Slight Improvement (Please Read On)

Richard pressed down on the Black Iron Beast's claw, and the Miracle Furnace within his soul instantly appraised it.

[Material: Black Iron Beast Foreclaw]

[Extractable Substance: Pure Black Iron Beast Bloodline]

[Extraction Cost: 100 mana]

[Consume?]

"Yes."

The Black Iron Beast's foreclaw instantly appeared inside the Miracle Furnace. Streams of mana were absorbed by the furnace and transformed into power for the extraction. In only a few seconds, a cluster of ruby-like blood, crystalline and wrapped in mana, appeared in Richard's hand.

As a widely practiced form of alchemy among wizards, Bloodline Alchemy could fuse the bloodline of another creature with an alchemist's own bloodline, ultimately granting certain abilities or strengthening one's physique.

And when carrying out Bloodline Alchemy, the purity of the bloodline was the most important factor.

If the blood used in Bloodline Alchemy was mixed with the bloodlines of other creatures, the final result would be far less ideal, perhaps even wildly different from what had been intended.

Placing the blood into a test tube, Richard took a bottle of dark black ink from a drawer.

According to the notes, Bloodline Alchemy required more than merely purifying a bloodline. Special ink was needed to draw an alchemical array over the heart. With the power of that array, Richard's body would turn the bloodline into a Bloodline Seed and bury it within his heart, where it could be activated when needed.

This was one of the most widely known paths of Bloodline Alchemy—the Bloodline Seed.

The greatest advantage of this path was that it caused relatively little change to one's form and made it easy to replace bloodlines. Its drawback was that maintaining the bloodline required mana.

Aside from this path, Bloodline Alchemy also had the stitching path, which directly transplanted organs and glands; the modification path, which altered and mutated one's own organs; and the Hybrid Path, the most popular among wizards, which directly fused bloodlines.

The notes had thoughtfully recorded the ink's formula, but after asking around, Richard discovered that ink for Bloodline Alchemy could now be bought directly from stores. Nor was it particularly expensive—one bottle cost only five Magic Stones.

After learning this, Richard could only sigh. The times were advancing, and technology was progressing.

Thanks to planar conquests, the number of bloodlines that could be fused had expanded tremendously. This allowed wizards of every school to find bloodlines suited to their own school and carry out Bloodline Alchemy.

The wizard who had died during the Wizard War likely could not have imagined even in his dreams that the Bloodline Alchemy he had researched would become such a common technique among wizards.

Holding a quill, Richard took off his shirt, found a mirror, and drew the array over his chest.

The alchemical array required for Bloodline Alchemy was fairly simple. Richard finished it in only ten minutes.

Once the preparations were complete, Richard took a deep breath and lay flat on the bed.

The alchemical array gave off a dim blue glow under the influence of mana. Richard poured the blood from the test tube into the center of the array. The next second, a sensation like being branded by a red-hot iron surged from his chest. Scalding blood pumped from his heart and rushed through his veins to every part of his body.

"Urgh!"

Richard clenched his teeth and struggled to remain conscious.

He had to ensure that mana continuously flowed into the alchemical array.

He did not know how long passed before the burning sensation in his chest finally faded.

His body went slack, and he collapsed onto the bed like a heap of mud. Every stitch of clothing on him was soaked through with sweat.

"This thing is practically torture."

After resting for a while and catching his breath, Richard climbed out of bed, casually stripped off his clothes, and prepared to take a bath.

Rip.

A tearing sound rang out.

Richard stared at his torn trousers, confusion in his eyes.

He had not even used any force.

He carefully tugged at the trousers again, only to see the once-sturdy fabric tear apart as easily as paper.

Richard finally understood.

He had become stronger.

Carefully taking off his trousers, Richard began testing his body.

He threw a punch, and a muffled boom instantly rang through the air. Then he gave a light jump, and his head easily touched the ceiling.

"The notes said the first stage of Bloodline Alchemy would slightly improve my physique..."

As he spoke, Richard turned and lifted the large bed behind him. It weighed at least several hundred pounds, yet it only felt slightly heavy.

"Wizards call this a slight improvement to one's physique?"

Richard set the bed down, at a loss for words.

He had expected a wizard's definition of slight to differ somewhat from his own, but now it seemed that the gap between wizards and apprentices was greater than that between heaven and earth.

After getting used to his current body, Richard began breathing according to the Breathing Method in the notes. Every type of Bloodline Alchemy came with a corresponding Breathing Method. Besides briefly enhancing combat strength, its most important function was to stimulate the body and awaken the bloodline.

According to the notes, he should now possess a layer of slightly protective scales.

Exhale—inhale—exhale—inhale...

After following the rhythm for several seconds, Richard felt a scorching current surge from his heart and spread through his entire body in an instant. At the same time, an itching sensation rose from every part of his body.

Richard looked down and saw black scales with a metallic sheen piercing out from beneath his skin, one after another. They looked exactly like those of the Black Iron Beast.

Richard found a dagger and carefully stabbed himself twice. The dagger, which had once sliced through iron like mud, now required considerable force just to pierce the scales on his body.

"Heh, slightly protective."

Richard put away the dagger. Once infused with mana, this dagger could pierce even plate armor, yet now it took effort merely to penetrate his scales.

In other words, he was now wearing armor even stronger than plate armor.

With black scales and the Force Field Barrier of his wizard robe, such protection would absolutely rank among the best of the new apprentices.

"Even if I faced that demon sheep head-on now, I could probably defeat it with ease."

The black scales rose and fell like flowing water as his muscles contracted and stretched, radiating an eerie charm beneath the light.

"How beautiful." Richard looked at himself and sighed narcissistically.

But before long, a hair-raising hunger suddenly surged from within him.

"Oh no. Bloodline Alchemy drained all my mana. Using the bloodline now is consuming my life energy."

Richard hurriedly put the bloodline to sleep. The black scales began receding from the ends of his limbs, eventually withdrawing to his chest and becoming a black brand.

And once the bloodline receded, a wave of weakness immediately washed over him.

Richard staggered to the table, grabbed a Nutrient Potion left over from the entrance examination, and gulped it down.

One bottle was not enough. Then another. Only after chugging three bottles in a row did that hair-raising hunger finally subside.

Walking into the washroom, Richard looked at his gaunt reflection in the mirror and thought that all the weight he had put on over the past while had been for nothing.

"The consumption of this Bloodline Alchemy is far too terrifying. Unless it's absolutely necessary, I must never use it when my mana is exhausted," Richard concluded.

After washing away the blood stains caused by the scales growing from his body, Richard changed into a fresh set of clothes.

Three months had already passed. It was time to collect those hundred Magic Stones.