Chapter 109
Leon let out a quiet sigh of relief, stepped forward, and crushed the still-glimmering crimson crystal eye of an alchemical golem underfoot. He began inspecting the components on these alchemical golems.
Most of the parts were nothing special. Leon had seen this construction method countless times before. In the apocalypse, even alchemical golems of the Heavenly Tier were just piles of scrap metal—slightly more complex oversized toys.
Leon was intimately familiar with the way these alchemical golems were built. He could even tell the exact model of every single rivet.
That’s precisely why he understood: these ten peak-level, level thirty-nine alchemical golems shouldn’t have been able to display such terrifying combat power. It wasn’t just about teamwork—their strength was clearly beyond what this construction method should allow.
Ten perfectly coordinated alchemical golems could nearly match the combat power of a Heavenly Tier expert. And with their speed, they were at least thirty percent faster than anticipated. Something was definitely off here...
After meticulously examining the components on these alchemical golems, Leon’s face revealed a look that said, "Just as I thought."
The overall construction was incredibly outdated. In this era, many of the methods used on these alchemical golems had already been improved upon. Most of the designs on these golems had been abandoned long ago.
By the standards of these designs, their combat power shouldn’t even compare to the alchemical golems rolling off the assembly line in Leon’s factory. Yet, somehow, these things were terrifyingly strong—at least twice as powerful as their blueprints suggested.
The root of it all lay in the power system. The energy core driving these alchemical golems was in a completely different league than their outdated designs. The magical power was immense, but every other part lagged behind the current era by at least a generation!
Leon gathered up the parts; most of them were unusable, being outdated, with only the power system standing out as exceptionally strong.
This was a power system that generated magical energy through a collision reaction, very similar to the one Leon had previously built in the Gray Orc Fortress, yet fundamentally different.
This system didn’t require a magic crystal as the source of its reaction power. Instead, it used the decay of mana itself. Adding a bit of pure magic crystal was enough to keep the power system running at full strength for months, as the mana continually transformed and generated immense force.
The energy produced during the rapid decay process was far greater than the power of mana itself. This was not something an ordinary alchemist could design.
Seeing this power system, Leon was truly shocked. This technology was only supposed to be used in the future. When the Northend World reached its peak and conquered endless planes, the most heavily relied-upon weapon—the magic-powered battleship—had a power system developed from this very technology.
But unexpectedly, at least an era ago—tens of thousands of years in the past—an alchemist had already designed a miniature mana source.
As for the future’s large-scale magic-powered battleship power systems, Leon had dismantled countless of them himself. But those ships, crashed in the desert, had long since lost their mana and were nothing but empty shells—the power systems only useful for research.
He had long wanted to miniaturize that kind of power system and retrofit it for use on alchemical golems, but had never succeeded. The records in the desolate library of Heather City only described mature technologies, without any mention of early prototypes.
The greatest advantage of this mana source was that, as long as it wasn’t used at full output, it could last at least ten thousand years with minimal decline. If, like these golems, it remained dormant, then even after tens of thousands of years, the power source could still be perfectly usable.
After storing away these power systems, Leon did a quick estimate. If he were to retrofit these alchemical golems himself and equip them with this kind of power system, each one could at least reach pseudo-Heavenly Tier combat strength. With their flawless teamwork and powerful combat system, ten pseudo-Heavenly Tier golems could probably take down a real Heavenly Tier expert.
After gathering up a pile of items, Leon pressed onward. After walking several hundred meters, the world ahead suddenly opened up—a haze hung in midair, obscuring the sun, yet light still managed to spill across the landscape.
Ruins of buildings lay silent across the wasteland. The wild grass grew thick, but everything was steeped in deathly stillness. It felt as if this relic had perished long ago; even the elements and the air themselves seemed suffused with the aura of death.
At a glance, Leon could instantly tell these ruins were definitely not from the Nesser Dynasty era.
At the entrance to this wasteland stood pillars carved with magical beasts and alchemical patterns. Faint radiance still emanated from each pillar, and a thread of magical power connected each one to the next.
The base of each pillar resembled a magical beast burrowing headfirst into the ground, its tail coiling around the column. This was the Earthmoon Hound—just the sight of that long, distinctive tail was enough to recognize the famed beast.
The Earthmoon Hound was a rare dual-element magical beast, able to burrow and harness the power of the earth, and also devour the energy of moonlight. Especially during the full moon, its strength could rise by at least a minor rank.
These creatures went extinct with the Silvermoon Elves at the end of the Nesser Dynasty. When the Third Dynasty overthrew the Dragon Throne, the remaining Earthmoon Hounds, prized for their unique abilities, were swiftly hunted down.
Earthmoon Hounds were the hunting dogs and darlings of the Silvermoon Elves. Nearly every Silvermoon Elf family kept one to guard their homes.
In the Nesser Dynasty, the Earthmoon Hound held a prestigious position among magical beasts—one of the highest, comparable to unicorns.
During the Nesser Dynasty, if an Earthmoon Hound accidentally killed anyone other than a pureblood elf—even within a city—as long as it belonged to someone, there would be no real punishment. The owner only needed to offer a token compensation.