The Future of the Demon Claw

So, which option should he choose?

Flush with cash, Isaac immediately flipped to the last page of the list and started with the most expensive, the best!

They were only first-rank cultivation plans. No matter how expensive they were, how expensive could they possibly be?

Demon God Incarnation: 300,000 Gold Coins (Note: The knowledge in this plan is exceedingly precious; no materials provided)

Demon Grand Duke: 100,000 Gold Coins (Note: The knowledge in this plan is exceedingly precious; no materials provided)

Outer Gods: 300,000–1,000,000 Gold Coins (Note: The knowledge in this plan is exceedingly precious; no materials provided)

Isaac: "..."

After a moment of silence, Isaac promptly flipped back to the first page. He couldn't afford it. He really couldn't afford it...

"Phew~"

Looking at the rows of three-digit prices on the first page, Isaac found them incomparably dear at this moment—dearer than ever before!

So cheap!

After marveling for a moment, he reined in his stray thoughts and began choosing in earnest. In the end, he settled on two plans—Hand of the Demonic Path and Hand of the Demon God.

The Hand of the Demonic Path would develop it in the direction of spellcasting. By performing different devouring rituals, it could acquire the Innate Sorcery of different Demonic Beasts. The flaw of this plan was that the rituals had a relatively low success rate, and even if one succeeded, it was still highly possible that no Innate Sorcery would be devoured.

In other words, there was an element of gambling involved.

And that was also its greatest drawback. If one was unlucky, one might go their entire life without devouring a single sorcery!

But that was not really a problem for Isaac. To him, its only flaw was that this cultivation plan likewise provided knowledge only, with no materials included—seven hundred Gold Coins, and not a single material thrown in!

Since different Demonic Beasts provided different sorceries, their prices naturally differed as well. And in the entire devouring ritual, the most precious item was the Demonic Beast's heart; all the other materials were common junk.

So rather than offend people by giving away this trash, they might as well give nothing at all.

Though that was still pretty offensive. At the very least, Isaac did not think highly of it!

Even if they were common, they were still worth several Gold Coins!

What a damn loss!

But to be fair, though the Hand of the Demonic Path relied somewhat on luck, it really was quite powerful. The Innate Sorcery of many Demonic Beasts was excellent, and while wizards all developed toward versatility, they were still human in the end. Their energy was always limited.

This cultivation method could save wizards a great deal of effort, leaving them free to research other things.

As long as one was lucky, it held enormous potential in both the early and later stages!

Compared to the Hand of the Demonic Path, however, the Hand of the Demon God was far inferior in the early stages. Early on, the Hand of the Demon God was practically useless; it was all about accumulation, only slowly erupting in the later stages.

Interestingly, its earliest eruption period was at the High Sorcerer stage...

Before that, the Hand of the Demon God had to repeatedly use rituals to strengthen its mystique. Once one broke through to High Sorcerer, they could then use a god-ascension ritual to transform it in one fell swoop into the powerful Hand of the Demon God!

At that point, it would possess the Aspects of two or three designated domains!

It was certainly powerful, but it was also expensive. Both the rituals for strengthening mystique and the god-ascension ritual required costly materials!

The Hand of the Demon God's power was burned out of money.

Even more screwed up was that, just like the Hand of the Demonic Path, the cultivation ritual for every stage had to be purchased separately...

The Hand of the Demon God cost one thousand Gold Coins.

As for the ones after that...

Isaac did not dare look, but they were definitely more expensive than one thousand!

"Ah~" Isaac let out a heavy sigh and closed the list.

Then he summoned the Tower Spirit and bought both plans!

Only children made choices. Adults took them all!

He had money now, anyway!

Buy the damn things!

Nobody said they were mutually exclusive, so what was there to chicken out over!

Aside from those two rituals, Isaac also bought quite a few materials, along with an advancement ritual. Although there was still some time before his next advancement, there was no harm in preparing early.

His path had long since been decided. The ritual he chose this time was called Witch's Joyful Banquet, still Starry Sky + Mystique.

Because the boosts granted by each advancement ritual were minuscule, almost negligible. Only by stacking them did they become appreciable.

After that shopping spree, more than four thousand of the five thousand Gold Coins he had just received vanished like water flowing away...

Yet Isaac did not feel too much heartache at the moment. Perhaps because he had not earned it through his own hard work...

With the shopping done, all that remained was to wait for delivery.

Although the Truth Association had created an "online shopping system" like the one in Lakeside Town, it ultimately could not compare to the Great Power of Cabin in the Woods, which connected myriad worlds. Like the online shopping platforms of his previous life, it could only handle purchases online and shipments offline.

It was even worse than those online shopping platforms. The Truth Association's platform had a rather high threshold for users. First, one had to be a Truth Wizard, which alone knocked out a great many people. Second, one needed savings of at least ten thousand Gold Coins, which knocked out another batch.

Lastly, you also needed a Mage Tower!

A legitimate Mage Tower with a Tower Spirit!

Quite a few people could still grit their teeth and meet the first two requirements, at worst by selling off some possessions.

But a Mage Tower...

That was truly hard to come by—especially one with a Tower Spirit!

This was the very heart of the Truth Association's core!

It was not something just any Tom, Dick, or Harry could buy.

Isaac, however, had no objections to this. Here, he could buy one using Eldest Sister's account; once he went back, he could buy one in Lakeside Town. No matter how demanding the requirements were, they could not hold him back.

He just did not know how efficient the delivery would be~

After placing the order, Isaac stopped worrying about it. It would take a day or two anyway, and in the meantime, he needed to study [Legend].

The most special thing about Legendary Wizards was that at every rank, they possessed three blank Spellbooks. Writing different content in them granted different wizard spells—even entire spell systems!

Of Isaac's three Spellbooks, two had already been filled with writing. One was the Flesh Nest he had traded for from the Lord of Myriad Flesh, while the other was a copy of the fairy tale Cinderella from his previous life.

After Isaac copied Cinderella into the Spellbook, the tale had begun spreading throughout his territory. At first, it had only circulated around the castle, but after Caesar learned that Isaac had become a wizard, he used the family's power to spread it across the entire territory in an extremely short time, with faint signs of it expanding into the neighboring territories.

Thus, after gaining such a vast audience, Isaac's first legend had finally finished gestating!

"Riiip!"

The sound of flesh tearing rang out. The Demon Claw, wrapped in blackish-purple muscles that coiled like the roots of an ancient tree, emerged from the back of Isaac's head and opened before him. Three Spellbooks floated up from its palm.

One was blank and utterly still. One was wreathed in dark crimson blood aura. The last was entwined with specks of starlight; if one focused closely, one could even hear faint, indistinct wishes~