Kaelan's eyes settle on Raphael, Rosalyn, Professor Hamlett, and Clive.
Clive notices him immediately and walks over with a relaxed smile.
He stops before Kaelan, bows properly, and says, "Teacher, how was your cultivation?"
Kaelan's gaze drifts past him toward the dark tunnel.
He turns his body slightly toward the black hole in the cavern wall.
After a brief glance at Clive, he replies, "It is acceptable."
He gestures toward the tunnel.
"What is the result of the exploration?"
Clive exhales softly.
"For now, nothing. The automatons are destroyed by an energy attack the moment they enter the tunnel. We have not even identified the source."
Kaelan does not respond immediately.
Instead, his eyes move across the cavern until they settle on a young alchemist seated cross-legged on the ground.
The man is focused, his fingers making small guiding motions in the air.
Before him, a steam automaton performs controlled movements, lifting its arm, rotating its torso, and bending at the knee.
Kaelan walks toward him.
Clive follows a step behind.
Kaelan stops behind the seated alchemist and bends slightly.
He taps the man's shoulder.
The alchemist startles and turns around.
Kaelan says calmly, "Give me your automaton."
The alchemist blinks, unable to process the request.
Kaelan sighs faintly and repeats, "Give me your automaton."
The alchemist narrows his eyes. "Who are you?"
Clive steps forward at once.
"This is Master Alchemist Kaelan."
The alchemist's eyes widen.
He jumps to his feet and bows deeply.
"Apprentice Nick greets Master Kaelan."
He performs the formal alchemist salute.
Kaelan nods once.
"For the third time. Give me your automaton."
Nick's brows lift in sudden realisation.
"Oh!"
He immediately closes his eyes.
The automaton halts.
Steam valves hiss softly as the internal boiler powers down.
Nick opens his eyes again.
"Master Kaelan, it is yours."
Kaelan inclines his head.
Without touching it physically, his spirit extends and enters the automaton.
Steam automatons are constructed through steam alchemy.
They consist of mechanical limbs, a steam boiler for motive force, and a central array that binds the components together into a functional whole.
Kaelan's spirit moves directly into the core array.
At once, the array responds.
He perceives the structural pattern clearly, every rune, every steam channel, every mechanical linkage.
The boiler reignites.
Steam pressure builds.
The automaton comes to life.
The humanoid construct stands roughly one and a half meters tall, reaching just above Kaelan's waist.
Under Kaelan's control, it lifts one leg.
Holds it steady.
Sets it down.
Then lifts the other leg.
He tests the balance.
The hands rise and rotate.
The head turns from side to side.
The joints respond smoothly.
Kaelan closes his eyes.
Yet his perception does not fade.
The automaton's visual array transmits its sight directly into his spirit awareness.
He sees through it.
He hears the faint echo of steam pressure.
Feels the tension of metal joints as if they were extensions of his own body.
After a moment, Kaelan opens his eyes again.
He hears Rosalyn's voice from behind him.
"Master Kaelan, are you entering the ruin?"
Kaelan keeps one hand extended toward the automaton as he answers, "Yes. I have to see what is inside."
Rosalyn's tense expression eases slightly.
"Good. With you joining, the exploration can finally proceed."
Kaelan nods once.
"But first, I need to make some changes."
He closes his eyes.
A thin thread of his consciousness separates smoothly from his main awareness and follows the spiritual connection into the automaton's core array.
The runes carved within the machine begin to glow faintly.
Spiritual energy in the cavern stirs and slowly gathers toward it.
Kaelan opens his eyes.
He raises his finger and writes a rune in the air.
The rune forms from condensed spiritual light, precise and stable.
With a gentle push, he sends it forward.
It sinks into the automaton's chest and merges seamlessly with the existing array.
The glow intensifies.
He continues.
Rune after rune forms in the air, stabilisation, reinforcement, energy redirection, perception enhancement.
Each symbol integrates into the structure, refining the original steam array without disrupting its balance.
The automaton's metal body hums softly as internal pathways adjust.
Behind him, Clive leans closer and whispers, "I didn't know Master understood steam alchemy."
Rosalyn glances sideways at him.
Clive notices.
"What?" he asks irritably.
Rosalyn shakes her head. "Nothing."
A calm female voice speaks beside them.
"After advancing to the Master Alchemist realm, even if one has never cultivated a particular way, one can comprehend its foundations."
Clive turns.
The speaker is the beautiful middle-aged woman who arrived the previous day with a group of alchemists.
He recalls her name.
Alissa Bay.
A Cloak Alchemist.
Clive says, "You mean, even if my master never practised Steam Alchemy, after reaching Master Alchemist, he can understand it?"
Alissa steps closer, folding her hands behind her back as she observes Kaelan's movements.
"A basic understanding," she replies. "But your master does not look like someone unfamiliar with Steam Alchemy."
Her eyes narrow slightly.
She studies Kaelan more carefully.
There is something unusual.
A subtle sheen across his skin.
A faint metallic lustre beneath the surface.
It radiates a quiet, contained energy.
Recognition dawns.
After entering the ruin, Raphael had handed her fragments of the three destroyed creatures for research.
She had only begun preliminary analysis.
But she remembers the texture.
The resonance.
Kaelan's skin carries the same signature.
Not identical.
But undeniably similar.
She understands immediately.
He has transformed his skin.
Integrated the creature's properties into himself.
The realisation raises her curiosity about Life Alchemy.
She watches him inscribe another rune into the automaton.
The machine straightens.
Its joints align more fluidly.
Its core hum deepens with stability.
Spiritual energy now circulates smoothly through newly formed channels.
Kaelan opens his palm and gently presses it toward the automaton.
The machine's eyes flicker with faint golden light.
He lowers his hand.
The modifications continue quietly within the automaton.
It stands motionless, yet its internal array shifts and refines itself under Kaelan's layered inscriptions.
Spiritual energy circulates smoothly through the new pathways.
Alissa watches.
Waiting.
Her thoughts drift.
She recalls what she has studied about Life Alchemy.
She herself is an Outer Steam Alchemist.
She calls herself that because the Way of Steam can be divided into two distinct branches.
Outer Steam Alchemy refines steam body armour.
The armour becomes the alchemist's life object.
Each advancement of the armour corresponds to the advancement of the practitioner.
The body remains flesh, but the armour becomes inseparable, evolving toward transcendence.
Inner Steam Alchemy, on the other hand, transforms the practitioner directly into a steam automaton.
Gradually replacing flesh with mechanical structure.
The final destination of both paths is identical.
Steam Spirit Life.
She shakes her head faintly.
She has gone off track.
Her gaze returns to Kaelan.
She recalls what she read regarding Life Alchemy reaching the Master realm.
According to conjecture, a Life Alchemist who attains the Master realm would refine their physical body to its absolute limit without yet becoming Spirit Life.
Beyond that, they would gain the ability to transform into other lifeforms.
To understand their life signatures.
To collect and integrate those signatures.
And from that accumulation, begin the transformation into true Spirit Life.
It is only conjecture.
No Life Alchemist has reached the Master realm in recorded history.
The theory originated from Professor Timothy Wayne of Greyhold Academy.
The foremost authority in Life Alchemy.
She murmurs internally.
"Professor Timothy Wayne was the foremost Life Alchemist."
But now,
Her eyes settle on Kaelan's back.
Now it is the man before her.
The glow within the automaton stabilises.
The newly engraved runes shrink inward and fuse seamlessly into the core array.
A faint tremor passes through the ground.
Energy rises from beneath the earth and flows upward into the automaton.
The transformation begins.
Its metallic surface becomes sleeker.
Edges smooth.
Joints refine.
Internal steam pressure regulates itself with higher efficiency.
Under Kaelan's control, it takes a step forward.
Then another.
Its movements are fluid.
Responsive.
No longer a basic construct.
It breaks into a controlled run and enters the dark hole in the cavern wall.
Kaelan's eyes close halfway.
Through the automaton's perception array, he sees.
Inside is not rough stone.
It is a constructed ramp.
The slope descends gradually.
Metal panels line the walls.
Further ahead, the ramp levels into a flat metal floor.
Scattered across it are shattered automaton parts.
Limbs severed cleanly.
Boilers split.
Core arrays burned black.
Kaelan advances carefully.
To the side of his automaton, another machine, controlled by a different alchemist, moves forward first.
Without warning,
Bright red lines flash from the metal walls ahead.
Thin beams.
Precise.
The lasers cut through the advancing automaton instantly.
Metal splits like paper.
The machine collapses into fragments.
Kaelan halts his construct immediately.
The beams fade.
Silence returns.
His thoughts sharpen.
Lasers.
Energy-based cutting mechanisms integrated into structural walls.
Not spiritual arrays.
Not conventional alchemy.
Technology.
The evidence grows clearer.
A technological civilisation once existed in this world.
And it was destroyed.
For reasons unknown.