Divine Mages and Bloodline Warlocks

Watching the luxurious carriages traveling alongside his on the main road, Isaac clicked his tongue in amazement. At that moment, he felt rather fortunate that he had brought Smith along, allowing him to travel with these great nobles and experience, if only a little, what it felt like to be one.

To be fair, although Isaac had been born a noble, he had been too frail as a child. After recovering, he had immersed himself in the path of wizardry, so he had never truly enjoyed much of a noble's life.

Experiences like this were actually rare for him. If he had come alone this time, he would probably have followed his usual simple routine: arrive, find somewhere to stay, attend the gathering, then leave...

Of course, this novelty could only entertain Isaac for a moment. To him, power was what truly deserved to be pursued!

Besides, the pleasure brought by all these noble etiquettes was nowhere near as thrilling as trading with Outer Gods. Truth was the goal he would pursue for his entire life!

Happy times were always brief. Before long, the carriage entered the estate Smith had arranged in advance within the Imperial Capital.

Unlike the last time he had come to the Imperial Capital, Isaac was no longer the same. He no longer needed to borrow Solomon's estate and had bought one of his own. After all, he was a High Wizard now. He could afford such a small expense.

After settling into the estate, Isaac plunged straight into its small laboratory and continued burying himself in experiments. There were roughly three days left before the royal gathering arranged through the summons.

For other nobles, they would likely use those three days to visit one another, exchange intelligence, and discuss how to divide the benefits.

But to Isaac, all that was meaningless. He might as well run a few more experiments. Besides, given his identity as a mad wizard, few nobles would dare come visit him anyway.

Of course, although he was conducting experiments, this was the Imperial Capital, the political and economic center of the entire Empire. Therefore, he could not conduct any experiments related to Outer Gods. He could not even conduct experiments involving the construction of miracles.

That was because the miracles of Legendary Wizards were usually inseparable from rituals, and rituals, if mishandled, could easily attract Outer Gods.

Thus, Isaac could only conduct some preliminary research into a new path of wizardry—the path of using the heart as the source of magical power!

This would also be one of Isaac's important future research projects. It might even help him step onto the path to greatness!

Well, that was only Isaac's fantasy for now, but it was enough to show just how much he expected from it.

"Source of magical power..." In the estate laboratory, beneath the bright lights, Isaac flipped through the magic notes in his hand while comparing them to the bloody, steaming, continuously beating monster heart on the table.

Isaac was not the first person to think of transplanting a monster heart as a source of magical power in order to become a wizard.

As early as the pioneering stage of the path of wizardry, many wizards had attempted to transplant monster hearts or modify their own hearts to develop a new, safer path of wizardry.

After all, obtaining a magic seed from extradimensional beings still carried considerable risks.

Unfortunately, those experiments eventually came to nothing. There were many reasons, but two were the most important. First, the technology was immature. Whether transplanting a heart or modifying one, the mortality rate was extremely high—higher even than trading with extradimensional beings!

Second, even if the transplant or modification succeeded, they gained magical power, but only magical power. They did not gain the ability to cast spells.

Yes, that was how the earliest generation of knights came to be.

By transplanting the hearts of magical beasts, they obtained magical beast blood and magical power, thereby gaining unparalleled physical strength and resistance to some magic.

However, while knights were powerful, they were clearly no match for wizards and Witches. Thus, this line of research was gradually abandoned.

And the problem Isaac faced now was the same. Transplanting a monster heart would certainly bring magical power, but it would not grant spellcasting ability. Even modern wizards had been unable to solve that problem.

A source of magical power had never been equivalent to spellcasting ability.

The trade rituals between Legendary Wizards and extradimensional beings were not merely about acquiring magical power. Later research showed that during the original trade rituals, under the combined influence of the ritual, the extradimensional being, and humanity's desire for magic, the soul underwent certain changes. Only then did humans gain the spellcasting ability they should not have possessed.

As a result, there had always been a theory in related research that Arcanists were not the direct creation of some Great Wizard, but rather the result of humanity's natural evolution. That Great Wizard might simply have accelerated the process, causing Arcanists to emerge earlier.

Even now, that view remained fiercely debated, with both sides possessing considerable arguments to support their positions.

But this had nothing to do with Isaac's research, because most of those debates remained purely theoretical. Few people actually tried to prove anything. After all, the subject was too advanced and involved the research of Great Wizards. Not just anyone was qualified to meddle in it.

Back to the point: simply transplanting a source of magical power could not grant spellcasting ability. Many wizards had already proven that, so what Isaac needed to consider was how to bypass the rituals of Legendary Wizards and artificially bestow spellcasting ability.

That was also the direction previous wizards had envisioned, though most of their research had failed. Of the few exceptions, some were spellcasters like Arcane Artificers, who relied on Dimension Demon Gods, while others had no spellcasting ability of their own and cast spells through the magic web.

Although they could all cast spells, their spellcasting ability did not belong to them. If they wished to advance further in the future, they would still have to move closer to the path of Legendary Wizards, and the journey would be extraordinarily difficult.

Though those experiments had ultimately failed to achieve true success, they had still provided Isaac with useful references. Combined with the most traditional path of Legendary Wizards, it was not hard to discover that every successful case involved one important factor—higher beings!

Traditional Legendary Wizards gained spellcasting ability through extradimensional beings. Arcane Artificers gained it through Dimension Demon Gods. As for the magic web relied upon by Magic Web Mages, its essence was also a high-order creation, similar to a Dimension World, created by some powerful wizard.

Even Arcanists had the involvement of a Great Wizard in their emergence. Otherwise, they would not have appeared so quickly.

Therefore, if Isaac's experiment were to succeed, it would inevitably require the involvement of a higher being. Moreover, it could not possess uniqueness and had to be easily obtainable. Otherwise, what difference would there be between it and a Magic Web Mage?

So, did he possess something like that?

The answer was yes!

Divine Spirit Rats!

Do not let their rather ordinary strength fool you. Their status was extremely high. Even without reaching a rank, they could possess spellcasting ability, though it was divine magic.

Moreover, unlike monster hearts, once a Divine Spirit Rat was successfully modified, it would automatically gain spellcasting ability.

Of course, according to Isaac's research, this spellcasting ability still differed somewhat from that of wizards. First, they could only cast divine magic. Second, compared with wizards, they resembled Magic Web Mages more. The nature of their souls had not directly changed.

However, unlike Magic Web Mages, who all shared one magic web and whose ability to cast spells before the third rank depended entirely on the mood of the magic web's owner, Divine Spirit Rats relied on the Divinity Network within their bodies—that was, their divinity.

The drawback was that Divine Spirit Rats found it far more difficult to increase their strength than Magic Web Mages.

So, if the transplanted heart belonged to a Divine Spirit Rat—or rather, a God Seed—could it directly grant spellcasting ability?

Of course, this idea still had many flaws. For example, the core of a God Seed's power was the divine network spread throughout its entire body, rather than any particular organ. Transplantation was possible, but whether directly transplanting the Divinity Network or transplanting Little Mouse's snack—divinity crystals—both would be extremely troublesome.

More importantly, even if the transplant succeeded, the result would not be a wizard, but a human God Seed.

All he could say was that the direction was correct, but the details still needed refinement.

Aside from Divine Spirit Rats, Isaac had another direction: create something similar to a magic web, combine it with the source of a Witch's power—her bloodline—and allow wizards who had transplanted monster hearts to gain spells and even independent spellcasting ability from their bloodlines!

Yes, they would be the Bloodline Warlocks from the early wizard novels of Isaac's previous life.

However, compared to transplanting divinity, this direction was far more difficult. The greatest problem was that researching Witch bloodlines was a taboo among taboos, especially now that Witch Country was growing increasingly powerful.

Back when the path of wizardry had just begun, newly born Witches had often been captured and dissected by wizards. To Witches, it had been an exceptionally bloody and desperate era. Whether churches, wizards, or wild monsters, it had seemed as if the entire world was targeting them!

Thus, when the Witches united and formally established Witch Country, the first thing they did was ban wizard research into Witch bloodlines. Not only was such research forbidden, but many previous results were directly erased!

Erased from the very concept itself!

Therefore, at his current stage, Isaac could only first research heart transplantation. As for Bloodline Warlocks...

He could only say that he needed to consider it more carefully.

Looking at the bright red heart beating continuously on the table, Isaac lightly waved his fingers. The glow of magical power flickered between them, and one magic mark after another appeared upon the bloody heart before finally fading from view.

Gradually, as more and more magic marks appeared, the magical aura around the heart slowly vanished, replaced by a faint trace of divine power!

Once the aura of divine power appeared, Isaac's moving fingertips stopped as well. The conversion of the magical heart into a divine heart had succeeded, yet there was not the slightest joy on Isaac's face. Instead, his brows knitted tightly together.

That was because the divine aura on the heart lasted only an instant before rapidly dissipating. This was only natural; Isaac had already anticipated it before beginning.

His research into the Divinity Network was still limited to holistic modifications. When dealing with a single part, he simply had no way to modify a Divinity Network into it.

It could not be helped. Although Isaac's research into God Seeds had produced some results long ago, the divine path was simply too lackluster. That was clear enough from Little Mouse.

Little Mouse had started from a low point, but Isaac had provided it with no shortage of resources along the way. Especially for a God Seed, no other God Seed could possibly be like Little Mouse, eating divinity as snacks.

Yet even with such an almost massive supply of resources, it had only barely entered the third rank. Its combat strength was considerable, but its advancement speed was merely average.

In the end, it was because the source of a God Seed's power came from faith. Only faith could maximize their power. Whether in potential, combat strength, or advancement speed, faith was the finest nourishment for growth.

But faith, especially faith in gods, was not so easy to obtain. Small-scale preaching was too inefficient, while large-scale preaching was too difficult. Little Mouse was also a rat and Isaac's familiar, which could easily provoke those lunatics in the churches.

With the slightest misstep, they might directly launch a holy war!

With so many restrictions, Isaac naturally could not muster much interest in the divine path, and naturally had not conducted much research in this field.

Still, that did not mean this experiment had been useless. To a wizard, every experiment was useful. Even a failed experiment could provide data.

At the very least, after this simple experiment, Isaac had gained some idea of what direction to pursue next.

At the same time, while Isaac was immersed in research, the palace was holding a meeting specifically to discuss him!

Just as Isaac had expected, the opening of the Boundless Spire was imminent. The top combat forces of the real world were about to face an unprecedented vacuum period, and for some time, the entire real world would possess only third-rank combat power.

Under such circumstances, Isaac, who possessed absolute power among the third rank and was also the culprit foretold to destroy the Empire, naturally received special attention from the Empire.

Although this summons was not intended to test him as Isaac had thought, removing him from the area was certain.

The prophecy concerning Isaac was not an inevitable prophecy like the Emperor's. It was an ordinary prophecy that could be avoided. Under such circumstances, the Empire, which prioritized stability, naturally would not act rashly.

Of course, stability was the Empire's guiding principle, so Isaac could not remain in the real world during this period!

They were unsure whether Isaac had any interest in the Boundless Spire, so they could only use the summons to make him go there.

To be honest, before Isaac entered the Imperial Capital, they had worried whether he would answer the summons. He was such a genius, after all. Geniuses were always proud and unconventional, especially since he was a mad wizard.

Fortunately, Isaac had answered the summons and prevented the situation from reaching its most awkward point.

"Alright, he has arrived. What we need to consider next is how to ensure that he definitely enters the Boundless Spire." A handsome man dressed in magnificent robes, with dazzling red hair yet an icy aura, spoke coldly.

At those words, everyone turned to look at Grand Princess Filo, who sat to the right of the First Prince.