Eight days flew by in the blink of an eye.
Jellyfish Town.
Leon emerged from the underground passage, a hint of excitement on his face.
“Finally! I can finally start my Hextech card draws again!”
He looked at his panel.
Long-Range Enhancement EXP +3
Long-Range Enhancement Lv1 (98/100) → Long-Range Enhancement Lv2 (1/300)
You have upgraded 'Long-Range Enhancement'. You may choose one of the following three traits to enhance it:
Frost: Divine Arts buffed by 'Long-Range Enhancement' will carry an ice effect. Upon hitting an enemy, it applies one stack of the Chilled status, reducing their movement speed. At ten stacks, a freezing spell can be unleashed on the enemy.
Flame: Divine Arts buffed by 'Long-Range Enhancement' will carry a burning effect. Upon hitting an enemy, it applies one stack of the Burned status, weakening their defense. At ten stacks, a combustion spell can be unleashed on the enemy.
Linkage: Link with the Divine Art 'Wind-Whisper Heavy Cannon'. The power of each Wind-Whisper Heavy Cannon attack increases with distance, peaking at 500 meters, after which it gradually decays as the distance increases further.
“The traits are all pretty average... Let's go with Frost, then.”
Leon murmured after a few seconds of contemplation.
None of these three traits had particularly outstanding effects.
Frost froze people, Flame burned people, and the Linkage trait only linked with Wind-Whisper Heavy Cannon.
Wind-Whisper Heavy Cannon wasn't his primary combat Divine Art, and the Linkage trait itself was quite mediocre.
After weighing his options, Leon chose the Frost trait.
This way, his Radiance Longbow, when enhanced by Buff Inscriptions in the future, could simultaneously carry both the thunderous vibration and frost freezing effects.
Shocking people while freezing them at the same time... Now that he thought about it, that was actually pretty badass.
“It's just a shame that the opponents I run into now are all too weak. They can't even withstand a single Light Hammer Arrow, completely wasting the follow-up effects of my Radiance Longbow.”
Leon shook his head with a trace of regret.
“I hope the Burns undead army can bring me some surprises...”
Tomorrow would be the day of his scheduled meeting with the Shadow King.
When the time came, if the Shadow King harbored any treacherous intentions, Leon would pull out his Radiance Longbow and take him down on the spot.
If the Shadow King truly submitted to him, he could take him along to fight the undead army, using him to gather intelligence.
An undead army was exactly what it sounded like; the warband warriors of the Burns Court were obviously all undead.
Because of this, scouts couldn't gather any useful intelligence at all!
After all, whether they were humans, mermen, or anything else, there was no way to infiltrate the ranks of the undead to spy on them!
Otherwise, a fleshy human or merman head suddenly popping up in the middle of a massive horde of skeleton frames burning with soul fire...
That scene wouldn't just be out of place; it would be downright bizarre!
They'd have to call over some giant eyeballs to deal with that!
Having finalized his trait, Leon browsed his panel once more.
“Wishing Art is only a dozen or so EXP away from leveling up.”
“Sacred Light Meditation is also just a dozen or so EXP away from leveling up.”
“Almost there, almost there. Tomorrow, I'll go harvest some EXP from the Burns Court, and it'll be done in no time...”
Leon pondered in his mind. EXP for Wishing Art was easy to acquire, but how could he speed up his gains for Sacred Light Meditation?
Just as Leon was utilizing his super-intelligence to ponder the problem—only to find his super-intelligence being swept away by his super-strength—
Ratahn's voice suddenly rang out from outside the room.
“Young Master, Evelyn No. 2 requests an audience.”
“Oh? Let her in.”
Leon said, snapping out of his thoughts.
A moment later, Evelyn No. 2, whose mechanical body had been recast with Scott's help, walked into the room.
As soon as she entered, Evelyn No. 2 knelt on one knee and apologized to Leon.
“Young Master Leon, thank you for showing mercy.”
“It was nothing.”
Leon waved his hand dismissively.
Over the past few days, Leon had summoned the magic research team from Stormveil City and the members of the Alchemists' Association to Jellyfish Town.
He had ordered them to resolve the contamination of the mana focus in the underground ruins, and to repair Evelyn No. 4 and Evelyn No. 2, who had been damaged by the contamination.
After the contamination was successfully purified, Evelyn No. 2's alchemical framework resumed operation, and her personality returned to normal.
Once her normal personality was restored, Evelyn No. 2 spent these past few days frantically absorbing external alchemical knowledge, entering a state of super-learning.
Her talent for alchemy was so formidable that even Scott felt a chill of fear.
In just these two days, she had solved numerous alchemical problems that had long given the Alchemists' Association's alchemists massive headaches. Furthermore, without even using an alchemy workshop, she had directly assembled a troll robot.
Through the control of a soul contract—a unilateral soul contract with the troll robot—Evelyn No. 2 could command it to move materials, construct houses, manufacture alchemical tools, and perform other tasks.
Hearing this news for the first time made Leon sigh with emotion. A genius was indeed a genius.
Even after a thousand years, she could systematically master modern knowledge in an extremely short time and bring forth new innovations.
Those without sufficient talent, even if they stood on the shoulders of giants, still couldn't compare to a true genius of this caliber.
“What brings you to me?” Leon asked after a brief moment of reflection.
“To apologize to you. And...” Evelyn No. 2 hesitated for two seconds before continuing,
“...I hope that you, as Unit-01, can assign me some tasks.”
Since leaving the Evelyn Alchemy Technology manor for the surface world, Evelyn No. 2 had learned many modern alchemical techniques, yet she felt lost regarding her own existence.
She learned so much alchemy to satisfy the alchemical obsession she had inherited from the Creator.
But... what then?
As an alchemical golem, what was she supposed to do after mastering alchemy?
Evelyn No. 2 did not know; her alchemical framework held no answers for this.
Therefore, after long deliberation, she decided to seek help from Leon, the Unit-01 who closely resembled the Creator.
Although even No. 2 didn't know in what way this Unit-01—who had a different gender, different transcendent powers, and a different status—actually resembled the Creator.
Yet her alchemical intuition told her that Leon was very similar to the Creator.
Seeking his help might yield the answers she sought.
“Assign you a task?”
Leon was taken aback. Was this a bit too subtle?
No, wait! She was just an alchemical golem. What the hell was subtle about that?
After a deeper conversation with No. 2, Leon finally understood that she simply lacked a sense of purpose, which was why she wanted him to assign her a task.
“That's simple,” Leon said with a wave of his hand, making it seem like a walk in the park.
“Since ancient times, the main quest of life has always been: find 2,000 calories of food to fill your stomach.”
“This is the absolute foundation of foundations, the core of the main quest line.”
“Any other task besides that is just a side quest—the kind you can do or skip as you please.”
Evelyn No. 2 nodded solemnly.
Her current survival needs were merely engine oil and replacement alchemical parts.
The Evelyn Alchemy Technology manor had plenty of those, so she didn't have to worry.
That was why she felt so lost now.
“As for the side quests,” Leon said slowly, “everyone's side quests are different.”
“For me, my current side quest is to grow stronger quickly, advance to the Epic rank, and gather all the intelligence I want to know.”
No. 2 hesitated for a split second and asked, “Then... should I follow your side quest as well?”
“There's no need for that,” Leon shook his head. “You won't be able to keep up with my advancement speed, and you might never advance to the Epic rank in your entire life.”
“...” Evelyn No. 2 fell silent.
“I am different from others, you don't need to copy me,” Leon said.
“However, I can recommend a side quest to you—one that will never go out of style and can be pursued for a lifetime.”
“What is it?” Evelyn No. 2 asked immediately.
“Infrastructure and farming!”
Rate on N.U.
