Chapter 555: Doombringer Staff
Do you think the Black Tower is as easy to negotiate with as our Watson Family?
This is utterly meaningless...
At that moment, he secretly glanced in Councilor Weiss's direction.
As expected...
Councilor Weiss was now frowning deeply, neither speaking nor making any move...
Seeing this, Carl Watson's face was filled with schadenfreude, and the look he gave Leon was downright mocking...
This Matthew Merlin really has no self-awareness at all...
The terms were already quite generous, yet he still wants to haggle. Does he really think the Merlin Family is qualified to negotiate with the Black Tower?
Not to mention the Merlin Family—even if you add the Watson Family, they're still not qualified...
Just look at Councilor Weiss's expression and you'll know how displeased he was with your actions just now. People who are too greedy never end well...
At this thought, Carl Watson suddenly felt that if he could use this opportunity to squeeze the Merlin Family out of the collaboration, maybe the Watson Family could reap even greater benefits.
A faint, almost imperceptible cold smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. But just as he was about to speak, Weiss, still frowning, suddenly interjected, "Mage Merlin, you are right. Our Black Tower really is taking a bit too much advantage here..."
Huh?
The cold smile on Carl Watson's lips froze. He was so stunned he could barely process what he'd just heard. How was this even possible...
Was this really the Black Tower and Weiss he thought he knew...?
Even if Councilor Weiss were negotiating with the Cloudspire Tower, he wouldn't compromise this easily, would he?
Though he still couldn't quite believe it, the sound of Councilor Weiss and Matthew Merlin haggling back and forth kept ringing in his ears, reminding him this was all real...
Those voices, the endless haggling, nearly drove him mad. In the end, he drifted through the whole ordeal in a daze. He only remembered Councilor Weiss asking, "Any objections, Patriarch Karl?" He shook his head desperately, and in the entire hour and a half of negotiations, he hadn't said a single word.
After the three major factions reached an agreement, there was a period of preparation—including troop movements and a series of pre-battle deployments. Once Vis and Karl Watson had been sent on their way, Leon entrusted the task of mobilizing the planar legion to Ida Merlin and Uriel Merlin. In the entire Blazeforge Realm, aside from his two Merlin brothers, these two Title Archmages from the ancestral grounds were the ones he trusted most.
This time, it wasn't nearly as awkward as the assault on the Ghost Valley. Before Thorn Merlin left, he handed over command of all the planar legion officers to Leon. This meant that every military force of the Merlin Family in the Blazeforge Realm was now under his sole control...
Still, he was clearly no proper commander. After entrusting everything to Ida Merlin and Uriel Merlin, he went back into the alchemy lab to continue working on the five-colored dragon crystals. Just yesterday, he’d come up with a daring solution: fuse all five crystals into a single dragon crystal, then embed it into the Doombringer Staff.
Such a solution was nothing short of unprecedented...
At the very least, he'd never heard of anyone else pulling off something like this...
But fusing five dragon crystals into one was hardly a simple task.
But Leon had no intention of giving up...
And so, the days slipped by. Leon remained in the alchemy lab, never leaving. By the fifth day, Thorn Merlin had already returned to the Blazeforge Realm and heard about the alliance between the Merlin Family, Watson Family, and Black Tower. He wanted to discuss things with Leon, but was stopped by Reina at the lab door. After waiting a full day and a half, Thorn Merlin had no choice but to leave, looking thoroughly disappointed.
The cooperation between the three major powers continued in an orderly fashion, and all of it seemed to have nothing to do with Leon...
Finally, on the tenth day, the tightly shut door cracked open, then slowly swung wide. Out walked Leon—except this time, he looked utterly exhausted, eyes bloodshot, hair disheveled. When he emerged, Reina, who’d been waiting outside, kept staring at him with a strange look in her eyes.
"What's wrong?" Leon asked, glancing at Reina with a hint of curiosity.
Carefully, he picked up the Dragon Crystal from the alchemy table. Feeling the five surging streams of magic within, he couldn't help but shudder. Truthfully, his success in fusing all five Dragon Crystals owed much to the Chapter of Elements. Back in the Sky Palace above the Turan Mountains, he'd slain some rare magical beasts and obtained strange magic crystals containing earth, water, fire, and wind energies. Only later did he learn that King Ronin of the Caucasus had developed this technique by studying the Chapter of Elements.
For five days straight, he'd been at a loss, unable to come up with any solution. Even his mood grew restless and agitated. To calm himself, he had to set aside the issue of the five-colored Dragon Crystal, sitting quietly and falling into reminiscence—twenty-odd years in that distant future era, the destruction of Northend, and then, inexplicably, his arrival in this time...
He kept reminiscing like that...
Until all those experiences in the Turan Mountains flashed through his mind like scenes. Only then did he suddenly realize that if he could unravel the principle behind the coexistence of four energies, he might be able to fuse all five Dragon Crystals completely.
As it turned out, his chosen method was correct...
On the tenth day, after countless failures, he finally fused all five Dragon Crystals into one.
At that thought, a wry smile tugged at Leon's lips. Without hesitation, he placed the Doombringer Staff on the alchemy table and got back to work, deftly wielding his alchemy tools to process the staff. After nearly three hours, the complicated procedures were finally done.
Time to begin...
He took a deep breath, picked up the Dragon Crystal, and slowly embedded it into the Doombringer Staff. Instantly, five-colored light flared, illuminating the entire alchemy lab. Even Leon, with his current strength, had to squint against the brilliance, watching the staff intently on the alchemy table...
The transformation happened in an instant. With a young dragon's roar, the five-colored light receded like a tide. Leon was stunned to see the Doombringer Staff had undergone a qualitative change—almost unrecognizable. At the tip was a dragon's head, its twin rows of fangs gleaming faintly, and within its mouth, a five-colored Dragon Crystal radiated intense magical energy. Even the staff itself had changed, now covered in a dense pattern of scales...
Rumble...
Just as the Doombringer Staff finished its transformation, thunder rumbled across the sky, its force overwhelming. Leon froze in place, utterly stunned. He hadn't expected the staff's advancement to trigger such a dramatic phenomenon. In his memory, thunder only accompanied a magic item reaching the pinnacle of True Spirit...
But the Doombringer Staff couldn't possibly be at the pinnacle of True Spirit...
With that thought, he finally picked up the Doombringer Staff from the alchemy table, gripping it tightly. A surge of powerful magical energy burst forth from the staff, and a broad smile spread across Leon's lips...
I never expected it to become a high-grade True Spirit magic item...
Originally, he'd planned to use five Dragon Crystals to raise the Doombringer Staff to a mid-grade True Spirit magic item. What he hadn't foreseen was that by changing one step in the process, he'd directly upgraded the staff to a high-grade True Spirit magic item. To be precise, the Doombringer Staff now barely qualified as high-grade—its power rivaled that of a level-seven Title Archmage...
Wait, what's that...?
Just then, Leon, still basking in joy, suddenly froze, staring dumbfounded at the Doombringer Staff in his hand, unable to speak for a long while. As he communed with the staff, he sensed a peculiar energy—one that perfectly merged with the staff's aura and kept siphoning his magic power.
Could it be the magic item incarnation...? Leon's expression grew complicated—equal parts delight and anxiety. Perhaps only he understood what it meant for the Doombringer Staff to birth an incarnation. It signified not just an increase in power, but his own advancement in alchemy, from master craftsman to creator...