A New Goal Has Appeared!

"Will this... be risky?" Caesar asked worriedly.

After all, that was the legendary Demon God!

"It should be fine. As long as the ritual doesn't fail, nothing will happen," Isaac said rather nonchalantly.

Caesar wanted to say something else, but Cheryl cut him off. "Third Brother is right. As long as the ritual succeeds, there won't be any danger. This is the power that Legendary Wizards rely on to survive."

But then she looked at Isaac again. "But that depends on the ritual succeeding! Maybe you got lucky this time, but I hope you won't grow careless because of it. Outer Gods are not so simple. Succeeding this time doesn't mean you'll keep succeeding in the future!"

Isaac nodded. Naturally, he knew that.

That was one of the reasons no one in the Mad Sorcerer Association bothered with interpersonal relationships. Everyone lived one day at a time; who knew when they might be gone? Making friends?

Completely unnecessary.

As for whether the Mad Sorcerer Association might stop after doing this just once...

Isaac admitted that such people existed, but there were definitely very few of them. These days, how many gamblers could actually quit while they were ahead?

If they could quit, would they still be called gamblers?

And honestly, the thrill of rapidly increasing one's power was far greater than winning money. How many people could resist that?

At any rate, Isaac couldn't.

He might have agreed readily enough just now, but in truth, not a word had sunk in, because he wasn't a gambler—he was an investor!

And an investor in a sure-win, no-loss venture at that!

As for Cheryl and the others?

They knew Isaac hadn't listened either, but that was fine. There would be plenty of time to persuade him later. Slowly did it.

After roughly discussing the details of the plan, they parted ways to attend to their own affairs.

Worth mentioning was that, after they separated, Second Brother Remington seemed to want to thank Isaac. But Isaac was busy returning to his experiments and ignored him.

And honestly, he didn't think much of his second brother anyway. First, Isaac had a severe intolerance for stupidity. In his eyes, fighting Caesar for the inheritance was an exceptionally foolish thing to do!

Put it this way: when their father Gaia had left the territory, even without Gaia's personal orders, Caesar could directly command the territory's army!

And beyond the territory, Caesar had handled his outside connections extremely well too. Whether nobles or Adventurers, he had close friends among them all. What the hell were you supposed to use to compete with someone like that?

He had been born to eat from that bowl!

Not to mention that, in this world where Transcendent Power reigned supreme, Caesar possessed extraordinarily outstanding talent for cultivation.

Second was Remington's collusion with the Black Orcs.

That made Isaac look down on him somewhat.

Whether Remington had been used by the Black Orcs or had used the Black Orcs himself, Isaac considered it an exceptionally stupid move. Not only was it like seeking a tiger's skin, but it treated the people of the territory as if they were nothing!

A person like that simply didn't deserve to be a lord!

Still...

Dislike was one thing, but they did share a bond of blood. If he could plead for him, then he would plead for him.

But any deeper interaction was out of the question.

After parting with the others, however, Isaac did not immediately return to the Mage Tower. Instead, he found a suitable corner within the fortress and began setting up the emplacement spell—Flesh Nest.

Though he carried one with him, it had already been placed inside the Dimension. At this stage, the Dimension was unsuitable for frequent use, so it would be better to make a new one. Not only would it cost little, he could even get it reimbursed!

Why not?

Before long, a gigantic heart radiating a thick stench of blood stood in one corner of the fortress. Scarlet liquid slowly flowed outward from it, then, after reaching a certain distance, rose into a blood-colored mist that swept up the magic power in the air and returned to the gigantic heart, becoming the crimson glow within its blood vessels.

However, relying on the magic power in the air alone was not enough to rapidly mass-produce troops. Thus, after absorbing sufficient magic power, the viscous blood flowing from the gigantic heart gradually increased. Before long, a huge pit appeared in the ground. The blood flowing from the heart filled it, turning it into a Blood Pool, while the lower half of the gigantic heart soaked within it, beating slowly.

"Gasp!!!"

The soldiers nearby watched Isaac chanting beside the Blood Pool and suddenly sucked in a breath of cold air. The scene was simply too horrifying! Too villainous!

The instant the Flesh Nest fully took shape, a faint wave of magic power rippled outward.

A burst of arcane radiance flashed beside Isaac, and Cheryl's figure emerged from it. She frowned and examined the Flesh Nest twice, but she couldn't understand it.

Or more precisely, she only understood part of it—the portion that transformed flesh and blood into Demonic Beasts, a relatively simple transformation-type arcane art. But that was not the core of this spell.

The true core of the spell was that it could operate automatically. Though it could not nurture genuine life like the Goblin Nest, its fully automated spell operation was still exquisitely ingenious.

Unfortunately, it contained far too much Outer God Knowledge. Ordinary people could not decipher anything from it, much less learn or make use of it.

Thus, after only a couple of glances, Cheryl turned to Isaac and said, "If you're done here, go find Father. He has something to discuss with you."

"Alright, I'll go now. This spell is basically set up. From here, we just need to put Demonic Beast flesh into it. As for the Demonic Beasts we need to create... I don't have much combat experience. Give me two or three days, and I'll make a few samples for you to look at."

It wasn't as if they couldn't fight with just Gale Wolves and Demonized Wild Boars, but they had not been driven to that point yet. They could completely optimize things first.

Besides, this was one of the rare chances to conduct research with public funds!

How could he give it up so easily?

Cheryl nodded slightly, then transformed into a streak of arcane radiance and vanished. Isaac watched her with no small amount of envy. Spatial teleportation—the standard skill of a mage.

Its practicality was extremely high!

Unfortunately, even the shortest-range Flash required one to reach the Archmage stage before it could be learned.

Still, perhaps he could try snatching a few spatial Aspects?

Isaac rubbed his chin. The idea seemed fairly viable and could be filed away as a backup plan, though that would have to wait until his research into Aspects went deeper.

Otherwise, his top priority was still obtaining resources that could promote the dimension's growth. That was what Isaac found hardest to acquire at present.

Up to now, the dimension had not grown at all in Isaac's hands!

Though Isaac did not expect to become a Dimensional Demon God through this thing, that did not mean he had no need for it. If nothing else, once the dimension grew a little, he could use it as spatial storage. He also would not have to be so cautious when using Infinite Mana, constantly afraid of accidentally damaging the newborn dimension.

Shaking his head, Isaac tucked away all those scattered thoughts. There was no use thinking so much right now. Raising his strength came before everything else.

Before that, however, he needed to see Gaia.

He wanted to know why his family held such a deep grudge against mad sorcerers. He had actually known nothing about it before!

"Knock knock~"

"Come in."

Pushing open the door to the Lord's Mansion, Isaac found Gaia sitting behind his desk, studying some documents intently. Seeing Isaac enter, he set the document in his hand on the desk and pointed to the chair opposite him.

"Sit."

With that, he turned around, pulled a notebook from the bookshelf behind him, and handed it to Isaac.

Isaac opened it curiously and discovered that it seemed to contain a record of someone's activities.

"Father, what is this?"

"Do you know how your mother died?" Rather than answering Isaac's question, Gaia asked one of his own.

Yet that question itself seemed to be the answer...

Isaac frowned slightly. "Didn't Mother die in childbirth while giving birth to me?"

"She did indeed die in childbirth. But do you think, with the power of our family, that giving birth to a child could possibly result in such complications? Even if there truly were complications, would we only be able to save one of you? You are a sorcerer now too. You should know that such problems are not difficult for magic to resolve." Gaia looked at Isaac calmly, his tone utterly even.

Yet whenever his gaze drifted to the notebook in Isaac's hands, a flicker of killing intent would occasionally flash through his eyes!

But by instinct, he kept Isaac from noticing. Though Isaac was no longer afraid of killing intent at this level.

Hearing this, Isaac silently flipped through the notebook in his hands, his face expressionless.

Rip!

However, Hamon emerging from the back of his head revealed that his heart was far less calm than he appeared.

"You must have guessed it already. That's right—your mother did not die by accident at all! A mad sorcerer cursed her! That curse caused her to die in childbirth. Even you nearly couldn't be saved. And though we did save you, it left you frail for all these years."

As Isaac listened to Gaia, he continued leafing through the notebook. Before long, he reached the final page.

Frowning slightly, Isaac asked, "You still haven't found him?"

"Regrettably, no." Gaia shook his head. "I've been searching for him all these years, but his methods of concealment are exceptionally clever. The notebook in your hands contains all the information we currently have on him."

"Master of Mischief..." Looking at the title recorded in the notebook, dense killing intent flashed through Isaac's eyes. This was the man who had harmed his mother in this life—and nearly killed him as well...

Judging from that title, the other party might even have considered it no more than a prank!

"Could he have died in a deal with the Outer Gods?" Isaac asked with some concern.

"No. He committed a crime as recently as last year. He led rebels in overthrowing a small nation's regime, then sacrificed the entire country to an evil god! His methods were exceptionally cruel! Furthermore, we had sorcerers from the Truth Association lock onto his life status. The moment he dies, this sapphire will shatter as well."

As he spoke, Gaia took a sapphire from his robes and showed it to Isaac.

Hearing that, a savage smile curled across Isaac's lips. "Then that's wonderful! If he died at the hands of the Outer Gods, it would be letting him off far too easily!"

Seeing Isaac's somewhat ferocious expression, Gaia frowned. He put away the sapphire and said earnestly, "I am not telling you this because I want you to seek revenge. I will handle revenge myself. I only hope you will not let the Outer Gods twist your will, and that you will not become overly greedy for power!"

"Mm, I understand." Isaac nodded.

His answer came too quickly. Gaia knew Isaac had not taken it to heart. After giving it some thought, Gaia sighed. Better to guide the flood than dam it. He understood Isaac; Isaac would never give up because of this.

So he said, "He is at least a High Sorcerer. With your current strength, even if you found him, it would be useless. You would only be throwing your life away."

Isaac nodded. He understood that. He would not let rage cloud his judgment. After so many years, neither his father nor his Eldest Brother and Eldest Sister had managed to find the man. Either he was exceptionally skilled at hiding, or he was exceptionally powerful—perhaps even more than a High Sorcerer!

Perhaps he possessed both qualities...

But whichever it was, it was not something the current Isaac could afford to contend with. What mattered most now was steadily accumulating strength.

Moreover, compared with his father and the others, Isaac possessed one enormous advantage—the Mad Sorcerer Association!

Since the other party was a mad sorcerer, there was a nine-in-ten chance that he was in it as well. Even if he was not, Isaac could ask those within to help him search.

But not now. As he had said, Isaac was too weak.

"Ah... Be careful. I don't even know whether telling you this was the right thing to do..." Gaia sighed as he watched Isaac lower his head to study the notebook.

From a rational perspective, he should actually have kept this from Isaac for now. Isaac was a mad sorcerer as well and was very prone to going to extremes. If he did go to extremes, the consequences would truly be unimaginable...

Yet it would not have been right to say nothing, either.

After all, Isaac was already an adult. He had even become a supernatural being through his own power. He was no longer a child; he had the right to know these things.

"You may go. From now on, the family will allocate three thousand gold coins to you each month for spell research. If you need anything, ask the family freely. Do not do anything dangerous."

"Three thousand Gold Coins!" Isaac, who had been studying his notes, abruptly looked up at the number.

"I know it's a little low, but the family is having some difficulties right now. Make do with it for now. Once we get through this, I'll raise it to five thousand."

"Five thousand!" Hearing that it could still go up, Isaac's eyes widened round!

That was five thousand every month!

Was his family really this rich?

Isaac blinked. At that moment, he suddenly felt like someone who had lived through bitter hardship only to discover he was actually a second-generation rich kid...

Though to ordinary people, as someone born into nobility, he had always been a second-generation rich kid. No, a third-generation rich kid!

"I'll work hard!"

"...You may leave." Seeing Isaac's earnest expression, Gaia finally realized that his earlier cry had been because he'd offered too much...

"The family is richer than you think. You don't need to hold back so much." Gaia shook his head, somewhat speechless.

His three sons really were...

"Mm-hm!" After nodding heavily, Isaac left the room. Before long, he rode the Pumpkin Carriage back to the laboratory in the Mage Tower.

The instant he entered the laboratory, the smile vanished from Isaac's face. With a grim expression, he walked to his desk, picked up a notebook, and began reconsidering the path ahead.

Although Isaac's original plans had included improving his strength, that had only been incidental—a means of self-defense. As for his future path, his main focus had still been research.

But now, it seemed he needed to make some slight changes...

Thanks to Luojinyang Novel for the reward of five hundred Qidian Coins!