Convincing Loreint

"Sir, I am not joking. And from what I heard, you've made so many machines that are much more complicated than this thing. You've got to at least tell me what makes it impossible." Chrysos was quite taken aback by how fast Loreint dismissed him, so he wanted to talk it through.

Loreint shook his head. "Kid, I am not going to make that thing. I will only say this once and I won't say it again. Leave now, or else I might have to use force."

Feeling the threatening aura coming from the craftsman, Chrysos sighed.

He obviously didn't want to leave, so he glanced at the machine that Loreint was working on.

"Before I leave, what is that thing that you're working on?" Chrysos pointed at the machine made from gray metal.

"Hm?" Loreint wasn't expecting Chrysos to stay and ask about the machine so he said, "Even if I try to explain it, you will not understand this thing."

"Once you explain it to me, I'll leave." Chrysos revealed a smile under his mask.

Clearly annoyed, Loreint explained regardless. "Fine, this is a machine that doesn't use Divinium. It is capable to-"

Chrysos cut him off. "To do menial tasks repeatedly using water and steam."

Loreint revealed a hint of surprise in his face. He laughed and said, "Fine, you have some knowledge about machines but that doesn't mean that I'll make that thing for you."

"What if I tell you that you're doing it wrong?" Chrysos confidently spoke as he locked his eyes at the machine.

Angered by this statement, Loreint spoke in a low voice. "Listen kid, It's good that you know a thing or two about machines. But claiming that you can do it better than me is a clear insult to my work."

"What about this, I'll help you fix that machine and you'll make this thing for me." Chrysos waved the diagram of the sniper rifle in front of Loreint.

"And what if you fail?" Loreint revealed a doubtful look at Chrysos.

"Then I'll pay you ten thousand gold coins." Chrysos said with a shrug.

Loreint laughed. "Alright then, be my guest." He gestured to the machine and the table full of different tools.

Meiros whispered to Chrysos. "Master, are you sure what you're doing is alright?"

Seeing Meiros' concern, Chrysos assured him by saying, "Relax, I know what I'm doing."

Chrysos walked towards the machine and looked it over by walking around it in circles.

Seeing this, Loreint gave a cold sneer in his heart.

Chrysos used material detection on the machine and a small magic circle appeared on his eye. He knocked twice on the machine and felt the different components inside. Of course, he didn't dawdle and drew a magic circle in the air. He added a few symbols and markings before absorbing it into his Divinium Circle Core.

The reason why his Divinium Circle Core was empty when he reincarnated is because when Chrysos died, his soul was replaced by Gerald's.

Since Gerald isn't really Chrysos, it was normal that he wouldn't be able to access Chrysos' spells through his Divinium Circle Core. But this was different for the unique abilities.

Unique abilities are ingrained into one's body and not their soul. So if Gerald dies and another soul goes into Chrysos' body, that person will get the unique abilities as well.

The humans of the Divine Lands are weird. Their DNA has something that assigns a specific Divinium energy that the body will adapt. Meaning, every class has a specific trait in their bodies that allows the Divinium to give them those unique abilities.

Chrysos' DNA is more attuned towards alchemy, and that is how he got the unique abilities of an alchemist. If anyone grasps this specific trait in everyone's bodies, they can theoretically control anyone's class.

But that will take years of research into the future. For now, let's go back to Chrysos fixing Loreint's machine.

Chrysos used a circular saw and opened the cylindrical boiler. Sparks flew into Chrysos' face but he ignored it since he was wearing a mask anyways.

Casting Flaming Burneix Claws in his hands, fiery red magic circles appeared in Chrysos' fingertips. He used it to melt the boiler of the machine.

And as Chrysos expected, Loreint was trying to make a steam engine. This made Chrysos quite suspicious of Loreint. In the Divine Lands, many people are dependent on Divinium since it is a natural force that everyone has grown used to after thousands of years.

Not only that, humans used Divinium to create different machines that use Divinium. It's not comparable to those from earth, sure.. but their innovation is a great thing.

But Loreint is planning to create a steam engine. A machine that doesn't rely on Divinium. It wasn't necessary at all, so why was Loreint wasting his time on this?

Unless… he came from earth as well.

Chrysos pushed those thoughts away for now and continued to work on the engine. The boiler is a cylinder that will be filled with water and then heated up to produce steam.

A steam engine works because of the boiler, a piston, and a wheel.

The boiler will be filled with water and under it will be a source of heat, mainly being fire. The steam will try to escape and go through the tube of the piston, pushing it forward.

The wheel will turn because of the pressure and when it's pushed enough, a hole in the boiler will push the piston because of perfectly timed channels attached to the boiler that will let the pressure in and out, making it turn the wheel where the piston could no longer release the steam because the hole is blocked.

And since the hole is blocked, it will be filled with steam soon enough, it needs an area where the gas can escape. By using the channels, that could be fixed in order for the engine not to explode because of too much pressure.

But how will the water get in to provide the source of pressure ?

The boiler needs a hole where the water will be poured into. This can be used by the steam to escape which will reduce the engine's power.

To fix this, Chrysos attached a tube with a narrow hole in the top to the water inlet with a small cylinder inside.

The cylinder inside has four small hinges so that it wouldn't block the water going inside. But when the pressure builds up and gets strong enough, it will push the cylinder upwards, blocking its own exit.

With this, the steam will be forced to go through another exit which will be the hole where it will escape, and the piston. And for convenience, the hole can be opened and closed if the pressure is too weak.

Chrysos didn't do much since Loreint already fine tuned specific stuff like the position of the holes to let the steam escape and the size of the piston accurately fitting the tube.

To Chrysos, they were all just minor mistakes that he could easily fix.

He used the flame in his fingers to weld some stuff together just like the tube from the water inlet. He also made some minor adjustments to the engine and after twenty minutes, he was done.

Chrysos stood up and casted the amazingly named spell "Water" and filled the boiler with water. After that, he used the flaming claws to light up fire under the boiler and waited.

Loreint revealed a bit of surprise in his face. He has been working on this machine for months now. To think that this random person figured out the concept of his machine this quickly was unexpected.

Chrysos spun the wheel and surprisingly, the engine worked!

"It worked! There we go." Chrysos laughed and looked at Loreint.

Loreint knew why Chrysos was looking at him like that, so he sighed. "Yes, yes, I know. I'll make that thing for you." Loreint didn't reject his request this time.

Chrysos happily passed him the drawing of the sniper rifle. And when he gave it to Loreint, Chrysos couldn't help but ask him, "Craftsman Loreint, how did you get the inspiration for this machine?"

"Hm?" Loreint raised an eyebrow at him. "It came to my mind that many people focus on how to utilize Divinium for their everyday lives. But when I think about it, it's difficult for Divinium alone to be used in order to accomplish something just like how the Maakon'koph race do it. But that's just part of the reason. The real reason I made it is because it was commissioned."

"Wait wait wait, Maakon'koph?" Chrysos didn't have any recollection of this race in his memories.

"Kid, don't tell me you don't know anything about the Maakon'koph?" Loreint shook his head. "Do you at least know what the Divine War is?"

"Of course, that's when all of the races in the Divine Lands fought each other and humans managed to claim the most territory, right?" The moment he was reincarnated as Chrysos, Gerald had some knowledge about the history of the Divine Lands, so the Divine War isn't something that he has no knowledge of.

Loreint's face showed a trace of approval. "Since you know about the Divine War, let me tell you what the Maakon'koph are. During the war, they used strange contraptions powered by Divinium and some of them… weren't."

Chrysos didn't show any reaction since machines that didn't use magic are something that he already knew.

Loreint took Chrysos' silence as him listening carefully. He didn't waste any time and continued with his story. "The Maakon'koph used these huge machines to cleave through legions of soldiers without breaking a sweat. The Maakon'koph themselves aren't that strong physically, but with their knowledge of machinery, they were a force to be reckoned with. And during the war, us humans learned from them and created machinery inspired by the Maakon'koph."

"So you're saying that this machine is from the Maakon'koph as well? Or is it from somewhere else..?" Chrysos tried probing Loreint's background.

"Yes, the Maakon'koph are innovative when it comes to machines. I learned it from them and decided to figure it out. Speaking of machines, you aren't a craftsman aren't you?" Loreint openly admitted that he got the idea of the engine from the Maakon'koph which disappointed Chrysos a bit.

But faced with Loreint's question, Chrysos didn't hide it and showed him his Divinium.

Seeing the trail of Divinium coming from Chrysos, Loreint examined it for a while and when he did, he widened his eyes in shock as he blurted out. "You're an alchemist?!"

With a laugh, Chrysos nodded. "Yes, I am an alchemist."

Hearing it from Chrysos himself, Loreint still couldn't believe that an alchemist out of all people figured out how his machine worked. "Aren't you supposed to be working on potions? Why are you so knowledgeable about machinery?"

"Alchemy has a lot of applications in our lives. Some of the concepts that I have learned made me see things differently from others." Chrysos couldn't possibly explain that he learned it from earth, so he had to make up an excuse.

"I see…" Loreint found it reasonable and didn't ask any further.

"What are you going to use the machine for?" Chrysos asked as he looked at the engine spewing out steam.

"Ah, it's a commission from an anonymous person. The person wanted me to create something that is capable of producing enough power to mine out stone without using Divinium." Loreint chuckled a bit as he thought about it. "When I got that commission, I immediately dismissed it since I'm not going to waste my time on that. But when that person gave me ancient technology from the Maakon'koph, I couldn't resist it. Not only that, the person promised to give me many more technologies if I figure it out. And I must say… uhm… I haven't asked your name yet, haven't I?"

"It's Chrysos. Chrysos Tylo."

"Very well Chrysos. I'll get this machine of yours done in four days. You can get it around Two Sarcelux. (2:00pm)" Loreint patted his shoulder.

"Oh yeah, how much is it?" Chrysos took out the bag of gold coins that he won from the Vespeta Dome.

"This one's free. Thanks to your help, I will get a lot of technology from a very advanced race in terms of machinery." Loreint laughed heartily.

Chrysos took back the money and thanked him. "Very well then, Craftsman Loreint. Me and my student will be off now."

"Haha, come back soon if you need to." Loreint sent them off.

…

While walking, Meiros turned to Chrysos and asked, "Master Chrysos, the thing that you did with the machine. That was something that you learned from earth, right?"

"Yes. But please don't mention earth if we're outside. I really just don't want to be known that I'm not from here." Chrysos warned him.

Meiros lowered his head. "I apologize, master, it will not happen again."

"It's just a small mistake so I can let that slide. But your question about my knowledge coming from.. ehem… that place. Then yes, I did learn it there." Chrysos admitted it.

"So you learnt from the Maakon'koph?" Meiros was surprised. "Master, the more I learn from you, the more unfathomable you seem to me."

Chrysos found it funny. It was just random knowledge that he learned from earth but here, it was considered like some kind of great wisdom.

But then again, that's just how underdeveloped the Spirit Continents were.

"I'll keep teaching you when we get back. For every mistake you make, you have to make ten exercises of my choice. Got it?" Chrysos crossed his arms as he laughed.

Meiros clenched his fists. "Don't worry master, I will work hard."

"Oh? You're not complaining? That's a different reaction than what I expected." Chrysos said with a tone of approval.

"Master, am I really that bad of a student to you?" Meiros knitted his eyebrows.

"Of course not. Your diligence and hardworking attitude is admirable. Those are the qualities that I definitely want from a student." Chrysos assured Meiros.

Hearing this, Meiros was filled with motivation. "Master, I think you're too lenient with me."

"Lenient? You're my first student. You need to strive to be the best since you're representing my name. You should be a role model if I ever get more students in the future. If you think I'm being lenient, just wait until I finish making your training routines." Chrysos could already see himself being those mentors in movies that train their students in stupidly difficult exercises as they relaxed peacefully in the corner.

And from the side, Meiros already had a bad premonition after hearing this.