Chapter 294: Apostle

【Heavy Magic Ice Staff (Purple)】

【Attack Power +10】

【Spell Strength +25】

【Spell Penetration +5】

【Casting Speed +10% / Spiritual Power Recovery Speed +10%】

【Skill: Heavy】

【This staff is very heavy; when you use it for melee attacks, it deals higher damage.】

【Skill: Ice Crystal Barrage】

【Continuously release five ice crystals to deal piercing and Freeze damage to the enemy; Range 8, single-target damage, +25% damage modifier.】

【Slow 80%】

【Target Speed -10%】

【Skill: Blizzard】

【Summon a blizzard to shroud the area ahead, applying the 【Slow】 effect to all enemies within range, and dealing damage every turn; no damage modifier.】

【Freeze 85%】

【Freeze the enemy for one turn; while frozen, damage taken from physical strikes is +25%, and damage taken from fire-attribute attacks is +45%.】

【A very heavy magic staff, with a Lord-tier Extreme Cold Ice Snow Elemental Core embedded in the tip; crafted by 【Alchemist Lucy】.】

【Extreme Cold Coolant (Blue)】

【A liquid made from Cold Shiver Grass, Shining Root, Silver Cup Flower, and the gastric juices of a Frozen Bubble Fish; it can effectively absorb the heat generated by mechanical devices.】

【Crafted by 【Alchemist Lucy】.】

"Did you both understand?"

Lucy deliberately slowed down her refining speed, even having the leisure to explain why she was doing so while she worked.

Yet even so, the refining process for an alchemy item of this quality was still complex enough to make both Yun Mu and Brenna, these two alchemy novices, frown.

Oh no, to be precise, they didn't even count as alchemy novices; after all, in Yun Mu's Game Panel, the skill Alchemy had yet to appear.

However, to say they gained absolutely nothing would be an exaggeration. "I understood a little, I suppose," she replied.

"Mm, that's good enough." Lucy nodded and handed the Heavy Magic Ice Staff to Yun Mu. "It's like that with everything; it doesn't matter if you don't understand now, as long as you write it down, you'll eventually understand later."

"This is for you, Miss Yun."

"Eh? Is this for me?" Yun Mu took the staff from Lucy's hand, somewhat surprised.

"Of course," Lucy said as if it were a matter of course. "As a spellcaster, how could you not have a decent staff?"

"Considering your habits, I specifically made it very sturdy, so there's no problem even if you use it as a club. Besides that, this staff should also be able to serve as a Paintbrush."

The Heavy Magic Ice Staff looked like a wooden long staff with a blue gemstone embedded at the top. Perhaps due to Lucy's personal taste, the staff didn't have any flashy decorations, and the whole thing exuded a rustic air.

That said, the Lord-tier Extreme Cold Ice Snow Elemental Core at the top was quite eye-catching, and what was surprising was that this seemingly extremely precious elemental core combined with the ordinary wooden staff body very naturally, without any sense of incongruity.

Overall, although the staff looked plain at first glance, the more one savored it, the more pleasing it became.

"Mm, then I'll accept it for now. Thank you, Lucy." Yun Mu held the staff with both hands and looked up at the tip, which was about a head higher than her.

Huh, should she be wearing some kind of magic robe or something? She looked just like a weak, pitiful, and helpless mage.

And then, when the enemy gets close... wait, isn't her profession a Painter!? Isn't that the kind of thing usually done by protagonists whose main profession is melee but who pretend to be ranged? Well, never mind, who told her that all her attributes are so powerful anyway.

Anyway, being good at close-quarters combat isn't a bad thing.

As long as she doesn't become a "big-dicked" powerhouse... "Is this bottle of coolant for me?" Just then, Brenna looked at the pale blue liquid sitting on the side of the table and asked.

"It is not." Hearing Brenna's words, Lucy turned to look at her. "This is an assignment I've set for you."

"The refining method for this coolant isn't difficult. You can try using other materials as substitutes. In short, as long as you end up producing something with a similar effect, it's fine even if the quality is a bit lower than this."

"Once you finish this assignment, that Steam Mecha should be ready for design, right?" Lucy smiled softly and tapped her finger lightly on the design draft on the table.

"Can I refine items now?" Brenna was stunned for a moment, then revealed a confident smile. "I will complete the assignment, Teacher Lucy!"

"What about me?" Yun Mu raised her hand at this moment. "Do I not have anything to do?"

"Uh..."

"Hey, don't tell me there really isn't anything!" Seeing Lucy's expression, Yun Mu's eyes widened immediately.

"That, um..." Lucy originally wanted to say that Yun Mu didn't seem to have any talent for Alchemy, but she felt that saying this might be a bit discouraging, so she changed her words: "How about this, Miss Yun, why don't you go study the refining method for the Chestnut Bomb?"

"Didn't you obtain the recipe earlier?"

"Since that's the case, why not try it according to the recipe?"

"Mm, a Chestnut Bomb, huh?" Although it felt a bit perfunctory, there really wasn't anything to do on the ship, and besides, refining a Chestnut Bomb would be a good hands-on experience.

Then let's give it a try. By the way, what does a Chestnut Bomb need again?

"Gunpowder and ash are easy enough, and I can make the neutralizer myself, but the hard-wood chestnut... damn it, we're still on a ship, where am I supposed to get chestnuts?"

"Dummy, if there are no chestnuts, can't you use something else to substitute?" Lucy patted her head in annoyance, thinking to herself how Miss Yun didn't know how to be flexible.

"Oh."

It wasn't that Yun Mu couldn't be flexible; in fact, when she was painting, she had many ideas in her mind.

But that was in a field she was familiar with, and once painting turned into Alchemy, she became that clueless Xiaobai who only knew how to refine items according to a set recipe.

This wasn't to say she lacked creativity, just the caution that comes from unfamiliarity.

"Anyway, let's get the neutralizer done first." Leaving Brenna's Laboratory, Yun Mu headed straight for the lowest deck warehouse of the Xiangyang. There was a crew member in charge of managing the warehouse; she just needed to find him and say she wanted some Moonlight Grass.

As for what Moonlight Grass is for... of course, it's the material for making the neutralizer, you loser!

And as for the other material for making the neutralizer, Soft water, she would need to find a way.

According to the knowledge Lucy taught her, water is inherently Soft, but the vast majority of water in this world is impure. Mm... Yun Mu knew this too.

Therefore, if one wants to obtain spiritual water, one needs to use distillation to remove the impurities from the water completely.

Because she needed to study Alchemy, Yun Mu moved some spare equipment from Brenna's Laboratory into the Captain's office; besides, once fixed with Spirituality, they could self-repair if damaged as long as materials were provided, so those spare pieces of equipment were actually of little use.

Rather than leaving them to gather dust, it was better to move them to her place.

A high-level Alchemist could use an Alchemy Array to directly convert seawater into pure water, but this was clearly not something a novice like Yun Mu could manage.

Therefore, she could only rely on the power of the Distillation Machine to repeatedly distill a bottle of seawater until it exhibited Soft characteristics.

And during the distillation process, she could take advantage of this time to use her Spirituality to stimulate the potential abilities of the Moon Grass.

"Ugh."

Spirituality slowly seeped into the fibers of the Moon Grass, and then with a "snap," in Yun Mu's Perception, it felt as if something had broken.

"This Moon Grass is ruined."

Yun Mu picked up the Moon Grass on the tabletop; although it looked no different from before on the surface, the Spirituality inside had actually been scrambled by her.

This was the result of not controlling her Spirituality well, but it wasn't a big problem, as the Moon Grass's own functions would not be damaged; it just couldn't serve as an Alchemy material anymore.

"Continue, switch to the next one."

Taking a deep breath, she placed the damaged Moon Grass into the wooden box beside her, then took out a second Moon Grass, laid it flat on the tabletop, and used the Spirituality within her body to stimulate the Spirituality hidden inside this plant. About half an hour later. "Finally succeeded!"

Opening her eyes, Yun Mu looked at the Moon Grass in front of her emitting a faint fluorescent glow, feeling a bit teary-eyed.

Beside her, there were 48 failed Moon Grasses, eighteen more than the average of one failure per minute!

This was just the step of stimulating the Moon Grass's Spirituality; the neutralizing agent hadn't even been refined yet, and after that, the neutralizing agent and other materials would need to be mixed together, and every natural material needed to have its Spirituality stimulated first.

Damn it, the Chestnut Bomb is only a green-quality item, why is it so hard to make?

She suddenly felt as if she had jumped into a bottomless pit; this feeling was just like when she intended to make a game in her past life—before doing it, she thought it was very simple, and that as long as she found a way, everything could definitely be solved.

Only when she truly started making it did she realize there were too many problems to solve, and the specific tasks were too troublesome; no matter how much time she spent, there were still countless pending items waiting for her ahead. Although she had finally managed to fix the framework later on, she had transmigrated before the game could be released.

"Inhale, exhale."

Believe in yourself, I can do this!

Taking a deep breath, Yun Mu carefully placed the Moon Grass with its fully stimulated Spirituality to the side.

At this time, there was still a while before the distillation was finished; taking advantage of now, she could also finish stimulating the Spirituality of the ash and gunpowder.

By the way, the Spirituality stimulation cap for Moon Grass is 95, the requirement for making the neutralizing agent is 90, and the Spirituality stimulation caps for ash, gunpowder, and pure water are 45, 60, and 100 points, respectively.

The water requirement in the neutralizing agent is 80 points of Spirituality Activation Degree, while the requirements for ash and gunpowder when refining the Chestnut Bomb are 20 and 35 points.

And the Hardwood Chestnut cap is 85, while the requirement for refining the Chestnut Bomb is 60 points.

So, if there is no Hardwood Chestnut, what should be used to replace it?

Hmm... the Element attribute of the Hardwood Chestnut is Grass, the nature is Steel, and it belongs to white-quality material. Since that is the case, one should choose a white-quality material with the same Grass attribute and Steel nature... Oh right, it also has to be an item that can be obtained on the Xiangyang.

Two days after Yun Mu started refining the Chestnut Bomb.

November 3rd, Heral Calendar 4243.

As the last and coldest month of the year, the Xiangyang, sailing on the sea today, encountered an exceptionally large Blizzard.

The cold wind outside the Captain's office kept blowing against the tightly shut wooden windows; Yun Mu ignored the sound of the wind outside entirely, instead focusing intently on drawing an entry-level Alchemy Array with chalk.

This was her 27th attempt at refining a Chestnut Bomb; calling it a Chestnut Bomb, it actually had nothing to do with chestnuts anymore.

After all, she couldn't find Hardwood Chestnuts on the ship, so she could only think of other things to replace them.

The material she used to replace the Hardwood Chestnut this time was a plant called the Sea Rolling Ball; to be precise, it was the seeds of the Sea Rolling Ball.

Although it had the word "Sea" in its name, it was a Grass-attribute material, and the nature of the material was the same as the Hardwood Chestnut: Steel.

This plant was everywhere in places where the seawater was shallow; its appearance was branches bundled together, and when the waves were relatively large, they would often separate from the main branch and roll around in the seawater, hence the name Sea Rolling Ball.

The Sea Rolling Ball spread by relying on these branches that rolled around in the sea; its seeds were hidden inside the ball-shaped branches, waiting for the day they would land and take root.

And every mature Sea Rolling Ball could separate such ball-shaped branches at most 15 times in its life.

Therefore, it was also known as the dandelion of the sea.

Yun Mu only learned about this plant after she ran out of ideas and went to chat with the crew members.

The previous five failures were all refined using it as a material.

According to her judgment, it was likely that the Spirituality Activation Degree was wrong.

If the activation degree was too high, the Water Element inside the Sea Rolling Ball would be stimulated, and if the activation degree was too low, that bit of Wood Element wouldn't be able to catalyze the Fire Element in the ash and gunpowder. The Spirituality Activation Degree cap of the Sea Rolling Ball was a bit higher than the Hardwood Chestnut, at 90, and based on the results of the previous few refinements.

The optimal Spirituality index should be in the 25-35 range.

If you ask why, it's because Yun Mu set the Spirituality Activation Degree to 36 last time, and then the refinement failed.

25 was the value chosen during the second refinement to avoid the failure caused by the activation degree being too high the first time.

"Exhale, refinement, begin!"

After finishing the entry-level Alchemy Array, Yun Mu placed the processed materials onto the Alchemy Array one after another, then circulated the Spirituality in her body... "Hum—"

The Alchemy Array emitted a milky white light, the several materials on it slowly fused together, and then 【Through arduous training and study, you have learned the passive skill 【Alchemy lv1】】 【Your Spell Strength +2】 【You have crafted an alchemy item, gaining a small amount of experience points.】 【Congratulations on leveling up! Current level is: lv32】 【Your Max HP +1, Attack +1, Spell Strength +2, Precision Correction +3.】 (End of chapter)