Chapter 160: A Vast Treasure 1

“Crown Calendar, Year 3678, Autumn. Today I entered Maple Leaf City Magic Academy. Here, I officially became an apprentice alchemist. There are twenty-one students in my class…”

“Crown Calendar, Year 3685, Spring. Today I finally received my alchemist’s badge and became a fully recognized alchemist. From now on, I can collect five gold coins from the Alchemist Association every month. With that money, Mother and my little sister will finally be able to live comfortably. I have to work harder. I have to…”

“Crown Calendar, Year 3690, Spring. Today is my sister’s coming-of-age day. I prepared a gift for her. I hope she will…”

“Crown Calendar, Year 3702, Winter. Mother and my sister merely offended His Lordship the Baron by accident. For that, he ordered both of their legs broken. I think… I think I need to teach that baron a lesson.”

“Crown Calendar, Year 3800. Today is the anniversary of Mother’s and my sister’s deaths. On this day, I hired the largest adventuring group in the world. They killed every member of the baron’s family. All of them. Because of that man, Mother and my sister were taken from me. Only now do I finally understand…”

…

Kent read the diary carefully from beginning to end.

By the time he finally raised his head, evening had already fallen outside the crystal window.

The small sun hanging above the dimensional space had dimmed, bathing the distant fields and forests in a dusky glow.

The diary had answered many of Kent’s questions.

This entire dimensional space was nothing more than a material cultivation base belonging to an intermediate-level magic academy of the Crown Dynasty.

A cultivation base.

That was all.

Its purpose had been to raise magical beasts and grow rare alchemical plants for the academy.

As for the man who had once managed this place, he had been exiled here after hiring an adventuring group to annihilate a noble family.

According to the final entries, he had remained in this dimensional space for centuries.

He eventually left during the War of Gods and Demons.

The last recorded date was Crown Calendar, Year 4312.

Judging from the span of his life alone, Kent estimated that the man must have reached at least the Legendary realm.

As for what had actually caused the War of Gods and Demons…

the diary said almost nothing.

After the deaths of his mother and sister, its owner had devoted nearly his entire life to making money.

And for an alchemist, there was only one reliable way to earn more—

become better at alchemy.

So the man had thrown himself completely into alchemical research, constantly refining his knowledge and improving his craft.

He had paid very little attention to the outside world.

Kent slowly closed the diary.

“Damn…”

He sighed.

“What exactly happened during the War of Gods and Demons?”

No answer came.

After sitting quietly for a moment, Kent pushed the question aside.

There was no point dwelling on something he could not solve yet.

He had a much more immediate problem.

He needed to find a way out.

Since this dimensional space had been nothing more than a cultivation base, its entrance and exit should not have been hidden somewhere impossibly obscure.

And another thought occurred to Kent as he searched the castle.

If a mere material cultivation base belonging to an intermediate magic academy could possess something this enormous…

then what kind of resources had the great academies of that age possessed?

The thought alone was staggering.

Perhaps it was no wonder that the gods had eventually turned against them.

Abilities like these had already gone far beyond what ordinary mortals should have been capable of achieving.

Kent searched for quite some time before finally discovering something suspicious in the plaza before the castle.

It resembled a doorway.

But there was no door.

Only an empty stone frame.

Kent approached carefully.

Ancient magical runes covered its surface.

Several sockets had been carved into the structure as well, though the magic crystals that had once occupied them were long gone.

Kent examined the runes in detail.

The more he studied them, the more certain he became.

There was at least an eighty-percent chance that this was the legendary—

Teleportation Gate.

A Teleportation Gate was a far more advanced form of spatial transportation than an ordinary teleportation array.

Kent’s eyes immediately brightened.

He reached into his spatial ring and took out several magic crystals.

One by one, he fitted them into the empty sockets.

Then he extended his mental power into the formation.

The ancient runes slowly awakened.

A faint glow spread across the stone frame.

Then another.

And another.

Within moments, the entire structure began shining.

A curtain of light gradually appeared inside the empty doorway.

Kent’s heart leapt.

It worked.

But he did not step through.

Not yet.

The Teleportation Gate contained three separate destination coordinates.

Kent had no idea where any of them led.

Choosing blindly would be no different from gambling with his life.

He frowned.

Then, after a moment’s hesitation, he began calling silently within his heart.

“Niu Niu…”

“Niu Niu…”

Kent continued calling for her.

After all, Niu Niu had always been deeply mysterious in his eyes.

And when it came to matters involving space—

there was no one Kent trusted more.

“Damn it!”

Kent called out to Niuniu over and over again in his mind, but no matter how many times he tried, there was still no response.

Only then did he remember that this dimensional space existed as an entirely separate realm. With his current level of strength, he could probably keep calling until his throat—or rather, his mind—gave out and still accomplish nothing.

With no other choice, Kent let out a helpless sigh and began studying the teleportation gate on his own.

The deeper he delved into its structure, the clearer his understanding of the knowledge contained within Divine Alchemy became. As his research progressed, fragments of information concerning teleportation arrays, long sealed somewhere within his mind, gradually began to unlock.

The more Kent studied, the more fascinated he became.

Before long, he had more or less figured out the three spatial coordinates embedded within the teleportation gate. One was a long-distance coordinate, while the other two were short-range teleportation points.

What delighted him even more, however, was that the gate possessed no protective restrictions whatsoever.

It was like finding a door without a lock.

Even the teleportation arrays maintained by the Mages’ Guild required special magical keys to activate, yet this ancient gate had been left completely unguarded.

“Hahaha! This place is mine!”

Kent burst into delighted laughter.

Then, just as suddenly, he froze.

The puppet he had seen earlier had walked straight toward the teleportation gate. It took out several high-grade magic crystals and fitted them into the slots built into the gate.

That alone was hardly enough to surprise Kent.

What truly left him staring was what the puppet carried in its other hand.

Blue Star Grass.

There were only a dozen or so stalks, but every single one of them was fully mature.

Under Kent’s astonished gaze, the puppet stepped directly into the teleportation gate and vanished.

“Huh? This… this…”

Kent finally snapped out of his daze.

Without hesitation, he hurried after it and stepped through the gate.

Even after all the shocking things he had witnessed today, Kent was still utterly stunned by what appeared before him.

Beyond the gate lay an enormous alchemical laboratory.

Every kind of alchemical instrument Kent had ever seen—and countless others he had never even imagined—filled the vast chamber.

He swept his eyes across the room and made a rough estimate. The laboratory covered at least ten thousand square meters, and the enormous space had been divided into numerous smaller laboratories.

Judging from the layout, this place had clearly once been used as a classroom for teaching alchemy.

Kent slowly walked among the workbenches, his gaze falling upon the instruments arranged throughout the room.

Some were crafted from adamantine.

Others were made of mithril.

There were even pieces forged from arcane silver.

Kent could only stare in silent amazement.

“What kind of era was the Ancient Age, exactly?” he murmured to himself. “For even an intermediate magic academy to possess such extravagance…”

Kent gave the enormous laboratory a quick once-over, but the puppet that had entered before him was nowhere to be seen.

His curiosity immediately sharpened.

This time, he began examining the place more carefully. Before long, he noticed several additional teleportation arrays positioned along one side of the laboratory. One of them was currently glowing with a faint magical light.

Kent did not hesitate.

He stepped straight into it.

“Heavens!”

The moment he emerged on the other side, Kent could not help but exclaim.

Before him stretched an enormous warehouse filled entirely with magical materials.

The puppet he had followed earlier was there as well, carefully sorting and storing the freshly harvested Blue Star Grass.

Kent barely spared it a glance.

Without wasting another moment, he turned around and stepped back through the teleportation array.

By the time Kent had finished exploring the destinations connected to the other arrays, he had already been shocked so many times that he had almost grown numb to it.

One of the teleportation arrays led back to the dimensional space he had come from.

The remaining ones connected to separate storage areas, each organized according to the type of materials kept within.

There was a mineral warehouse, a magical beast materials warehouse, a poisonous materials warehouse, a magical metals warehouse, and yet another warehouse devoted to alchemical materials.

The mineral storage area was packed with gemstones, magic crystals, ordinary crystals, and countless other precious ores.

The magical beast warehouse contained all manner of valuable alchemical ingredients taken from magical creatures—magic cores, blood, bones, tendons, marrow, and many other materials.

The poisonous materials warehouse was even more alarming.

Everything stored inside was highly toxic. Kent recognized several of the substances at a glance, and every one of them was deadly enough to make an ordinary alchemist wary.

But what truly left him speechless was the magical metals warehouse.

Arcane silver, star sand, adamantine, mithril, violet gold, and other rare, high-grade magical metals were stacked inside.

Not in small amounts.

Not by the handful.

They were stored by the crate.

Kent’s face flushed with excitement, and his heart pounded violently in his chest.

He understood far too well what all of this was worth.

“This really is an enormous treasure hoard,” he muttered, his voice trembling with barely contained excitement. “I have to keep this place hidden. If anyone else finds out about it, they’ll definitely try to take it from me.”

It took him quite some time before he finally managed to calm himself down.

Clenching his teeth, Kent immediately hurried back to the dimensional space.

At first, he had intended to install magical keys and protective restrictions on all the teleportation arrays here, sealing the place away so that no one else could enter.

But after thinking it over, he abandoned the idea.

After all, there was still a perfectly good puppet here, working tirelessly and managing all these materials for free.

It would be a shame to interfere with such useful labor.