That afternoon, Ella was tightly held by the alchemy instructors who gathered around her, and they had an afternoon of academic exchanges.
In the evening, the alchemists warmly invited Ella to have dinner. They took Ella and ran to a nearby tavern, and generously ordered two portions of every dish in the tavern. But this group of alchemists had their allowances suspended for several months. Halfway through their meals, they discovered that all of them together could not make up the money for meals. In the end, Ella paid for it.
Ella's mood wasn't very high.
During the dinner, she found an excuse and walked out of the tavern, leaving Amy to stay to entertain the alchemists. In front of the tavern is a wide river, so dark that nothing can be seen clearly. Ella took a few breaths of the cool night air and sat down by the river.
A boat floated across the river, and the light on the boat lit up in front of her for a while, and then disappeared into the dark night in the distance.
A cold female voice came from behind Ella: "Did you find the answer you were looking for?"
Ella looked back and saw the mysterious black-haired girl standing behind her. Even on such a cold night, she was still only wrapped in the short white sheet.
"Do you have nothing to wear?" Ella asked curiously, "My maid has several kilograms of clothes. Do you want me to get you some?"
The mysterious girl completely ignored Ella's questions.
"Are you afraid?" she asked. "My heart is full of doubts, and I am eager for the teacher's answers, but suddenly I find that I am at the highest peak of this era. No one can pull you, or even walk with you. And those answers The higher up where the eucalyptus is, it’s so dark.”
"You seem to know the level of those alchemists very well." Ella lowered her voice, "I'm not afraid, just a little disappointed. Although I didn't expect those alchemists to teach me how to make the philosopher's stone from the beginning, I I thought they could bring me closer to the answer."
"Why do you want to learn alchemy? Is it for gold?"
Ella shook her head.
"I have a very powerful enemy." She said, looking into the dark distance. "My teacher told me that in order to fight against his power, the knowledge of alchemy is absolutely necessary."
"Not for gold, but for knowledge. It seems that your teacher is also a great alchemist."
The girl walked over to Ella and sat down. Her long hair fluttered slightly in the cold wind. Only then did Ella notice that her facial features were as delicate as jade that had been carefully crafted by a master. There was no flaw to be found. It was so perfect that it even made people doubt whether she really existed in this world.
"If the Alchemy University of the Island Republic doesn't have the knowledge I'm looking for, then I'm afraid I can only go to the Tianfang Empire to find the answer." Ella hugged her knees with some disappointment, "My teacher told me that they were in the Millennium I have mastered the ultimate secret of metal transmutation before."
"Are you serious?" the girl said, "The Avicenna today is from the Tianfang Empire. If the Tianfang Empire had already mastered the knowledge of metal transmutation, would he be so strongly opposed to alchemy?"
"...It must have been hidden by the alchemists of the Tianfang Empire. After all, alchemy is not a knowledge that can be made public. My master said that he has successfully completed the yellowing stage, and is only red short of creating the Philosopher's Stone. He took one step. But he was still defeated by the magicians of the Tianfang Empire."
"Magic." The girl repeated the word meaningfully, "That means your master is not only an alchemist, but also a magician. Let me ask you, have you mastered the knowledge of yellowing? "
"No...my teacher has written all the required knowledge into the book. There are twelve steps in total. But I have only cracked three of them. I will never be able to reproduce the subsequent steps anyway."
The girl nodded: "It seems like what I thought."
With that said, the girl stood up. She was just a cleaning servant at Alchemy University, but her demeanor at this moment made people feel like she knew everything.
"The subject of alchemy is actually a mixture of two completely different things. However, the nature of the subject of alchemy makes it difficult to distinguish the two things. Some people even mistakenly think that the two things are in Fundamentally one.”
"Two things?" Ella asked curiously, "Which two?"
"The first is called skill; the second is called magic."
"Skills and magic?" Ella vaguely noticed the meaning of the girl's words, "I did hear my master say that alchemy is not only the study of the transmutation of metals, it is the study of the transmutation of all substances, including making people close to God."
"Do you know why this statement appears? Because those alchemists who have reached the peak of their skills have vaguely realized that their skills may never be able to create real gold. When the skills come to an end, the alchemists feel powerless. Magicians will naturally turn to magic. The mysterious nature of alchemy itself makes this transformation extremely simple-for example, the base metal is compared to the fallen man, and the process of turning the base metal into gold is compared to the man. The process of redemption, lo and behold, everything is transformed into a theory of magic. Even they themselves find it difficult to realize that at a certain step, they have completely entered the realm of magic."
What the girl said was very similar to what Archimedes said. Ella remembered that Archimedes once said that he learned magic when he felt powerless and surrendered to the infinite.
"You can't decipher the nine steps after the twelve steps. I'm afraid it's because it is no longer a skill, but has entered the category of magic - do you know the biggest difference between skill and magic?"
"What's the difference between skills and magic?" Ella read it softly, then shook her head.
"Things made by craftsmanship can be perfectly copied by anyone, but the effects of magic vary from person to person——"
At this point, the girl stretched out her hand to Ella and motioned for Ella to put the crowbar into her hand. After a brief hesitation, Ella handed over the crowbar.
The girl grabbed the crowbar, glanced briefly, and then suddenly threw it forward! As the crowbar landed, a huge black shadow appeared under the night sky. It stuck out its tongue and made a hissing sound.
"Baslik?" Ella screamed, "Are you also an alchemist?"
"Your master told you that this is the product of alchemy, right? However, this has nothing to do with skills. As long as you know the magic principles, even people who don't understand alchemy can call it out—— Have you seen this snake before? Is it exactly the same as what you've seen before?"
Hearing what the girl said, Ella began to carefully look at the poisonous snake in front of her. Upon seeing this, she immediately discovered a question: "Why does this snake have an extra pair of wings?"
"Did you see it without wings before? Sorry, because of Basilik's legend, I thought it must have wings. However, its strength actually has nothing to do with whether it has wings or not. I The magic power is not very strong, so it will be like this——"
The girl picked up a stone on the ground and threw it gently towards the snake. The Basilik that had fought with Fenrir was unable to block the impact of this stone, and fell to the ground with a crash, turning back into a crowbar.
Ella's mouth gradually opened wider.
"Who are you...?"
"Paracelsus."
The girl stared into Ella's eyes and answered extremely seriously.
