It was as if her title back then was the Great Sage of Crystal, having extraordinary achievements in glass craftsmanship, yet she did not turn everything in life into glass, nor did she fill her residence with Glass Golems.
Glass Golems were Weir's masterpiece back then; she even crafted a golem modeled after the Magic Goddess, leaving it in the Magic Association.
But in life, Weir preferred living alone, neither filling everywhere with Glass Golems nor using them as maids.
This was partly because the intelligence of Glass Golems was too low, incomparable to the mechanical logic of Alchemy Puppets, and partly because they were too humanoid, making Weir uncomfortable.
She did not know that in Perfikot's original world, this was called the uncanny valley effect, the fear evoked by something that resembles a human too closely, but she knew she didn't like it.
So she naturally assumed that Perfikot was also unwilling to use Alchemy Puppets out of the same psychological reasoning.
Although this might be far from the truth, the witches stopped discussing it after Weir explained, eagerly anticipating the meeting with Perfikot instead.
After all, Perfikot was the most renowned alchemist of the current era, an idol-like figure for ordinary alchemists like them.
Amidst everyone's anticipation, Perfikot finally arrived at the reception room, meeting this group of self-proclaimed witch alchemists.
However, at first glance, her eyes focused on Weir.
"Cursed Alchemical Life"
"Material Used: Legendary"
"Crafting Technique: Legendary"
"Effect: Originally striving for perfection, the alchemical life suffered a curse from the Divine and was permanently fixed in a juvenile form."
"Evaluation: The once mighty alchemist broke the taboo, attempting to dabble with Divine power, and was lucky not to have died from the backlash. It can only be said to be extremely audacious and reckless."
Seeing the information displayed on the Eye of Omniscience, Perfikot's curiosity surged immensely. This was the first time she saw information related to the Divine in this world.
In this world of extraordinaries and dragons, Perfikot had always suspected from the start whether there were Divine beings here.
However, all the information she gathered so far had left her disappointed. Neither the church nor ancient worship showed any real trace of Divine beings; it all appeared as mere religious belief.
Even genuine divine artifacts blessed with Divine Power were absent from the churches, causing Perfikot to gradually give up hopes of finding Divine beings here.
But now, before her stood someone who had dared to touch Divine power and was cursed to remain forever childlike. How could this not intrigue Perfikot?
She blurted out directly, asking Weir, "Did you once dabble in Divine power?"
"How do you know?" Weir was extremely surprised. Only the four participants knew about what happened back then. After one was completely erased and the other two, like her, hid, no one should have known about this.
"You have a Divine curse on you." Perfikot gave a simple explanation and then proceeded to inquire further of Weir: "Does this world truly have Divine beings?"
This was the most concerning and curious question for Perfikot.
She had never found an answer to this question before, but now that there was finally someone able to provide an answer, she would not miss the chance to explore it.
Confronted with Perfikot's pressing questions, Weir shook her head and, with regret, said, "Divine beings once existed in this world, but they have long disappeared. Even attempting to break through Legendary status to reach a higher level of existence has become forbidden."
"I see, so the curse you suffered was from your attempts to surpass Legendary?" Perfikot was somewhat disappointed, but the information revealed in Weir's words sparked new interests.
Perfikot had always known that in this world the level beyond the rank of the Knight was known, as the Empire had long informed Perfikot that knights could reach Legendary status once clad in specially crafted Steam Knight armor.
She also knew that there was a higher level beyond Legendary, and given her current status and rank, obtaining such information wasn't difficult.
However, she hadn't shown much interest in these matters before and thus hadn't delved deeply into them.
After all, this was a low-magic world, where even Legendary-level extraordinaires didn't possess world-shattering destructive powers as in other worlds, nor any seemingly divine strength, just slightly more powerful physiques than common people, which was somewhat disappointing.
And given that these were mere differences in combat power, Perfikot couldn't find the motivation to continue in-depth research on them.
Her loyal old butler was now a rank Knight, and his Steam Knight armor, crafted personally by Perfikot, allowed him to break through to Legendary level once donned, displaying equivalent combat power.
Thus, for Perfikot, the butler's combat prowess sufficed, and she lacked the drive to further pursue research on transcendence.
Now hearing Weir say that beyond Legendary is the level of the Divine rekindled Perfikot's research spirit, urging her to explore levels beyond Legendary.
"Years ago, we old folks tried to break through Legendary, seeking greater strength and transcendent states to alter the declining magic power and extraordinary forces in this world, but the results went beyond our expectations, leading to irreversible disasters." Weir looked pained by the memories, seemingly unwilling to speak more on the subject.
Still, Perfikot raised an eyebrow and took note of this revelation while roughly guessing some truths behind these events.
Yet she refrained from voicing them, merely taking out her Golden Touching Rod and tentatively asking Weir, "Your curse stems from the Divine, may I study it? Perhaps I can lift the curse upon you and restore you to normal."
"The Philosopher's Stone? And it's cracked? Your handiwork is a bit lacking; can you truly help remove my curse?" Weir remarked upon glancing at the Philosopher's Stone embedded in Perfikot's Golden Touching Rod, immediately recognizing it wasn't intact.
This earned Perfikot's respect for her, as since crafting the Philosopher's Stone, not one alchemist or extraordinaries she encountered had detected its incompleteness.
Weir was the first, undeniably giving Perfikot a preliminary assessment of her abilities.
Still, Perfikot simply retrieved her staff, placing the two Philosopher's Stones together.
"This is..." Weir hesitated, trying to connect them, then nodded in sudden understanding, saying, "I see, you've embedded the two cracked Philosopher's Stones in different tools, allowing you to harness both powers despite their incompleteness, not hindering your utilization of the Philosopher's Stone's basic functions."
Saying this, Weir solemnly looked at Perfikot, apologizing, "I retract my previous comment; your prowess indeed qualifies you to study my curse. Perhaps you are the only one in this world capable of freeing me from it."
"You're also the first alchemist I've met who can discern the Philosopher's Stone's incompleteness, which means we should have plenty to discuss." Perfikot invited Weir with equal formality, thrilled to have found someone with whom to explore academic matters.
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