Chapter 29: Steam and Machinery, Magic and Mystery

[You experienced a painless crossing]

[When you open your eyes, you find yourself in a world of steam and magic, and your body changes to that of a fifteen year old, weak and common]

[You have no identification, you don’t have any money, you don’t even have a bowl to start with]

[As a traveler, you don’t panic too much, and you explore the surrounding situation unhurriedly, preparing to start a new business in this world.]

[Although your 15-year-old body is not yet fully developed, it already has the ability to stand on its own feet, which is your greatest capital and bottom line, you cheered for yourself in your mind and struggled to climb out of the sewage]

Booming steam.

Biting Gears.

Efficient magic.

At night, steel and steam, magic and mystery, come together to form the central hub of the massive city.

What woke the Xu system up was the unmistakable sound of an unmistakably shrill, narrow steam whistle.

“Duh-!!!”

Open your eyes.

The left and right sides were obscured by towering red walls, leaving the center alone, revealing the dull sky and the slightly yellowed glow of streetlights.

Steeply, fiery white steam erupted from nowhere.

Strike high into the sky.

Collision reaction with the cold evening wind.

Forming dense, drifting droplets of water that spread out over the immediate sight, then collapsing back into mist, it slowly but evenly surged to all corners of the city.

This fog was very much obscuring the view, and every now and then, there was a tirade of abuse coming from all parts of the city.

And so.

The Hsu Department saw it.

There was a figure wearing a vestment and holding a wand floating in the air, waving it at will, and a huge storm of flames appeared in the air, devouring those mists cleanly.

The city was once again quiet.

Praise the almighty magic and the honorable Vulcan.

People prayed like this.

This era is so amazing, the faith of the gods spread all over the land, exalting the greatness of magic and the convenience of steam, just in the corners of greatness, there are also some overlooked darkness.

“What’s the word, can’t I get a good start on the analog crossover?”

The Xu system struggled.

With great effort, he rose from the alley.

This alley was covered in blackened dirty water, the stench of which was unpleasant and inexplicably corrosive at the same time, and the misery was comparable to that of the last simulation’s starving people’s opening.

The Xu system wondered if the simulator was deliberately messing with itself.

“All in all, let’s figure out the most basic food, clothing, and shelter first, and then consider delving into magic.”

After standing up.

The Xu system stumbled out of the alley.

In this new analog world, he didn’t have an ounce of transcendent power, much less an eternal teardrop in his possession to eat his sister’s soft food.

The good thing is that with three word talents, you can still fend for yourself.

[You’ve taken the first difficult step]

[Through inquiring, you learn that you are located in the city of Ellenson on the north side of the world, a large city equipped with efficiently running steam machinery, with the main beliefs of the god of fire, the god of blacksmiths and the goddess of the harvest.]

[If you’re new to the country, you choose to make your first buck with manual labor.]

[You succeeded, and though half exhausted, you earned your first meal by the sweat of your brow, and your first paltry pittance, a full three coins]

You’ve been counting for ten minutes.

[You’re incredibly relieved that everything is going according to your plan.]

[You choose to stay rooted in the slums for a while, where the food is good and cheap, and you don’t need to rent a house, two or three pieces of tin and find a dirt floor, and that’s your new home.]

……

[A year has passed in which you have managed to grasp the basic intelligence of the world and know what to do next]

[This is a time ruled by the gods]

[Countless people rely on faith in the gods to obtain the ability to manipulate magic, the deeper the faith, the stronger the level of magic, and even more people will be chosen as the gods’ surrogate, known as demigods]

[Magicians who do not rely on faith in the gods and choose to cultivate on their own also exist and are called elemental mages by the world]

[By sensing everything and establishing a connection with the elements, we can unleash magic]

[This is an extremely difficult path, belief in the gods as long as they are pious enough and pay their mind to belong, they can achieve greatness in a short period of time, but elemental mages can only take one difficult step at a time, and very few people choose to]

[You laugh, you happen to have a very good talent for elemental perception]

[At the same time, you have no interest in believing in gods]

[You spent all of your savings from a year of hard work and went to a store in the center of town and purchased a bottle of the lowest grade of Slime Slime, which is known to be the worst of the worst magical transcendental materials, and the only item you could afford to buy.]

One year later.

Slums.

Ignoring the stench that permeated the surroundings, System Xu sat expressionlessly in his ‘home’.

If only the patchwork toy sitting on a dirt road, cobbled together from a few pieces of sheet metal, could be considered a home.

“A year ah …… tsk.”

“Although in the simulated world, senses are not as sharp as in the real world, I did have enough of living in the slums for a year.”

The Xu system lamented, shaking the clear, colorless Slime Slime in his hand.

The goo was contained in clear bottles that were well sealed, following the shaking motions of the Xu system as it slowly turned upside down.

Practice with Slime Slime.

It’s an impossible thing.

But the Hsu system is different.

As early as a long time ago, when the Xu system selected the magic side as a new analog world, they had prepared for it for a long time, preparing meditation methods for practicing magic in advance, as well as reading various matters of cultivation.

And in this simulation, he had the special phrase Elemental Perception.

So.

An impossible miracle was born in the slums.

……

[You became an apprentice magician]

[Through meditation, you managed to perceive the element of life in the slime, and with a surprisingly calm brain, you reached the upper limit of what a mortal can possess, and engraved this elemental fluctuation in your mental consciousness]

[You have thus learned level 0 magic – Life Slime Generation]

[You leave the slums and head to the Wizard’s Guild in the center of Ellenson, registering and enrolling as a wizard’s apprentice with the benefit of 10 silver coins per month]

[Your life improves and starts to get really good]

[You crossed the ranks, from slumdog to honored magical apprentice, and everyone was shocked at you and thought you were a devout follower of the Goddess of Life.]

【Because in this world, the existence of elemental mages is extremely rare, even if someone wants to learn, it is difficult to sense the elements, and is known as an existence only found in stories】.

[You smiled, neither admitting nor denying]

[In an age when all men believe in gods, atheists would be considered heretics, and the misunderstanding that the multitudes have about you is just enough to make you safer]