Chapter 282: The Federation's Welcome, the Councilman's Daughter

"Ah, the sea—"

"So boring."

Three days after departing from Frostfall Port and sailing on the sea, Yun Mu stood at the very front of the Xiangyang deck, facing the oncoming sea breeze, and sighed with such emotion.

After the initial freshness of the voyage faded away, all that remained was the calm and tedium that naturally arose from facing the unchanging surface of the sea.

For the first two days, there was still the matter of Brenna teaching her Navigation to sustain her, but now, according to Brenna's own words, she had taught just about everything that needed to be taught.

As for the rest, one could only make progress after experiencing it personally.

In plain language, the theoretical experience had reached its limit; if she wanted to continue improving, she would need practical operation to integrate and master the knowledge she had learned.

In other words, Yun Mu had nothing to do.

It was clearly unrealistic for the ship to be lively every day like in some three-word anime; she was already considering whether to pull Brenna and Lucy together to play cards in the Captain's cabin.

It was a pity that although she had played many games before transmigrating, she only knew how to play Fight the Landlord with cards, and her skills weren't even that great. As for games related to chess... Tic-tac-toe, Chinese chess, and checkers—she only knew how to play those three.

She had never played Mahjong either; if she wanted to kill time, there really wasn't any good way.

As for the ones she could play, she wasn't interested in Fight the Landlord, she had grown tired of Chinese chess before transmigrating, Tic-tac-toe was meaningless, and as for checkers, she only remembered having played it in the past, but the specific rules had long since been forgotten.

Should she go ask the crew members to see how people in this world usually killed time? Earlier, Yun Mu had seen a few crew members who had finished their work gathering in the cabin to play cards; perhaps she should just join them.

Of course, that was just talk; in reality, she wasn't interested in playing cards at all.

That was the real reason.

Winning or losing basically depended on luck, and the crew members always bet money when playing cards; although it wasn't much, she still wanted to participate as little as possible in matters involving money.

"Ah, so you're here!"

Brenna's voice suddenly came from behind. Yun Mu turned her head to look and saw the girl, covered in ice shards, walking quickly toward her.

"What happened to you?"

Yun Mu looked at the other person with some surprise.

She looked just like a survivor who had just emerged from a Blizzard, with frost all over her clothes, but the problem was, it hadn't snowed at all these past few days? "Didn't I take a bottle of Frost Breath potion from you yesterday?" Hearing her words, Brenna explained to her: "I originally just wanted to analyze its composition."

"As a result, the Spirituality contained within it exploded, and a large amount of mist mixed with frost plastered my face."

"Ah, this..." Yun Mu was stunned for a moment, then asked with concern: "You aren't hurt, are you?"

That bottle of Frost Breath potion was something Brenna had come to get from her last night, saying she wanted to study it; Yun Mu hadn't expected that thing could actually explode.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Brenna waved her hand at her: "I only took a one-milliliter amount, so the power of the explosion wasn't very big."

"Don't look at me like this; actually, I am still very cautious."

"Would a very cautious person do it without any protection at all?" Yun Mu frowned subconsciously and retorted.

Brenna gave a somewhat sheepish laugh: "This is already the result after taking precautions; my temporarily constructed Laboratory was basically all frozen over."

"Didn't you only take one milliliter?" Yun Mu was very surprised: "Can the power of one milliliter be this strong?"

"That..." Brenna avoided her gaze, looking a bit guilty: "It's true that I only took one milliliter, but the remaining dosage was still in the Laboratory."

"When that one milliliter of potion exploded, because of a chain reaction, the whole rest of the bottle exploded too..."

"..."

Yun Mu stood there in a daze, silent. After a long while, she asked Brenna: "So, is there something you need from me?"

"Let's get this straight, there's no way you're getting another bottle of Frost Breath potion from me."

The bottle she gave earlier had already blown up the Laboratory; Yun Mu found it hard to imagine what kind of trouble would happen if she gave her another one.

Although logically speaking, after experiencing this accident, Brenna would surely be more careful during her next experiment... but that would have to wait until the Xiangyang's Spirituality repaired the destroyed Laboratory.

However, to Yun Mu's surprise, when Brenna heard her words, the expression on her face barely changed.

"It doesn't matter, actually I thought of a better method." She chuckled: "Can you let Miss Lucy come out? That was an Alchemy potion she refined, right?"

"Compared to locking myself in the Laboratory and studying it blindly, it's obviously faster to go find the person herself," she said.

"Indeed." Yun Mu nodded in agreement, then looked at her with some confusion: "Then why didn't you do that earlier?"

"Well... I, I just wanted to try analyzing the composition, I didn't have any thoughts of wanting to show off in front of Miss Lucy first..."

"You just said it all out loud, didn't you!?"

"... Forget it." Yun Mu rubbed her forehead: "I'll call Miss Lucy out."

"It just so happens that you've reminded me too; I was originally going to find Miss Lucy to learn Alchemy, but because of learning Navigation these past two days, I had forgotten all about it..."

As Yun Mu spoke, she tapped on the Game Panel and summoned Lucy.

"Speaking of which, Miss Yun doesn't even need to make any preparations in advance when summoning Miss Lucy." Watching Lucy appear before her, Brenna suddenly thought of something and said casually.

"That is because I am always in a summoned state; it is just that because Miss Yun's Spirituality cannot sustain my long-term activity, I am in a dormant state most of the time." Before Yun Mu could explain, Lucy, who was to the side, spoke first.

"Yes, that's right, that's how it is." Yun Mu retracted the draft in her mind and nodded in acknowledgment.

"So that's how it is." Brenna nodded, not paying much attention to it.

"So, is there something you need by calling me out?" Lucy feigned the appearance of having just woken up and asked, looking at Yun Mu.

"Oh, it's like this..."

Yun Mu explained Brenna's previous analysis of the Frost Breath explosion and her desire to learn Alchemy.

"Hmm... didn't I say before, don't try to analyze the Alchemy items I create." After hearing Yun Mu's words, Lucy was a bit puzzled.

"You didn't say that." Yun Mu shook her head affirmatively.

"... Alright, my fault." Having received an affirmative answer, Lucy appeared somewhat helpless.

It was mainly that she hadn't expected that one of her own people would try to analyze the potion she refined; clearly, all they had to do was ask her.

"That was a long time ago." Lucy said to the two: "When I was still an Alchemy Apprentice, a good friend of mine relied on stealing my Alchemy inventions to successfully win the favor of our mentor... I don't want to go into the specific details, but ever since then, the items I refine have all had security measures added to them."

"As long as one tries to analyze its structure or refining technique, it will eventually lead to the self-destruction of the refined item... and the best means of destruction is often an explosion."

"If you want a high-efficiency coolant, I can help you make one, but..."

Lucy looked at Brenna, and the latter interrupted before she could finish: "No, I want to learn Alchemy, and then personally craft the things I want!"

"Hehe, very good." Lucy nodded, looking quite satisfied.

Then she looked at Yun Mu again: "Wanting to learn Alchemy is quite difficult; if you don't have the determination to learn it no matter what, and are only holding onto the idea of just giving it a try—"

"Uh." Lucy noticed Yun Mu's expectant expression, suddenly paused for a moment, and changed her words: "—that's also fine; treating it as a hobby to cultivate is not bad either."

Hey, even I feel like you're being a bit too biased toward me! Hearing the second half of Lucy's words, Yun Mu complained in her heart.

"When do we start?" she asked, unable to wait.

"Anytime is fine, hmm—"

Just as she finished speaking, Lucy thought of something; she looked around and added: "The premise is that we change locations."

"Although the deck of the Xiangyang is wide and flat, there are no tables here, and it's also windy," she said.

"Let's go to the conference room," Yun Mu suggested at this time: "There is no one else there, and we won't be disturbed."

"Hmm, and we won't disturb others either," she added at the end.

The conference room is directly above the Captain's cabin; it is a place left for the core members of the Xiangyang to hold meetings when necessary.

Hmm... actually, it's just an empty room with no real use.

Put a large table in it, fill it with chairs, and it counts as a place for meetings.

As for why this place isn't utilized, for example as a second warehouse or something—honestly, there is absolutely no need for that.

After all, not to mention anything else, the storage space of one of Yun Mu's earrings is 500*500*500 in size; the items she can carry herself are more than the entire ship.

Is there any need to add a warehouse? If it weren't for the fear of scaring her crew, Yun Mu would even want to turn the warehouse on the lower deck of the ship into crew quarters.

At that time, everyone would have their own room, focusing on the ship-riding experience.

"Ahem, regarding Alchemy... it is actually the process of converting one item into another item."

"Besides that, Alchemy can also activate the Spirituality within items, making them exert unexpected effects."

Lucy sat opposite Yun Mu and Brenna, talking incessantly as she taught the two the basics of Alchemy.

"For example, with ordinary herbs, an average person can only grind them into a paste, or process them through special methods to make them into medicinal ointments that can treat illnesses."

"But Alchemy can directly skip this process; furthermore, Alchemy can also enhance or trigger other powers hidden within the herbs by activating the Spirituality in the herbs."

"This is the core of Alchemy, and the main way to distinguish Alchemy from normal processing!"

"It's not just herbs; the Spirituality of ordinary items can also be activated, for example—" Lucy paused slightly for a moment, thought about it, and said: "There is an alchemical product called Explosive Powder."

"Its effect is similar to gunpowder, but the formula is quite different."

"The specific transmutation method—you only need lime plus mineral powder with the Fire Element, and a Neutralizer."

"The lime and mineral powder here both need to have their Spirituality activated, because if the Spirituality isn't activated, the Fire Element attribute won't exist within the mineral powder..."

"Besides that, the degree of Spirituality that different items can activate is also completely different; for example, the Spirituality Activation Degree of dandelion grass is at most 95. Depending on the quality and the Alchemist's ability, the specific value will change, but it basically won't exceed the number 95."

"The higher the Spirituality Activation Degree, the better the effect after transmutation."

When Lucy said this, she felt a bit thirsty. Seeing this, Yun Mu immediately took a thermos cup out of the space in her earring and handed it to her.

"Thanks, gulp gulp."

After finishing the water, Lucy began to continue her explanation.

"Although every item will trigger some hidden abilities to a greater or lesser extent after activating its Spirituality, Alchemy is not as simple as doing addition and subtraction, just stacking the abilities of different items together."

"Just for two materials to fuse with each other, one must consider the compatibility of the Elements, as well as whether the Steel, Soft, and Neutral properties of the materials are matched properly, whether the Spirituality Activation Degree between the two materials is similar, and so on and so forth..."

"Element compatibility, as the name suggests, is the compatibility of elemental attributes like Rock, Water, Fire, Wind, Thunder, Grass, Ice, Light, Dark, and Curse. Without a doubt, materials that mutually restrain each other like Water and Fire are very difficult to fuse together. Of course, I'm not saying it's impossible, just that it will be very difficult."

"Secondly, Steel, Soft, and Neutral refer to the types of materials. Generally speaking, transmuting items requires ensuring that the Steel and Soft attributes reach a balance, while Neutral materials serve to harmonize them."

"For example, the Explosive Powder from just now: lime and Fire-attribute mineral powder are both Steel materials, while the Neutralizer is Neutral. Because the former two are low-tier materials and the Neutralizer is a high-tier material, it can simultaneously cancel out the Steel nature of both."

"Suppose you replace the Fire-attribute mineral powder with charcoal; then, as both are low-tier materials and charcoal is a Soft type, it can cancel out the Steel nature of the lime. But because charcoal is a Grass + Fire dual-attribute material, while lime is a Rock-attribute material—"

"What is ultimately transmuted is nothing more than a lump of inert powder that is flammable but won't explode."

"Hmm..." Lucy looked at Brenna, who was deep in thought below, and then looked at the sweating Yun Mu.

"You don't need to understand these things right now, just remember them for the time being. Once the number of times you practice increases in the future, even if you want to forget, you won't be able to."

"If it were my teacher during my time as an Alchemy Apprentice, they would probably just throw a big book at you and tell you to memorize the detailed information of various materials first."

"But that teaching style of only knowing the 'what' but not the 'why' is not my style, so for the first lesson—"

Before Lucy's words were finished, she heard bursts of shouting coming from outside the door.

After listening carefully, it turned out that the Xiangyang had finally arrived at its scheduled destination—the border town of Folaka.

At this time, it was already approaching the pier on the shore.

Calculating the time, it was about right.

Since that's the case, "Let's stop here for today," she smiled lightly: "After all, after leaving here, we will be sailing on the sea for more than twenty days and won't be able to dock."

"Cherish this time on land."

(End of this chapter)