Alchemical Era: from the Heart of Steam to the Rune Dome

In the year 437 of the Alchemical Era, the tide of magic receded, and the Age of Magic entered its dusk. An apprentice named Renn woke up in the damp dormitory of the Empire's Third Alchemy Academy and found that he had returned to twenty years ago - an era when alchemical machinery had just sprouted, technology was heavily blocked, and the Empire relied on others. And he returned, carrying all the memories of the empire's chief alchemist and the ashes of that desperate future. He remembered that twenty years later, the "Star Bridge" that had exhausted the country's power would disappear in a brilliant blue flame. The root cause of the failure was not the grand design, but the lattice distortion in the most basic materials that was so small that no one paid attention. This time, Renn was determined to take a completely different path. No longer aim too high, no longer superstitious about the cutting edge. Starting from forging the first uniform copper base plate, starting from optimizing the simplest constant temperature rune configuration. Facing the arrogant aristocratic children who used imported cores, he only used scraps processed on site to etch improved works that reduced energy consumption by one-third. Facing the multinational chamber of commerce that monopolizes technology and dumps products, he silently built his own rune patent library and completed the reverse victory in the patent court. Facing the old-school masters who were obsessed with ancient magic and despised "magic tricks", he only spoke with efficiency and facts, allowing golems, locomotives, and even floating cities driven by independent cores to ascend to the sky that was once said to be "forbidden for mortals". "Magic is a gift of talent, but alchemical machinery... Is the crystallization of mortal wisdom." This is the worst era, with magic power exhausted and the future bleak.