Wind Blade, Get!

Isaac had only bought two of Hamon's enhancement rituals. In theory, there was no limit to the kinds of rituals that could empower a Magic Pet at each stage. As long as you had the money, you could add as many as you wanted.

The only catch was that these rituals had diminishing returns: the more you used, the less effective they became.

Although using every ritual available at this stage wouldn't make them completely ineffective, the cost-effectiveness would be terrible. The benefits of further enhancements would be negligible.

Isaac didn't rush to get started. Instead, he carefully studied the two rituals first. He had a hunch.

According to the brief descriptions in the catalog, Hamon could use one ritual three times and the other once at his current stage. The one he could use three times was the Hand of the Demonic Path, which could grant him some magical creatures' Innate Sorcery. The Hand of the Demon God, which he could use once, could enhance his mystical attribute at this stage.

Isaac wanted to see whether he could use his Golden Finger to overcome the limit. The Hand of the Demonic Path wasn't a big deal; a few extra low-level spells weren't worth much, since he could learn them himself. There was no need to waste money on them. Even a tiny bit of savings was still savings!

Overcoming the limit would make a much bigger difference with the Hand of the Demon God. If Hamon could have his mystical attribute enhanced infinitely, just how powerful would he be by the time Isaac became a High Sorcerer?

That was one of the reasons Isaac had bought the ritual in the first place.

Of course, even if he couldn't break the limit, the ritual would still be very useful.

Isaac wasn't the clueless newbie he'd been when he first became a Legendary Wizard. He'd now been a wizard for almost three months—practically a seasoned newbie!

He had gained a decent understanding of Legendary Wizards and Arcanists.

Arcanists might appear to have developed from Legendary Wizards, as though they were part of the same tradition, but they had actually taken a different path. They still pursued knowledge and turned it into power, but unlike Legendary Wizards, they had given up something: [Mystery]!

They would publish the knowledge they discovered so more people could learn it. Then, by bringing together talented minds and encouraging discussion and exchange, they would develop even deeper knowledge before repeating the process, drawing ever closer to [Truth].

In this process, they lost the power bestowed by [Mystery], but in return, they received the gifts of [Truth]!

The power they drew from [Truth] wasn't weakened in the slightest by the disappearance of [Mystery].

Legendary Wizards were different. Their power came from [Faith], not [Mystery], but it was still affected by [Mystery]. Long ago, most wizards had conducted their research alone, preserving their incomparable mystique.

But times had changed. Nowadays, the vast majority of sorcery was no longer mysterious, nor was it held by a single person. The only exception was High-level Incantations.

So, since they could no longer rely on the intrinsic mystery of spells, Legendary Wizards had developed another way to draw an amplification from [Mystery]: transferring [Mystery] onto themselves!

The more [Mystery] one possessed, the greater the enhancement to certain spells.

By now, quite a few high-level spells even required a certain degree of [Mystery] to learn.

So for Legendary Wizards, increasing their mystical attribute was always worth it.

"Ugh..."

A while later, Isaac let out a heavy sigh. No luck...

His Golden Finger could only affect the success rate of these two rituals.

After studying them, Isaac had realized that both rituals essentially drew out the potential of the Hand of God. They just did so in different ways. That was also why the more types of rituals you used, the less effective they became: most of the potential had already been tapped.

There wasn't much left to begin with, so naturally, not much more could be drawn out.

But potential was the sort of thing you could always squeeze a little more out of. So even if you used every ritual available at this stage, they would still have a tiny effect.

Most wealthy people couldn't afford to play around like that, let alone a pauper like Isaac.

"Ugh... time to get to work..."

Shaking his head, Isaac stood up and ambled over to another section of the laboratory, set aside specifically for conducting rituals. Hamon had already laid out all the ritual materials.

He'd even prepared the extra materials for boosting the success rate.

The first ritual would be the Hand of the Demonic Path. Isaac had prepared two targets for Hamon: the Gale Demon Wolf's Wind Blade, to shore up Hamon's rather poor offensive options, and the Phantom Butterfly's Phantom Pattern, to give him more control options.

Besides, Phantom Pattern could be enhanced by [Mystery], giving it tremendous potential.

Isaac decided to hold off on choosing a third target for now. There were definitely more spells he could obtain than just these, and the ritual was fairly simple to set up. He only had to make his choice before advancing to Archmage.

The extra materials for the Gale Demon Wolf were simple: wolf's blood for the wolf. They needed Flesh Essence from a Gale Demon Wolf, with each portion adding one percent. It was dirt cheap, and the fortress had no shortage of the stuff.

So Isaac didn't hold back. He pushed it straight to two hundred percent!

Once everything was ready, Isaac stepped into the center of the wave-shaped circular array. All sorts of bizarre magical materials were arranged around him: bloody intestines, dried monster fingers, broken scales, black wooden carvings shaped like hands, and more.

At the center of the array, right in front of Isaac, lay a Gale Demon Wolf's heart. Beneath it were several neat, square blocks of Flesh Essence.

A mysterious incantation issued from Isaac's mouth. A wave of mysterious magical energy rippled outward from him, and all the materials in the array began to glow faintly. Threads of magical light gathered in the wolf's heart before him. Under the influence of that strange energy, mysterious blue patterns began to emerge on its surface.

"Rip!"

Hamon burst out from behind Isaac's head and lunged impatiently at the wolf's heart. The saw-toothed maw in his palm snapped open and swallowed it whole. He chewed a couple of times, and scarlet blood trickled from the corners of his mouth.

"Slurp!"

A long purple-black tongue shot out and licked up every drop of blood at the corners of his mouth. Then his palm returned to normal.

Only its shape had returned to normal. In truth, after Hamon swallowed the wolf's heart, streaks of bloody magical energy began spreading from his palm along his entire arm. Everywhere they passed, his arm grew visibly bulkier.

Soon, the magical fluctuations in the laboratory gradually subsided, and Isaac stopped chanting. The corners of his mouth lifted slightly.

Another ritual complete. Another boost in power.

"Hamon!"

When the ritual was over, Isaac pointed at the target that had been set up in the spell-training area and gave a sharp command. Hamon's index finger flicked, and a Wind Blade shot out, slicing the target cleanly in two!

Wind Blade, get!

Thanks to Yeye for the 100-coin tip!

That name... sounds like it might be taking advantage of someone~