Chapter 269: Chapter 250: Alchemy Factory, Activate! Chapter 269: Chapter 250: Alchemy Factory, Activate! The last screw on the metal plate was tightened, and Amberser pressed the switch of the Mana Refining Furnace.

By transforming the energy from the gemstones through the Magic Array and pouring it into this colossal device, a series of indicator lights came on, and the blast furnace was fully activated.

From now on, until this blast furnace was damaged, its core would keep running non-stop, unable to halt.

Amberser pressed a bunch of switches on the control panel, entering several alchemy formulas.

Then, hundreds of feeders began to input various alchemy materials, and a few minutes later, an equally vast number of outlets started to pour out the refined potions.

Amberser had already prepared a bottling assembly line here, and in no time, those potions of various colors filled up hundreds of bottles.

These were not finished products but rather the basic materials used for potion making, requiring further secondary processing and blending to become potions ready for direct sale.

If Amberser had another refining furnace, he could have run these potions through again and then directly produced finished goods. But such a device was too expensive, not just in price, but the mana power needed for long-term use was also terrifying; acquiring a second one would probably bankrupt him, he estimated.

The packaged basic potion liquids were automatically conveyed into boxes and then carried by the Magipuppet Automatons produced by Amberser, transported into various warehouses.

Low-level undead could not be used for this task because they couldn’t control the spread of Dark Magic Power, which would contaminate these potions. In contrast, the energy of Magipuppet Automatons was confined within the circuits of their mechanical bodies and wouldn’t leak unless they were damaged.

The materials for these Magipuppet Automatons had also been sweet-talked from Gustavo Flint, all of them the most basic models. However, since their only job was transportation, there was no need for anything too intricate; just ensuring cushioning and shock absorption was enough to prevent breaking the potion bottles.

This underground factory looked busy, but it was nothing compared to Alchemy City of the past.

Amberser had seen their main city’s alchemy center, where just the Mana Refining Furnaces numbered in the hundreds, and the Magipuppet Automatons working there were in the millions, so grandiose it made his soul tremble.

If only he could share half of the profits made by that factory, how blissful that would be!

But it wasn’t a big deal, for Amberser would sooner or later be able to build such a magnificent Alchemy City, starting with this Underground City.

The basic potions were categorized and put away, and given the current production rate, if raw materials were sufficient, it would take roughly three months to fill all the warehouses. If they incorporated secondary processing, that timeframe could extend to a maximum of six months.

So, sales planning also needed consideration; stockpiling alone wasn’t enough.

Following Harvey’s market research, Amberser planned to sell two types of potions in the desert region.

The first type was the most common Vitality Potion, which was impossible to optimize further; hence a price war was out of the question, and Amberser could only compete for the market with the existing vendors.

Luckily for Amberser, several of these vendors had cooperated with the former Alchemy City. After the collapse of Alchemy City orchestrated by the guild leader, their supply channels were cut off, and Amberser had asked Harvey to negotiate with them, to open up these sales channels would save a lot of time.

The second type was a new potion that Amberser had developed himself – sunscreen.

Desert dwellers all wore sunglasses and headscarves during the day, wrapping their bodies up tight, suffering considerable discomfort. But if they didn’t dress so carefully, except for Lizardmen, other races would end up sunburned and peeling.

There was definitely a market for sunscreen, at the very least allowing people to expose some arms and legs for a bit of ventilation.

Of course, others had already eyed this market. There were sunscreens for sale, but they were exceptionally expensive, likely affordable only to the noble families in the desert, targeting the high-end market with different scents and models.

Amberser decided to target the common folk, which meant producing an affordable sunscreen.

This involved first cracking the opponent’s formula and then improving it. For most other alchemists, this could be a task requiring many years of effort. After all, most alchemists encrypted their formulas and added a muddle of both useful and useless supplementary materials, making the product perplexing and elusive.

Only something like the Vitality Potion, which had been thoroughly researched, was readily available to everyone, and had reached a point where it was purely a matter of labor costs.

But Amberser didn’t need so much time; he needed only to make a list of the potential materials, then casually roll a few dice to make an educated guess that was very close to the mark.

Sorry, but a Diviner Mage is that powerful. If you believe in fate, then fate will also bestow its gifts on you.

In just a few days, Amberser had nearly cracked the formula for the sunscreen, and then he understood why the opponent’s sunscreen was so expensive. It was because one of the key ingredients was extremely rare, with terrifyingly high market prices.

This ingredient was the Spore Powder from the Fungus Folk of Gloomyland.

Every year, countless adventurers entered Gloomyland, a place filled with danger and opportunities, and the Fungus Folk Spore Powder was one of the things these adventurers brought back, so its production was very limited, and it occasionally ran out of stock.

This limitation made sunscreen a luxury for nobles, similar to Amberser’s special version of the Youth Magic Potion, which only swindled nobles and not the poor.

Once he had confirmed this, Amberser immediately thought of Withered Rose.

If he could procure a large quantity of Fungus Folk Spore Powder, he could produce affordable sunscreen in large quantities and perfectly conquer this market.

As for copyright issues… sorry, the Dwarf Kingdom doesn’t protect copyrights, so as long as you’re not stealing someone’s product to sell back home, there’s absolutely no problem. Hence, Amberser cracked the code without any psychological burden and wasn’t afraid of anyone suing him.

Since it was a product of the Gloomyland, Amberser naturally had to contact the Withered Rose Queen, as she was now in charge of the Gloomyland.

He took out the Necromancy Codex, intending to send a private message to the Undead Queen, but saw that the group chat was bustling with activity.

This was rare, as members of the Elegy Poetry Society usually kept to themselves, and it was not often they chatted so enthusiastically. Amberser glanced through the chat history and was surprised to find that Hake Stone was the focus this time.

This Dwarf Vampire boasted about his recent research findings, which attracted the attention of [Poet].

The name of the Elegy Poetry Society came from the [Mourners] combined with [Poets].

The Mourner was the society’s president, and although the other role wasn’t openly acknowledged, everyone knew he was essentially the vice president.

After reading a lot about Arthur Laine’s research from Hake Stone, the senior member replied in the group chat.

[Poet: Arthur Laine still has a Heroic Spirit? Is it Lord of the Dawn’s pity for him?]

[Dislike Humans: Pity? What does the senior mean by that? After all he did, why does it sound like he made a mistake?]

[Poet: Don’t you know? After Arthur Laine died, he couldn’t even enter the Divine Realm. His soul has been completely erased, hasn’t it? This Heroic Spirit might be the only trace he left in the mortal world.]

This conversation startled everyone in the group.

[Headless Knight’s Crown: What’s going on? How could Arthur Laine’s soul be erased? He’s clearly the Chosen of the Lord of the Dawn. It wouldn’t be surprising if he entered the Divine Realm while still alive. How could this be possible?]

[Pale Skeleton: Right, right, right, it’s impossible. He drove out our entire Dragon Race. Although he’s an enemy, that feat alone should be enough to enter the Divine Realm.]

Not just the undead couple was gossiping; even [Mute] and [Non-Vegetarianism], who had been silent for years, couldn’t help joining the topic, and they expressed their bafflement at Arthur Laine’s fate.

As Amberser was flipping through the Necromancy Codex, he saw [Poet]’s explanation.

[Poet: That lad, I’ve met him before. He was drunk, scoffing at my poetry with a little Elf rascal, so I soundly thrashed them and locked them up for three days. I even gave Arthur Laine a punishment. Whenever I write a new poem, it would be directly imprinted on his soul. I’ll see if he dares to mock me again. But later, this punishment disappeared. I could sense it, his soul has completely dissipated.]

Amberser didn’t know where to begin with his complaints.

The little Elf rascal with Arthur Laine… wasn’t that the old King of the Silvermoon Tribunal?

Just a Heroic Spirit was able to go toe to toe with [Mute], a demigod. In his youth, Arthur Laine might have been even stronger than this old geezer, a Silvermoon Knight.

Such an Arthur Laine, along with the elder Elf King, both legends at their peak, were just hung up and beaten.

This senior [Poet] was very likely a real Deity.

A deity of the undead… couldn’t be Vishalon, could it? No, that’s not right; Vishalon doesn’t have that kind of personality.

Now was not the time to research this. Amberser quickly asked, [Senior, could it be that the Lord of the Dawn removed the spiritual branding?]

[Poet: No, He wouldn’t wait so many years to take action, and if it had been forcibly destroyed, I would have sensed it. This brand was destroyed along with Arthur Laine’s soul; of that much, I am certain. It’s a pity, I was asleep when Arthur Laine died, or I would have definitely gone to see what happened.]

With the senior speaking so assuredly, Amberser also trusted his judgment.

Undead are very familiar with souls, so if a God of the Undead says a soul is destroyed, it’s destroyed. Not even the Prince of Lies could fool him.

But this wasn’t right. Why would Arthur Laine end up like this?

Such a gloriously accomplished Holy King, if he can’t enter the Divine Realm, what hope is there for the rest of us?

“What exactly did the Lord of the Dawn do, and what mishap befell Arthur Laine back then? Could it be related to the Dragon Blood Curse?”

The mysteries seemed to deepen for Amberser, but this gossip was just casual talk; what he needed to do now was revive Alchemy as soon as possible.

So, Amberser didn’t pay more attention to the gossip in the group chat, and quickly sent a private message to the Withered Rose.

She didn’t take long to reply.

[Withered Rose: Fungus Folk Spore Powder? Which kind of Fungus Folk do you need?]

This question stumped Amberser; there were different kinds of Fungus Folk?