Chapter 1377: Fortress
Even if everything went well, and the place would be occupied after the array was set up, it would be useless. The place would be desolate for at least 1,000 years without any living creatures due to the overlapping with the Plane of the Undead. The resources there would be corrupted by the power of death too.
Then, why would everybody compete over the qualification for that task?
Agalon shook his head.
“If everything goes well, the Starry Sky College will probably gain the most returns. The overlapping s.p.a.ce is very special. It’s not just a collision of s.p.a.ces; the s.p.a.ces within that range have been completely combined. That shouldn’t have happened. There’s something weird about it.
“In such a case, to cut off the connection between the two planes, the core of the planes will be involved. The core of the Leviathan Plane won’t be happy to be swallowed by the Plane of the Undead.
“So, the core of the Leviathan Plane will be activated, and the alchemists that supervise the Hexagonal Array will gain some of the Leviathan Plane’s core power…”
Hearing that, Lin Yun became solemn. He had already figured out the reason.
The core power of a plane, and especially that which the plane voluntarily offered, would be the best nutrition for a Saint Alchemist. It was the only thing that could increase a Saint Alchemist’s power of creation.
To loot the plane core wouldn’t grant such power. For every Saint Alchemist, it was a rare opportunity. Although the increase wouldn’t be significant, it would still be much faster than learning and improving on one’s own. At least a millennium would be saved.
For any Saint Alchemist, the opportunity was too great to be missed. Because they were short of a Saint Alchemist, they had to find a replacement who was the best Artisan and very close to becoming a Saint Alchemist.
None of the alchemists that partic.i.p.ated in the contest qualified, because they couldn’t accomplish the final task. Sven was the one who was the closest to becoming a Saint Alchemist. If he was given the chance, he might be able to become a Saint Alchemist in the Leviathan Plane.
However, the matter about the Plane of the Undead was of critical importance. They couldn’t afford any risk. Since Lin Yun was already a Saint Alchemist, they would surely use him. That was the safest choice.
Then, Lin Yun would gain all the benefits in the Plane of the Undead…
Lin Yun finally realized why Sven gazed at him with bloodshot eyes. The man had every reason to be angry. Lin Yun wouldn’t be surprised if the man considered him a mortal enemy, because he had robbed the man’s chance of becoming a Saint Alchemist. The man might never get another one…
On the other hand, Lin Yun understood Agalon’s implication, which was more important.
All lives born in Noscent carried Noscent’s core marks in their souls. Wherever they went, the marks would linger because they were part of the soul.
The mages of Noscent could never stay too long in other planes, exactly because they carried the marks of Noscent. The stronger they were, the more restrained they would be.
Those who were very strong would be rejected in other worlds. The longer they stayed, the more rejected they would be.
The creatures below the Heaven Rank didn’t have such restraints. The weaker they were, the less affected they would be.
If the races of Noscent left Noscent, it would mean exile, not because they were leaving for terrible places, but because of the marks they were born with.
The exiled races were destined to decline. If the experts of the races couldn’t adapt after leaving Noscent, they would constantly decline.
Only those who were weak could adapt to other planes as the reproduction of those races. Unfortunately, it was very difficult to get rid of the decline.
The Blood Elves in the underground world were only lucky to receive the Void Blood Pool that the 73rd G.o.d had dropped. They had risen with the Void Blood Pool’s power. The other exiled races rarely had Heaven Rank experts.
Take the dark elves for example. There were few Heaven Rank experts among them, even though it had been a long time.
In the future, the top experts of Noscent would all die along with the decline of Noscent because none of them could remove the marks they were born with.
However, at this moment, there was a way to receive the core mark of another world as its gift. It meant that even if Noscent was destroyed someday, the people who carried the marks of the Leviathan Plane would still be able to survive in the Leviathan Plane!
Thinking about that, Lin Yun had complicated feelings. He finally realized why Agalon introduced him to everybody as his disciple.
It was all because of this. The aforementioned returns were already worth fighting for. The contest wouldn’t have been held if there hadn’t been only five Saint Alchemists in Noscent, and the others couldn’t have been found or reached.
The contest was actually quite pointless because the winner could only be either Sven or Lin Yun anyway…
By everybody’s estimation, both Lin Yun and Sven were better than the best Artisans. Unless another Saint Alchemist had shown up, neither Agalon nor Alonzo would’ve given away the spot.
Both the Lionheart Prince and the forest elves’ king understood their selfishness. It was fine for them to give the privilege to their disciple as long as it didn’t affect the big picture.
If Agalon hadn’t made so many preparations, and Lin Yun hadn’t become a Saint Alchemist, the spot would’ve surely been given to Sven, whether or not Lin Yun’s product was better than Sven’s.
Lin Yun felt quite warm. Agalon was truly taking care of him as a son, not just an heir that would succeed as the leader of the Starry Sky College.
There was nothing Lin Yun could say at this moment. He had made several plans for the worst-case scenarios, but clearly this one was not really a bad ending.
If it was impossible to stop Noscent’s destruction, then it would be better to go to the Leviathan Plane than to die with Noscent.
After Agalon left, Lin Yun made a decision on his hill.
The Shelter Tower would be built in the Starry Sky College. He had planned to build it in the Andlusa Kingdom, which was fully under his control. The royal family of the Andlusa Kingdom didn’t dare to mess with the Merlin Family at all.
Santon Merlin, a prodigy, was from the Merlin Family. Although he hadn’t been seen in years, n.o.body knew whether he was really dead. Then, Mafa Merlin showed up. He was even more terrifying than Santon Merlin. A lot of young geniuses were appearing in the family too. Its position would be unshaken in the next 1,000 years.
In particular, thanks to the Gilded Rose’s development in the Odin Kingdom, the Merlin Family’s position in Andlusa was even more stable.
It was the safest to build the tower in the Andlusa Kingdom, but at the same time, the effect of the tower would be affected because it was in the northeast of the continent.
To build the Shelter Tower in the north of the Odin Kingdom was the best option. This was the heartland of the continent, which would be fully under the Shelter Tower’s protection. However, in the Odin Kingdom, there might be unnecessary trouble during the construction.
Lin Yun had been wavering until this day. He decided that he would build it in the Starry Sky College.
In 10 years, the foundation of the Shelter Tower would be laid. Even if it wasn’t fully constructed, its main part would be able to protect the Starry Sky College against the disaster that would destroy it.
Also, the Starry Sky College was the single land of alchemists only in Noscent. All its three deans were Saint Alchemists. There were almost 30 Artisans and a bunch of Master Alchemists…
There wasn’t much time left according to Agalon’s vision of his death. Lin Yun had to make plans for him. He was trying to save the Starry Sky College and Agalon in 10 years, and prevent that vision from coming true.
Agalon was the first to leave Noscent. Lin Yun didn’t intend to go to the Leviathan Plane with the main troops yet. At this moment, there were still ceaseless battles on the frontline. It was pointless to go to the Leviathan Plane until the situation stabilized.
It was a better choice to explore the Plane of the Undead while it was in contact with the Leviathan Plane.
In whatever was left of Marianna’s memory, the key to the truth was in the Plane of the Undead, but she didn’t remember the details. Considering what happened to the Plane of the Undead, it was possible that they were related.
If there was truly a mastermind that had been planning and controlling everything, then Lin Yun might be detected if he said anything.
Magic was almost omnipotent. It was possible that the guy could keep an eye on such things with special spells or magic tools.
Therefore, Lin Yun simply wrote a mark with his magic power. He would give it to Agalon when Agalon left so that he would realize that the key to the destruction was in the Plane of the Undead after he left Noscent.
But Agalon had left for the Plane of the Undead this time to investigate the collision of the Leviathan Plane and the Plane of the Undead, and to find a perfect solution to the problem. He wasn’t exactly looking for the truth of destruction.
After all, resolving the crisis in the Leviathan Plane was the top priority. If the crisis in the Leviathan Plane wasn’t perfectly resolved, then Noscent would be in big trouble even before it was destroyed.
Lin Yun planned to take a look at the Plane of the Undead too. The powerful creatures in the Plane of the Undead already had to be observing the new plane that was waiting to be swallowed by the Plane of the Undead.
The territories near the Leviathan Plane would probably be very popular. The powerful creatures in neighboring territories would definitely fight to claim those territories, so the Plane of the Undead would be even more chaotic. This should be the best opportunity to investigate the Plane of the Undead.
Also, some of the materials had to be collected in the Plane of the Undead. Black Sand was needed to create complex materials for the construction of the Shelter Tower. A huge reserve of Black Sand had been found in the Skeleton Plane that was connected to the Plane of the Undead. It was enough.
To enter the Plane of the Undead with the Skeleton Plane as a platform was the best choice. A mining base had to be established in the Skeleton Plane. Since he was going to explore the Plane of the Undead, he would just upgrade the mining base into a frontline fortress.
After taking a rest, Lin Yun picked several hundred people from his alchemist team, asking them to come to the Skeleton Plane with him.
No special materials were needed to construct the base. Most of them could be found in the Skeleton Plane. 5,000 engineering puppets had been gathered. More and more types of alchemy puppets were being manufactured in the puppet factory, and they were all focused on one purpose.
The combat puppets were only good at fighting, the mining puppets were the best miners whose systems were all designed for mining, and the engineering puppets had all systems and structures for construction.
All kinds of bizarre-looking alchemy puppets were made. Then, Lin Yun constructed a Planar Path to the Skeleton Plane.
There was nothing that could move in the desolate Skeleton Plane. The undead creatures had been eliminated. The channel to the Plane of the Undead had been blocked too.
A great number of bizarre-looking alchemy puppets appeared in the Skeleton Plane. Some had only one huge head and eight arms, and looked like an egg to which eight sticks were attached. They were engineering puppets. They had six agile fingers on each hand, which allowed them to carry out tasks that required precision.
Some of them had tracks and wheels on their lower body and four thick arms on their upper body. They were designed for heavy manual labor…
The division of labor improved as Lin Yun instructed the alchemist team. The more the labor was divided, the more efficient the work would be. As more and more alchemy puppets were being produced in the factory, this was the only way to make the best use of them.
The result was obvious. Altogether 10,000 alchemy puppets arrived in the Skeleton Plane, and it only took them three years to build the framework of the base, which was 10 kilometers long and wide. It was made of the complex materials that were a combination of Black Sand and a few metals.
After those materials were melted by the special construction puppets, the foundation and walls of the base had been perfectly fused. With the three superma.s.sive mana reactors that were placed in the center of the base, even Lin Yun might not be able to conquer the base after it was constructed.
To enter the Plane of the Undead from here was the best choice. In the worst case-scenario, he could just abandon this Skeleton Plane, and the loss wouldn’t be huge.
The Black Sand was already being collected on a large scale. There would be enough to use for a long time in a couple of months. After that, this plane would only be significant as a frontline fortress.
The base in the Skeleton Plane was built by alchemy puppets and his alchemist team, with the help of the Cave Gnomes and the Red-Skinned Spirit Suckers. Lin Yun didn’t need to do a lot.
While the base was under construction, Lin Yun took out the rare materials he found in the 73rd G.o.d’s relics, and upgraded Pabiete.
Pabiete’s memory was still being sealed. As it leveled up, the seal was getting thinner and thinner. Under such circ.u.mstances, Lin Yun was already capable of removing the seal.
But Lin Yun didn’t do that. He didn’t know what was underneath the seal. He was afraid that there was some sort of trap underneath. It was possible that Pabiete’s sealed memory system would be destroyed if the seal was forcefully removed. Or maybe the memory inside the memory system was incomplete, or had been changed for malicious purposes.
n.o.body knew what would happen. Lin Yun knew that he would’ve taken a lot of insidious measures to prevent it from being cracked if he had made Pabiete. He might have even prepared a trap that would mislead people into forbidden lands.
It was best to wait for Pabiete to level up to the point where its memory system was automatically unlocked…
As it happened, a lot of rare materials were found in the 73rd G.o.d’s relics. They weren’t all needed for the construction of the Shelter Tower. Some of them couldn’t be used in the Shelter Tower at all, and some others had such a huge stock that not all of them would be used up even if the Shelter Tower had a huge demand.
The remains of the materials were enough for Pabiete to level up…
He made parts, and upgraded the magic patterns on the parts, the energy transmission system, the mana reactor, the control system, and the weapon system. All parts of Pabiete that could be replaced were replaced with new ones.
When he replaced the parts, he inferred with the Ten Thousand Spell Wheel and the Magic Array to find the most suitable parts for Pabiete.
After spending a week busy calculating, creating, and replacing, he finally upgraded Pabiete successfully. At Pabiete’s level, it didn’t just need better parts; it needed parts that fitted it 100%. Only in such a way would the parts be 100% effective.
If all the parts were 100% effective, it would be 120% powerful in general, which would trigger a qualitative change, and lead to an upgrade!
Alternatively, it could just wait patiently while its power influenced the parts inside its body. When all its parts were strengthened by its power, and fundamentally improved in the end, then the puppet would upgrade. Most Heaven Rank alchemy puppets in the Puppet Plane had upgraded themselves in such a way.