Job Advancement Ritual

There were many good things in the Shadow Alley Black Market, and the treasures in the various shops were dazzling.

But Suren had no intention of staying long.

The Black Market had its own rules of survival, and naturally, there were also "rats" living in the shadows. Before coming, Kai had specifically warned Suren about them. Some wandering gangs often lurked around the Black Market, and they loved robbing and murdering people for their goods. Even members of the three major gangs were not spared by those indiscriminate bastards.

He had just bought tens of thousands' worth of materials, openly flaunting his wealth.

To people from the Outer City, that was already enough wealth to inspire murder.

After leaving Rosen's Alchemy Shop, Suren passed a bookstore and casually picked up several introductory books on Alchemy: The Book of Secrets, Natural Things and Secret Things, and Basic Alchemical Knowledge.

In the Outer City, knowledge was expensive. Aside from antiques recovered by Wilderness Hunters, all books came from the Inner City. Texts related to Alchemy in particular were exorbitantly priced, true luxuries.

Although Suren had previously stripped some Alchemy knowledge from corpses, it was scattered and entirely unsystematic.

He even lacked much basic common knowledge.

He understood clearly that if he wanted to go further down the path of Alchemy, his need for knowledge would only grow.

Suren left the Black Market and took the steam train back to Green Street.

He wanted to find somewhere undisturbed to set up the Job Advancement Alchemy Array, only to discover that the gang had not arranged a place for him to stay.

They probably felt there was no need.

After all, for most gang members, taverns and brothels were home. Even if accommodations were arranged, those guys would not stay there more than a few days a month.

In the end, Suren found an inn.

Suren automatically shut out the decadent sounds reaching his ears and curled his lip. "This place is really filthy."

Looking around the room, he saw damp, crumbling walls. A grayish-white mattress lay on the crude iron bed, while the sheets bore stains that could have been blood or something else. Beneath the bed lay thick layers of old dust, cigarette butts, and hair.

A lingering musty stench constantly assaulted his nose.

But it did not matter. Suren had not come here to sleep.

As an ordinary gang member, as long as he was not an idiot, he would not draw attention by seeking out some extravagant hotel for the night. He only wanted somewhere undisturbed to set up the Conversion Ritual.

He pushed the bed aside, swept the space underneath clean, and cleared an open area roughly three meters in diameter.

Then he took out the Alchemy materials he had bought at the Black Market.

Using six White Crystals as anchor points, he arranged them into a hexagram. Then he mixed red copper powder and Lizard Powder in the proper proportions, using the powder as ink to draw a circular pattern before using Mercury Salt Liquid to paint an Ouroboros and a scale Symbol.

The Alchemy Conversion Array required for Job Advancement was the most basic kind of Alchemy Array. Its runes were simple, and the materials required were not complicated. As long as the designated materials and patterns were placed correctly, they would create a wondrous magical reaction.

Suren carefully arranged everything. More than half an hour later, he finally completed the Conversion Array.

"Even a slightly more advanced basic Alchemy Array costs tens of thousands. No wonder Old School spellcasting alchemists are so rare. It's purely a money-burning profession."

Suren felt a little emotional.

As he remembered it, ancient spellcasting alchemists needed to set up similar Alchemy Arrays every time they cast a spell, using them to convert elements.

Casting spells was essentially burning money all over again.

There was also a saying among alchemists: there was nothing in this world Alchemy could not accomplish; if there was, then it simply meant you had not burned enough money.

He did not dwell on the past. As long as he could become stronger, every sacrifice was worth it.

Suren took out the wooden box containing the Rune Anomaly Puppet and opened it without hesitation.

The most important thing needed to become a professional was the Job Advancement Material.

The essence of Job Advancement was to use a Conversion Ritual to merge and transfer the extraordinary characteristics within the material into the human body.

Various Job Advancement Materials were sold on the market as well, and they were not particularly expensive, costing around a hundred thousand Liso.

Such materials were generally Alchemical Items made by Wilderness Hunters after they hunted Demonic Beasts in Underground Chambers, extracted materials with cursed characteristics from their bodies, and processed them with specific magical patterns.

Suren now knew that the materials sold on the market were all Black Iron Materials.

But there were actually higher-quality Silver Materials.

However, Silver Quality Job Advancement Materials were controlled goods. They could almost only be found in major Inner City trading houses, and even there, they were rare. They were monopolized by great families and financial conglomerates.

They were almost the finest Job Advancement Materials Old Lindun's alchemists could produce.

But in truth, the best Job Advancement Materials were not Silver Materials, but Cursed Objects passed down from ancient times.

Those rare, chance-found items were known as Gold Materials.

Just like the Gold Quality Cursed Object Suren had obtained: the Rune Abomination Puppet.

Any Job Advancement Material that could endure the erosion of time was of extremely high quality. They were often left behind by the finest ancient alchemists and could awaken rare professions with special abilities.

For example, the Mystery-type Abomination Puppeteer.

"What a long-lost sense of anticipation."

Suren took out the Rune Anomaly Puppet, a flicker of excitement appearing on his face.

The Job Advancement ritual was not entirely without risk. Failure meant suffering backlash from the cursed characteristics within the Job Advancement Material and mutating into something twisted.

But Suren did not need to worry about that.

The All-Seeing Eye had identified that the magic array he had drawn could function normally, and that the compatibility between the Job Advancement Item and his body was high. There was no reason for failure.

He stood at the center of the Hexagram Array, placed the Abomination Puppet in the middle of the Ouroboros pattern, and began reciting an incantation. "Following the Law of Equivalent Exchange, I praise the glory of the Primal Creator and bear witness through Alchemy to the miracle of creation."

The incantation was simple. It was not like a mage's prayer to a deity for bestowed power, merely a short phrase resembling a maxim.

It was said that one did not actually need to recite it.

Saying it aloud merely made the ritual feel more ceremonial.

That was because alchemists did not worship any gods. In their eyes, even so-called deities were merely higher lifeforms that had grasped certain High-Level Laws. They too had to follow the principle of Equivalent Exchange.

If alchemists truly worshipped anything, it was only the Primal Creator, the origin that had created everything in the universe.

Suren did not let his guard down. He still followed every required step.

Just as expected, when the incantation ended, the Conversion Array lit up with a dazzling blue glow.

The six White Crystals gathered the magical energy of the entire array, growing brighter and brighter as that mysterious power became increasingly dense.

Suren remained calm as he watched the Puppet Doll on the ground seem to melt in the light, gradually merging into the Hexagram Array.

Then the soft glow wrapped around his body like vines, and visible particles of light darted into his skin.

That mysterious power gradually merged into his body.