Chapter 1096: Experiment
Suddenly, Rafael burst out laughing.
"Archmage Leon, the mana crystal from the first drop of Beast God's Blood came from the Pseudo Sky Rank Beast we pooled together. You contributed the most crystals.
By rights, this first drop of Beast God's Blood should be fused by you, Archmage Leon. Also, handling the Beast God's Blood requires your personal expertise. Whether it works or not is still uncertain...
Let this first drop of Beast God's Blood be your experimental sample. If you succeed, you can decide how to use it.
If it works, I hope you'll help process the Beast God's Blood when we've gathered enough Pseudo Sky Rank Mana Crystals. As payment, I'll give you one-fifth of the mana crystals I hunt.
And of course, all the materials from the Pseudo Sky Rank Beast will be given to you as part of the reward...
Naturally, just like with Archmage Morgan, two-fifths is fine too..."
As soon as Rafael finished speaking, Morgan's expression changed.
Leon showed a faint smile and replied casually.
"I made a deal with Archmage Morgan earlier. I accidentally discovered a weakness in those Pseudo Sky Rank Beasts. Hunting them is much easier if you exploit their weakness.
I shared this method with Archmage Morgan. In exchange, I get one-fifth of the mana crystals from the beasts he hunts.
If you're interested, Rafael, I can trade this method with you too.
As for the Beast God's Blood, we still don't know if alchemy can process it to the point where humans can safely fuse with it. Let's experiment first and see.
But Rafael remained resolute.
"Archmage Leon, succeed or fail, I won't change my decision. I can't let you work for nothing. Beast God's Blood is, after all, the blood of a god and demon. I'm an alchemist myself—though my specialty is alchemical arrays, I understand how difficult this is.
If you handle the Beast God's Blood, all the Pseudo Sky Rank Mana Crystals we hunt must be given to you—one-fifth as payment, plus all other materials from the beasts.
Morgan grew anxious on the side.
Damn it, that bastard Rafael's really going all out. He's the real business shark here. Weren't Skyhold Fortress alchemists supposed to be half-mad from all their experiments? How is Rafael so cunning?
Damn, I must've been swindled. That conniving merchant actually came to steal my business.
Moreover, this method comes with a side effect—neither insignificant nor catastrophic, but still notable.
If you use Beast God's Blood for the transformation, your own insight will be slightly flawed. At lower Sky Rank, this flaw is negligible, but the stronger you grow, the greater the impact.
After all, this final transformation isn't achieved through your own gradual understanding; the foundation for Sky Rank isn't laid by yourself. When you reach the peak of Sky Rank, it becomes a major problem.
When the Northend World reached its peak, with planar colonization and the invention of Baptism Potions, Titled Archmages were everywhere. With such numbers, the population of Sky Rank powerhouses exploded.
At that time, only aging Titled Archmages close to death would use Beast God's Blood to complete their final transformation.
Younger Titled Archmages, as long as their lives weren't nearing the end, would almost never use this method.
After all, in that era, physical constitution was no longer an issue. Every mage hoped to become a top powerhouse—who would willingly throw away that hope by using such a method?
But in this era, the influence of Beast God's Blood could be ignored. Planar colonization was just beginning and hadn't reached its golden age yet.
Titled Archmages were considered elites, and Sky Rank powerhouses were extremely rare. Even those at Sky Rank likely weren't confident they'd ever reach high Sky Rank in their lifetimes...
Leon certainly wouldn't use this method himself. With Constanzo's skull, his potential was terrifying—throwing away his future like this would be sheer madness.
He wasn't even planning to let Xuban, Reina, or the others use Beast God's Blood.
Xuban had already fused with several kinds of dragon blood: the Three-headed Golden Dragon, the Primordial Venom Dragon, the Abyssal Blood Dragon...
Any one of these mighty beings far surpassed Sky Rank; at their strongest, they could rival gods and demons. Their potential far exceeded the bizarre power of Beast God's Blood.
Reina had even fused with the shell mana crystal of the Primordial Venom Dragon, changing the very nature of her life. She might one day surpass the first Frost Dragon.
Remember, during the age of gods and demons, the strongest Primordial Venom Dragon was a terrifying existence that even deities avoided.
Most importantly, Beast God's Blood itself is deeply strange. The Beast God's resurrection requires this blood—who knows how many secrets it truly hides.
Even when the Northend World was destroyed, those secrets were never fully unraveled. After the resurrected Beast God was banished to endless void, never to return, those mysteries were doomed to remain unsolved forever...
Leon stared at the Beast God's Blood before him, not with the greed one shows for treasure, but with caution.
After all, in this age, the Beast God hasn't been resurrected yet. Who can say what strange, undetectable things might be hidden in this single drop of blood?
No one can claim to fully understand the blood of gods and demons—especially when it comes to a Beast God, whose power originates from bloodlines.
Leon slipped into the alchemy lab and began processing the Beast God's Blood according to the documented method.
All the required materials and auxiliary tools could be found within the natural semi-plane. Many rare ingredients were sourced from the Blazeforge Battlefield and had already been stockpiled.
He summoned five Hands of Flame, placing them beneath five flasks, then conjured pure water and poured it into each flask.
Next, he divided the nineteen prepared materials into five groups. Each group was extracted in a specific order to isolate the necessary components.
Material extraction was the simplest part. Leon finished extracting all the ingredients within minutes.
What came next was the most difficult step: each of the five groups required absolute precision in the quantity of every material.
The first group contained only two materials, and their fusion went smoothly. As long as the proportions and infusion speed were set, it worked perfectly.
The fifth group, however, required seven materials. The order of fusion, the amount added each second, and the fusion technique were all strictly regulated. The slightest deviation could lead to failure.
Such a defective intermediate solution would be unusable. Worse, if this solution were used to process Beast God's Blood, the resulting potion would be deeply flawed and dangerous—potentially fatal during fusion.
This method was perfected only after countless lives were lost in the future—a flawless extraction process born of sacrifice.
Leon stared solemnly at the five flasks before him, each fitted with a rune-etched glass conduit.
The volume of solution in each flask varied. Slowly, the liquids traveled through the five conduits, merging at different rates into a rune-covered flask.
Five colors blended together, radiating a rainbow glow before finally becoming a clear, water-like fusion.
Once finished, Leon finally let out a slow breath of relief.
The final solution was a completely colorless, transparent liquid—only then could it be considered a success.