End of the Magic Era - Chapter 1194

Chapter 1194: Hardward Family

The Bone Plane, where Lin Yun obtained the Book of Death early on, would eventually be completely conquered within a few months by an almost destroyed battleship controlled by a few weak mages.

The Intrepid relied on the Heaven Grade array and its God’s body as a frame. It also had countless mana crystal cannons and an intact Hand of Destruction. This was the root of the Intrepid’s power.

But the Intrepid’s design was far inferior to the peak battleships of Noscent.

“Sir Raphael, Sky City didn’t fly such a large battleship here just to pick me up, right?”

Raphael smiled.

“You are right. I’m in charge of picking up Sir Mafa, while this battleship is picking a Family in the Andlusa Kingdom.”

Raphael and Lin Yun chatted as they walked out of the shuttle. There were many mages wearing robes with Sky City’s symbols busying themselves on the deck. There were also many sturdy Sword Saints patrolling and many alchemy puppets laboring.

As they walked out of the shuttle, a man wearing strange glasses and seemingly in his forties was standing before them. Faint mana fluctuations could be seen on the surface of his glasses, and he looked like an alchemist that had been cooped up in his laboratory for a long time. He was exuding the temperament of an alchemist.

“Heavens, Sir Raphael, is that the flying shuttle you made? It looks really beautiful. Look at those magic patterns, they are simply too perfect… No, they aren’t just perfect. Heavens, it’s actually shaped by law runes… Such a talented method, such a perfect design…”

When Raphael got down from the shuttle, that middle-aged man’s gaze slightly quivered as he exclaimed in surprise. He walked to the side of the shuttle, and his eyes kept sweeping around. The mana fluctuations on the glasses he wore rapidly increased.

Raphael looked a bit embarrassed as he rushed forward and pulled that middle-aged man over.

“Sir Raphael, what are you doing? You don’t want to let me see your design? Damn, have you forgotten how many times I helped you when you just became Teacher’s disciple? Hell, if it wasn’t for me concealing that thing from Teacher, you would have already been kicked out.

“You are so petty… I only want to take a look at this outstanding design, yet you actually-”

The middle-aged man started bringing up Raphael’s dark history, so the embarrassed Raphael had to interrupt.

“Gurud, can you first shut your stinky mouth? Don’t you see that we have guests?”

Hearing these words, Gurud, who seemed to have entered a possessed state, noticed Lin Yun walking out of the flying shuttle.

“Oh, I’m sorry! Raphael, you should tell me earlier if there are guests. Isn’t introducing your senior apprentice brother something that you ought to do? What are you foolishly standing here for…”

Raphael bitterly smiled.

“Sir Mafa, this is my senior apprentice brother, Gurud. He is also an Artisan putting all his energy in the world of alchemy. His lifetime goal is to seek the truth of alchemy.

“It’s just… You understand…”

As he said that, Raphael ambiguously pointed at his head. Raphael was being so obvious, but Gurud’s eyes were still locked onto the shuttle as if he hadn’t heard anything.

Lin Yun smiled and didn’t really mind. These kinds of people were the purest alchemists. Alchemy was their faith.

Raphael pulled Gurud away from the flying shuttle.

“Sir Gurud! This is Sir Mafa Merlin, who I mentioned to you before. He is a formidable Artisan. He is one of the few people I admire in the field of arrays, alongside the three Deans of the Starry Sky College and our teacher.

“Sir Mafa’s mastery of the field of arrays is very high, and his mastery of puppeteering and refining is definitely in the Artisan realm, but more importantly, Sir Mafa seems to be most proficient in potioneering…”

Raphael gave an introduction, but Gurud’s eyes were still focused on the shuttle. Raphael’s expression was a bit dark, and his voice kept rising.

“Sir Gurud! I’m talking to you, can you stop looking at that damned flying shuttle? Don’t you want to know about the magic patterns formed from law runes? It’s not something I could create! Rather, it was Sir Mafa’s remodelling!”

Suddenly, Gurud seemed to have suddenly snapped out of it and immediately looked at Lin Yun, observing him like a hungry wolf would stare at a delicious steak.

“Raphael, you fool, how could you not say that earlier? How could you let this distinguished guest just stand there and not prepare black tea to entertain… This Sir…”

“Mafa Merlin.”

“Oh, I hope you don’t mind if I call you Sir Mafa. Ah, I hope you won’t take offense… Why is this ice rune carved in such a way? Although it lessens the damage from friction while flying, it’ll also reduce the shuttle’s speed.

“Shouldn’t speed be the main requirement of this flying shuttle? And the fire magic pattern in the back must be causing a huge amount of pressure. Based on my calculations, when the fire patterns are activated, there should be a 78% chance of the shuttle collapsing…

“But the shuttle is clearly intact. The foundation of these materials and the mechanical system could be considered flawless. This means that my calculations are wrong. What have I overlooked?”

Gurud’s eyes shone as he directly started discussing these matters with Lin Yun.

The surrounding people didn’t seem surprised by this sight. Raphael grimaced and tried to pull Gurud away, but Gurud remained motionless. He put away his flying shuttle, but he still couldn’t get the enthusiastic Gurud to budge.

At that time, Raphael’s expression suddenly changed.

“They are here.”

At that time, Gurud suddenly had an ugly expression as he looked into the distance. A large flying carpet was flying towards the battleship.

The flying carpet wasn’t constantly undulating like an ordinary flying carpet; it was floating towards them like a flat carpet.

There was a small table on the flying carpet, and a corpse-pale mage with an aquiline nose was sitting there. The mage was wearing a simple gown, and a huge pile of paper could be seen on the small table. The mage kept writing something with a quill.

There were a few mages wearing simple robes kneeling on the back of the flying carpet. Their cuffs had a silver circle symbol formed from various silver leaves, and a potion bottle could be seen in the middle.

The atmosphere on the battleship seemed to become serious when these people approached.

Lin Yun could clearly see that they were flying from the Andlusa Kingdom, and from their temperaments, they were clearly alchemists. The symbols on their cuffs were different from those of ordinary alchemists, but Lin Yun could see that they were proficient in potioneering.

Each of those nine leaves were different and represented a medicinal ingredient. After all, not all medicinal ingredients could be used in the form of a leaf. Many leaves would only appear for a short period of time and couldn’t be used as a raw material in potioneering.

Alchemists who could recognize the nine leaves were very rare. Three of the leaves belonged to a neglected kind of medicinal ingredient, and ordinary alchemy potions simply couldn’t use that kind of ingredient.

Their cuffed magic robes meant that they belonged to a mage family, and a mage family with a Heaven Rank powerhouse. But how come Lin Yun never heard of them before?

Apparently noticing Lin Yun’s doubt, Raphael lowered his voice and explained to Lin Yun with a steady expression.

“Most of Sky City’s alchemists are pursuing their studies in the Starry Sky College, and they are also followers of the Starry Sky College.

“This time, you aren’t the only Andlusan to have accepted the invitation of the Starry Sky College. Of the four Artisans of the Andlusa Kingdom, one is already in the Odin Kingdom, while another one is in some random plane and can’t be found.

“And aside from Sir Mafa, there is still that repulsive Hardward Family.”

Lin Yun frowned and faintly looked at the Hardward Family.

Raphael gnashed his teeth as he kept explaining to Lin Yun.

“The Hardward Family is a pure alchemist family. They feel that being like mage families and expanding one’s territory, running businesses, and participating in war is blasphemy towards alchemy and would end up in alchemy being neglected. Thus, their family remains in seclusion and never allows their younger generation to use their name outside.

“Well, they are hypocrites among hypocrites, they are really loathsome. If they didn’t run businesses, then where did their Family’s wealth come from? After all, the materials required for alchemy aren’t cheap. They require a huge amount of wealth, especially when nurturing the next generation of alchemists. They would need to burn gold coins, no, mana crystals…

“Over 90% of the mages of our Sky City are alchemists. It’s safe to say that our ability to amass wealth is clearly stronger than other forces, but the plans to expand Sky City’s main city have been put aside for more than five centuries because we simply don’t have sufficient wealth…

“These hypocrites are saying one thing, but aren’t they secretly conquering a few planes to support their wealth?”

Raphael’s expression wasn’t so great, and Gurud was also gnashing his teeth. The bones in his fists were cracking loudly. The mana roaming his body had become a bit unstable and he was looking at these flying mages as if they were his foes.

Lin Yun understood. He had been wondering where he had heard the name, Hardward. It was a secluded alchemist family of the Andlusa Kingdom. It wasn’t well-known, and only a few first-rate major forces knew about them.

When he inherited the Merlin Family, he had seen their names in the Merlin Family’s records.

Moreover, when the Merlin Family rapidly developed their alchemy and amassed wealth, they seemed to have come into contact with the Hardward Family.

The Merlin Family’s alchemy materials were the best, their techniques were not lacking, and their price was cheaper than the usual. This made the Cloud Tower and the Black Tower look for the Merlin Family to craft their potions. It was said that the Cloud Tower had been procuring their potions from the Hardward Family before, but they had been completely replaced by the Merlin Family.

It was natural for this secluded alchemist family to have conflicts with the high-profile alchemy force known as Sky City. It looked like they were already hostile to each other.

The flying carpet rapidly flew above the battleship, and the group of Hardwards looked down at the deck.

Gurud raised his head and glanced at the people on the carpet before loudly cursing, “Watby, you fool! What are you hovering above for? Our battleship is about to sail, we don’t have time to wait for you.”

He then roared to the hold, “Set sail, full speed ahead!”

After a few seconds, dense mana fluctuations appeared on the surface of the battleship. The mechanical system worked at full strength, and the huge floating battleship started slowly accelerating.

At that time, the people on the flying carpet had no choice but to land on the deck because the energy barrier would start rising once the battleship was set in motion. Once the battleship reached a certain speed, they would no longer be able to enter at all. When the time came, they would only be able to fly to the Odin Kingdom on the flying carpet.

The flying carpet needed a mage’s mana to move, and flying to the Odin Kingdom would definitely exhaust a first-rate Archmage to death.

After the flying carpet landed, the mage who had been writing looked up with a resentful and disdainful expression.

“Gurud, you have been corrupted by money! You are an idiot that can’t find the path to the truth. Didn’t you notice that I was in the middle of some important calculations?

“This formula may be related to the path of truth for all alchemists… Forget it, there is no point talking to you, you definitely can’t understand this. You are already walking on the wrong path, you are an impure alchemist. Alchemy is completely profaned in your hands.”

Gurud looked very angry. His alchemy path, his pursuit of truth was being rejected by someone. This was a huge provocation.

It wouldn’t end unless they went all-out. Lin Yun suddenly understood why the Hardward Family’s relationship with Sky City was so poor. The biggest reason the two forces weren’t already at war should be because they were in different kingdoms. They couldn’t rashly start a war across kingdoms.

Gurud pointed at Watby.

“Watby, come, let me take a look at the progress you have made over the years. Just a broken formula and you dare to say that it relates to the path of truth of all alchemists?”

Watby’s face glowed with pride for a moment before he picked the piece of paper with both hands.

“Fool who has been led astray, take a look! It doesn’t matter even if you destroy those sheets of paper. I already recorded the important data. You can’t use despicable methods to destroy my research!”