Pillar of Yita

It matches its appearance—the interior space of the shop was very cramped, the furnishings a bit cluttered, and several shelves were placed haphazardly, piled high with an assortment of goods.

From finished products to spare parts, materials, and various potions, everything was available. It was only then that Fang Hong breathed a sigh of relief, confirming he hadn’t found the wrong place.

A few Dwarf Goblins were bustling about on ladders, busily moving things up and down. As soon as Fang Hong entered the shop, they were startled, stopping in unison, and at that moment a shrill voice came from overhead:

”A guest has arrived, a guest has arrived!”

This sudden voice scared the Papalarians into recoiling backward, accidentally knocking over the shelf behind them. The shelf tilting, the goods on it clattered to the ground, but fortunately, the Lion swiftly extended a hand to catch it, preventing it from crashing down on them.

Fang Hong had a scare and couldn’t help but glare at Parker. The latter, knowing he was at fault, said loudly, ”Papalarians hate cramped spaces—”

Then he walked out, self-indulgently holding an apple.

Fang Hong then turned to apologize to the nearby Dwarf Goblin, but the Dwarf Goblin waved his hand to indicate it wasn’t a big deal, and came over to clean up. That was when Fang Hong noticed that the items that had fallen were all inexpensive trinkets and not easily broken—it was clear from this setup that this wasn’t the first or second time such an incident had happened.

He looked up and finally saw that the earlier speaking voice belonged to a Raven. The bird stood on a shelf hanging from the ceiling, which was covered in lush, dewy leaves of the Midnight Vine—a rare Magic Plant.

This flat-feathered beast didn’t seem to realize it had caused any trouble at all; after shouting out its message, it lowered its head to groom its feathers smugly.

At that moment, the other Dwarf Goblins hurried over to lead the way for Fang Hong, chattering all at once, saying this way for the guest.

With their guidance, Fang Hong meandered through the narrow aisles between shelves, turning this way and that. Soon, a high platform appeared before him; it was at least two meters tall, and he had to look up just to see the piled-up shipping orders and ledgers—and an Owl.

Yes.

Fang Hong rubbed his eyes to ensure he wasn’t seeing things. Indeed, there sat an owl with a beak perched atop black-frame glasses, wearing an academic cap. The Owl was even pushing the glasses with her wing, craning her neck from the platform above to look at him and the tall Lion.

”An odd pair, a man and a Lion. How strange that we have customers this early, truly strange,” the Owl said in a funny voice, ”Good afternoon to our two guests, what do you need?”

Fang Hong found this all extremely bizarre.

”Hello, Mr. Owl.” But he still greeted politely—he thought he had seen enough of the world in this realm to no longer be surprised at any oddities he might witness.

But clearly, a shop run by an Owl was not among those expectations.

These days even Owls were running shops. Did Eteliria have this race? Could they really distinguish between different Magic Guided Conductors? On the other hand, the fact that Owls could talk was already quite extraordinary in itself.

”It’s Madam,” the Owl corrected him earnestly. ”Also, you may call me Lady Giselle, not Lady Owl—truly strange. Now, to not call me an Owl at all would be like not recognizing I am a Long-Eared Owl, see my beautiful tufts of feathered ears? Very strange indeed, just as not all primates are humans; there are also monkeys and gorillas—are you the same as monkeys and gorillas, how utterly strange? In addition, thank goodness I learned your classification methods, although overall they are effective, they become less reliable when it comes to Magic Creatures... very strange indeed.”

Fang Hong, feeling dizzy from the ramble, quickly interrupted the chattering Lady Owl. ”I understand, Lady Giselle, but I just want to buy some basic construct design schematics, Alchemist’s—I am not a biologist, and I’m not interested in any system of classification.”

Indeed, just as one of the criterions for judging the strength of Combat Artisans was the number of Multi-Control Flexible Constructs they possess, an important measure of an Alchemist’s capabilities is the variety of basic construct designs they have in their repertoire.

What is a basic construct design then?

In an Alchemist’s blueprints, designs for Walkers, Clockwork Fairies, and the like usually belong to complete designs. However, a complete design often consists of multiple subsystems—such as Walkers, which include subsystems for chassis, balance compensation devices, power, armor, and skill modules.

Each of these subsystems can be considered a basic construct design. For instance, the chassis of a Walker is actually a hexapodal or quadrupedal arachnid structure, where the arachnid structure is the academic name for this construct; the number of legs is simply a parallel design concept. As long as the design is reasonable, even creating a structure with a thousand legs is entirely feasible.

Just like the Giant Construct Fang Hong encountered in the Elf Ruins, its Blade Feet structure was simply an early form of the arachnid structure.

Similarly, the power structure of a Clockwork Fairy in Eteliria is known as a fluttering wing design, which is also a basic construct. Basic constructs are to a certain extent interchangeable and combinable, meaning that if an Alchemist wishes, they could completely equip a Walker with fluttering wing structures, just as Fang Hong replaced the Clockwork Fairy’s armor with that of a Walker to create the oddly shaped ”Sword Hong.”