The Last Alchemist

"Grumble~Grumble~"

Drowsily, Lakewen could hear the sound of wooden wheels rolling on the ground.

'Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing? '

His mind was foggy, and his thoughts were intermittent. The only constant was the burning pain in his chest. Whenever he became more conscious, the pain became so intense that he fainted.

After a while, he woke up again, felt severe pain again, and fainted again, over and over again.

I don't know how long it took, but when he woke up again, the pain in his chest finally began to ease and became bearable. He breathed a sigh of relief: 'The most difficult moment is over, and my life should be saved. '

Soon, he found that there were stones of all sizes under him, which hurt his back. He wondered, "What's going on now?"

He didn't move his body, and his eyes opened slightly.

It was already daybreak. Judging from the sky, it should be noon. He was lying on a large wooden cart full of red stones, which was pulled by two gray horses. There were three men beside the cart. One of them was dressed as a driver, holding a whip in his hand and a strange iron short stick on his waist. The other two men were wearing strange cotton robes and carrying two strange iron sticks on their backs, which was exactly the same as the guards at the entrance of the mine last night.

‘Oh~ Damn~’ Lakewen cursed in his heart.

At this time, the voice of the tall and thin guard came over.

“Hey~ Jack, do you think the guy in the car is also here to rob things?”

The short guard turned his head and looked at Lakewen. Lakewen immediately closed his eyes and pretended to be dizzy, but his ears were secretly erected. He was now extremely curious about the identity of this group of people.

After a while, a hoarse voice sounded. Judging from the direction of the voice, it was the short guard: "It's very likely. I even suspect that this guy wants to find out our secrets, otherwise how could he find our mine so quickly?"

"Hiss~ It's really possible!"

Lakewen heard the thin and tall guard's inhalation, and then the surroundings became quiet. Then, he vaguely felt that the two guards were turning their heads to look at him, which made him feel scared.

After a long while, the thin and tall voice suddenly sounded: "Jack, do you think we should kill him secretly, so that he won't use sweet words to confuse the master?"

Lakewen's heart was pounding. He was seriously injured now, and the other party had a terrifying iron stick in his hand. If he really wanted to attack him, he would have no power to fight back!

Just when he couldn't help wanting to beg for mercy, the voice of the short guard rang out: "No, even if he said something wonderful, it's impossible to hide it from the master's eyes. In front of the master, the more lies he told, the more mistakes he made."

"Well, you're right." The tall and thin man agreed with this, and the murderous intent in his voice faded.

"Huh~~" Lekewen breathed a sigh of relief quietly, and felt a little exhausted.

On the road afterwards, the two guards and the coachman would still chat from time to time, but they never brought up Lekewen again. Lekewen was very worried about his current situation. In order to figure out the situation as soon as possible, he pricked up his ears and listened all the way, fearing that he would miss any word.

When the carriage drove along the flat mud road all the way to the Bishui River, Lekewen finally figured out a general idea.

These people turned out to be the survivors of the city of Nirogard. They gathered around the surviving academy magicians and were actually preparing to rebuild Nirogard! Among the three people, the one who was mentioned most frequently was called "Master", and the tone was quite respectful. It can be confirmed that this master should be the leader of this group of survivors.

'Master. Master. There are not many magicians in Nilogard Academy who can be called masters. Each of them is a famous magician. I don't know which master these people are talking about? '

Lakewen was very curious about the identity of the master, but he was not in a hurry, because he would soon be brought to the master by these people.

After arriving at the Bishui River, Lakewen was lifted off the wooden cart by two guards and thrown onto a wooden boat by two people.

He quietly opened his eyes a little and looked around carefully.

He found that there was a simple dock not far away, with at least hundreds of people on the dock. There were laborers and guards, and those guards held the same iron rods as the mine guards.

The big wooden cart that had just pulled him was unloading ore by the river. After the ore was unloaded, the laborers loaded the ore with a small cart and pulled the ore onto the wooden boat where he was.

There were a lot of noises on the dock, but Lakewen had good hearing. He pricked up his ears and continued to eavesdrop on the conversation.

From the conversation, he knew that this big wooden ship was used to transport "hematite ore" and it would transport the ore to a place called "steel smelting plant". He also heard the voice of the short guard, who was explaining his situation to a guard beside the wooden ship.

Lakewen heard clearly that when he arrived in Nirogard, he would be taken over by the guards in the city and then sent to a place called "fortress".

'Steel smelting plant? What is a plant? Why does this word sound weird? These people also speak weirdly.' Lakewen felt that the content of the people's speech at the dock was different from that in other places on the mainland, and they often said some words that he didn't understand.

After waiting for about half an hour, the wooden boat was filled with iron ore. Amidst the sound of oars, the wooden boat filled with ore drifted rapidly down the current.

‘Such a large ship can carry more than a dozen carts of ore, and it can be carried down the river without much effort. After the ore is unloaded, rowing the empty boat upstream is effortless. Yes, this is a good idea. ’ Lakwen couldn’t help but admire in his heart.

It would be a waste of time to transport so much ore by horse-drawn carriage.

The ore ship's journey was not far. After about 20 minutes, the wooden ship began to turn and moved all the way towards Nerogard City on the shore.

Lakwen glanced toward the shore and was stunned. There was a huge gray chimney standing in the city. The chimney was at least more than 20 meters high, and thick smoke was billowing from the top of the chimney.

‘It turns out there was no fire in the city, but what on earth is such a big chimney used for? ’ Lakevin couldn’t understand it more and more.

Soon, the wooden boat docked, and two guards walked towards Lakevin.

Lakwen immediately closed his eyes and pretended to be dizzy. He felt himself being lifted up. After arriving at the pier, he was thrown into a donkey cart with an iron cage. The donkey cart took him swaying all the way to the north of the city. Drive away.

In the iron cage, Lakwen narrowed his eyes again to observe.

Along the way, he saw a large number of building wreckage, with many traces of burning remaining on the wreckage. Along the way, he saw almost no intact building.

‘Nerogard City was indeed destroyed, but how could such a huge city be destroyed so quickly? There are rumors outside that a monster did it, but how could a monster be so destructive? ’ The more Lakwen looked, the more frightened he became.

After driving the donkey cart for more than ten minutes, Lakwen finally saw an intact building on the roadside, but it was a towering high wall.

He recognized this wall. He had been to Nerogard a few years ago, and he stood outside this wall, in awe of everything inside.

'Is Nerogard Academy still intact? Am I going to enter the academy and face the magic master? ’ Lakwen’s heart trembled. He was very scared and didn’t know what kind of fate he would face.

The donkey cart took him slowly through the college gate.

Inside the gate, what you see is a large area of ​​simple bungalows. The outer walls of these bungalows are gray and very flat. I don’t know what they are made of. There are many pedestrians on the road between the bungalows, and everyone is coming and going in a hurry. , looking very busy.

‘Ding Ding~Dang Dang~~’

In one of the huge houses, there was a frequent sound of metal collisions. The sound kept ringing and never stopped for a moment.

"That must be the blacksmith's shop, right? How can the blacksmith be so strong? Why can't he hammer for so long without stopping to take a breath?" The more he listened, the more horrified he became. He always thought that he was very strong, but he was different from the one in the blacksmith's shop. When compared to the blacksmith, he immediately pales in comparison.

At this moment, a cry suddenly came from behind the donkey cart: "Give way! Give way!"

Lakwen followed the sound and saw a carriage approaching quickly. The carriage behind the carriage was open, and a dark object was neatly placed inside. At first, he didn't understand it, but when the carriage drove past him, he suddenly smelled a familiar iron smell in his nose, and he was shocked.

‘It’s actually a block of iron. Such a large piece must weigh at least a thousand kilograms, right? ! How much is this worth? "

Although there are many iron tools in life, everyone uses them piecemeal, such as scissors, needlework and thread. If an ordinary farmer's family has an iron plow, it is already a great wealth and can be used as a family heirloom. of! This was the first time in his old life that Lekwen had seen such a large piece of pure iron on a carriage.

Just when he was shocked, the carriage stopped outside the gate of a huge blue-gray fortress. Two guards came over, opened the prison cart, lifted Lexwen out of the car, moved him into the fortress, and locked him in the dungeon under the fortress.

‘Kangdang~~’

The iron door of the dungeon was locked and the guards left. Lakwen opened his eyes and found that he was in a dimly lit basement. There were many iron cages in the basement. Some cages were empty, but most of them were occupied by people. Judging from their appearance and temperament, none of the strong young people is good.

Lakwen was still shocked by the iron thing. When he saw so many iron cages, he was shocked again: "Oh my God, isn't the iron in Nellogadri valuable? With so much iron, it's like To build a cage. No, this is not just ordinary pig iron. This is damn fine steel. After polishing it, it becomes a steel gun! What a waste!"

Here, Lakwen was still concerned about the steel cage. When other people in the cage saw him waking up, they all turned their heads and looked over. A strong man wearing a wide-brimmed hat laughed: "Look at that~ look at that ~~Here comes another unlucky guy!”

When he roared like this, everyone in the cage laughed happily.

Lakwen was angry and looked at the strong man and sneered: "Man, judging from your dress, you must be a wizard hunter, right? Why, can you still catch a wizard in a cage?"

"Clang!"

The strong man was furious and stretched out his hand to grab the thick iron pole of the iron cage. His square face was squeezed in the gap between the railings and was severely deformed: "Boy, just wait. Soon, I will remove your beautiful face from Pull it off your head!"

"Who doesn't know how to tell big lies? One day, I can crush your urine bubble!" Lekwen looked disdainful, fighting fiercely in the cage, what's so great about it.

The strong man stared at Lakwen for a while, then suddenly laughed: "Do you think I'm talking nonsense? Hahaha~ Guys, look, here comes another fool!"

"What do you mean?" Lakwen felt a little guilty.

"The city of Nerogard has been destroyed, and the remaining people are only a little over ten thousand, but the wealth in the city is countless. People will soon find that this place is very weak. Soon, the guardians of the Lord of Fire will I will come over and purify the remaining magicians in the city. When the time comes, I will show you my methods!" The strong man laughed proudly.

Lakwen was stunned. He was really frightened by the strong man.

At this moment, the iron door of the dungeon was pushed open with a clang, and two guards wearing thick cotton robes walked in. One of the guards glanced at the strong man with contempt: "Okay, Freeman, don't You’re scaring people, you’d better think about how to save your head.”

The strong man Freeman stared at the guard and shouted angrily: "Heretic! Thief! Go to hell!"

"Why a thief?" Lakwen couldn't help but ask. He could understand the heresy, because in the eyes of the followers of the Flame God Cult, all non-believers were heretics, but a thief? He just couldn't figure it out.

"Because they stole the church's Thunder Musket! This is blasphemy against God!" Freeman was furious.

"Thunder Musket? That's it!" Lakwen's heart lit up.

He finally knew what the iron rods in the hands of these guards were. They were actually thunder muskets from the church! This thing is a gift from the gods. The first time it appeared in the world, it beat the army of the Southern Parisian Empire to a crawl. How can it be done if it is not powerful?

The guard couldn't listen anymore, so he walked up to Freeman and hit the back of his hand with the butt of his gun: "You dare to call yourself a Thunder Musket just because of the junk in your hand? Who stole it and who doesn't know it yet!"

"Infidels! Thieves! God will definitely punish you! Just wait!" Freeman covered his injured hand and retreated to the inside of the iron cage, but his mouth did not stop.

"idiot!"

The guard cursed and ignored the strong man Freeman. He turned to look at Lakevin and asked, "Can you leave by yourself?"

"Barely enough." Lakwen nodded.

"Very well, come with me, the master wants to see you."