Hermes was on a small island in a vast ocean.
This was a planet inhabited only by lower plants and animals, with no intelligent life and no traces of extraterrestrial life. It was a naturally evolved living planet. Such planes were called primary planes, also known as great worlds.
The island Hermes was on had a floating island above it, and another floating island above that, for a total of seven levels.
Each level of the island was inscribed with magic arrays. These arrays were not complicated. The topmost level held a circular magic array made up of three concentric rings. At its center stood an altar, upon which rested a three-legged round cauldron. Dragon carvings adorned its two handles, while the six islands below were respectively inscribed with triangular, square, pentagram, hexagram, heptagram, and octagram arrays.
The cauldron contained crystal soil formed from gemstones of every color. Most eye-catching among them was a gemstone that gleamed with red light.
That was the Philosopher's Stone, representing Hermes himself.
At that moment, Hermes inserted the Caduceus of Mercury in his hand into the crystal soil held within the cauldron, one after the other.
The core abilities of the super divine artifact known as the Caduceus of Mercury were "replication" and "storage." All its other abilities ultimately stemmed from these two.
When Hephaestus reforged the Caduceus of Mercury, he used adamantine as its main material, adding Diamond Gold and Prismatic Magic Gold. Using Diamond Gold's refractive structure to amplify divine power and Prismatic Magic Gold's reflective structure to repel it, he fused in the Golden Gathering Ring that Hermes had stolen from Odin, King of the Gods of Asgard. With Hermes's alchemy assisting the process, it gained the authority of "replication."
As for the authority of "storage," it came from the Eastern