God Seed Demon Rat!

God Seed: Demon Rat!

What was the difference between a God Seed and an ordinary creature?

The answer was faith!

God Seeds could absorb Faith Power, using it to strengthen themselves and even gain new abilities.

As for Faith Power, Isaac knew of three types. The first was the most conventional Faith Power, born from the faith of all living beings in gods. Those justified by faith wielded the power of faith. The second was the Faith Power collected by wizards, born from the spread of stories. It was the power of observation. The third was the Faith Power of noble knights, born from the subjects living within their territories. It was the power of existence.

God Seeds could absorb Faith Power born from faith. This was a privilege exclusive to gods!

That was because Faith Power born from faith contained far too many wishes. Only gods could ignore those countless stray thoughts.

Ordinary people would think this was only natural. They were gods, after all. If they were not special, how could they be called gods?

But wizards would ask why. Why could gods absorb Faith Power so easily? If it was a matter of strength, why could even weak God Seeds absorb it?

And remain unaffected by it?

Questions surfaced in his mind one after another. Slowly, a blasphemous idea was born...

Of course, the original owner of Isaac's manuscript had not been powerful enough to kill gods, so he chose to dissect God Seeds that shared the same origin as gods. In the end, he successfully found the answer within them—a special energy network!

This energy network spread throughout a God Seed's entire body. It was the key to sensing and absorbing Faith Power. The manuscript speculated that this network was the most rudimentary form of divinity, and that it might eventually become the divinity that granted gods their mighty power!

But that was merely speculation without any basis, so Isaac only glanced at it before setting it aside and focusing on that special energy network.

The first step of Totem Creation was to use Faith Power to create such an energy network within the target.

Isaac was currently stuck on this step. Since he did not know alchemy, he could only use surgery. He was skilled at that too, but...

He failed.

Because this operation practically required cutting open the target's entire body!

Including vital organs such as the heart and brain!

Normally, this would not be called surgery. It would be called deliberately killing rats.

But with miraculous Spells around, it would not die immediately.

After enduring the painful dissection, it died during the sixth stage...

Cause of death—dissection...

Hehe~

Whether Demonic Rats or Demon Rats, their vitality was far too weak. They simply could not hold on until the operation was complete.

"Increase the number of life-support Spells?"

"No. Inscribing the Divinity Network requires chanting Spells to guide Faith Power. There isn't any extra time to allocate to life-support Spells..."

"Inscribing the Divinity Network in stages?"

"No. The Divinity Network is a whole..."

"..."

"..."

Ideas surfaced in Isaac's mind one after another, only for him to reject them one by one.

And so, with batch after batch of brain cells sacrificed, the entire experiment steadily... remained stuck in place...

As the sun set, golden light spilled into the laboratory and shone over the manuscript pages before Isaac, pulling him from his deep thoughts...

"Ah..."

With a heavy sigh, Isaac rose to his feet. He stood by the window and stretched, loosening his limbs, then walked over to the crucible, lit a fire, and casually tossed several handfuls of Silver Moon Grass inside to brew.

Knight Secret Medicine was essential for knight training. It was not difficult to make, and even someone without magic power could brew it.

He did not drink it himself, but Barton and the others needed it for training. Perhaps Barton's reward had motivated the others, because the Guard Squad's training intensity had clearly increased recently. Naturally, their consumption of Knight Secret Medicine had risen as well.

Normally, this should have been purchased from outside. Even the lowliest lord was still a lord. What master would serve his own servants?

But first, Silver Moon Grass Territory produced Silver Moon Grass, so brewing it himself saved a great deal of money. Second, a Legendary Wizard's potion-brewing crucible needed to occasionally brew magical potions to maintain it, which could effectively improve the success rate of potion brewing.

Therefore, Legendary Wizards generally did not leave their crucibles idle for long. Even magical potions for feeding Magic Pets were brewed in extra batches whenever possible.

That was because the process of potion brewing by a Legendary Wizard was actually a faint ritual. Under the influence of this ritual site, the crucible would naturally become...

Hm?

Isaac, who was stirring with a spoon, suddenly froze. A flash of inspiration crossed his mind. A ritual...

"That's right! A ritual! Since the process of brewing potions is a ritual, why can't the process of surgery be a ritual too? Use a ritual to complete Totem Creation? Or to apply life-support Spells?"

Having seized that accidental flash of inspiration, Isaac became incredibly excited. He did not even care about the failed Knight Secret Medicine. Tossing the spoon aside, he turned and sat back down at his desk, continuing to write furiously!

Rip~

The Demonic Claw emerged from the back of Isaac's neck. Its palm split open, revealing a scarlet eye. The sinister eye watched Isaac for a while, and after confirming that he had no intention of going to eat, it slowly floated toward the door.

The moment it left the laboratory, the Demonic Claw saw Smith standing guard outside. It waved a claw at him, then continued floating toward the dining room with practiced ease. Smith was no longer surprised and remained where he was, standing guard for Isaac.

Although Isaac was now no weaker than him in terms of strength, Smith had grown accustomed to this life. For more than ten years, he had taken care of Isaac this way, and he would continue doing so in the future.

Until the day he could no longer stand.

Meanwhile, the Demonic Claw drifted into the dining room. After glancing at the maid beside it, who had gone stiff with fright, it grabbed roasted meat and fruit from the table and shrank back toward the laboratory.

These days, whenever Isaac immersed himself in magical research, the Demonic Claw was the one who delivered food to him.

But because of its savage appearance, even though the maid had seen it several times already, she still could not get used to it. Every time she saw it, she froze...

The next day.

"Haha! I did it!"

Isaac looked delightedly at the Demon Rat on the operating table, its entire body stitched together with needles and thread. His expression was somewhat crazed.

Using a ritual to directly complete Totem Creation was far too difficult. With Isaac's current understanding of rituals, he could not accomplish that yet. But using one to replace life-support Spells was not much of a problem.

And as long as the Demon Rat's vitality was strong enough, he would have sufficient time to guide Faith Power and inscribe the Divinity Network within it.

At that moment, Isaac could clearly see specks of flickering light drifting from the Demonic Rats in the corner toward the Demon Rat.

This was a basic Spell included with the wizardry manuscript, called the Faith Catalysis Spell.

Just as its name implied, it could forcibly strengthen a target's faith and compel the generation of Faith Power. However, this Faith Power was extremely poor in quality, and it also damaged the believers' brains.

Thus, normal gods generally would not use this Spell.

Of course, wizards did not care. They were not the ones absorbing the Faith Power anyway.

Like the original owner of the wizardry manuscript.

But the wizardry was not actually complete at this stage.

That was because the Demon Rat had yet to develop its own divine art. It was merely instinctively absorbing Faith Power through the Divinity Network in its body, with no means of using it at all. For now, the Faith Power in its body was nothing more than decoration.

But that was only temporary. As time passed, the Divinity Network inscribed within it would gradually merge with it, turning it into a true God Seed!

Of course, that process would be relatively long and would require a great deal of Faith Power to nurture it.

So it needed a second step—accelerating its fusion with the Divinity Network and guiding it to condense a divine art.

Only after completing this step could it truly be called a God Seed—a totem!

But the second step was much simpler. Accelerating the fusion required periodically feeding it magical potions and applying certain Spells that weakened its rejection response. Condensing a divine art meant choosing one of the Three Basic Arcane Spells, then inscribing it into its Divinity Network with Faith Power.

However, although they were called the Three Basic Arcane Spells, the wizardry manuscript was limited in length and only recorded two of them: Command Kin and Blessing.

They were very basic divine arts, but both were highly practical.

Of course, aside from those two basic divine arts, one could also inscribe wizardry models into the Divinity Network. There was a certain chance they would be assimilated into divine arts, though the success rate was painfully low.

But Isaac did not do that. He chose Blessing as the basic divine art for the Demon Rat.

The reason was simple. It was not that he feared failure, but that he had no money...

He was already broke beyond reason. He had not even seen any returns from the Demon Rats he was raising, yet he had already lost two of them...

So he could only choose between the two basic divine arts with nearly a hundred percent success rate, and he chose the Blessing he was most curious about.

He was very curious what a Demon Rat with such a sparse ability pool could possibly bestow upon its "believers" after gaining Blessing.

Unfortunately, all of that required time. He would have to wait a little longer~

"Fuu..."

After locking the Demon Rat inside an iron cage, Isaac walked to the window and looked out at the scenery, feeling exceptionally relaxed.

Behind his head, the Demonic Claw quietly emerged. Its sharp thumb and forefinger gently picked up a peeled piece of apple from the desk and held it before Isaac, then rubbed against his cheek.

Isaac smiled and patted the Demonic Claw. He took the apple, placed it in his mouth, and enjoyed this peaceful moment~

It would be nice if days like this could continue forever...

Unfortunately...

Isaac shook his head helplessly. He was a greedy person. The manor was too small and could not satisfy him. Sooner or later, he would have to go out and make his way in the world!

But before that, he still needed to develop properly, so...

"Ah... Come on, let's see how the little ones are growing." With his hands behind his back, Isaac left the laboratory and headed toward the breeding ground behind the castle with Smith, who had been standing guard at the door.

"At present, both the Demon Rats and Dragon Lizards are doing well. Their size and internal magic power are steadily increasing. The Dragon Lizards have shown the most obvious growth. In another three days, they should reach the standard you mentioned, Young Master."

On the way to the breeding ground, Smith gave Isaac a rough overview of the current situation.

Isaac nodded. Not bad. It looked like they might make it in time for the Mad Wizard Society's small exchange gathering three days later. He was quite curious about it.

Although he had been immersed in magical research during this period, he still occasionally checked the Mad Wizard Society's chat group. Unfortunately, that bunch seemed to be technical shut-ins too. They barely said anything, and he had no idea why.

Perhaps a Dragon Lizard that had awakened its Giant Dragon Bloodline could be exchanged for something good?

Isaac was not sure. After all, everyone who could join the Mad Wizard Society had dared to make deals with Outer Gods and come away unharmed. Who among them did not have some tricks up their sleeve?

But it would not matter even if they were uninterested. He was mainly going this time to broaden his horizons. If he sold them, it would be a huge profit. If not, he would lose nothing. After all, a Dragon Lizard that had awakened its Giant Dragon Bloodline was excellent whether for personal use or for selling to the Flesh and Blood Tower.

When they arrived at the breeding ground, Isaac saw his little darlings. After observing them in person, he discovered that the Beast Breeding Ground's effects were even better than he had expected. The Dragon Lizards would probably be able to drink the magical potion and awaken their bloodlines in about two and a half days. The Demon Rats would be even faster. They should be ready for sale tomorrow, plump and fat.

Isaac selected four presentable ones and set them aside for sale, leaving two pairs of Demon Rats for breeding. As for the Dragon Lizards...

He did not touch them. Dragon Lizards had a much longer growth cycle than Demon Rats. Even with the Beast Breeding Ground's cultivation, it would take at least over a year before they met the conditions for reproduction...

It would be better to sell them and buy new hatchlings to raise. That would be much more efficient.

Afterward, Isaac used the ordinary flesh produced by the Flesh Gem over the past few days to replenish food for the Demon Rats and Dragon Lizards, then turned and left. He went to the training grounds, casually found a patch of grass to sit on, and began reading the "Arcane Energy Overview - Volume 1" his elder sister had given him.

He had read bits and pieces of this book over the past few days. Although everything in it was basic, it had been quite helpful to him. Just some of the small techniques it mentioned could significantly improve the casting speed of his Three Basic Arcane Spells. Once he finished it all, he was sure to gain even more!

And so, in the blink of an eye, Isaac spent another fulfilling three days. During those three days, he successfully sold four Demon Rats and one Demon Rat corpse, earning ten Gold Coins. That was a little low for a wizard's high expenses, but it was stable. Raising Demon Rats involved neither much difficulty nor risk.

For novice wizards, it was a business guaranteed to make a profit.

But Isaac did not keep those ten Gold Coins in hand. He immediately ordered another ten Demon Rats. This little money could not accomplish much anyway, so he might as well continue expanding production.

Isaac might hesitate over other businesses and calculate the profits and losses, but when it came to raising rats, he could simply buy without thinking. He could use them himself anyway. It was like buying magical materials at the original price.

The first day of the month was a somewhat special day for members of the Mad Wizard Society. On this day, crazy wizards from various cities, countries, continents, and even worlds, all eager to make deals with Outer Gods, gathered in a certain special dimension to exchange knowledge, materials, and information.

In the basement, Isaac stood in the center of a hexagram Magic Array marked with a skull. Holding the Mad Wizard Society's Magic Book in his arms, he closed his eyes and chanted the door-opening Spell.

Rip~

As Isaac chanted, the shadows around him suddenly surged forward and swallowed him whole!

When he opened his eyes again, he was already standing atop a pure white stone pillar. All around him was emptiness, with nothing but rows of pure white stone pillars—a rather primitive Dimension World.