End of the Magic Era

A hint of understanding flashed on Lin Yun's face. 'Sure enough, it was an Artisan. To be able to design a prototype of the Max Mana Reactor, it was all but certain that he was an Artisan.'

"Take me to Sir Crowits."

Hesitation flashed on Dunas' face before he cautioned, "Sir Merlin... Sir Crowits doesn't have a good temper, he usually ignores tribesmen. He opened a puppet component part shop, and although he is the only Artisan of our fort, very few alchemists are willing to get in touch with him…"

Lin Yun waved his hands indifferently. Others might not know the extent of how formidable Crowits was, but Lin Yun knew that no ordinary Artisan could design a prototype for the Max Mana Reactor. It was something only a Peak Artisan with high achievements in the field of puppeteering could do.

Because this design was ahead of its time by over a century.

It had to be known that for something like alchemy, the foundations were most important. The fundamental theories and formulas might develop slowly, but things made by building on top of them would rapidly be improved. The same thing could peak in popularity and then fall from being a top design within a year.

This was the same for his previous life. Newton's three laws had been the base theory, but the results relying on that base theory became more and more outstanding over time. But it still relied on the basic foundation. Anything surpassing the era by dozens of years would be very eye-opening.

This Max Mana Reactor wasn't just a simple result, it was also creating a new law!

That fully right-angle array was a masterpiece challenging the foundational law. Even if it seemed very simple, especially to someone who had come from the future, in this era, it was a masterpiece transcending time!

Seeing Lin Yun looking so exhilarated, how could Dunas have the heart to say anything? He could only hold it in and apprehensively lead Lin Yun to Crowits' alchemy shop.

Before getting there, Dunas specifically sent someone to notify Crowits, out of fear that Crowits would anger Lin Yun and bring a disaster upon the Grey Beastmen.

Lin Yun had a huge number of puppets under his command, and apart from the labor puppets and the auxiliary puppets, they were all at least at Level 30!

Just by relying on that puppet army, he could destroy a third of the Grey Beastman Race within a day.

Lin Yun was somewhat amazed as he stood in front of that shop. That store was truly in a remote part of the city. It wasn't in the main path of the Grey Beastmen at all. Moreover, the store appeared to be very small, and various marks covered the outside walls of the shop.

A pitch-black hide was hung at the entrance, greasy and dirty. It could be seen with one look that it hadn't been washed for seven to eight years.

'This is an Artisan's shop?'

Dunas awkwardly smiled as he explained in a small voice, "That Sir Crowits has a strange character. He doesn't care about anything other than alchemy…"

Lin Yun didn't say anything in response. He waved his hand to have Dunas wait outside before opening the dirty hide door and entering the ruined alchemy shop.

A dozen enchanted Light spells could be seen within the shop, and apart from a passage in the middle, there were puppets everywhere. All kinds of puppet components, both big and small, could be seen piled on the shelves.

In the depths of the shop, there was a small, old Grey Beastman sitting behind a desk. He had five layers of magnifying glasses over his left eye, and was holding the head of a pen with a pair of tweezers, inscribing a rune on a fingernail-sized component.

Lin Yun calmly walked over and determined with a glance that this person was the only Artisan of the Grey Beastmen's fort, Crowits.

Besides an Artisan that specialized in the field of puppeteering, who could make such a miniature control hub component? A Master Alchemist certainly couldn't manufacture this.

Lin Yun calmly waited without speaking a word. He could see that only the last important step of carving the rune and the command procedure was left, the most important part.

After half an hour, Crowits put down his tools and expressionlessly looked at the precious component for a moment before throwing it into a box on the side in dissatisfaction.

At that time, Lin Yun approached.

"Sir Crowits, let me introduce myself. I am Mafa Merlin, the new ruler of the Grey Beastmen, and also an Artisan. I came here today hoping to have Sir Crowits join my team of alchemists. We have the best technology, and the latest and most perfect refining techniques, and even some things beyond this era. I believe Sir Crowits wouldn't be disappointed…"

Facing a Peak Artisan, Lin Yun showed the other side the due respect.

Such an esteemed Artisan actually only had such a shabby alchemy shop. Also, Crowits was only a 5th Rank Archmage, and it seemed that he had been trapped at that rank for a very long time. There was no question that Crowits was spending all his energy on puppeteering.

Even if the Grey Beastmen's casting talents came from spell casting and their magic patterns, to advance past the 5th Rank, one had to start to understand Laws and work on establishing their own Law's foundation. Only that way could one advance beyond the 5th Rank.

A lot of time and energy was needed to comprehend Laws, and the time and energy that all mages spent was never enough, or it could be said that no mage would ever say that they were spending too much time on their own Law.

The benefits from ranking up didn't interest Crowits at all. Only puppeteering could attract this Peak Artisan.

Lin Yun gave out some details about the alchemist team and even told Crowits about the puppet base.

But Crowits didn't even raise his head from his task as he casually looked for another miniature control hub component. He used his tweezers to grab a small pen tip to start carving runes on it.

Lin Yun faintly frowned. Although he had foreseen that Crowits would be hard to deal with, he had at least expected a reaction.

Lin Yun thought for a bit before talking about some puppeteering knowledge that surpassed the current era.

After hearing that, Crowits finally raised his head and glanced at Lin Yun from the corner of his eye, with the disdain on his face barely hidden. He then went back to work and acted as if Lin Yun was transparent.

Lin Yun pondered a bit and then couldn't help laughing.

Puppeteering knowledge wasn't like potioneering knowledge or Magic Tool knowledge. For potioneering in particular, the temperature, degree of extraction, sequences, and methods needed to be absolutely precise when it came to fusing materials. As long as he shared the data, it would prove whether his words were true.

But for puppeteering… Besides some key points, there weren't many places where data was completely standardized. Puppets were different, and the same component might have over a hundred thousand differences, and they would all be correct.

If those were just words, then Crowits would only consider them conjectures.

Or perhaps those things could be manufactured, but at a price so high that it simply couldn't be widely used. Maybe with just 10% of the materials, it would be possible to make something of the same efficiency, or even better.

There were too many conjectures in the world of puppeteering, most of which weren't worth researching even if they could be successfully crafted, because they might have no practical value.

Such as a certain Mana Reactor… It was just a theorized concept of a Mana Reactor that might work in the future. It would only need half a mana crystal to give out the effect of a full mana crystal.

Even if the advanced conjecture had research value, it had no practical value right now.

Lin Yun himself was an Artisan, and he was proficient in potioneering, Magic Tools craftsmanship, and puppeteering, so he naturally understood that reasoning.

Seeing Crowits taking care of his own business and ignoring him, Lin Yun turned around and left.

After Lin Yun departed, Crowits finished carving the component and raised his head in dissatisfaction.

He also knew about the Grey Beastmen's fort being captured, but if it was under control, then so be it. In any case, that human didn't wildly kill and didn't exterminate the Grey Beastmen, and he was also not hindering his alchemy research.

If not for Dunas sending someone ahead of time, Crowits might have not even let Lin Yun in. He might have just left the guest at the entrance, acting as if he didn't want to see him. But because the Grey Beastmen Race had just been captured, Crowits also felt that he couldn't anger Lin Yun too much, just in case he caused disaster for the Grey Beastmen, even if these tribesmen were a group of idiots...

Lin Yun knew that he couldn't attract Crowits for now. He was a person that didn't care about his own rank, and besides making him interested, no other method would work. Lin Yun estimated that threatening the Grey Beastmen's fort wouldn't have much effect, either.

Lin Yun had Dunas look for a puppet laboratory with a complete set of tools and facilities. And how could Dunas dare to ask questions? He promptly looked for the best alchemy laboratory available.

Lin Yun took the prototype Max Mana Reactor that Crowits had created and didn't come out for an entire day.

While he was there, Lin Yun looked at the prototype and frowned.

Crowits' prototype and concept were complete, but the right-angle array was a mess. The carved mana runes were far too different from the Max Mana Reactor's. He might as well rebuild one from scratch.

To rebuild the Max Mana Reactor, he only needed a sample. It wasn't anything high-level, and he could do it within an hour.

But he spent an entire day altering that prototype.