After flipping through the notebook in his hands, Isaac closed it after a while, now having a rough idea of the path ahead.
Then Isaac put the notebook away and walked to a corner of the laboratory, where the materials that had just arrived were piled up.
Of course, they were not the things he had bought, but supplies his father had just allocated to him.
Most of them were various magical creatures, while a small portion consisted of monster body parts, including refined Demonic Flesh essence.
The selection was comprehensive. Clearly, they had been sent over after his eldest sister gave some guidance.
"Riiip~"
The sound of flesh tearing abruptly rang out. Demonic Claw Hamon emerged from the back of Isaac's neck. After flexing its five fingers for a moment, its palm suddenly split open, and a dark purple tongue extended to lick around the opening.
"Heh. Eat." Isaac shook his head and gave the order with an easy calm.
"Hiss~"
Hamon let out an excited hiss, then pounced fiercely at the magical creatures. There were five kinds in total, and it picked one from each to devour.
For a time, the laboratory held only the shrieks of magical creatures and the sounds of chewing, creating an especially eerie and terrifying atmosphere.
"Hiss~ Huff~"
After Hamon finished eating, Isaac staggered back to his desk and sat down. He shook his head hard, trying to stay as awake as possible, then bent over the desk and copied down the bodily structures of every magical creature Hamon had just swallowed.
As the saying went, the faintest ink was better than the best memory. Even though becoming a wizard had improved his memory yet again, and even though his Golden Finger could record information, Isaac still preferred putting knowledge down on paper.
First, it was an opportunity to organize what he had learned. Second, if he encountered something like the Mad Wizard Exchange Meeting again, he would have something to trade.
He could not exactly copy it out on the spot, could he?
That would be far too undignified.
There were five types of magical creatures delivered: the most common Tier 1 magical creature of the wilderness, the Gale Demon Wolf; the hardest-to-kill Tier 1 magical beast, the Horned Rabbit; the easiest-to-raise Tier 1 magical creature, the Flesh Slime; the most ordinary Tier 1 magical creature, the Wilderness Spirit Deer; and the rarest unranked magical creature, the Blood Flying Mosquito.
Isaac was very interested in all five. The Gale Demon Wolf and Horned Rabbit would be his primary research subjects next. One was a common mount and pet of Black Orcs, with the highest conversion rate in the Flesh Lair; the other possessed extraordinarily powerful recovery abilities, even an almost heaven-defying power of division.
The Horned Rabbit itself had average combat strength, but its innate spell allowed it to split into equally sized individuals after death, thereby avoiding that death. According to the magical creature records Isaac had read, a Horned Rabbit could split at most three times.
That meant one became two, two became four, and four became eight. During this process, as long as any one individual escaped, every other individual besides the one that escaped would instantly turn into blood.
In other words, if one wanted to kill a Horned Rabbit, unless one completely destroyed the body, such as swallowing it whole like Hamon did, one would have to kill it at least fifteen times before it truly died.
However, compared to its heaven-defying innate spell, the Horned Rabbit was far too lacking in every other aspect. Its individual attributes were abysmal. Although it was a noble Tier 1 magical creature, its physical qualities might not even surpass those of an unranked Demonic Wild Boar. After all, the difference in size was right there.
Isaac understood this clearly. Once Hamon swallowed it, its bodily structure was completely laid bare before Isaac. At the same time, he roughly understood the principles behind the Horned Rabbit's spell.
Its division did not come without a cost. With every split, its memories and soul were divided in half as well, and the portions lost with each split were gone permanently.
In other words, after splitting eight ways, it would have only a tiny bit of instinct left...
Moreover, this spell could only be activated three times in its life. After three times, there would be nothing left to divide.
A spell with both its advantages and flaws glaringly obvious.
No wonder no wizard had replicated such a heaven-defying spell. Both souls and memories were immensely precious to wizards, especially memories!
Those were all knowledge earned through painstaking research!
Compared to losing knowledge, they would rather lose their lives!
Of course, Isaac was more inclined to think it was useless.
Against a powerful enemy, it would still die when it needed to die. The Horned Rabbit was supposedly difficult to kill only because most of what it encountered were magical creatures in the wilderness. Against humans, it was merely a matter of delivering a few extra strikes. The difference was not that great.
But Isaac saw enormous potential for warfare in the Horned Rabbit!
On the battlefield, one Horned Rabbit was equivalent to fifteen...
What about a hundred? A thousand?
Once their innate spell was unleashed at full force, that scene... tsk tsk~
486 gave it a big thumbs-up!
Before absolute numbers, individual strength was not worth mentioning!
Well, only below the higher ranks~
As for the remaining three, the Flesh Slime was there mostly to make up the numbers. Its combat ability was actually fairly impressive, and its devouring ability was incredibly powerful. But Flesh Slimes were classic glass cannons—high attack, low defense. A casual slash into their sacs would kill them, unlike other types of slime that needed their cores struck for an instant kill.
The most ridiculous part was that the Flesh Slime's method of attack was devouring...
To this day, the academic world remained deeply curious about how a magical creature like the Flesh Slime had not gone extinct.
The Wilderness Spirit Deer was said to possess the potential to become the God Seed, Wilderness Spirit. Sheryl had probably given it to him deliberately. Unfortunately, that was a rumor. Isaac could not see anything related to the godhead system within the Wilderness Spirit Deer's body.
The Blood Flying Mosquito, meanwhile, was an extremely rare insect-type magical creature. Once their numbers grew, their combat strength was also quite considerable.
Overall, although the evaluations of these five magical creatures varied, in Isaac's eyes, even the Flesh Slime, which had the lowest academic rating, possessed excellent value for warfare.
Because magical creature troops bred by the Flesh Lair did not need to consider the most important issue of rejection. As long as they could maintain peak combat strength for an hour, that was enough.
Strictly speaking, even half an hour would do!
Thus, when it came to biological modification, he could loosen his restraints a little.
But the actual modifications would have to wait until tomorrow...
After writing the final word, Isaac let out a huge yawn and stretched. He took a few steps, then plunged headfirst onto the bed in the laboratory and fell into a deep sleep...
"Riiip~"
Hamon quietly emerged from the back of Isaac's neck, carefully moved the lower half of his body onto the bed as well, then gently covered him with a blanket. It gave a few soft hisses toward Little Mouse by the head of the bed.
Then claw and mouse quietly ran to a corner of the laboratory. Hamon spat a glowing pearl from the mouth in its palm, and its faint light illuminated Little Mouse and the introductory book before it.
"Hiss hiss~"
Hamon opened to the first page and quietly explained it to Little Mouse. Little Mouse listened attentively, nodding from time to time with a thoughtful expression.
"Hiss hiss~"
One of Hamon's claws tapped the first page, asking Little Mouse whether it understood.
"Squeak?" Little Mouse raised its head with a blank look, its clear little eyes making Hamon's fur stand on end...
Before you continue