Chapter 202: Alchemy is a popular research topic

Magic books are different from knightly novels.

Knightly novels are stories created by impoverished nobles to earn a living, aimed at a wide readership, seeking to be entertaining, thrilling, and extraordinary.

Magic books are more akin to academic papers, primarily consisting of mages' research reports and experimental notes.

Most magic books are poorly readable, with some even being incoherent and logically confused. Moreover, their print quality is often subpar, and many circulate as handwritten manuscripts because few people are willing to buy them, leaving the publishers without funds for printing.

Elkson had sent fifty-six magic books.

Among them, twenty-one were handwritten manuscripts.

"‘The Diary of Extracting Eighteen Kinds of Red Viper Venoms on Red Viper Island by Slit Truth’—does this book really have any value?" He flipped through the manuscript in his hand, feeling a bit cheated that such a book cost two silver coins. "Forget it, I'll treat it as a manual on snake venom."

After flipping through a few pages, he lost patience and stuffed the book into the gemstone space.

He continued to open the next manuscript.

‘Fredo's Fireball Spell’—this book explains how to cast the fireball spell and improve its technique. The author, Fredo Truth, was merely an apprentice mage who knew only the fireball spell. The book records his attempts to expand his fireball spell by trying over a hundred casting methods.

In the end, he improved the fireball spell so that it could be cast by rubbing the back of his hand.

He called this improvement a groundbreaking advancement, believing it would usher in the age of magic.

Unfortunately, this was a secondhand book, and there were comments from another mage at the end. This mage left a mocking remark: "When you advance to become a mage, you will understand that any part of your body can serve as a medium for casting spells; the difference is just that casting from the palm is faster."

"So this book is a negative example?" Liszt found it quite absurd and tossed it into the gemstone space.

Going through the manuscripts repeatedly, most contained peculiar experimental content with little value, suitable only for propping up table legs.

When he reached the last manuscript, his eyebrows raised.

The title was ‘Kennedy’s Alchemy Diary’.

"Another alchemy diary!" Liszt instantly recalled the treasure from the sunken ship. "There was also an alchemy diary in the chest, seemingly called ‘Rudolph’s Alchemy Diary,’ and it too had a handwritten cover with snake script. It seems that was also a handwritten manuscript."

Composing himself, he began to read the diary.

The author was a newly advanced mage who used various methods to guide magical energy, attempting to turn a stone into gold under its influence. For this, he even melted his seven gold coins to observe the differences between gold and stone, but ultimately failed to discover a method to transmute stone into gold.

Thus, this was also a negative example of repeated failures.

Closing the book, Liszt stood up and headed to the Flame Valley workshop to find Elkson: "Do mages all like to study alchemy?"

Elkson put down his work and explained, "Sir Liszt, the triangular theory is the acknowledged truth among mages, so we always hope to find the most direct evidence to prove its veracity. Transmuting stone into gold is the best evidence."

"Why?"

"Because the process of transmuting stone into gold can be divided into two steps. First, using magical energy to transform the material stone into spirit, then again using magical energy to transform spirit into material gold. Therefore, transmuting stone into gold strictly verifies the correctness of the triangular theory, which is one of our lifelong pursuits as mages."

"If that's the case," Liszt felt somewhat conflicted, "has anyone successfully transmuted stone into gold?"

"I don't know, but many mages believe that in ancient times, there were true alchemists who could turn stones into gold."

"Why specifically choose transmuting stone into gold? If the goal is to verify the triangular theory, wouldn't transforming other items also work?"

Elkson smiled, "Sir Liszt, your understanding might be slightly off. Alchemy is just a general term, and transmuting stone into gold is one of its popular aspects. Since we mages need a lot of money for experiments, we all like to study transmuting stone into gold to gain sufficient wealth."

He shrugged slightly, "But not everyone focuses solely on that; others have tried transforming other items, but none have succeeded... When I first became a mage, I chose to study alchemy but eventually gave up."

Having a rough idea of what alchemy entails,

Liszt asked, somewhat disappointed, "So, many mages write alchemy diaries?"

"Yes."

"Alright, continue your work; I won’t disturb you further." As he was about to leave, he turned around, "Have you studied the bone fragment I gave you?"

"Not yet."

"Please do so soon; I'm very curious about those fragments."

"Certainly, as soon as I have time." He waved the crystal tube in his hand, indicating that he needed to make the Flame Valley magical potion first.

...

Returning to the castle, Liszt sighed inwardly.

The knot in his heart caused by the decayed ‘Rudolph’s Alchemy Diary’ dissipated. It turned out that mages liked to dabble in alchemy and write alchemy diaries.

If they truly succeeded, these works wouldn’t circulate as handwritten manuscripts.

That mage would become a sacred and untouchable figure in the hearts of all mages, standing shoulder to shoulder with the sun. Even dragon knights would fight over him.

With the knot resolved,

he felt a sense of relief, but it also indicated that alchemy was likely just a beautiful fantasy.

Countless mages had researched alchemy, yet no useful information emerged, highlighting the difficulty of alchemy. The dream of sudden wealth remained just that—a dream.

For him, it meant the shattering of a dream.

After a moment of contemplation, he quickly adjusted his mindset: "Forget it; I’m not a mage, so why bother with alchemy?" He casually tossed ‘Kennedy’s Alchemy Diary’ into the gemstone space.

He continued to flip through the next magic book.

The handwritten manuscripts were finished; the remaining ones were printed editions.

Books that could be printed fall into three categories: the author is wealthy and pays for printing; the book has value and mages are willing to buy it; or the book is interesting, and nobles are willing to purchase it.

**The Market Price of Wild Sprite Bugs**, **The Blind Windblade Wolf King**, **How to Safely Traverse the Mitdolo Red Mangroves**, **Sightings at the White Tower on High: Carrick the Truth**...

These magic books were clearly of much higher quality than handwritten manuscripts.

Liszt picked up **The Market Price of Wild Sprite Bugs** and read it with great interest. The magician who wrote the book lived in Steel City, the capital of the Kingdom of Steel Ridge. There was a large wild sprite trading market there, and the magician went to observe the wild sprites every day.

"Interesting, a Venus flytrap sprite bug is priced at three thousand six hundred gold coins because Steel City is infested with mosquitoes and flies, making the demand for these sprite bugs insatiable."