Above The Sky
Chapter 152 - 152 141 Four Years Later 13

152: Chapter 141 Four Years Later (1/3) 152: Chapter 141 Four Years Later (1/3) Terra Calendar 773, April 9th.

The early spring shifted from drought to dampness, with frequent rains and thunderstorms, making the official roads muddy and prone to flash floods; the number of trade caravans entering Harrison Port had clearly decreased by quite a bit.

However, in recent years, with the emergence of the New City District and several settlements outside the city walls surrounding the port, the permanent population had increased significantly compared to the past.

Even without the caravans, Harrison Port was still brimming with life.

This once sparsely populated frontier town of the Southern Ridge had finally acquired some of the bustle of a regional commercial hub.

Harrison Port, New City District, a trade caravan from the Imperial Capital was entering through the north gate, progressing along the riverside avenue by Ivoke River.

They brought with them a large amount of Alchemy Matrix and pre-processed raw materials that Harrison Port couldn’t produce independently and would take away a variety of special products from the Southern Border, as well as Demonic Beast Materials that were comparatively cheaper than in the Imperial Capital.

[Platinum Iridium Workshop]

From the signage, that was the name of this trade caravan.

The environs of the Imperial Capital, far from the frontier, no longer had any soil where Magical Beasts could survive, yet it was the economic and political center, teeming with powerful and wealthy individuals.

In such a market, the prices of Magic Potions and Demonic Beast Materials naturally soared.

On the contrary, Harrison Port was a frontier town wrapped in dense forests of Magical Beasts, lacking all the resources and wealth a civilized society should have, but obtaining Demonic Beast Materials and various furs wasn’t difficult, to the extent that they were even somewhat cheap.

The long-distance trade between the two was extremely difficult and dangerous, but the profits were also sufficient for one to overlook all hardships and dangers.

The main body of the caravan, those grey single-hump Camel Beasts, lifted their feet slowly; these desert creatures, originally from the Great Desert of Fiery Flame Land, were not very suited to the humid environment of the Southern Border, and their fur was somewhat knotted and drooping.

But their speed was quite fast, the thick and hard hooves of the Camel Beasts were said to tread over burning coals without harm, even scorching hot Flame Sand could not injure them.

A young boy whose face was covered by a hood and escorted by several tall guards followed the large caravan, curiously looking around this city that differed greatly from all he had known before.

Although the city walls here were low and lacked protective defense arrays, and the city guards’ Armored Clothing was quite cheap,

the enthusiastic hawking in the city and the sails from ships coming in and out of the distant sea were all novel to him.

“It’s not as scary as Mom said, Harrison Port—I guess the whole ‘muddy swamps of the frontier, insects that eat people, savage wilderness, and deadly miasma jungles where one could easily die’ was an exaggeration after all.”

He chuckled to himself, then after hearing an elder cough beside him, he realized his impropriety, “Ah, I’m sorry, Teacher.

I didn’t mean any disrespect, it’s just that everyone…”

Realizing that his explanations might only make things worse, the boy promptly coughed lightly and tightened his expression.

The guard’s pace was not disturbed by the boy’s words; they simply marched forward in silence.

“The last time I was here was fifteen years ago and back then, Harrison Port was indeed a city amid mud.

Although it wasn’t as bad as your mother described, the environment was indeed quite deplorable, and there were attacks by the Natives.”

Instead, the leader of the caravan had come up to the boy.

He looked around, somewhat nostalgic, “Ailes has really outdone himself.

I thought he had given up on managing his territory, indulging himself.

I didn’t expect he was just biding his time, and now that he’s got the chance, he’s showing remarkable potential.”

“Yisen, how do you feel?

You’ve never been beyond Quinor Plains before, right?”

The man exchanged glances with the old man beside the boy, nodded to each other, and then looked at his nephew with a beaming smile.

He reached out, patted the blond boy’s shoulder, “First time traveling so far from home, are you feeling alright?”

“Not bad, Uncle.

Thanks to Teacher who took me for a three-month experience in the Mist Veil Rainforest.” The young boy surprisingly spoke with composure, “Although I was afraid I couldn’t handle the difficulties of the journey, it seems I haven’t been pampered by the lifestyle of the Imperial Capital yet.”

“That’s good to hear.”

The man nodded in satisfaction, turned his head, and looked toward the docks at the end of the riverside avenue, “The mission you’re undertaking this time is a heavy one…

Don’t forget the expectations your parents have for you.”

“Yisen Gard, you’re almost an adult now.

You cannot tarnish the family’s honor.”

The youth solemnly responded, “Yes, uncle.”

Just at that moment, a sea breeze picked up, and a dense flock of seagulls took flight from the coast, heading towards a distant forest, prompting everyone to look up and gaze.

In the azure blue sky, a shadow quietly swept by, and rain clouds moved swiftly overhead.

Along with it came a quiet, fine rain.

The wind grew stronger.

Dingling, dingling.

On a street near the river dock in the New City District, a two-story building that was neither new nor old—wind chimes hanging at the window tinkled in the sea breeze.

“The wind is up.”

The cool air swirled the pages of his book, and the white-haired youth looked up at the window, then rose to close it, silencing the chimes.

The soundproof double-glazed windows brought silence to the room.

Fourteen-year-old Ian sat in his own workshop, beginning to work with focused concentration.

The workshop on the second floor of the White Chamber Grocery was much changed from four years ago.

Aside from rows of alchemy raw materials and semi-finished bases on the walls, there were also many complex instruments and large storage cabinets.

On all four walls and the sides of various instruments, all sorts of draft papers were affixed to every spot, some with guidelines on operating instruments, others with experiment plans that were frequently updated.

At the center of the second floor, on the workbench, the front end was covered with papers and diagrams written in neat handwriting, while at the back end tools commonly used for engraving such as gravers, files, and photolithography pens with light ink were laid out.

A few half-disassembled broken clocks, a completely dismantled alchemical firearm, and some mechanical parts and design diagrams whose purposes were obscure were placed to the side.

A clearly handcrafted telescope was placed in a translucent crystal box, pressed upon several often-consulted worn notebooks and books to weigh down the papers.

On the wall directly in front of the workbench, there were two hand-drawn ‘maps’.

One was a topographic map and sea chart of the area around Harrison Port, and the other was a star chart of the Southern Ridge Area, with each star meticulously labeled with its brightness and features.

However, this star chart was unusually sparse, and most of the stars were crossed out with forceful strokes of the pen.

On the workbench, a silver metal plate, and an old photolithography pen were firmly held in a slender, delicate hand.

The white-haired, blue-eyed youth worked with a focused gaze, the pen outputting a steady light, and a fine dense arc of electric light formed at the tip of the pen.

He turned his wrist intently, slowly drawing lines on the plate, eventually forming a fluid and complex pattern of multiple geometries.

These patterns were complete and fluid, possessing a rhythmic beauty of order, the stability almost equivalent to high-precision machining tools in his previous life.

After some time, when Ian exhaled softly and lifted his wrist and pen, the complex geometric patterns on the plate were complete, but this was not yet the end.

The youth took out a bottle of light ink marked with a lily flower pattern from the table, he carefully drew a certain amount of ink, which emitted a faint blue fluorescence from the bottle with a test tube, then he aimed it right at where he had initially started engraving on the plate and dropped the light ink onto it.

Plop.

As the light ink fell and merged with the plate, a pale blue profound light circulated within these patterns and then subsided quietly.

The originally inconspicuous plate now emitted a faint glow that was difficult for the common eye to discern, giving it a much tougher and more indestructible feel.

From selecting the material and determining the beginning of the inscription, to conceiving the overall structure and stabilizing the effects of the Inscriptions, and finally completing the work with the light ink Enlightenment.

The youth picked it up with satisfaction and observed it carefully.

“Not bad,” he said.

Only now was he finished with a basic ‘Aether Armed Anti-Impact Armor Plating’.