A first test

This ritual was called the Wizardry Sublimation Ritual.

As its name suggested, it was used to sublimate wizardry. Once the ritual succeeded, the wizardry would receive a tremendous boost, perhaps even undergo a complete transformation.

As for why Isaac had come up with this idea, it all started with the Goblin Lair...

On the second day after returning to the castle, Smith had arranged for someone to deliver a Goblin Lair ahead of the others. Isaac had immediately dissected it for study, but ultimately learned nothing. Later, he had even gone to the site to study a Goblin Lair while it was still alive.

Unfortunately, this thing might really have been beyond him at this stage. After all that dissection, he had only learned the structure of a Goblin Lair. He had discovered nothing else...

That was only natural. After all, it was something a mighty being had created by directly altering the world's rules.

But Isaac still refused to give up. He felt that combining this thing with his Talent Wizardry, Flesh Conversion, held enormous potential!

After some thought, Isaac finally hit upon the Wizardry Sublimation Ritual.

This ritual came from the Ten Introductory Rituals You Must Learn, one of the three Magic Books Isaac had purchased in Lake Town.

Aside from that book and the Basic Magic Spell Compendium, the third Magic Book he had purchased was The Wizard's Path. It broadly outlined the paths of various spellcasters, giving Isaac some direction for his future research.

For instance, Isaac had learned from this book that advancing to Grand Wizard actually required three advancement rituals. After each advancement, his magic power would enter a period of instability, requiring another wait.

Isaac had also gotten the idea of sublimating his wizardry from this book.

The so-called Wizardry Sublimation Ritual was essentially a trade with beings beyond the world, drawing upon the power of their higher standing to reconstruct wizardry. And those ten rituals just happened to include rituals for trading with such beings.

There were five in total, taking up half of the ten introductory rituals one supposedly had to learn. That gave Isaac a rough impression of Legendary Wizards.

It was worth mentioning that although there were five, only three were actually usable. Beings beyond the world had completely cracked the other two, leaving their success rates at zero. Even Isaac's golden finger was useless in that case.

Of course, the remaining three were usable not because they were particularly profound, but because, like basic spells, they were trade rituals so elementary that they could not get any more basic. There was no room left for their success rates to fall.

The three rituals traded with fairies, fiends, and demon gods respectively, though their success rates were all a touching one percent.

But that was no problem for Isaac.

Of those three trading partners, Isaac chose demon gods for a very simple reason—simplicity.

Among the many demon gods was a being called the Lord of Billions of Flesh and Blood. The name alone sounded like a perfect match for his Talent Wizardry. And according to Isaac's tests, increasing this ritual's success rate was straightforward: just add more demonic flesh to the ritual setup.

Under the ritual's original framework, only one portion of flesh from each type of monster could be used, with every ten additional types raising the success rate by one percent. In Isaac's hands, however, every ten portions of monster flesh raised the success rate by one percent, regardless of the types of monsters!

And what he had the most of right now was goblin corpses!

The only drawback was that each goblin corpse yielded just one portion of demonic flesh that met the requirements. Because of that, he no longer dared destroy the Goblin Lairs, for fear of running short on materials.

"Phew..." After processing today's goblin corpses, Isaac let out a long breath. He glanced at the mountain of goblin flesh beside him and shook his head helplessly. He had been grinding away for almost a week, and the success rate was only five hundred percent. He would have to keep stockpiling for a while longer.

With a demon god involved, he did not dare attempt it without a tenfold success rate.

After leaving the warehouse, Isaac headed toward his bedroom. Although he could not perform the Wizardry Sublimation Ritual yet, he could start researching how to make wizardry items.

Both The Wizard's Path and the Ten Introductory Rituals You Must Learn mentioned how Legendary Wizards made wizardry items. Once again, the answer was rituals.

Not rituals that traded with beings beyond the world, however. Those could certainly be used to make wizardry items too, but people generally did not do that. Rather than making an item, they were better off merging the power obtained through the trade with themselves.

Before long, Isaac walked down the long corridor and reached his bedroom. He opened the concealed door, kindled a wisp of green flame in his left hand, and descended into the basement under its eerie green glow.

The basement had now been completely transformed. He had cleared away all those sinister, terrifying, and bizarrely evil materials, and even changed the Magic Array pattern on the floor to that of the Magic Imprint Ritual.

This was one of the most basic crafting rituals. According to The Wizard's Path, upgraded versions of the ritual could be used to refine all manner of magic creations, including but not limited to magic puppets, golems, potions, magical beasts, and even... humans!

However, the version Isaac knew could not accomplish any of those things, even if he piled on materials with his golden finger. That required dismantling and restructuring the ritual.

At present, Isaac lacked the means to do so, both in money and in knowledge.

After a quick glance around, Isaac placed a still-living Green Heart at the center of the Magic Array. It was a goblin's heart.

He wanted to see whether the ritual could strengthen a monster's heart. If it could, he would save a huge sum in research funding!

There was no helping it. Monster hearts were simply too expensive!

First, not all monsters had hearts. Second, the hearts he needed for transplantation had to be removed while the monsters were alive; once they died, their hearts were useless. Those were demanding conditions. Third, a monster heart that retained its vitality counted as a living thing and could not be purchased directly in Lake Town.

Of course, they were still sold there, but after buying one, he would have to have it delivered through other channels. And the shipping fees...

Were exorbitant!

In any case, Isaac had abandoned the idea after a single look.

He could also buy them from the merchant associations in his territory, but that would be no small sum either. He would still have to shell out a fortune.

But if he could strengthen a goblin's heart... then...

That would be fantastic!

"Hiss... phew..." Isaac took two deep breaths to settle himself, and his gaze gradually grew calm as he looked at the ritual.

He had piled enough materials into it to raise its success rate to two hundred percent, but that was only the ritual's success rate. It did not mean its effects would necessarily turn out as he hoped.

After all, this was not a trade ritual.

"&*￥...&￥()&"

As he murmured a series of low incantations, mysterious magic power flowed out of Isaac and spread across the floor, slowly lighting up the Magic Array. The flesh laid upon it dissolved with that mysterious power, turning into ribbonlike streams of blood-red energy that merged into the Green Heart at its center.

"Phew..."

A little while later, the glow of magic power gradually faded. With a faint sense of anticipation, Isaac picked up the goblin heart from the floor, then slowly sighed.

It had failed...