Chapter 36: Perpetual Motion Machine

Chapter 36: Perpetual Motion Machine

Noon the following day.

Xar and Anjou stepped out from the low walls of the academy, clad in their standard-issue student uniforms.

With their uniforms and identification booklets, they could enter the exhibition hall freely. The venue was not far from the academy, a pleasant walk for after lunch.

The resident mage of Starry Night City was Beatrice.

This intellectual female mage, over two hundred years old, had witnessed every facet of worldly change and understood that pure light only served to foster deeper, more hidden darkness.

In the southeast corner of Starry Night City, within an old neighborhood known as the Broken Kiln District, she maintained a territory where the sordid and the desperate could scrape by.

That area was strictly off-limits to academy students; in any other part of the city, however, they could move about without obstruction, never needing to worry about encountering trouble.

Beatrice was not the only one who shielded the students’ safety.

The castle administrator, Deem, had inscribed these lines in the "Castle Code":

[Article 17: When leaving the academy on weekends or holidays, you must wear your copper pendant. In the event of an emergency, throw the copper pendant to the ground or against a wall, and my elemental servants will receive the alert and arrive as quickly as possible to provide support.]

With this dual layer of protection, the academy students walked through the crowded streets with the same ease and comfort as if they were strolling through the academy gardens.

"I see the exhibition hall! It’s right there."

Anjou, arm-linked with Xar, gave a joyful hop and pointed to the white building about twenty or thirty meters ahead.

The three-story exhibition hall had three entrances on its front facade: the central one for common citizens, the left door kept firmly shut, and the right reserved for academy students and other dignitaries.

Xar and Anjou presented their booklets and copper pendants to the guards and entered the main hall on the first floor.

Anjou glanced at the exhibition map and whispered into Xar’s ear:

"Let’s look at the historical paintings first. This style is harder to grasp, but it utilizes the most comprehensive techniques."

Xar nodded with a smile, allowing her delicate hand to lead him toward the staircase.

In his two lifetimes combined, the most frequent flat imagery he had consumed was manga...

Perhaps because he had never attended an art exhibition before, he found it difficult to understand where the appeal of artistic paintings lay.

It wasn't until he walked into the historical gallery and stood before a massive work that he truly felt, for the first time, the staggering impact of oil painting.

On a wall three meters high and ten meters long, a single piece covered the entire surface, with figures rendered in life-size proportions.

A group of loggers in brown overalls were felling trees in a forest.

The contrast between shadow and sunlight was sharp, and the style was so meticulous that even the wood chips flying from the impact of the axes against the trunks were clearly visible.

Xar stood two or three meters from the canvas, gazing at the expressions and postures of the loggers, feeling a surge of emotion.

When observing vivid, realistic paintings, all one needed was a little bit of imagination for the static image to come alive, much like a VR video.

Anjou stood to the side and whispered:

"It’s beautiful, isn't it? My teacher also brought me to see the historical paintings first."

She tugged on Xar’s sleeve and traced an oval shape under the loggers' feet with her finger. "Look at the posture of these wild grasses, and then look at the wildflowers in the bushes behind the loggers."

Xar’s gaze darted between the grass and the flowers. He crossed his arms and propped his chin up, brow furrowed, feeling that there was some connection between the two.

The weather in the painting was shifting from light rain to clear, and there were many damp mud prints on the grass, with the blades of grass bent and tangled within them.

The wildflowers in the bushes had highlights on their petals—raindrops that hadn't yet fallen—and the blossoms leaned slightly to one side.

Xar’s eyes brightened. It was the wind!

He closed his eyes, visualizing the historical painting in his mind.

Three or five loggers swung their axes in unison, shouting slogans as they struck the giant trees. The motion of their chopping created gusts of light wind, tearing through the natural breeze drifting through the forest.

Xar opened his eyes, suddenly realizing that the flattened posture of the wild grasses followed a pattern.

They had been trampled into the ground, but the tips of the blades still swayed with the gusts generated by the loggers.

Using tangible objects to depict the intangible.

Using the postures of the loggers and the flowers to depict different wind directions.

A flash of insight lit up Xar’s eyes. He squinted in admiration and remarked:

"This painting is absolutely a masterpiece. No wonder it’s placed near the entrance of the gallery. Even without drawing diagonal lines to represent wind direction, it still captures the interaction of different winds. Truly impressive."

Anjou curled her lips and blew gently against Xar’s neck, causing him to shrink his shoulders involuntarily. She covered her mouth and giggled:

"As long as it isn't a portrait or a still life, wind is the soul of a painting. If it’s a landscape, water and wind are equally important."

Xar cast his Detection spell on Anjou once more.

[Character Name] Anjou
[Identity] Mage Servant of Starry Night Academy
[Health] ??? (Healthy)
[Resistances]
[Wind Resistance] 3%
[Water Resistance] 2%
[Strength] 2
[Agility] 3
[Endurance] 2
[Vitality] 2
[Perception] 5
[Willpower] 5
[Spirit] 11
[Charm] 6
[Character Specialties]:
[Alchemy Linguistics], [Oil Alchemy: Apprentice Grade]...
[Painting Skills: Artisan Grade]
[Painting Mastery: Wind] Able to perceive changes in wind direction and depict them with a brush.
[Painting Mastery: Water] Able to perceive changes in water flow and depict them with a brush.

Anjou's Spirit had increased from 10 to 11; that must have been the merit of reading alchemy books.

Like Cori Muller, the miller's daughter, she had awakened both Wind and Water resistances, both stemming from observing the changes in wind and water flow.

With sufficient Spirit attributes, one could awaken Fire resistance by studying Wonder-Item Alchemy, or by sensing the specialty [Forging Mastery: Heat Control] of the small-town blacksmith Mobern Riley, or other similar traits.

To awaken Earth resistance, one would study Poison Alchemy, sensing the specialty [Toxin Mastery: Compound] of Kulov during the process of crafting and neutralizing poisons.

Xar realized how he differed from everyone else.

He did not acquire these resistance-related traits through conventional means!

Instead, he obtained related rewards from his "Golden Finger" by selling his own blood.

He had bypassed the long, arduous process of accumulation that took years!

It was like a fire-breather; lung capacity, toxin resistance, and flame-spitting techniques all required long-term practice to achieve.

But by relying on high health regeneration, he used high-intensity, highly toxic fire-breathing potions to forcibly harvest the [Fire Resistance] granted by his identity bonuses.

Elemental resistance was defined by Beatrice as an acquired affinity.

Whether it was acquired or innate, as long as one possessed affinities for all four elements, one could practice introductory meditation techniques and eventually become a mage.

Learning alchemy was merely one of the paths to acquiring these acquired affinities.

It just happened to be faster than painting, gathering herbs, or blowing bellows.

However, none of the paths accessible to ordinary people were as fast or as convenient as selling blood for rewards.

Could it be...

A miraculous thought surged deep within Xar's mind!

Perhaps he could rely on his Golden Finger to pioneer a brand-new method of identity advancement.

The "Vitality Build!"

Sell blood, get rewards, regenerate, and then sell blood again...

As long as the requirements for identity advancement could be satisfied by selling blood, wouldn't he become a perpetual motion machine?