Dimensional Codex System: I'm really not a cultist!-Chapter 168 - 167: That Man Probably Has Bad Intentions!

Chapter 168: Chapter 167: That Man Probably Has Bad Intentions!

When Nanali visited the Alchemists’ Association again, the sight of that familiar gate made her nervous. She took a deep breath, clutching the scroll and coin purse tightly in her hand, then placed it in front of her chest and took another deep breath, nodding to herself as if to bolster her courage. Just as she was about to step forward, suddenly, a small hand reached out from behind her and gently tapped Nanali’s shoulder.

“Ahh!”

The sudden appearance of the hand startled Nanali, and she quickly turned around to look behind her, only to see a girl with black shoulder-length hair and a deep red cloak smiling mischievously at her.

“Hahaha, Nanali, it’s been such a long time!”

“Kuliya, you really scared me…”

Seeing the grinning girl in front of her, Nanali placed a hand over her heart and let out a sigh of relief.

...

“It really has been a long time… Speaking of which, it’s the end of the year again, huh? Are you still the same as always?”

While speaking, the black-haired girl furrowed her eyebrows and looked Nanali up and down.

“I mean, you’re not in trouble, are you? I remember you’ll lose your workshop’s license if you’re behind with the fees again this year…”

“No, no, no trouble at all!!”

Hearing her friend’s words, Nanali hurriedly exclaimed, her voice filled with excitement, and then she fumbled to take out her coin purse in front of the black-haired girl.

“I have money now, this time I can pay the fees…”

“Idiot, what are you doing?!”

Seeing Nanali suddenly pull out her coin purse in front of everyone, Kuliya too was shocked. She quickly grabbed Nanali’s hand and glanced around swiftly before hastily leading Nanali into the Alchemists’ Association.

It wasn’t until they reached the counter that Kuliya let go of her hand, then stood with her hands on her hips, looking at her friend helplessly.

“Are you a fool? Taking out your coin purse in public, what if it caught a thief’s eye? And, you actually… no way, where did you get all this money from?”

After glancing at the open coin purse, Kuliya was astonished, and she looked up with disbelief at the girl in front of her. Being Nanali’s best friend, she certainly knew her financial situation was never good, even to the point where she had to resort to picking wild grass to eat when she was at her poorest.

But now, a purse brimming with gold coins… where on earth did it come from?

“Wait, you didn’t take on some dubious job, did you?”

At this thought, Kuliya’s expression suddenly turned serious. She placed a hand on Nanali’s shoulder, looking at her friend with concern.

“I know the alchemy workshop your mother left you is important, but you can’t do anything silly, okay? If it’s about money, I can lend you some! You really shouldn’t do anything foolish!”

“What, what are you talking about, how could I accept a dangerous job…”

Already nervous, Nanali became even more so upon hearing Kuliya’s words. She knew the sale of her alchemy workshop to Mr. Ezio was just a private verbal agreement between the two of them, and they had even agreed to keep it a secret from others. With such a secret weighing on her mind, she felt even more under pressure when pressed by her friend.

However, Nanali hadn’t expected that her reaction would actually deepen Kuliya’s suspicions.

“Wait, why are you turning your head away? What exactly have you done? You haven’t done anything bad, have you…”

“No, really, I didn’t do anything… That’s it! I have two new inventions! I want to register them with the association!!”

“New inventions?”

Even though she knew Nanali was trying to change the subject, and seeing that pleading “please don’t ask” look in her friend’s eyes, Kuliya couldn’t bring herself to press further. She took the scroll from Nanali’s hand and unrolled it.

“I hope you haven’t come up with some weird thing again, like that dragon tooth kitchen knife from last time… No one would bother slaying a dragon just to cast a kitchen knife for you… Hmm? This is… a greenhouse…”

As she looked at the blueprints and descriptions on the scroll, Kuliya was momentarily taken aback, then she instantly began reading the content earnestly.

Kuliya wasn’t just Nanali’s friend; she was also an employee of the Alchemists’ Association. But she hadn’t used her position to grant Nanali any favors… in truth, because Nanali’s situation was already beyond the help of mere connections.

“This… did you come up with this?”

It took only a few minutes for Kuliya to recognize the potential of the “greenhouse” and “fertilizer” detailed in the scroll. She was astonished not by the appearance of these two alchemy tools but by their materials. As Nanali’s best friend, Kuliya was all too aware of Nanali’s almost obsessive-compulsive perfectionism, akin to madness. She was the type who would insist even her comb must be made from the bone of a Northern Sea Whalefish; of course, such a thing might be valuable, but it certainly wouldn’t have a market.

The problem was that the materials for these items came from… slimes?

If the scroll Nanali holds contains the truth, then this can be described as a cost-effective and significant alchemical invention!!

This is far more impressive than those impractical inventions Nanali produced before!

“No, no, no, this isn’t actually… something I came up with, someone else thought of it……”

At her core, Nanali is still a good child. Although Fang Zheng has already told her that she can have the “patent” all to herself, Nanali clearly doesn’t see it that way.

“It’s from a relative of mine!”

“A relative?”

At this point, Kuliya became even more puzzled.

“How come I never knew you had relatives?”

“A distant… cousin. He came to see me, and now he lives at my place. The design for this, I drew it under his guidance… Ah, of course, all the technology in it was developed by me!”

“…So, he provided an idea, and you completed it?”

After listening to Nanali’s somewhat flustered explanation, Kuliya finally understood the sequence of events and let out a sigh of relief. If that’s the case, then there seems to be no issue with the ownership of the invention “patent.”

“So, was that money given to you by your relative as well?”

“Yes, Mr. Ezio is a kind man, he helped me a lot.”

“I see.”

Kuliya frowned, her eyes glinting with suspicion as she blinked. Her instinct as a girl told her something was off, but she couldn’t pinpoint what exactly was wrong at the moment. However, the two alchemical inventions that Nanali brought indeed held significant meaning, and Kuliya could confirm that they had never been recorded in the Alchemists’ Association before.

“Alright, let’s not worry about that for now. How do you plan to register it? As public or to keep it reserved?”

“For now, keep it reserved…”

Just as patents have a period of protection, the Alchemists’ Association has a similar system to prevent the theft of alchemical invention “patents.” Alchemists generally file a document with the Association to affirm their “status” as inventors right after making a discovery. Of course, this is just the initial stage of the invention; there may be side effects, potential hazards, or deficiencies, so alchemists typically choose to keep their inventions to themselves. The rest will wait until all experiments are concluded, and the invention can enter mass production and actual use before the invention is modified and then publicly sold.

As for the possibility of someone stealthily stealing patents from the Association for their own… heh, this isn’t the Earth where one says one thing, and another says another. Whether it’s a mage or a cleric, there are a hundred and one ways to confirm the truth. Anyone too idle and itching to experience the power of magic and divine arts is welcome to try their luck.

Thus, in handling legal disputes, the Main World is much faster than Fang Zheng’s world.

“All set.”

As a staff member of the Association, Kuliya handled these affairs effortlessly. It didn’t take much time to process both of Nanali’s inventions, and Nanali cleared her debts, which allowed her to breathe a sigh of relief — no matter what, her mother’s workshop was no longer at risk of being repossessed.

“Next, according to the process, all inventions must be verified by a staff member… It seems you didn’t bring them, so I’ll go back with you to take a look.”

“Oh? Is that okay?”

Upon hearing Kuliya’s words, Nanali was taken aback.

“But Kuliya, don’t you have a lot of work to do?”

“This is also part of my job. Besides, you were foolishly showing your money pouch outside just earlier; who knows if any thieves are watching you. Having me beside you would be safer, wouldn’t it?”

While saying this, Kuliya patted her waist.

“I am an elite warrior, after all. Don’t worry! I will definitely protect you well.”

Of course, Kuliya didn’t tell Nanali the whole truth. Although ensuring Nanali’s safe return to town and verifying her “greenhouse” invention were indeed part of her job, what Kuliya was most concerned about was the newly appeared “relative” of Nanali. Given that Nanali had referred to him with a male pronoun, it indicated that the person was a man.

Hmm… A man claiming to be Nanali’s distant relative, coming here, giving her a substantial amount of money…

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At this point, Kuliya already had an idea.

That man probably harbors ill intentions towards Nanali!