Chapter 346: The Solution
For the next few days, Leon Merlin remained in Caron's alchemy laboratory, shutting out the world and burying himself in the work—the Starstone, worth twenty million gold coins, demanded nothing less. Shadows clung to the corners, and the silence felt almost conspiratorial, as if the universe itself was holding its breath for what might come next.
It was an incredibly arduous task... the sort that gnawed at your nerves and made time stretch, a quiet war against failure.
Legend had it the Starstone was born from the last breath of a dying star—a relic of cosmic tragedy. Just a fragment, yes, but one that carried the weight of the world itself. That was why Starstones were so coveted: within each lay a sliver of worldforce, the kind of power that made archmages whisper and kingdoms scheme.
And that, really, was why Leon Merlin treated this Starstone as if it were the key to salvation. Some treasures were merely valuable; this one felt like destiny.
For Leon Merlin, the Arcane Wheel was not merely an Essence Relic—it was the anchor of his Mana Harness, the very bedrock of his magical existence. Now, the prototype was finished; only the final core remained, the last piece to trigger its metamorphosis. How far it would ascend depended on the core’s quality. That uncertainty gnawed at him, a cold promise in the dark.
When it came to quality, the Starstone was perfection incarnate. With worldforce woven into its heart, it might as well have been custom-made for the Arcane Wheel. One Starstone—just one—could push the Arcane Wheel into the ranks of true Essence Relics. More than that, it would grant the Wheel a fragment of worldforce, a privilege most archmages would kill for.
At first, that worldforce would be a faint whisper, barely nudging the scales. But as Leon Merlin’s power grew, as he hunted for the path to the Heavenly Rank, that tiny sliver would become his secret weapon. To put it with a smirk: thanks to this bit of worldforce, Leon Merlin could skip half the agony other Title Archmages would endure on the same journey.
That was the true terror of the Arcane Wheel. With a Starstone beating at its center, Leon Merlin would taste worldforce—and the road to Heavenly Rank—long before any other Title Archmage dared to dream of it.
But... fate has a habit of spitting in your eye just when you think you’ve got it all figured out.
It was precisely this trace of worldforce that made processing the Starstone so absurdly difficult. Worldforce, by rights, was not something a mage at Leon Merlin’s current level should be meddling with. All he could do was lean on knowledge and techniques that outstripped this era by millennia, desperately patching the gap between ambition and reality. Typical, really.
Under normal circumstances, Leon Merlin would need at least a full month to handle the Starstone...
Thankfully, fate—or perhaps sheer luck—had landed him in the most advanced alchemy laboratory in the entire Andalusia Kingdom. The facilities here were so comprehensive that, with their assistance, Leon managed to polish and inscribe the Starstone in just three days. Miracles do happen, apparently.
Don’t underestimate the ordeal of polishing and inscription...
At least half the torment of processing a Starstone lies in the polishing and, more crucially, the inscription of Arcane Sigils. A Starstone laced with even a sliver of worldforce is a terrifyingly sensitive energy core; the tiniest provocation could trigger a catastrophic surge. If that happened, even Leon Merlin would have to scramble to raise a Rune Shield just to avoid being vaporized. Not exactly a pleasant way to go.
The problem is, no one can keep a Rune Shield up twenty-four hours a day...
So when it comes to inscribing Arcane Sigils onto a Starstone, caution becomes a religion. One slip, and the alchemist’s next experiment is with the afterlife.
Three days. That’s how long it took Leon Merlin—thanks only to the lab’s cutting-edge equipment—to finish the two most nerve-shredding steps.
That day, after a brief meditation, Leon Merlin opened his eyes, feeling the familiar fog of exhaustion. He was just about to hunt down a Mana Crystal to recharge the Starstone when—naturally—the universe intervened. A sudden knock at the door...
“Come in.” Leon Merlin didn’t even bother to look up. At this hour, there was only one person who would dare interrupt him: Caron.