CHAPTER 196: MASTER GETS WELL-DONE

Pergina’s Alchemical Treasures.

"Master, is this pressure good?"

Pergina was lounging comfortably while her brand-new student Kiri worked on her shoulders.

Kiri had volunteered for massage duty, and Pergina sure as hell wasn’t gonna turn down a good way to bond with her new apprentice.

"Perfect, just perfect."

More than perfect—it was spot-on.

Any harder would be too much, any lighter wouldn’t cut it.

It was like the pressure had been custom-made just for her.

Suddenly, an explosion boomed from the next room over.

The sudden noise made Pergina jump out of her skin.

"How many times has that happened today?"

"Master, that’s number eleven."

Kiri kept massaging while trying to figure out how to bring up the Valkyrie Sacred Relics with her master.

"BOOM!"

Another ear-splitting bang.

"...Make that twelve."

Pergina’s eye twitched as she rubbed her temples.

Getting older made her nerves too shot to handle all this constant jumping around.

"Kiri, go see what the hell Demi’s up to. Instead of taking jobs during the day like she should be, what’s she doing locked up in that lab?"

All these frequent explosions brought back some pretty nasty memories for Pergina.

Kiri tilted her head and thought, memories bubbling up as she blurted out:

"Master, Senior’s definitely working on the basic principles of the First Law of Steam Mechanics and Psychic Energy."

Senior Demi’s future steam mechanics and psychic energy theories would kick off a steam revolution in the human world.

Whether psychics or regular folks, everyone would get turned upside down because of it.

Senior Demi would also get honored by the world as the Western Sage, celebrating her amazing contributions to humanity.

I didn’t expect Senior started her research this early, and even got inspired by the Eternal Annihilation Demon King.

From last night’s casual chat, Kiri had pieced together how things went down through some clever questioning.

No wonder when they went after the Eternal Annihilation Demon King, the Western Sage was so dead set against joining in, even banned Steam Association members from getting involved.

Kiri had cracked a future mystery.

"Huh? What thing?"

Pergina looked at her new student like she’d grown a second head.

What the hell were you talking about?

What law?

"Senior mentioned last night that she wanted to figure out why water makes steam today."

Kiri immediately switched to something that made more sense.

The future three laws of steam mechanics and psychic energy were common knowledge.

Even psychics who hadn’t gone down the steam path could learn tons from them.

"Why water makes steam? Doesn’t it make steam when you boil it? What’s there to figure out?"

Pergina was totally lost.

For thousands of years, that’s just how it worked.

She didn’t see any problems or mysteries in this basic stuff.

"Master..."

Just as Kiri was about to explain more:

"BOOM!"

"BOOM!"

"..."

A whole string of explosions made the counter shake, and some stuff that wasn’t nailed down went flying.

Pergina’s eye started twitching again.

She couldn’t let Demi keep doing this research here!

Forget about whether they could stay in business—at this rate of escalation, Demi was gonna blow up the whole damn shop eventually.

Thinking about this, Pergina couldn’t just sit there. She got up:

"Kiri, clean this mess up and put everything back where it belongs."

"Yes, Master."

Pergina hustled over to Demi’s lab door:

"Demi! You..."

Demi in the lab heard her master opening the door and yelled out:

"Look out!"

"BOOOOOM!"

With a massive bang, a huge blast of scalding steam exploded through the lab door, rushing out.

High heat swept through like a wild animal breaking free from its cage.

Pergina outside the door took it full in the face.

The scorching heat only lasted a split second. Pergina suddenly felt like she couldn’t feel her body anymore—only her soul seemed to be floating up...

"Mas... Master!"

From inside the lab, Demi in a sealed heat-proof suit came running out.

"Are... are you okay?"

Her voice was shaking as she stood in front of the lab door, totally freaking out.

Looking at her master, she could see her exposed skin was completely red like a cooked turkey.

"Master, can I buy this..."

Kiri showed up late, holding some sword-shaped stone artifact, her voice all cheerful.

While she was cleaning up the stuff that got knocked around, she’d totally lucked out and found the Valkyrie Sacred Relic she’d been dreaming about.

So she’d come up with a good excuse.

"Master?"

The steam explosion hit fast and faded fast.

By the time Kiri got there, she only saw her master’s skin completely red while her senior, wrapped up like a mummy, stood there totally lost.

"What went down?"

Kiri’s nose twitched a little:

"Smells amazing! Senior, what dish did you cook? That meat smell is incredible!"

She walked over—the smell really was incredible.

"Meat... meat smell???"

Demi’s face went white as a sheet.

She quickly ripped off her outer gear and smelled the air outside...

This... this meat smell was coming from... was actually coming from Master!

"Mas... Master got cooked... cooked!"

Lightning struck Demi’s brain!

Her beloved master had actually been... been steam-cooked by the high-temperature blast from her experimental screw-up!

No way... no freaking way.

Master was a badass alchemical master...

Demi reached out with a trembling hand and put it under her master’s nose:

"No... no breathing!"

I... I killed Master!

Demi’s face went ghost-white, her whole body shaking, totally unable to deal with this horrible reality.

Tears of regret came pouring down like waterfalls. She wasn’t even making crying sounds—she was too devastated for that!

Kiri, walking over, also figured out the smell was coming from her master and immediately got what had happened.

Oh, so Master got cooked again!

No wonder the smell was so good.

Huh? Why is Senior so bummed out? Does she think Master’s dead?

Kiri walked over to Demi:

"Senior, don’t cry. Master’s totally fine."

"Not... not fine?"

Demi’s eyes were red and puffy as she pointed at the well-done master, her body shaking.

How could this be fine!

Smells so good, completely cooked!

No breathing!

Don’t try to make me feel better!

Demi’s face was gray as she kept mumbling:

"I killed Master..."

"I really should just die..."

"..."

She couldn’t even stand up anymore and just collapsed to the floor.

Like a zombie, completely checked out.