Dragon Vein Alchemy

It was hard to imagine that Alchemy, a system so rational and objective in principle, could become so... subjective in this world.

The higher one's standards for perfection, the harder perfection became to achieve... Well, that counted as getting what one paid for.

As for changing his own definition of perfection to lower the threshold for the Philosopher's Stone, setting aside the fact that self-deception would be useless, it would be nearly impossible for Manus to fool himself...

A Philosopher's Stone that did not fit Manus's current definition of perfection would be of no practical significance to him even if he managed to create it.

Only a true Philosopher's Stone could push Manus's Black Earth Technique to its limit, though by then, his Black Earth Technique should already have reached its limit. Otherwise, he could not achieve perfection.

It was simply a cycle...

Hm? A cycle?

"Perfection, purity... infinity?"

The symbol "∞" suddenly appeared in Manus's mind—not merely the simple symbol itself, but an Ouroboros twisted into the shape of "∞."

Destroying itself while giving birth to itself, it was a finite individual and an infinite cycle... This symbol could also be called perfect, because it required no nourishment from the outside world.

The Ouroboros itself was a perfect whole, a world.

As above, so below.

A thought surfaced in Manus's mind.

Since Alchemy in this world also benefited from all sorts of bonuses, then perhaps it could be enhanced through techniques and methods beyond Alchemy itself?

For example, traits created by concepts and collective recognition.

No matter how Nicolas believed perfection could be achieved, the fact that his Philosopher's Stone could indeed turn stone into gold and produce the Elixir of Life showed that his version of perfection was not so easily attained either.

It was not that Manus