Translator: SumTLMan
The sound of pages turning resonates repeatedly in the quiet room, and Angel’s brows, initially relaxed, progressively furrow in concentration.
He has already flipped through ten pages, all filled with various unexplained data. Among these, Angel recognizes some of the magic formulas used, but recognizing them does not mean he can deduce anything from the data.
Even if it were possible to deduce, at a minimum, a complete data chain would be required. The data in the notebook is logically disconnected, with no apparent correlation. It’s impossible for Angel to determine what Tizarro was writing about from this.
It’s like knowing someone named Link and, with this information alone, without any other clues, trying to infer whether there was wind on the day the childhood enemy of his best friend was born.
Is that even possible?
Maybe others have means to infer, but Angel cannot.
In the pages he’s currently browsing, the only thing Angel recognizes are a few lines occasionally written by Tizarro, and these are quite straightforward: Experiment 98, Experiment 99… Experiment 102…
From Tizarro’s records, it is evident that these data were likely used in his experiments. However, Angel does not know what experiments Tizarro was conducting, nor is he particularly interested.
Angel’s current priority is self-cultivation. Once complete, he must learn the knowledge of a formal wizard, practice various spells, research and analyze the green runes, handle alchemical experiments required by the Research Institute… not to mention the development of the Wilderness of Dreams. These tasks are already enough to keep him busy; he has little interest in others’ experiments.
The main reason he’s browsing this notebook is that he’s temporarily residing in this ruin and wants to understand its previous owner.
Angel turns a few more pages, encountering the same situation as before, records of various data. The hasty handwriting suggests that Tizarro wrote these at different times.
Angel was skeptical, these data seemed to be just some information that Tizarro casually recorded when inspired.
This kind of “record of inspirations” text was incomprehensible to Angel. Therefore, in the subsequent browsing, Angel simply skipped the messy data, didn’t examine them closely, and didn’t ponder deeply.
This way, the browsing speed increased significantly.
In the entire notebook, the first four-fifths were primarily various experimental data, but this type of experimental data only continued until Experiment 116 and then stopped.
As for Experiment 117, it was specifically recorded on another two scrolls, divided into upper and lower parts, which Angel had not yet seen.
Towards the end of the notebook, Angel finally saw something different.
“Year 6563 of the Southern Region’s New Era, the latter part of the Month of Recovery, the third day.”
“Experiment 116 failed again… I hate the Month of Recovery; the snow is too heavy, freezing all my thoughts. Probably, this is also why the experiment failed. I need to change the climate, maybe then my ideas will flow.”
After turning the page, Angel surprisingly saw that the notebook went from the third to the fourth day of the latter part of the Month of Recovery. This was a clear difference from the time leaps in the previous pages.
In the previous pages, one moment it was summer of the New Era year 6561, and the next moment, it turned to winter of 6562.
This was the first time the notebook’s record was only a day apart.
“I changed the climate; the ice on the plateau melted. Feeling the scorching wind, I realized it’s not just warm… but too hot. The ice fish I was raising outside got dried up. Though the taste is not bad, I don’t want to eat fish in this season. I should change the climate again.”
“After changing the climate twice in a row, I noticed some changes in the experimental body. These changes sparked some inspiration. Just changing that external condition might allow the mycelium to continue dividing! I’ve decided to immediately start Experiment 117!”
Angel turned another page, and the next one did not contain information about Experiment 117, but still contained some of Tizarro’s random thoughts.
It seems that this notebook, which began as a ‘record of inspirations’, has turned into a ‘diary of moods’?
In the following pages, it’s mostly Tizarro’s sentiments, occasionally mentioning his own experiments, but mostly filled with various complaints and criticisms.
From these narratives, Angel could essentially discern that this predecessor from the Savage Grottoes was someone with a strong desire to criticize.
In a nutshell, he was argumentative and held a superior view of everything.
However, Tizarro had the right to be so. According to what Tree Spirit revealed earlier, the former resident of this ruin, namely Tizarro, possessed considerable strength at the time, comparable to the current Sanders.
At least at the second-level of true knowledge.
In the subsequent pages, Tizarro continued his critical style, finding faults in everything he disliked. Angel thought these criticisms would persist to the end, but in the last two or three pages, Tizarro’s criticisms suddenly disappeared, and he recorded a line in a puzzled tone:
“I counted the experiment tools of the ruin’s creator, and I feel like something is not quite right.”
The third-to-last page only recorded this line, but it was the first time Tizarro mentioned the creator of the ruin.
Angel was personally curious about the creator of the ruins. In his speculation, the creator should be an alchemist, and as it related to alchemy, he naturally paid more attention.
Moreover, when he previously inquired about the ruins with Tree Spirit, although Tree Spirit didn’t name anyone, he did mention some things about Tizarro, but never about who the original creator of the ruins was.
Was it unknown, or did they choose not to say?
Angel flipped to the second-to-last page, which only recorded a line, still devoid of any criticism.
“I’ve figured out what’s wrong; those experimental tools lack a very crucial Material Analysis Table!”
At this moment, Angel was taken aback. The Material Analysis Table is actually a special auxiliary identification tool, containing many elements that can interact with the object being identified. It’s a deep extension of the Eye of Nalda, and practically every alchemist has one, including Angel himself.
Tizarro’s certainty about the absence of the “Material Analysis Table” also confirmed something for Angel: his guess was right, the original owner of this ruin was definitely an alchemist!
Thinking of this, Angel continued to read the notes in his hand.
“It’s unlikely that the owner would display all other experimental tools but not the Material Analysis Table; something’s wrong… I haven’t seen a Material Analysis Table in the other rooms either. Could it be that there is a hidden room here?”
A Hidden Room?!
Angel paused for a moment. Was what Tizarro said true?
Eager to know the answer, he quickly flipped to the next page, which was also the last page of the notebook!