Mechanical Alchemist

"Ah! Damn it, my battle suit has been punctured by something. Ah...my arm is numb!"

"Everyone, be careful, the proboscis of that strange moth is extremely poisonous, it's a neurotoxin that causes paralysis!"

"How could the battle suit be punctured? My God, the proboscis of those creatures are too sharp..."

"..."

Screams suddenly erupted from the crowd.

Su Lun frowned as he watched the figure fall amidst the swarm of monsters, "The battle suit is punctured?"

Indeed, the proboscis of these moths has the capability to pierce armor. The acid from before also corroded the runes on the battle suits, and when the power source isn't replaced in time, it will result in weakened defenses, so being punctured isn't surprising.

He shook his head, looking at the increasingly panicked students who were responding to the screams, thinking, "They rely too much on their battle suits, which results in poor crisis response abilities."

In fact, he had noticed this issue earlier. Those students, relying on their battle suits, hardly dodged or evaded the monsters' attacks.

But what if a single attack doesn't break through, but what about high-frequency consecutive attacks?

Now faced with a sky full of armor-piercing moths, the battle suits had already endured a high frequency of attacks that they weren't able to withstand, and finally, they were pierced.

....

At this moment, Su Lun saw that the female assistant nearby also noticed something. She finally stopped watching and shouted a reminder, "The monsters are sensitive to light sources, don't create more light!"

As expected of an assistant, her combat experience was far superior to that of the students.

Upon hearing this, the students indeed stopped using spells that created strong light, and even the sound of gunfire died down significantly.

But...

By now, the warning was a little too late. There were too many monsters.

And with the students gathered together, any attack would create some flash of light.

Soon after, a second student's battle suit was punctured.

A scream echoed, sending chills down one's spine.

"Ah...my battle suit has been punctured too, damn it, my leg is paralyzed!"

On the battlefield, the worst isn't reduced numbers or deaths, it's severe injuries.

A seriously injured member means that at least two healthy team members will be dragged down. With an injury surfacing, the already chaotic group of students was even more troubled.

Su Lun, observing the increasingly dire situation from afar, suddenly felt that things were getting out of hand.

The mishap had arisen too quickly.

"Assistant Rosa, I don't want to continue the trial; I want to go home. I don't want to die here..."

"Ah, I got stung again, my heart and lungs are...paralyzed... can't breathe..."

"Quick, inject him with the antidote potion!"

"..."

Finally, the worst scenario unfolded.

The first student suffered a life-threatening injury; without prompt treatment, he was likely to die here.

Su Lun's brow furrowed, "At this rate, why aren't the instructors intervening?"

.....

"Damn it!"

At that moment, Su Lun heard Assistant Rosa curse not far from him. Without any hesitation, her hands swiftly came together, forming over ten sorcerer's seals in an instant.

Before her words had fully fallen, the alchemy formation beneath her feet lit up, "Implant Disengage!"

Suri was taken aback by how the female assistant almost instantly disengaged the implant, thinking to himself, "She forms seals so quickly!"

She was by far the fastest he had ever seen at disengaging an implant!

And there was more.

Assistant Rosa disengaged the implant, and a pale blue flame suddenly burst from her body. She changed the sorcerer's seals in her hands once more, and her aura drastically shifted as she softly chanted, "Alchemy Arcanum: No Servant!"

In the next moment, Su Lun watched as the cold blaze condensed into two giant ethereal arms, floating behind her.

"What kind of alchemy is this?"

Su Lun was intrigued, feeling the biting chill from that cold flame from not too far away.

Just then, Rosa charged straight towards the students.

"Is she actually a melee fighter?"

Su Lun had not expected that this seemingly sensual and gentle female assistant preferred hand-to-hand combat.

Moreover, what surprised him even more followed.

The cold flame fists swung so tightly that they soon formed a firestorm, one blow and a large swarm of moths hit the ground.

"Could her spell also deal dual damage to monsters?"

This was Su Lun's first encounter with such an ability, overturning some of his fixed impressions of old-school magicians.

He had thought they would only cast spells, but they could also engage in physical combat.

Certainly, those who became assistants at the Black Tower Alchemy Academy were not ordinary.

....

Because of Rosa's entrance, the students' perilous situation improved significantly.

But because her spell also attracted the moths, after killing one wave, another batch swarmed in.

At this point, Rosa shouted, "Extinguish the light sources! You all get out of here!"

Apparently, she intended to attract the swarm herself, to allow the students to leave.

Upon hearing this, the students didn't dare to delay and quickly ran towards the passage where Su Lun was hiding.

By then, Su Lun finally realized where things were going awry.

If this was a trial, the danger level seemed to have vastly exceeded expectations.

"This isn't right...with several severe injuries already, aren't the instructors hidden in the shadows ready to make a move?"

Su Lun had no doubt, with the students panicking and running wildly, creating the risk of being annihilated in the caverns.

That Assistant Rosa, she alone couldn't hold back the swarm of moths.

Was the trial still not considered difficult enough?

Did a few of them need to die to shock these students before the instructors backstage would take action?

But observing Assistant Rosa's anxious expression, Su Lun felt more and more that something was very wrong.

At that moment, a fatal crisis emerged again.

The pudgy boy Charlie, running at the back of the student group, felt a slight sting in his back and immediately realized what was happening; his face turned deathly pale in an instant.

He didn't care about losing face and suddenly shouted, "Guide, brother, save me!"

....

Hearing the cry for help, Su Lun's mind flickered for a moment, and his hands had already decisively reached for the guns at his waist.

Now, a small part of the moths had returned, and there was still no sign of the instructor's appearance. If he did not take action, the group with the fat one lagging behind would likely be the first to experience a casualty.

After all, since he had taken the money, he still possessed that sense of contractual obligation.

"Bang, bang, bang, bang..."

At this moment of crisis, the sounds exploded.

Suddenly, Su Lun drew both guns, firing nearly twenty bullets in a very short amount of time.

Yet his action immediately drew the explosive rebuke of the leading students, "Are you an idiot? Don't fire the gun! The light will attract those moths..."

But before the words were fully spoken, everyone heard a succession of heavy objects hitting the ground.

The expressions on everyone's faces instantly froze: How... how is this possible?

Fat Charlie had already lost hope.

The reason he had shamelessly cried out for help was that he had already felt the penetration of the moth's proboscis in his back.

He thought he was going to die.

But suddenly, he found that the sensation of penetration had disappeared?

Looking again, he discovered that more than twenty moth carcasses had dropped around him. And on the head of each moth, there was a bullet hole.

Charlie, looking at the scene before him and then at Su Lun with the guns not far away, immediately realized something. He finally felt his soul, scared away, return to his body.

After being stunned for a second, his face showed the ecstasy of someone who had escaped death, "Guide brother, save me!"

....

The student who had previously scolded Su Lun for firing looked at Su Lun effortlessly killing so many moths and even saving Fat Charlie and his classmates, feeling a burning embarrassment.

They had all been only concerned with running, and no one noticed that the group with Fat Charlie had already fallen into danger.

But unable to overcome his pride, the student still weakly muttered, "Don't fire recklessly, the light could..."

Su Lun didn't give the group a chance to waste time chattering, pressing the magazine release button and simultaneously changing magazines. He said, "If you're going to shoot, you'd better use ordinary submachine gun bullets."

There was no time to conceal his skill. Earlier, to save lives, he had to open fire.

He also didn't explain in detail why he used ordinary bullets; if they couldn't figure that out, it would make this group of proud elites seem stupid.

To deal with this kind of monster, there was no need for alchemy bullets at all!

The power of alchemy bullets was great, but the fire rate and power of firearms were often inversely related. The slower fire rate resulted in larger light and noise when shooting.

Against these numerous, yet fragile moths, firearms with a high rate of fire and standard bullets with less propellant were entirely sufficient.

The noise was minor, the light source fleeting, and the attraction to the moths highly limited.

As long as one's aim was accurate, the efficiency would be higher than with alchemy bullets, and it was safer too.

Just like what was happening now.

While everyone was still stunned by the carcasses of the moths on the ground, Su Lun had already swiftly replaced the magazine and pulled the trigger again.

In the next instant, he gave the students a textbook-style demonstration of real combat shooting.

Both guns raised, his index fingers rapidly pulling the triggers.

Tap, tap, tap... The sound of gunfire was as dense as raindrops, yet it carried a fast and steady rhythm, starkly different from the panicked shooting of the students.

Although Su Lun's aiming seemed aimless, with every gunshot at least one, if not two or three, moth bodies would drop from the sky.

His bullets targeted not a single point, but seemingly a line.

Throughout the entire shooting process, no one saw Su Lun show even a trace of panic; he remained as calm as if numb.

Even during the brief moments when he changed his clip and faced the nearly face-to-face moth-like creatures, not a hint of panic could be seen in his eyes. He kept pulling the trigger leisurely, as if he had calculated the precise moment and trajectory of each creature's attack.

The musket in his hands seemed to have eyes of its own, always accurately taking down the approaching moth-like creatures with a single shot to the head.

Armed with two guns, he alone held back the swarm of moth-like creatures that had twenty students fleeing in disarray.

After three rounds of clips were spent, the ground was densely covered with the bodies of over a hundred creatures.

At this moment, all the students were watching, dumbfounded...

Su Lun's marksmanship had left them utterly shocked!

....

Little chubby Charlie was downright astounded.

Having gotten his life back, he did not hide his excitement, "Wow... my information was indeed correct, brother, you are one of the Cross Society's top marksmen!"

That smug expression seemed to be showing off to the surrounding students: Look, I had foresight, didn't I? Are you still laughing at me now?

The other students were also whispering among themselves.

"He's so strong! I noticed that he used at least seven advanced firearm techniques just now: precise trajectory calculation, moving target locking, blind spot prediction, seamless reloading, attacking multiple targets simultaneously..."

"This... must be the work of a 'firearm expert,' right?"

"But... wasn't student Jack also a 'firearm expert'? Why does it feel like there's such a big difference? Seeing this guy, I even feel like I'm seeing our firearms instructor, Master Ponk, who always hits his target..."

"I didn't expect such an amazing gunman to be outside the city. This guide, he must originally have been a well-known veteran gunman in the outer city..."

"..."

Su Lun listened to the murmurs beside his ears and just felt overwhelmed.

These students really were naive. Assistant Rosa had drawn the vast majority of creatures away with her life on the line, and now he had dealt with these escaped fish chasing after them.

Now that they could finally catch their breath, these guys actually stopped running?

Su Lun didn't want to be held back and said expressionlessly, "You go ahead, find a place to hide, and extinguish all lights!"

With that said, the students finally realized that the crisis was not over.

Then, they really ran...

Chubby Charlie, despite his greedy fear of death, still had some loyalty.

In a critical moment, when everyone else had fled, he still asked in panic, "Brother, do you need me to do anything?"

Su Lun thought for a moment and said, "Leave some bullets for me, and go ahead!"

"Okay."

Chubby didn't dawdle, pulling out several fine firearms and a pile of bullets from his storage ring, "Brother, take care of yourself!"

"Hm."

Su Lun nodded, double guns in hand, and stood at the entrance of the tunnel.

It wasn't that he was nobly self-sacrificing.

It was just that, with these burdens, it was safer for him to run alone.

Now that Assistant Daniel had gone and not returned, and there was no sign of the second-order instructor, plus the inexplicably falling insects... All these abnormal situations suggested that something had changed in the underground cavern.

Although Su Lun hadn't figured out what had happened, instinct told him that bigger trouble might still be waiting for them.

Following this group of students, the danger would be greater!