Chapter 1242
Leon let out a faint sigh of relief, stepped forward, and crushed the still-glimmering crimson crystal eye of an Alchemical Golem beneath his foot, then began inspecting the components on these golems.
Most of the parts were nothing special. Leon had seen this construction method countless times—back in the Northend Apocalypse, even Sky Rank Alchemical Golems were little more than scrap metal, just slightly more complicated oversized toys.
Leon was extremely familiar with the way these Alchemical Golems were built; he knew every single rivet and its model by heart.
That’s why he understood even more clearly: these ten peak Level-39 Alchemical Golems shouldn’t be able to display such overwhelming combat power. It wasn’t just their coordination—their strength was obviously far greater than what golems built with this method should possess.
Ten perfectly coordinated Alchemical Golems could already match the combat power of a Sky Rank powerhouse. Add their speed, which was at least thirty percent faster than expected, and it was downright unnatural...
After carefully inspecting the components on these Alchemical Golems, a look of ‘just as I thought’ appeared on Leon’s face.
The overall construction was extremely outdated. In this era, most of the methods used on these Alchemical Golems had long since been improved upon; many of their designs were already obsolete.
Based on these designs, their combat power shouldn’t even match the Alchemical Golems rolling off Leon’s factory assembly line. Yet somehow, these things were terrifyingly strong—at least twice as powerful as their blueprints suggested.
The root of it all lay in their power systems. The power cores inside these Alchemical Golems were on a completely different level from their designs—overflowing with magical energy—while the rest of their parts lagged behind by at least an entire era!
Leon gathered up the components; most of them were unusable, hopelessly outdated, except for the power systems, which were astonishingly advanced.
This was a power system that generated magical energy through collision reactions—very similar to what he’d tinkered with in the Gray Orc Fortress, but fundamentally different.
Unlike conventional systems that relied on mana crystals as their energy source, this one harnessed the decay of magical energy itself. Add a little pure mana crystal, and the system could run at full power for months—magic continually transforming, spawning immense force anew.
The energy unleashed during rapid decay far surpassed the strength of raw magical power—no ordinary alchemist could have designed this.
Seeing this power system, Leon was genuinely shocked. This kind of technology only came into use in the future, when the Northend World reached its zenith—Arcane Battleships, the key to conquering endless planes, all relied on power systems built on this principle.
Yet somehow, tens of thousands of years ago—at least an era before its time—an alchemist had already designed a miniature magical power source.
As for those massive Arcane Battleship power systems in the future, Leon had dismantled more than he could count. But back then, the wrecks buried in the desert were long drained of magic, mere husks—good only for research.
He’d long wanted to shrink those power systems down, make them compact enough to fit inside an Alchemical Golem. But he’d never succeeded. The records in Heather City’s desolate library only described the mature technology—nothing about the early prototypes.
The greatest advantage of this magical power source was simple: as long as you didn’t push it to the limit, it could last for at least ten thousand years with barely any decline. If these Alchemical Golems stayed dormant, even after millennia, the power source would still work perfectly.
Stowing away these power systems, Leon did a quick calculation—if he retrofitted these Alchemical Golems with them, even the weakest would reach Pseudo Sky Rank combat power. With flawless coordination and brute force, ten Pseudo Sky Rank Alchemical Golems might just be able to take down a true Sky Rank powerhouse.
After stowing away the pile of parts, Leon pressed onward. After several hundred meters, the world ahead suddenly opened up—mist hanging in the air, no sun in sight, but light still pouring down.
Ruins of buildings lay silent across the wasteland, thick with weeds yet utterly lifeless. It was as if this place had died long ago—everything inside, even the elements and the air itself, was steeped in death.
One glance at these ruins and Leon knew instantly—this site wasn’t from the Nesser Dynasty era.
At the entrance to the wasteland stood pillars carved with magical beasts and alchemical patterns, each one faintly glowing. Threads of magic connected every pillar.
The base of each pillar looked like a magical beast diving headfirst into the ground, its tail wrapped around the column. This was the Earthmoon Hound—just the sight of that long, oddly-shaped tail was enough to identify this famous beast.
The Earthmoon Hound was a rare dual-element magical beast—able to burrow and draw strength from the earth, but also absorb the power of moonlight. Especially during a full moon, its strength could jump a whole sub-rank.
But by the end of the Nesser Dynasty, they’d gone extinct alongside the Silvermoon Elves. When the Third Dynasty overthrew the Dragon Throne, the few that remained were hunted down for their unique abilities.
These creatures were the hounds of the Silvermoon Elves—their beloved guardians. Nearly every Silvermoon Elf household kept an Earthmoon Hound to watch the gate.
During the Nesser Dynasty, Earthmoon Hounds held the highest status among magical beasts—almost on par with unicorns.
This chapter isn’t over yet ^.^—please click ‘Next Page’ to continue reading!
During the Nesser Dynasty, if an Earthmoon Hound accidentally killed anyone who wasn't a pureblood elf—even inside the city—so long as the hound had an owner, there was almost no punishment. The owner just needed to offer a token compensation.
So carving Earthmoon Hounds on protective totems and planting them in the ground to channel earth power would have been impossible during the Nesser Dynasty.
Those Alchemical Golems we just saw belonged to the late Nesser Dynasty, at the height of the Third Dynasty.
So we can rule out the Nesser Dynasty—this is definitely a Third Dynasty ruin!
He found a few places that must have been inhabited once—houses built in an artistic spire style, gray-white on the outside but clearly once as white as snow.
Inside, the buildings and furnishings were simple—just rotting wooden beds and a few pieces of furniture with artistic flair.
He wandered through several places that had lost their alchemical array protection, which must have housed people of low status—all built in this same style.
Stepping out of a larger building, Leon finally noticed a shrine standing atop the doorway. The statue inside was long destroyed, and the shrine itself was in ruins.
He flew up to survey the general layout—the unprotected areas were all on the west side, while the east remained under the protection of alchemical arrays.
Leon landed, deep in thought.
The Third Dynasty worshipped the Hebron Dragon God, whose statues always faced east. Legend said the Dragon God dwelled in the mysterious Endless Sea of the Northend World.
In the Third Dynasty, the east was the most honored direction, the west the worst. Those western buildings, now stripped of alchemical array protection, must have housed the lowest-status residents.
Plus, there were no Dragon God statues or temples here, and the architecture wasn’t lavish—proof that this trend hadn’t caught on yet.
Whoever built these ruins was certainly powerful, likely a trendsetter of the Third Dynasty. The lack of any such signs means this place was built before the dynasty’s peak.
The artistic style of the buildings and furnishings, plus the shrine above the doorway, all point to the same conclusion.
All signs show that when people still lived here, it was the early days of the Third Dynasty.
With the fall of the dragons and pureblood elves, the surviving sub-race elves vanished into seclusion. Pureblood elves’ prized art became rare collectibles in the early Third Dynasty—even the architecture inherited much from the Nesser Dynasty.
And placing a shrine above the doorway, only visible after entering and turning around, is another clue.
Only in the unstable early Third Dynasty did this custom exist—so the gods could always watch over the house, protecting its occupants. Even intruders would feel the god’s gaze from behind, hinting at a curse.
All these signs quickly confirmed for Leon: this was a ruin from the unstable early days of the Third Dynasty.
How could such a powerful figure have built these ruins during the unstable early Third Dynasty?
Those Alchemical Golems had Third Dynasty tech and style everywhere except for their power systems—which were far ahead of their time, almost prototypes of the strongest future power systems.
Most importantly, the location marked on the letter Leon found in the Merlin Family was here—and so was the sign for the Redpush Disk. The gap between them was enormous.
The Redpush Disk, when used to build the Sanctuary Tower in Northend, didn’t need any modifications—it could be used as-is.
Leon puzzled over and over, but couldn’t figure out what was going on—who built these ruins, and what was their story?
An alchemist capable of such feats couldn’t possibly be forgotten by history—but that’s what happened. Even when mages in the future dug up nearly every grave from the Nesser and Third Dynasties, no one ever confirmed who designed the Redpush Disk.
After a moment’s thought, Leon headed east, toward the dense alchemical arrays. Since this was built in the unstable early Third Dynasty, anything valuable would be in the east—and the farthest east was probably where the master of these ruins once lived.
He walked several kilometers east, but couldn’t go any farther—every road was covered by alchemical arrays, and he’d have to break them to continue.
Leon pulled out a crystal pen and star ink, controlling Mage Hand to write alchemical runes on the ground with four pens at once, while he himself gripped the Dragon Staff and stayed alert.
On the way here, he’d already seen several ruined buildings with destroyed Alchemical Golems—the same kind as before.
All had outdated designs and tech, but their power systems were strong. The destroyed ones had their power systems wrecked, but most parts were intact—just needed a little maintenance to work again.
At the edge of the light-drenched earth, Leon controlled four Mage Hands and tore open a stable entrance in the alchemical array in less than a minute.
But in an instant, blinding light burst out—a beam as thick as an arm shot through the entrance, vaporizing two Mage Hands and crystal pens.
Leon sidestepped, instantly appearing meters away. The thick beam blasted over two hundred meters, piercing a building and vanishing into dust.
A three-meter-tall Alchemical Golem stepped out, its crimson crystal eyes flashing, locking onto Leon.
Its arms—one was a thirty-centimeter cannon barrel, still crackling with magical energy, the other was a cluster of eight smaller barrels.
The moment it emerged, the golem raised its left arm—eight smaller barrels unleashed searing fire beams, packed with compressed magical energy.
The terrifying beams turned into red lasers, sweeping at Leon. When they hit the ground, the dormant alchemical arrays lit up—within three seconds, hundreds of meters of earth glowed faintly.
Leon frowned. Each beam was as strong as an eighth-level single-target spell, but the firing speed was several times faster than any spellcasting golem he’d met before—and the thickest beam rivaled a ninth-level spell.