Lava Troll Form

"Runes! Such profound, wondrous runes!"

Elemental motes traced out circuits of energy, linked end to end and operating in perfect harmony.

Eighteen spell forms activated and fused, scattering and converging like dominoes, radiating an indescribably strange beauty.

A damaged stone stele from over ten thousand years ago, stimulated by the Element-Revealing Potion, could shatter at any moment.

Robert Kava and Yin Ming did not hesitate for even a second. At once, they began memorizing the mysterious runes, determined to burn every detail into their minds.

"Crack!"

A crisp sound rang out!

The stele shattered along its cracks, turning into dozens of fragments, large and small.

The illusory rune projections formed from elemental energy lasted only thirty seconds.

The stone stele had completely crumbled. Not only had the hidden energy circuits dispersed, but even its original inscription could no longer be pieced back together.

"Whew..."

Robert Kava closed his eyes and recalled everything once.

Only after confirming that he had not missed a single rune did he let out a long breath of stale air.

"Did you memorize it?"

"No!"

"Did you memorize it?"

"Almost!"

Robert Kava and Yin Ming exchanged a glance.

Casually, he pressed down with force, grinding the final fragment of the stele into powder.

This way, even if the Eye of Omniscience descended in person, it would not be able to tell what had once been carved upon the stele.

"Dark! Truly dark! I wonder which poor fool owned that inscription?"

Yin Ming silently resolved that he absolutely could not fall behind in learning extraordinary language knowledge from now on.

Otherwise, asking someone to help decipher things would simply be paying money to hand a leak to someone else to pick up.

"A Zero-Ring Wizardry rune. Though it contains quite a few spell forms, at the end of the day, it is merely an apprentice-level wizardry rune. Why did it make Robert Kava, a council chairman, turn so black-hearted?"

Puzzled, Yin Ming strode out through the Ashen Gate and casually scooped up a handful of stone powder.

The rune's effects were unknown. For all he knew, it concealed a massive pitfall, like an Abyssal sacrificial rune—one misstep, and a person could simply be gone!

Better to wait and watch Robert Kava. If he was still alive a few months later, it would not be too late to study the stele's rune.

"Collect! Extract!"

Yin Ming stored the stone powder in the Scavenger Gourd, removed the stone components, and retained the residual potion that had not yet finished reacting.

[Name: Element-Revealing Potion.]

[Ingredients: Spirit-Eating Tree sap (magical plant), Soul Crystal fragments, Gold-Eroding Water...]

[Note: The wind leaves behind its sound; geese leave behind their tracks. A miraculous potion that makes illusory elements visible to the naked eye.]

[Extractable:...]

Compared to the rune, the stone powder was a tangible benefit he could see and touch.

In Yin Ming's eyes, the formula for the Element-Revealing Potion was no less valuable than the stele's rune.

"..."

In the blink of an eye, thirty days passed.

Yin Ming lived a stable, peaceful, monotonous two-point routine in the Flameburner Undercity.

Either he meditated and cultivated at his residence, or he read in the Scholars' Building. Occasionally, he went to the Association Exchange Building to provide Golden Sore Medicine in exchange for merit, purchasing Second-Ring Bloodline Potions, magical plant materials, and magical plant seeds.

"External Core—complete!"

Yin Ming suddenly opened his eyes. Three small metal spheres revolved across his palm like stars.

One of the metal pellets, after being refined day and night without rest, had finally developed a feeling of flesh-and-blood connection. It had transformed from a Primordial Elixir into an External Core.

"Bloodline Potion Version 2.0—Lava Troll King Potion."

Yin Ming took a supernatural potion from the Scavenger Gourd, crimson as blood and scorching hot.

The potion had been made by improving, optimizing, and combining a Blood-Fusing Potion and a Sorcerer Bloodline Potion through the Scavenger Gourd, turning them into a supernatural potion better suited for the External Core of the Seventy-Two Forms.

The difficulty of the improvement was not high!

The two potions had originally been split from a single potion.

The Blood-Fusing Potion served as material for the sorcerer pattern's "True Name Rune."

It was then slowly absorbed through medicinal baths to fuse with the bloodline. The purpose was to preserve the human body and weaken the impact of the supernatural bloodline, preventing one from losing wisdom and memories and degenerating into a bloodline-based supernatural creature.

An External Core!

Had none of those concerns at all.

Yin Ming simply fused the two potions into one, accomplishing everything in a single step. After further purifying the Lava Troll bloodline, he could create a supernatural-grade Bloodline Potion.

[Name: Bloodline Potion 2.0 (Supernatural).]

[Ingredients: Lava Troll essence blood: 32%, Blood Crystal of the Crimsonblood Vine: 32%, Gold-Eroding Water: 7%...]

[Note: When you gaze into the Abyss, the Abyss gazes into you. This potion can completely transform you into a juvenile Abyssal Lava Troll King. Review: You do not actually think the method of use is drinking it, do you?]

[Mutation: 99%.]

A knight's Life Essence was simply a stripped-down Zero-Ring Bloodline Potion for sorcerers.

Yin Ming finally understood why the mutation rate of the Quasit Bloodline Potion had never been able to break through ninety percent.

The materials were simply too poor. They did not even contain a trace of magical plant components. If the raw materials had not all been optimized by the Scavenger Gourd, they would not even have achieved the effect of fusing a bloodline.

Back then, if there had been even a single Blood Crystal of the Crimsonblood Vine, Red Nose would have possessed a Quasit King bloodline.

[...]

Using the Bloodline Potion as ink, Yin Ming traced the First-Ring totem secret pattern of a Lava Troll across the External Core's surface.

His hand was steady, his heart was steady. Every stroke was as meticulous as micro-carving, flawlessly drawing out the First-Ring True Name Rune.

The Gold-Eroding Water in the potion underwent a displacement reaction, leaving a vivid, flame-red, intricate First-Ring True Name Rune totem upon the surface of the External Core's refined gold material.

"Nine-Ring Wizardry: Seventy-Two Forms—Lava Troll Form."

Yin Ming infused it with spiritual power and magic power, and the totem patterns on the External Core began to glow.

When the first complete Zero-Ring rune lit up,

A transparent giant gradually took shape behind Yin Ming, wrapping his physical body within it and forming armor-like protection.

"Woooo..."

Black Abyssal aura coiled around it as surrounding elemental energy continuously gathered. The Lava Troll phantom gradually became clearer.

Its face was half-human, half-beast. Savage tusks jutted out like those of a wild boar, while a black rocky shell encased crimson lava. The blazing heat around its body transformed into wave after wave of heat.

"The first Dharma Form—complete!"

A smile appeared on Yin Ming's face.

Of the three Second-Ring supernatural creature bloodlines in his possession, Yin Ming was especially satisfied with the biological structure of the Lava Troll.

Its humanoid structure, its powerful and muscular upper body, and its beastly tusks and claws perfectly matched the form humans would evolve into for battle.

"Grab!"

Yin Ming continuously injected spiritual power and magic power, lighting up every First-Ring True Name Rune.

The Lava Troll phantom nearly condensed into substance, while spiritual power and magic power were consumed at a terrifying rate.

Not daring to delay even for an instant, he hurriedly controlled the Lava Troll and began testing its strength. It seized a huge iron ball nearby and suddenly exerted force.

"Crack, crack..."

With the Lava Troll's biomimetic structural model added in, the elemental body seemed filled with muscles, tendons, and bones. The strength of its entire body traveled through its frame, and the iron ball was like a lump of mud, easily squeezed into five finger marks.

The scorching temperature burned the iron ball red, even leaving signs that it was about to melt into molten iron.

"The elementally constructed Lava Troll Form rivals a genuine First-Ring sorcerer. And it can be used without drawing runes. Other than being a little ugly, it has no flaws."