, and it's impossible to install it successfully. But if it's a special explosive, it's completely unnecessary."

After a pause, he said directly, "Ordinary explosives usually can't meet the effect of ultra-high temperature and high-frequency vibration at the same time. But I found an ancient dwarf engineering book in the warehouse of the mining library. There is a special mining explosive recorded in it called [Multi-layer Superimposed Hot-Melt Bomb]. That is the explosive used by ancient dwarves to break all kinds of solid ore layers. I calculated it before, about one hundred kilograms of the medicine, as long as the power of directional blasting is controlled, there won't even be too much noise, and a hole two meters in diameter can be directly broken open above the collection room in an instant..."

Hearing these words, Suren and Shabina next to him looked at each other, and both saw the shock in each other's eyes.

They had been considering how to break through and bypass the treasure room's restrictions,

But Jike's idea was simple and crude, and he didn't need to bypass it at all.

What is an explosion genius?

This is it!

Jike's words opened up a completely new idea.

This blasting method even saves the risk of sneaking in, and solves the problem of entering and exiting in ten seconds.

Hearing this plan, Suren immediately felt that things were more than half successful.

This was a hundred times more reliable and a hundred times less risky than the hundreds of plans he had thought of before!

He directly asked, "Can you make that [Multi-layer Superimposed Hot-Melt Bomb]?"

Jike nodded, "In order to verify that my calculation was correct, I made a small amount of finished products for actual testing before."

He looked at Suren, and said very seriously, "As long as there are enough materials. There is absolutely no problem."

As long as this explosion genius talked about his professional field, his tone had an unusual confidence and certainty!