Meiros finally returned his consciousness from his core back to his body and exhaled a fume of turbid air. He opened his eyes and saw Chrysos working on something. He stood up and went to take a look.
"Master, what are you- Wait, what is that thing?!" Meiros freaked out the moment he saw the five creepy humanoid pests connected to the block of veiny pulsating steel.
"Oh this? This is a product of alchemy." Chrysos revealed a somewhat proud smile concealed by his mask but it was still obvious in his tone.
When Meiros heard that it was created by alchemy, his disgust was replaced with curiosity and genuine interest.
"Master, what does it do? And why are those tiny people connected to this.. piece of.. metal?" Meiros looked at the screamer pests and poked one of them with his finger.
The screamer twitched for a second before returning to its dormant state.
Chrysos gladly explained to Meiros. "While you were working on your Divinium core, I decided to try and make living metal. And from what I can see, it seems to be a success, but I am not sure."
Gerald took note on how calmly Meiros took the topic when he said that it was made by alchemy. It seems that creating flesh isn't as strange as he thought when it comes to the Divine Lands.
In fact, Meiros took it quite calmly as if it was a normal occurrence. But to be fair, that probably comes from the fact that people like Triyugis used flesh constructs as well, so making something like this isn't strange at all.
"Woah." Meiros touched the steel flesh and was shocked. It felt like real metal but he could feel a pulse. "I know that master doesn't make things on a whim. But I can't see how this is useful at all."
Chrysos expected this question, so he explained as many applications of the steel flesh from what popped in his mind at the moment.
"Well, as you can see, the steel flesh has a cut. And when living creatures get a cut or injury, they get healed naturally by their bodies. And this healing factor is gotten from our nutrients that we get from food. So with this that I made, if we keep feeding the mouths of these creatures, the steel will heal as normal without the use of Divinium and it heals just by using food." Chrysos then added,
"Not only that, these creatures that I call "healing generators" are very quick when it comes to nutrient absorption. Now, watch." Chrysos took a piece of meat and chopped it up to five pieces and fed them to the screamer pests.
The screamers ate the food ravenously. Even though they didn't have any consciousness, they had basic instincts as a flesh construct of carnivorous creatures.
They have very strong digestive systems that allow them to consume meat completely down to the bone and excrete them by turning them into a pile of flammable black powder.
The black powder isn't strong and isn't even enough to be used for a flintlock. The liquid waste however, is excreted as steam. But when they consume too much it will be stored as fat and will be used when the steel flesh needs healing.
At least, that's what Chrysos expects from his current design.
Meiros looked at the screamers eating and a question popped in his head. "Master, do you think you can make a human?" Meiros watched curiously as the cut slowly healed.
The moment Chrysos heard the question, he immediately shook his head. "Humans are different. I am not cruel enough to give consciousness to something that didn't wish to even exist in the first place."
Meiros nodded. "But master, it's life that you created, so you have full control over it. And it's not like you're going to harm them, right?"
"No." Gerald wasn't going to agree at all. "If they're subjected to inhumane pain, for what reason am I making them for? To make them suffer? It's better to keep myself from creating creatures with consciousness even if I have the ability to."
"I see.." Meiros understood that Chrysos was in no means going to make something with consciousness. "But Master, you can create something without consciousness that has the ability to do basic tasks. Something like that engine from Craftsman Loreint but made of flesh."
This time, Chrysos didn't reject the idea.
"Alright, since this is my first time creating these creatures, your idea of making flesh constructs isn't bad at all. When you finish the bottle of the Divinium recovery potion, you can go ahead and experiment with these things with me." Chrysos actually liked the idea of making flesh machines.
Sure, they're organic matter, but that's just the materials used for them. It would be no different to machines at all if one looked at it in another way.
Meiros nodded and grabbed the potion and applied one drop on his finger. He swallowed it and began absorbing the Divinium using his core.
And while Meiros was doing his thing, Chrysos began brewing.
First, he prepared more ingredients and then he cleaned up the tools that he used. Next, he filled a pot with water and was about to continue when Chrysos felt Meiros behind him.
When he turned around, Meiros opened his eyes and had a bewildered expression plastered on his face.
"That's… quite a fast absorption rate." Chrysos was expecting that it would take him a few minutes before Meiros regained consciousness.
"Master, what ingredients did you use for this potion?" Meiros looked at the bottle doubtfully.
"Why? What's wrong with it?" Chrysos picked up the bottle and examined its contents only to find nothing peculiar about it.
Meiros shook his hand at Chrysos to gesture that he had mistaken. "No, it's not that there's something wrong with the potion.. it's just that the energy I saw in my Divinium core was too pure… that's why I absorbed it without any difficulty at all."
"Really? I used some strange level ingredients for the potion, so it's not out of the question that the energy would be pure." Chrysos couldn't find anything wrong with it, so he just assumed that the ingredients did their job well.
"I guess." Meiros found the answer reasonable and didn't think much of it. He grabbed the potion and began absorbing it once again.
Chrysos went on with his work and thought of a design in his head.
He had some success with the living metal, but it was still incomplete. First of all, the healing factor is still inefficient since it is still in the experimental stage. Second of all, the energy, water, nutrients and minerals required for a small cut to heal is tremendous and the maintenance is quite high. Chrysos needed to do some adjustments to fix them and enhance the living metal which would take some time.
Now if he was going to experiment further with practical applications, an engine is a good way to start.
The design of the first bio-engine will be a cube with two jointed limbs connected to a wheel in order to produce the spinning motion. And to power the spin, the joints need to move by using energy. This energy will be solved by using food.
The cube will have an entry point above to feed the bio-engine with food and water. Chrysos already has the modified circulatory and digestive system that will allow the bio-engine to use the energy stored in the food and an excretion point which will release steam because of the modifications added to it and it will also release black powder.
The black powder is the food dissolved down to its basic forms. The materials in the black powder consist mostly of proteins, nitrogen, bacteria and some of the chemicals produced by the modified digestive system, making it flammable and a very good fertilizer. And as a mix of different dissolved elements without any water content, it is a dry powder that can be used for planting which will be used to provide more for the bio-engine, essentially turning into a renewable source of energy.
After he got the basic idea in his head, he first needed a wheel that he would use.
Thankfully, he has logs in the back that he could carve into a makeshift wheel. And as he was about to do that, Meiros surprisingly woke up again.
"You're done again? At this rate you could probably raise your rank into the Iretoir creation stage." Chrysos didn't know what was going on, but for Meiros to finish absorbing the Divinium at such a quick speed, something wasn't quite right.
"Master, at first I was suspicious. But now I'm sure there's something wrong with that potion." With Meiros' extremely fast thinking speed, he was 80% sure that his suspicion was correct. It's just that he didn't know if that "thing" that was wrong with the potion was good or bad.
Chrysos picked up the bottle and used his Divinium to travel inside the bottle to detect any peculiarities. But when he did, all he found was that the Divinium stored inside the potion was just too pure for some reason.
Knowing the limits of his ability, Chrysos knew that he couldn't make Divinium this pure without putting in a lot of effort. So if this wasn't his fault, what could it be?
Chrysos passed the bottle to Meiros and said, "It's not poisonous and the potion is doing what it's supposed to. It's just the Divinium being of strangely high quality."
Meiros calmed down after finding out that it was fine. He took another drop and swallowed it. When he got back inside his Divinium core, he vigorously absorbed the surrounding Divinium to advance rapidly.
Meiros isn't in any trouble, so Chrysos just went through with his project.
If anything, the pure Divinium is a welcome addition.
Chrysos went to the backyard where a bunch of plants and fungi are growing ranging from shrubs, bulbs, and mushrooms that he uses for alchemy.
Picking up a log, he stood it upright and sliced the top twice using Angelfeather. He took the piece of wood and carved it by using "Earthen Fist."
A magic circle with an orange and brown color appeared on his right wrist that materialized a fist made of finely crushed rocks. He shaped the fist into a claw and began carving the pieces of wood into wheels.
When he finally made the wheels, he needed them to turn somehow.
Turning back to the log, he sliced a chunk off and carved it into a cylinder.
Now, he needed a base for the wheel.
He started off by making a small wooden plank about 2 inches of width and 10 inches in length. He carved a hole in the middle and inserted the cylinder inside it. He carved holes out of the wheels and put them on the cylinder. And to stabilize them on their spot, Chrysos plucked off a Wood Sludge Mushroom and extracted it.
He applied it on the ends of the cylinder which melted a bit before quickly hardening, securing them on the spot.
He spun the wheel to test if it works, and it spun a bit roughly. To fix this, he added some water on the extracted mushroom on his hand and blended them until the wood melting reaction was nonexistent.
All he had left was a slippery liquid that looked like dark tree sap. He applied this on the base, and it worked. The wheel spun more smoothly this time around.
Now that the wheel is done, he needs something to power it.
He went inside with the wheel and saw that Meiros had already consumed the entire potion.
"Already? Whatever happened with that potion seemed to help you a lot." Chrysos took the bottle and put it on the sink to clean later.
"Yes Master, it was very easy to absorb." Meiros then noticed the wheel and said, "Wait, is that?"
"Yep, the design I borrowed from Loreint actually works." Chrysos placed the wheel on the table and grabbed more ingredients until he realized that he ran out.
"Ah.. We ran out of ingredients." Chrysos grabbed a small sack full of gold coins and said, "Meiros, I'll be going to buy some real quick."
"Alright, I'll take care of the house while you're gone." Meiros nodded.
And as Chrysos was about to close the door, he stopped and said, "And for your patience, here's your reward."
He tossed over a small bottle of hypertraining fluids.
Meiros caught it and showed an excited expression.
He had always seen Chrysos drink this stuff, but as his student, he didn't dare take some for himself. Not only that, he didn't want to do so because he already has a good life. Ruining it by stealing behind Chrysos' back would be foolish.
He uncorked the bottle and drank some of the hypertraining fluid.
As a psychic, he could sense the astonishing effects that the potion did on his body. Not only that, he felt like every muscle in his body was being gently massaged.
"It seems that the master has many surprises that I've never seen before. Ahh, to be his student is very lucky of me.." His eyes had a hint of admiration. "When can I be a great alchemist like him?" Meiros sat down and relaxed.
He didn't rest for long until boredom struck him.
Meiros stood up and grabbed a book from his room and began reading once again.