Pastor's Tantra

March 21st, early morning.

Ziggurat on the outskirts of Leipzig.

Albert Lorey scratched his messy and fluffy hair, took his water glass, yawned and walked out of the laboratory.

Because it was quite cool inside the laboratory, he wore a heavy woolen robe even in summer. The reason why it is a dark-colored robe is simply because it is more resistant to stains. Even if it is stained with blood or cooking oil, it will not be too conspicuous.

Since he had a complete falling out with the military, Albert no longer stayed in the Star Antimony Laboratory in Lionheart City and directly packed up his belongings and returned to the Ziggurat.

Once he stopped cooperating with those Wangli alchemists who had to write a report and wait for approval for each round of experiments and held regular meetings for more than two hours twice a week, Albert suddenly felt like he was alive again.

——Sure enough, it has to be a ziggurat! It’s better to be at home!

In the Ziggurat, when everyone walks on the road, no one will look at anyone else, and no one will pay attention to anyone. It wouldn't be like in Lionheart City, where everyone would chat up and say hello to him along the way, but he didn't know anyone. He feels tired when he speaks, but when he doesn't, people say he is arrogant.

There is no one here to control his schedule. He can go to bed whenever he wants and wake up when he wants. You don’t have to work hard to hold a morning meeting. You can go back to the laboratory and squat next to the corpse to eat. You don’t have to live a life where you can’t get a meal if you accidentally go past the meal time.

His experimental records can be written at will in words that only he can understand, because he does not need to hand in the experimental report. There is no need to write normal words one stroke at a time, and there is no need to use those long-winded and formal terms - anyway, he has only reached the fourth level at the age of twenty, and has never learned those terms.

I don’t know where the rules of those alchemists came from... Apparently a long time ago, those alchemists still inherited a set of terms.

...Of course, it may be because of this historical background that those royal alchemists are particularly concerned about "unifying terminology and behavioral norms."

Perhaps the alchemist is very accustomed to this kind of order... But after all, he is not an orthodox alchemist, just a "disaster splicer" who has mastered some alchemy. He had an owl-like routine and forced himself to wake up normally after the alchemists. He originally felt that he was about to die suddenly... but the information he got during the promotion ceremony was the last push.

"It's strange. I sleep less, but I feel less sleepy..."

Albert sighed, walked into the faucets located throughout the corridor, turned on the faucets and took a glass of fluorescent green potion. While waiting for the potion to be filled, he took off his glasses and wiped them with his sleeves.

——That is "No. 1 Compound Mixture".

Using the knowledge of alchemy, potions, and necromancy, the ziggurat refined three compound mixtures. They are green, red and yellow respectively.

The exact recipe is confidential. And the students all know very well that it's probably not a good thing, so it's best not to ask... Anyway, as long as their effects are powerful enough.

The effect of "No. 1" is to dispel fatigue, invigorate the spirit, and make the brain wake up again after staying up all night. The disadvantage is probably that your tongue will glow for a while after drinking it.

Albert drank it up, then turned on the second faucet and took a glass of potion that was as red as wine. It is mixed with some remaining fluorescent green-colored potion, so it looks slightly lighter.

This is "No. 2", its effect is to protect internal organs, prevent sudden death, repair joint damage and replenish strength.

After drinking these two glasses of "water", Albert patted his belly uncomfortably.

——I was quite hungry at first, but now I feel like I’m full.

"Senior. Morning."

At this moment, a light, somewhat hoarse voice sounded.

That was Aurora's voice.

Albert judged it immediately, so he turned back: "Are you awake, Aurora?"

The girl behind him has soft long platinum hair. Her already small face was mostly covered by her hair, so it looked like she only had a little head.

Her delicate, doll-like face was expressionless, like a corpse - it was this lifeless beauty that made Albert feel a little moved.

She is now the youngest fourth-level necromancer in Star Antimony - with the joint efforts of Albert and their mentor, she once again broke the record set by Albert.

This girl, as beautiful as a princess, did not wear a beautiful long or short skirt, but just wore purple pajamas and strolled around the ziggurat campus.

"Didn't sleep."

Aurora answered briefly, stood next to Albert and took a glass of "No. 3".

She always talks strangely and has no beginning or end. Their mentor, Fernando Bruzwijk Jr., could always understand Aurora's words, while Albert always had to ask "what" in confusion before he could get detailed supplements.

When Albert left, consider that Aurora must always be taken care of, otherwise such an innocent girl might be deceived. So after asking Aurora for her personal opinion, he transferred Aurora's files back to the ziggurat.

Also brought with him was the "corpse" of his petrified mentor, Fernando Bruzwick Jr.

But that's strange.

After the mentor's accident, although Aurora's words were still unclear, Albert felt that he could slowly understand Aurora's words.

"...No. 3?"

Albert looked at Aurora with some confusion.

The effect of the No. 3 potion is to urgently replenish the mana of the dusk path and the earth attribute - the most orthodox way to replenish mana is to dream. If you want to temporarily replenish your mana, you need to use power fragments with corresponding attributes and paths in the material world to do so.

Extraordinary creatures that meet the dusk path and earth attributes all have one characteristic in common.

——They all have something to do with the undead.

Therefore, potion No. 3 is also called "bone tea" or "bone soup" among students. Although I don’t know how this fishy mud-like potion is made, at least there must be kind and fresh undead in the raw materials. There is a theory that those mutilated undead souls that were disposed of were most likely used to make the No. 3 potion.

Even Albert would try not to drink it if he could.

As for the potion that was as turbid as mud, Aurora raised her head and drank it without changing her expression - but her originally cold face seemed to become paler for a moment.

When she raised her head to drink the medicine, Albert's expression changed slightly.

Because he was taller, from this angle, he could clearly see through the cuffs that Aurora was not wearing underwear under her nightgown.

...What should I do? Should I remind her?

But this is equivalent to saying that I have seen it. Wouldn't it be rude...

Albert's inner thoughts were changing.

He finally made up his mind - the mentor who could protect them is no longer here, and I have to take care of Aurora.

"Well, Aurora..."

Albert coughed lightly and reminded: "Clothes."

"?"

Aurora glanced back at him silently, her eyes full of doubts.

"I mean...underwear."

Albert reminded.

"oh."

Aurora suddenly understood what Albert meant.

And she replied briefly: "It's okay."

——Is this okay? !

Albert scratched his already messy hair irritably.

I just hate that I am not her senior sister, so I can't take her to my bedroom and talk about the teaching of "this kind of thing doesn't exist and it's okay" in detail...

But Albert was not very good at talking. He felt tremendous pressure just thinking about this kind of topic - let alone a private topic, he usually didn't even dare to talk to Aurora. He was afraid that the other party would suddenly bring up some topic that he couldn't answer at the moment.

Seeing Albert like this, the corners of Aurora's mouth rose slightly for a moment.

"I'm not stupid."

She suddenly spoke and said softly: "Thank you."

"……You're welcome?"

Albert was a little confused.

He could feel that Aurora meant "Don't worry about it, I have my own ideas, but thank you anyway."

But he looked at Aurora's cuffs that were less than her elbows, and after thinking about it, he took off his robe from himself and put it on Aurora.

Albert said seriously: "It's cold on the way back..."

But he actually had another thought in his heart - he hoped that Aurora wouldn't be exposed for others to see.

Even in the Ziggurat, people generally don't look at other people passing by. Not to mention a thin nightgown, even if he really walked naked, in the end he just took a curious glance and left as usual... However, Albert still had such an idea.

Although he was a little embarrassed just to give this robe to Aurora - after all, he had not washed the robe for a week because he was busy doing experiments, and now it was full of the smell of food and corpses...

However, Aurora did not dislike it. Instead, she stretched out her hands to tighten the robe that hung down to her calves and wrapped herself in it.

She looked at Albert with her empty eyes, tilted her head and thought about it.

So Aurora twisted off her head and handed it to Albert.

"……Um?"

Albert took the head hesitantly, holding the bottom with one hand, and subconsciously combing the smooth hair with his fingers with the other hand: "Why...do you want me to wash your hair?"

That's fine too. He hasn't washed the hair of other disaster splicers yet.

"I want to see you do experiments."

Aurora in his arms raised her head and answered.

- But you want me to go back. So I unscrewed my head to accompany you, and my body went back first.

Albert quickly understood what Aurora meant, and suddenly couldn't hold himself tight.

"I don't necessarily want you to go back... If you don't have eyes, how will your body walk back? Is it purely based on perception? Then it won't be boring for you to go back."

He reluctantly inserted Aurora's head back in, patted it and compacted it again: "If you want to see the experiment, just come with me."

"oh."

Aurora responded with some disappointment, and followed Albert step by step.

"Then, I want to wash your hair."

She said suddenly.

"No, I can wash it myself..."

Albert sighed. But seeing that the elementary school girl was obviously a little disappointed, he still turned his head to the right and unscrewed it, and handed it to Aurora: "If you really want it, just play with it first."

Although he valued his clever brain, he would be willing to give up his head to Aurora.

"oh!"

Aurora happily took Albert's head, held it in her arms and touched it affectionately.

——This is a terrifying acrobatic that only two "disaster splicers" can achieve.

And when he personally felt the softness of Aurora's chest, Albert's head's expression suddenly changed again.

Just when Albert was thinking about how to remind her cleverly and politely, Aurora, who was usually taciturn, took the initiative and said: "I watched the news. Two days ago."

"Ah, then you tell me. I'm busy working on the latest project, and I haven't watched the news for several days."

Albert said casually: "But the news from two days ago should be called old news..."

"The king is dead, and Hong Xiang killed him."

Aurora continued.

"……What?"

Albert was startled.