Bloodline Factor

After leaving the dining hall, Isaac returned straight to the laboratory and buried himself in designing modification plans for Gale Demon Wolves, Demonized Wild Boars, and Horned Rabbits. Each of the three had fairly obvious strengths and weaknesses.

Horned Rabbits were easy to breed in explosive numbers, giving them an absolute numerical advantage. Their drawback was that the individuals were too weak; against powerful opponents, they would be even more helpless, without even a chance to maneuver. Gale Demon Wolves were comparatively more balanced: they could bite at close range and launch wind blades from afar. Moreover, most of the magical creatures on the other side were Gale Demon Wolves, making conversion highly efficient.

As for Demonized Wild Boars, they had only one advantage: thick hides and tough flesh!

Once they charged as a herd, they were practically no different from heavy cavalry!

Their downside, however, was that their magic power was too low, and neither their speed nor their durability was quite enough.

Therefore, before they were officially sent onto the battlefield, they still needed to undergo a certain degree of modification. If that truly yielded no breakthrough, then they would simply be deployed as they were.

But the moment he got started, Isaac found himself at a loss...

It was only when he truly began designing magical creature modification plans for warfare that Isaac suddenly realized just how inadequate the Biological Modification techniques he had once been so proud of were...

When it came down to it, he only had two usable modification techniques at hand: heart replacement and blood replacement...

Their success rate was merely a little higher, that was all.

Those two techniques alone were nowhere near enough to support the design of a modification plan...

Fortunately, this was Cheryl's Mage Tower, with its abundant collection of books. Isaac could look up whatever books he needed at any time.

Most of the Mage Tower's collection belonged to Cheryl herself; only a small portion belonged to the Truth Association and could not be borrowed. However, those books were generally protected by spell seals, and without Cheryl's permission, no one could obtain them.

Of course, Isaac had no use for those books either. He only took several Spellbooks on Biological Modification, all of them solid theory with relatively few spells involved.

But that did not matter at all. In Isaac's eyes, this stuff was far more useful than specific arcane arts or sorcery.

And so, with those books in hand and diagrams of the three magical creatures' body structures for reference, Isaac once more immersed himself in the sea of knowledge. He even brought a book along to read during meals.

Fortunately, Isaac now ate alone in the new dining hall. Otherwise, if his father Gaia saw him, he would surely nag him a few times.

And what he gained from studying so tirelessly far surpassed Isaac's expectations.

He had previously thought that, in the field of biology, sorcerers aided by spells would have gone farther than his previous world—but he had never imagined they had gone this far!

So comprehensive!

After studying the Truth Association's major renowned theories during this period, Isaac discovered that sorcerers' Biological Modification techniques were actually incredibly advanced!

His heart-replacement and blood-replacement techniques had been obsolete centuries ago!

What was truly in vogue now was genetic modification!

Of course, in this world, the formal term for genes was Bloodline Factors.

By editing Bloodline Factors, one could optimize magical creatures in a more precise and comprehensive manner.

Besides optimizing magical creatures, one could also add new Bloodline Factors to them, making them even more perfect!

One paper from the Truth Association mentioned such a concept—the Perfect Organism.

It was a creature that existed only in theory. It perfectly gathered the strengths of every creature in the world and was capable of anything!

Yet it existed only as a theoretical construct; there was not even a process for bringing it into preliminary reality.

For one thing, different Bloodline Factors produced a certain degree of rejection. The more Bloodline Factors one fused, the stronger that rejection became, and the more likely the process was to fail. For another...

The theory of Bloodline Factors was not yet sufficiently developed. It could only affect First Order and Second Order magical creatures. Third Order beings—that is, High-level Demonic Creatures, just like humanity's High Sorcerers and High-level Knights—possessed Aspects.

And Aspects, most of the time, stood above bloodlines!

Only a small number of magical creatures possessed bloodlines that stood above certain Aspects—for example, dragons!

Dragons were among the rare magical creatures whose Bloodline Factors could not be interfered with, which was why dragon cultivation currently remained at the feeding stage.

Thus, a week later, with the Golden Finger's help as the perfect teacher, Isaac successfully gained a preliminary grasp of the Spellbooks on Biological Modification in Cheryl's Mage Tower.

There were actually only eleven books, because Cheryl herself was not skilled in Biological Modification. What she researched was Alchemy, and Alchemical Golems were her true specialty, so she did not have many biology-related books.

Even so, Isaac's learning speed still rather stunned Cheryl!

After all, this was self-study!

At least, in her eyes, Isaac was studying on his own.

Through self-study, he had gained a preliminary grasp of eleven Spellbooks in the field of Biological Modification in just one short week...

Such talent... it would truly be a pity if he did not become a Truth Wizard!

At that thought, Cheryl sighed, closed the research progress Isaac had made public, shook her head helplessly, and returned her attention to the manuscript before her, which recorded Rat Rat's data.

It would be of some help in her research into her own Aspect.

"Very good, Hamon. Get ready. We're conducting our first Bloodline Factor modification experiment!"

In the third-floor laboratory, Isaac wore a white lab coat and white gloves. A savage demon claw extended from the back of his head. With a scalpel and forceps in his hands, his eyes above the mask overflowed with excitement.

Before him lay a deeply sleeping Gale Demon Wolf. A young wolf really did sleep soundly.

"Hisss~"

Hamon swayed lightly, indicating that he was ready.

Isaac immediately stopped hesitating. Without even shaving the fur, he drew the scalpel directly across the demon wolf's body. Bloody wounds appeared one after another, and layers of the demon wolf's skin were peeled back.

Hamon gave a gentle sway, and an obscure ripple of magic settled over the Demon Wolf on the Operating Table, halting its rapidly draining life force.

Before long, Isaac had roughly cut open the Demon Wolf. It looked terrifying, but it was really nothing much. Though the Demon Wolf was now covered in wounds, with several cuts exposing bone, compared to when Rat Rat had undergone implantation of the Divine Spark Network, this was nothing more than a witch's tiny trick before a grand sorcery.

Isaac had managed to preserve Rat Rat's life even in such peril back then. A few wounds on a Demon Wolf were naturally no challenge at all.

After cutting open the Demon Wolf, Isaac set down the scalpel and took the forceps from Hamon. With painstaking care, he implanted strand after strand of blood filament into the Demon Wolf's body.

These blood filaments came in three types. One promoted the optimization of its own Bloodline Factors; another contained Bloodline Factors from other compatible wind-element Demonic Beasts; the last had no simple function at all—it was a cushion unique to Isaac's Golden Finger. Thanks to it, Isaac could stack the success rate all the way up to two hundred percent!

In other words, unless a fatal blunder occurred during the operation—such as his hand slipping and slicing open the heart—the operation was guaranteed to succeed!

Naturally, Isaac would not make such a low-level mistake. Soon, he had implanted all the blood filaments into the Demon Wolf's body and completely stitched up its wounds.

After casting several healing Magic Spells on it and thoroughly stabilizing its condition, Hamon placed the Demon Wolf into an iron cage. Then he knocked out a Horned Rabbit and laid it on the Operating Table...