Local Specialties of the Wizarding World

After finding the God of Black Orcs' Sacrifice Ritual, Isaac first estimated the materials required.

The true base success rate, like the other two, was one percent. However, the God of Black Orcs' offering material was relatively easy to obtain: one black orc could raise it by roughly one percent, though the increase varied according to the individual's quality.

A tenfold success rate meant a thousand black orcs...

That was a bit much, but fortunately ordinary black orcs could serve as sacrifices too. Black orc warriors worked better, so roughly five or six hundred would be enough to fill the quota.

Mm, five or six hundred black orcs was still a little too many, especially since they had to be alive.

But that had nothing to do with Isaac. It was something Eldest Brother and the others needed to consider.

Yet this was still the simplest of the three. Khorne's offering material was the Blood of Battle. Only the blood of warriors who died immersed in frenzied combat could increase the success rate. One warrior could provide ten portions of Blood of Battle, and at least three hundred portions were needed to stack it up to a thousand!

That would not be easy to find. But the most difficult was undoubtedly the Dream Fairy. Its offering material was the mingled fluids left after a virgin man and virgin woman coupled...

A full thousand portions were needed!

That was rather perverse...

And difficult to gather, too.

Still, the latter two could be collected slowly. There was no need to rush.

After listing the required materials and handing the list to Eldest Sister, Isaac once more immersed himself in his research. Once Hamon's enhancement was complete, his research into Flesh Conversion had made tremendous progress.

He expected to finish the new optimization soon. When that time came, his fighting methods would become even more varied. Everything was steadily improving.

Meanwhile, Caesar and the others fell into deep thought upon receiving the list, especially over those several hundred black orcs...

"Why does offering sacrifices to Him require so many black orcs? Isn't He the god of black orcs?" In the Lord's Mansion, Gaia, Caesar, and Cheryl stared at the list Isaac had drawn up on the table, their faces full of confusion. Caesar asked Cheryl puzzledly.

At that, Gaia looked at Cheryl as well. Though he outranked his daughter and was the territory's sole High-level Knight, he still could not compare to Cheryl in terms of knowledge.

Yet even Cheryl, after studying the list for quite some time, could not figure out why live black orc sacrifices were needed...

There were actually quite a few who made sacrifices to the God of Black Orcs—spellcasters and ordinary people alike—but the most numerous were the black orcs of the wilderness. Yet regardless of which group it was, she had never heard of anyone using black orcs as living sacrifices...

But she trusted Isaac's professional capability as a Legendary Wizard. Since Isaac had said so, then that was what they would do.

"I don't know either, but let's trust Third Brother... Several hundred black orcs... Since the number is so vague, prepare one thousand black orcs. By warrior standards!" Cheryl pondered the list for a moment, then raised her head to look at Gaia and Caesar.

"Mm. Then I'll leave this to you. Gather them as quickly as possible!" Gaia looked at Caesar and patted him on the shoulder.

"I'll lead the team myself!" Caesar nodded and decisively turned to leave.

The number was somewhat large. They had to handle it quickly; they did not have much time left.

After Caesar left, Gaia said to Cheryl, "Besides capturing them ourselves, ask Remy on your end as well. See whether he has any stock."

"Alright." Cheryl nodded, transforming into a streak of arcane radiance and vanishing from the room.

"Isaac..."

In the room, Gaia took a painting from a drawer and looked at the beautiful woman within it with complicated emotions... She was Isaac and the others' mother. She had unfortunately died while giving birth to Isaac. Her final wish before dying had been for Isaac to live out his life safely and peacefully...

Thus, when he had learned that Isaac possessed no talent for arcane arts, though disappointed, he had in fact felt a trace of relief. Isaac's body might not have been able to fully recover, but at least he could live out his life steadily under Gaia's protection.

Yet no one had expected Isaac's talent to be so outstanding that, using only the miscellaneous things he had collected himself, he would become a Legendary Wizard...

And make things this big, at that...

"Ah..."

As his thoughts piled ever higher, countless worries finally became a melancholy sigh. Gaia put away the painting, swiftly adjusted himself, and returned to his work.

Though the black orcs had only begun to converge and still had quite a distance to travel before reaching the fortress, that did not mean they could only sit around waiting during this time. While preparing supplies for the war, they also needed to send cavalry units to continuously harass the black orc army.

They would disrupt their march while gathering intelligence along the way.

When it came to intelligence, naturally, the more the better.

Thus, the cavalry units sent out for Hunting were extremely important and required considerable strength. At present, there were two candidates: Remington and Black Snake Barry.

The former needed to atone for the mistakes he had made during this period and strive for leniency. The latter needed to accumulate merit in exchange for secret arts and secret medicine to break through to High-level Knight. Both were peak Great Knights, each with a powerful cavalry unit under his command. They were the best possible choices for operations outside.

After thinking it over briefly, Gaia chose Black Snake Barry. First, he had already decided to give Barry the secret arts and secret medicine, so he needed to give him an opportunity to earn merit and then award them to him openly and properly. Second, Gaia did not trust Remington now, nor did he dare trust Remington.

Who knew whether Remington had truly come to his senses?

What if he was merely pretending to admit his mistakes while secretly still plotting to collude with the black orcs?

Once certain seeds were planted, they were not so easily dug out—whether seeds of desire or seeds of suspicion.

Besides, lenient treatment?

The fact that he had not cut Remington down with a single stroke on the spot was already lenient treatment!

Gaia merely wanted to save face, so when Isaac pleaded for him earlier, he had gone with the flow. That did not mean Remington would not be dealt with; it would simply wait until after the war was over.

And so, time swiftly passed once more amid Isaac's research. In the blink of an eye, three days had gone by.

For Isaac, these three days had been immensely fulfilling. Every day of research brought fresh discoveries, all of his research projects progressed steadily, and even Rat Rat's Divine Spark had advanced considerably. It had already reached the point where a second divine spell could be inscribed.

However, he had not yet decided what divine spell to form. The divine spells in the Manuscript were all too basic, their effects utterly ordinary. He was trying to turn spells into divine spells, but this path was far more difficult than his Flesh Conversion optimization research.

Three days had passed so far, and he did not have the slightest clue.

For the fortress soldiers, these three days had also been full, busy, and hellish!

First came the most normal thing: cartload after cartload of Black Orc slaves being brought in by the Eldest Young Master and Eldest Young Lady, almost all of them Black Orc warriors!

Quasi-Knights!

The sight made everyone's hearts pound in terror!

That was already one-fifth of the fortress's current military strength!

If so many Black Orcs mutinied inside the fortress, the consequences...

The thought alone sent chills down their spines!

Honestly, if the ones escorting the Black Orc slaves had not been the Eldest Young Master or Eldest Young Lady, they would definitely have thought there was a traitor in the fortress!

Yet this heavyweight among heavyweights, which would normally have caused such an uproar, was now the easiest thing to accept in Solomon Fortress...

There were two other even heavier heavyweights within the fortress!

One was the Flesh Nest Isaac had set up in a corner of the fortress. As the fortress continuously fed Demonized Flesh into it, the magical power contained within had reached an utterly astonishing level!

Walking near it, one could often hear a dense chorus of heartbeats!

Not to mention its profoundly abstract appearance!

A gigantic blood-red heart, covered in densely packed fleshy tumors—just looking at it made one feel as though their mind was about to break!

The other was the newly appeared snake den in another corner of the fortress, built by the newly arrived Witch, Snake Woman. The snake den was not as bizarrely abstract as the Flesh Nest, but it was filled with densely packed, brightly colored snakes!

Every hour, snake women could be seen crawling out of it!

That was what terrified the fortress soldiers the most!

Although these snake women all had incredibly stunning figures, and not a stitch on their bodies, not a single soldier felt the slightest lecherous thought when facing them.

Because the lower halves of these snake women were human!

Even if they stripped naked, only a god could get it up!

What was more, these snake women only appeared briefly for a few minutes before turning back into heaps of brightly colored snakes and slithering into the snake den again.

In short, this year's fortress was especially terrifying...

"Rip!"

While the soldiers lived in a hell of misery and suffering, Isaac in the Mage Tower was cheerfully conducting an experiment. The increasingly demonic and terrifying Hamon emerged from the back of Isaac's neck, spread his five fingers, and a mysterious ripple of magical power appeared alongside purple radiance.

Beneath the purple glow, the Demon Wolf before Isaac could not help closing its eyes.

The next moment...

"Gurgle, gurgle~"

The sound of flesh writhing rang out. Startled by the intense pain erupting from within its body, the Demon Wolf snapped its eyes open and turned to look at the small bulge of flesh beneath its neck, its eyes filled with terror!

Then... the lump of flesh slowly grew larger...

"Pfft!"

A bloody wolf's head burst out from within!

As soon as the new wolf head appeared, it let out a mad, low growl, then bit down on the Demon Wolf's neck!

"Pfft!"

Its throat was bitten through in an instant, and blood splattered everywhere once more!

Under the purple radiance, the two pairs of eyes of the two-headed Demon Wolf slowly lost their light...

Immediately afterward, the Demon Wolf's corpse writhed, and several ferocious Demonic Rats burrowed out from its body!

"Hisss!!"

With the experiment over, Hamon excitedly rubbed Isaac's face with the back of his hand, as if asking for praise.

"Mm-hm, mm-hm, mm-hm, you're the best! Hamon is amazing!"

The experiment had succeeded, and Isaac was just as excited. Stroking Demon Claw Hamon, he could not suppress the smile at the corners of his lips no matter what.

Not far away, Rat Rat was sprawled over a primer. Seeing Isaac standing amid shredded corpses, covered in splattered blood, Rat Rat tilted his head, curled up the corners of his mouth, and began smiling too.

Though Rat Rat had no idea what was happening, smiling had to be the right move.

The master was smiling, after all. It had to be a good thing.

Cheryl: "..."

When Cheryl entered the laboratory, this was the absurd scene she saw...

Looking at Isaac standing amid chunks of flesh with a gentle smile on his face, she suddenly understood why people said Legendary Wizards were all madmen...

In an environment like this, if they were not mad, who would be?

There were also many Arcanists who studied Biological Modification, but compared to Isaac, they were truly dwarfed before a giant...

"Ahem~" After a moment of silence, Cheryl lightly coughed and said, "The thousand Black Orc warriors are ready. What about your side?"

"So soon?" Isaac turned around and looked at Cheryl in surprise. "Hm? A thousand black orc warriors? If they're all warriors, we won't need that many."

"Caesar went out and captured some, but mostly we got lucky. A slave trader happened to have a batch of black orc warriors, so we bought them outright," Cheryl explained.

Isaac nodded in understanding.

He knew about slave traders. In fact, before becoming a wizard, when he had been researching the Demonic Heart Transplant Surgery, he had considered buying slaves for modification. It would let him practice, increase his combat strength, and help him further adapt to the Wizarding World.

But plans could never keep up with change. The Innate Sorcery he awakened was simply too well suited for it, making the research of Heart Replacement Rats a more cost-effective endeavor. So he had gradually stopped paying attention to buying slaves.

Who would have thought that after all those twists and turns, he would end up reconnecting with his original idea?

Even if they were black orcs, even if they were meant for sacrifice...

"Alright, I understand. I'll go set up the magic circle first. There are a lot of them, so the circle needs to be larger. And we won't need a thousand. If they're all black orc warriors, five or six hundred should be about enough. Any more would be unsuitable. I'll make adjustments later."

As he spoke, Isaac took off the white coat splattered with filthy blood, changed into a Wizard Robe, put on a Wizard Hat, and headed outside.

"Mm. We've already cleared out a space for you. It's at the third training ground, and the other materials are ready as well." With that, a flash of arcane radiance passed, and Cheryl left the laboratory.

Although the Tower Spirit cleaned the laboratory spotlessly every day, the countless bloody experiments still caused strange changes to occur on this floor. Staying there made her uncomfortable.

Isaac shrugged helplessly at the sight, long accustomed to it. This was perfectly normal. Bloodstains could be cleaned away, but traces of rituals were difficult to erase—and there was no need to erase them anyway.

To a Legendary Wizard, such changes were positive, much like a Potion cauldron. Like wine, the older it grew, the richer its fragrance!

Of course, that was only if the wizard conducting the experiments remained alive. Otherwise, once they lost his restraint, the power of those rituals would swiftly mutate into bizarre otherworldly lifeforms that would devour other living beings without restraint!

But what did any of that have to do with Isaac?

If something like that really happened, he would already be dead. Why would he care about so much then?

In a sense, the changes in the laboratory were the result of Isaac's deliberate guidance. At worst, when he left, he could take the entire floor of the laboratory with him. What older sister would let her little brother go home empty-handed? Wouldn't she have to bring back some local specialties?

A wizard's local specialty being an entire floor of a Mage Tower was perfectly reasonable, wasn't it?

"Not going to make any more preparations?"

At the third training ground, Caesar watched Isaac begin arranging the ritual and asked worriedly.

"No need. We'll settle this quickly. A mere God of Black Orcs? Watch me put Him in the palm of my hand!"