"Mother, I heard about your incident. Nothing bad happened right?" said Rock with no expressions immediately as we entered.
While Rock was talking to Madam, my eyes just popped out when I saw the HP and mana bar of the beautiful lady standing next to him.
She was wearing a one piece dress with shoulders exposed and even a cut in her leg region. She reminded me of that basic instinct character from last life. She looked sexy and sharp.
I had expected her to be extremely beautiful, maybe even have the charm attribute but she had a different aura from Madam like a mix of wind and psychic. I was guessing she was a dual attribute mage.
She had more mana than Madam with 2400 hp and 2500 mana. It was one dangerous woman who could hide so well for a year in Augustus kingdom.
Madam had said she was just a mage like Rock but that seemed like a disguise. She must be carrying an item to hide her level. Generally the magic crystal measures amount of mana, you leak when pumping mana.
This is more for higher level mages. She must have a sink for that mana like those handscuffs to fool the crystal ball.
"Who is this?" asked Rock.
"He is Bruce,the one who prevented the robbery." said Svetlana.
"Oh, I see. Here take this gold coin as a reward. Our Dunt family thanks you for your help. mother, why did you bring him in the lab, You know we have family secrets."
"He signed an oath. I gave him a job as a reward. He is a talented magic apprentice." Madam said.
"Bruce had a request of seeing how alchemy is done. Can you show him how it is done. You don't have to teach him. Just satisfy his curiosity. It was one condition he had to join our store. Just show him how to build a simple light lamp which almost every magic shop builds so there is no risk of him stealing your secrets."
Rock frowned after hearing Madam's request but still nodded after hearing about the light lamp part. It seemed the light lamp building process was public knowledge at this point.
He brought me to a long table and brought out a premade base metallic board.
"Listen well, I will only do it once for you. Alchemist involves two things- one is the rune making part and another one is the processing part. What I am going to show is how to build a rune on this material. Then, when add a light spirit stone or artificial spirit bottle. See how I am passing metal mana through this glass, lines like a little tubes were being drawn on the glass material. His mana bar was going down in my sight." Then he made a place a mana bottle and added it to the circuit.
"Did you see it? I showed you the processing of a light lamp. Generally, alchemists are metal mages since it is easier to practice if you are both making and drawing the runes. But there are exceptions. The Great alchemist Thomas Light was said to be a light mage. He had used metal slaves to finish his works. The Light Chamber of Commerce is his family's industry."
I had already heard multiple notifications but I wanted to ask him something, maybe he could show me more.
"How does an alchemist prevent his work from being stolen, since anyone other alchemist will copy his runes?" I asked.
"Oh, mother he has a business mind. That's not difficult. You can add encryption array on your rune like this, So if someone tries to tamper with your device, the rune circuit dissolves. It is simple but effective. Just like this. Just this extra few rune lines will make the circuit melt if mana is passed through it or someone tampers the circuit. Problem with this rune is that now even I can't tamper with the light lamp. I can only pass mana at this point and change mana bottles."
I had heard another ding and was so happy inwardly.
I wanted to ask more.
"Then, if you sell one bottle, wouldn't everyone have a light lamp and there will be no customers."
"Ah, that's a rookie question. Do you think rune circuits are permanent. As mana from bottles is discharged into the circuit, there will be wear and tear. eventually, the circuit breaks down and this lamp will be useless. Generally, lamps only work for 2-3 years depending on the quality of tune lines. if all rune lines are even, then it may last 3 years otherwise with uneven lines and uneven mana flow, the circuit breaks quicker." Rock replied with a proud voice like teaching an illiterate.
I was thanking my luck that this rock was blabber mouth and taught me so much but maybe all this was common knowledge in noble circles.
Nevertheless, I was lucky.
Madam saw that I looked satisfied with the information so she came towards me.
"Bruce, do you need to go back to your house outside and thing things. Take this silver and take Tom with you. Buy new clothes and shoes when you come back. You should look like you are working for the store otherwise the stores image maybe be hampered."
"You can move to a room near to my mansion. I will feel safer with you around." Madam continued.
I felt awkward hearing that but I saw a tinge of suprise of Margaret's face when she said that.
This woman has an ulterior motive and I don't know what it is. Need to be careful of her.
It was already mid-day when I came out of
I took the coin for clothes from madam and went with Tom to the inner city checkpoint to register myself as a worker at Dunt's alchemy store.
It was the time for a change.