Everything seemed to be getting better.
Ruger thought it over. Aside from the things he had not yet fully prepared and was still preparing, only the last item remained. Like the blood crystal, the scroll for the Ascension Ritual offered several options for this main material as well—items that could be substituted for one another.
The mutated backhide of an Evil-Mouthed Demon Fish.
Not ordinary backhide, but one that had undergone a mutation. According to that receptionist who looked both like a demon and a man, this fish was a fusion of a demon and an underground beast. It possessed a bizarrely huge mouth and a unique habit, more frenzied than any demon. Once it reached a certain age, its mouth would curl upward in reverse, and its temperament would gradually become violent. Ordinary Evil-Mouthed Demon Fish rarely lived to that age, to that moment of madness. By then, that grotesque giant mouth, grown to its limit, would devour the fish itself.
Someone had once said that it was a mouth gone out of control. It was an unusual wizard creation, while the true fish was merely a small patch upon its backhide. Thus, some Evil-Mouthed Demon Fish would mutate—the fish, or rather, that patch of backhide, wanted to escape. Perhaps all this had been induced by wizard experiments from long ago. In any case, it had left them with this strange habit and a state in which their backhide easily mutated. Once an Evil-Mouthed Demon Fish died, all that remained was its twisted, deformed black jawbone, like a beautiful work of art.
Since he had come to the Endless Sea, Ruger had naturally set his sights on this material. It also sounded like the most reliable option.
Of the remaining two choices, one required a demon's stomach sac.
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