Wind Blade, Get!

Isaac had only bought two enhancement rituals for Hamon. Though theoretically, there was no limit to the types of rituals a Magic Pet could receive at each stage—as long as you had the money, you could add whatever you wanted.

However, rituals like these had diminishing returns. The more you used, the weaker their effects became.

While using every available ritual would not currently render them ineffective, the cost-effectiveness was abysmal. The later improvements could be called negligible.

Isaac did not rush into it. Instead, he carefully studied the two rituals first. He had a hypothesis.

According to the brief descriptions in the purchase catalog, Hamon could use the two rituals three times and once respectively at his current stage. The one usable three times was Hand of Demonic Path, which could obtain the Talent Wizardry of certain magical creatures. The one usable once was Hand of Demon God, which could enhance his mystique attribute at the current stage.

Isaac wanted to see whether the limit on those numbers could be removed through his own Golden Finger. Hand of Demonic Path was not much of an issue; having a few more low-level spells was not particularly meaningful, since he could learn them himself. There was no need to waste money like that. Even mosquito meat was still meat!

The one more heavily affected by removing the limit was Hand of Demon God. If Hamon's mystique attribute could be enhanced infinitely, just how strong would Hamon be by the time Isaac became a High Wizard?

That little thought had also been part of why he bought this ritual.

Of course, even if it could not be done, the ritual was still extremely useful.

Isaac was no longer the clueless rookie he had been when he had just become a Legendary Wizard. He was now a rookie who had been a wizard for nearly three months!

He had gained a certain degree of understanding of Legendary Wizards and Arcanists.

Though Arcanists appeared to have developed from Legendary Wizards, as if the two shared a succession, they had actually embarked upon another path. They still pursued knowledge and transformed knowledge into power, but compared to Legendary Wizards, they had abandoned one thing—mystique!

They published the knowledge they researched, allowing more people to learn it. Then, by gathering geniuses together through discussion and exchange, they developed even deeper knowledge, repeated the process, and gradually approached Truth.

Though they lost the power bestowed by mystique in that process, they also received gifts from Truth!

The power they drew from Truth would not be weakened in the slightest by the dissipation of mystique.

Legendary Wizards were different. Though the source of their power was faith rather than mystique, they were still affected by mystique. Long ago, most wizards conducted their research alone, preserving their unparalleled mystique.

But as time passed, the era changed. Today, the vast majority of wizardry was no longer mysterious, nor was it held exclusively by any one person, aside from Advanced Magic Spells.

Thus, when the mystique of spells themselves could no longer be relied upon, Legendary Wizards developed another method of receiving mystique-based enhancement: transferring mystique onto themselves!

The more mystique one possessed, the stronger the enhancement to certain spells.

By now, quite a few high-level spells even required the caster to possess a certain degree of mystique before they could be learned.

Therefore, for a Legendary Wizard, increasing one's mystique attribute was never a loss.

"Ahh..."

After a long while, Isaac let out a heavy sigh. No luck...

His Golden Finger could only affect the success rate of these two rituals.

After studying them, Isaac discovered that the essence of both rituals was actually to excavate the potential of the Hand of God. The directions were simply different. That was also why the more types of rituals used, the lower their effects became—the potential had already been mostly developed by the earlier rituals.

There was only so little potential left to begin with, so naturally not much more could be excavated.

But potential was the sort of thing where, if you squeezed hard enough, you could always squeeze out a little more. Thus, even if every current ritual were used, they could still produce a faint effect.

However, even ordinary rich people could not afford to play that way, much less a poor bastard like Isaac.

"Ahh... Time to work..."

Shaking his head, Isaac stood up and swayed his way to another section of the laboratory specifically used for arranging rituals. Hamon had already laid out the ritual materials there in advance.

Even the padding materials used to increase the success rate had been prepared.

The first ritual was Hand of Demonic Path. Isaac had prepared two targets for Hamon: the Gale Demon Wolf's Wind Blade, to bolster his currently meager offensive options, and the Bewitching Butterfly's Illusionary Mark, to add more control methods.

Moreover, Illusionary Mark could benefit from mystique enhancement, so it had tremendous potential.

Isaac decided to put off choosing the third target for now. The spells he could acquire were definitely not limited to these, and the ritual was fairly simple to arrange anyway. He only needed to make his choice before advancing to Grand Wizard.

The padding material for the Gale Demon Wolf was simple. What came from the sheep went back to the sheep: it required Gale Demon Wolf Flesh Essence. Each portion increased the success rate by one percent, and it was extremely cheap. The fortress lacked nothing more than this stuff.

So Isaac did not hold back and directly pushed it to two hundred percent!

With everything prepared, Isaac stood in the middle of the wave-shaped circular magic array. All around him lay all sorts of bizarre magical materials: bloody intestines, dried severed monster fingers, damaged scales, pitch-black hand-shaped wooden carvings, and more.

At the center of the magic array, before Isaac, was a Gale Demon Wolf's heart. Beneath the heart were neat, square chunks of Flesh Essence.

Mysterious incantations spilled from Isaac's mouth. A strange pulse of Magic Power spread outward from him, and every material on the magic array emitted a faint glow. Threads of Magic Power light converged into the Demonic Wolf heart before him. Under the influence of that special Magic Power, mysterious blue patterns began to emerge across the heart's surface.

"Rip~"

Hamon emerged from behind Isaac's head and eagerly pounced on the Demonic Wolf heart. The serrated maw in his palm flew open and swallowed it whole in a single bite. He chewed twice, and crimson blood seeped from the corners of his mouth.

"Slurp~"

A long purple-black tongue suddenly shot out and licked away every drop of blood at the corners of his mouth. Then his palm returned to normal.

Only its shape had returned to normal. In reality, after Hamon swallowed the Demonic Wolf heart, blood-red Magic Power began spreading from his palm through his entire arm. Wherever it passed, the arm visibly grew more robust.

Soon, the Magic Power fluctuations in the laboratory gradually subsided. Isaac stopped chanting as well, and the corners of his mouth curled upward slightly.

Another ritual completed. He had grown stronger again.

"Hamon!"

After the ritual ended, Isaac pointed at the target that had long been prepared in the spell training area and gave a sharp shout. Hamon's index finger lightly swiped through the air, and a Wind Blade instantly shot forth, precisely cleaving it into two!

Wind Blade, get!

Thanks to Ye Ye for the one hundred-coin tip!

That name... feels suspiciously like taking advantage of someone~