Second Bloodline Alchemy (Please Keep Reading)

Thanks to the timely discovery by the Overseers and Alex's mediation, Joseph's incident did not cause much of an impact. Only a small number of Wizards knew why Joseph had vanished.

At Gerald's suggestion, Richard moved into the Fifty-Sixth Floor of the Central Black Tower afterward and became Jacques's neighbor.

This Curse had greatly affected Richard. Before this, he had always been fixated on studying and exploring knowledge, never in a hurry to improve his own strength.

Aside from knowledge itself being strength, his habit of keeping a low profile and rarely leaving home had also made him feel safe.

But Joseph had shattered that sense of security.

"Intermediate Meditation Method, priced at two hundred thousand Academy Coins."

Inside the Spell Shop, the clerk puppet mechanically announced the price of the item.

"Here's the money."

Richard handed a large bundle of Academy Coins to the clerk puppet.

As Richard's spiritual power gradually increased, the Novice Meditation Method's effects had become weaker and weaker. Before Joseph's Curse, Richard had not felt much about this pace.

The Academy's Bloody Exam was still far away. Six or seven years was enough for Richard to advance to an Intermediate Apprentice using the Novice Meditation Method. Richard had also preferred to use Magic Stones to exchange for knowledge from Gerald.

For Wizards, knowledge was the greatest strength. So long as there was not too vast a gap in spiritual power, it did not make much difference.

But now, Richard had changed his mind.

Strength was important in the end.

The Intermediate Meditation Method was several times more effective than the Novice Meditation Method. With its help, Richard could raise his spiritual power to thirty points within three years.

The Pneumatic Tube delivered the scroll. Richard put it away and headed to the Commercial District to purchase materials.

It was time to put the second Bloodline Alchemy on the agenda.

"Two-Headed Troll Bloodline, five hundred Magic Stones. Thank you for your patronage."

Two-Headed Trolls were humanoid creatures that lived on the Eastern Plains of the Wizard World. These creatures possessed tremendous strength and regenerative abilities. According to Wizard records, an adult Pureblood Two-Headed Troll's regenerative ability was so terrifying that even if it were cleaved in two with a single slash, both halves could regenerate into complete bodies.

Richard looked at the bottle containing the bloodline. Inside the glass bottle, the Two-Headed Troll's blood clung ceaselessly to the bottle walls as if it were alive, trying to escape its cage.

"Such vigorous Life Force. If I refined you into pure blood, wouldn't you soar straight into the heavens?"

The Two-Headed Troll race possessed strong reproductive abilities and had produced subspecies trolls with many creatures. When these trolls bred with pureblood trolls, they could also produce Two-Headed Trolls. These mixed-blood Two-Headed Trolls looked exactly like ordinary Two-Headed Trolls, and even their regenerative abilities were not far off. This meant that most Two-Headed Troll bloodlines on the market contained bloodline impurities from other creatures.

But this was not a problem for Richard.

Taking the bloodline back to the Black Tower, Richard began preparing the tools for Bloodline Alchemy.

The second Bloodline Alchemy would not be as crude as the first, where an Alchemy Array and bloodline were enough to get the job done. This time, he needed a Mana Conductor Container large enough to hold his body, as well as specially prepared Alchemy Potions to assist with the Bloodline Alchemy.

The container was easy enough to solve. Gerald's tools for creating Chimeras included something similar.

But when he followed Jacques to Gerald's warehouse, he was still stunned by what lay before him.

"Isn't this a coffin?" Richard could not help but complain.

Before Richard stood a coffin made of dark crystal. Its walls were covered in Runes. At first glance, one might have thought it was a container used to seal some monster.

"You said you wanted the best Incubation Pod," Jacques said, suppressing a laugh. "This is Master's finest Incubation Pod. Using it for your Bloodline Alchemy is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut."

Richard could not help shaking his head. Then, resigned to his fate, he carried the crystal coffin back to his room.

Richard was a pragmatist. Strange-looking was strange-looking. As long as it worked well, that was enough.

Back in his room, Richard began drawing the Alchemy Array across his body. The Alchemy Array for the second Bloodline Alchemy was extremely complicated. It took him an entire afternoon, and two failures, before he finally completed it.

Once the drawing was complete, Richard took the Two-Headed Troll's blood into his hand.

[Material: Two-Headed Troll Blood]

[Refinable Substance: Pureblood Two-Headed Troll Blood]

[Refinement Cost: 150 Mana]

[Refine?]

"Yes."

After Richard made his choice, the blood in the bottle vanished instantly, and some of the Mana within his body disappeared as well. Yet only moments later, a mass of bright-red blood, so brimming with vitality that it seemed like a living creature, appeared in Richard's hand.

After putting away the blood, Richard began filling the crystal coffin with Alchemy Solvent. It was a pale green liquid that seemed to have the texture of jelly.

Throughout the Bloodline Alchemy process, this pale green liquid would supply his body with nutrients and Life Force. Once the liquid had been filled in, Richard placed another twenty Magic Stones into slots along both sides of the crystal coffin.

With everything ready, Richard lay down in the liquid. He wrapped the Two-Headed Troll's blood in Mana and guided it to his heart. Then he closed the coffin lid and poured Mana into the Alchemy Array, beginning the bloodline fusion.

In an instant, an extraordinarily clear heartbeat rang in Richard's ears. Blood like molten lava pumped from his heart and flowed through every corner of his body. Under the effect of this blood, every strand of muscle in his body trembled without stop.

Tearing apart, recovering, tearing apart, recovering...

An indescribable soreness surged from every corner of his body. If pain were ranked from one, the weakest, to ten, the strongest, then this feeling was like π. It hurt, yet not enough to be truly unbearable, and it went on without end.

After an unknown amount of time, the soreness began to weaken. This meant his body had begun adapting to the Two-Headed Troll bloodline.

Richard also passed out.

If someone had opened the crystal coffin at that moment, they would have discovered that the pale green liquid within was gradually turning transparent, while Richard's body was becoming visibly more muscular.

Richard's physique also continued to increase during this time.

Twenty-four, twenty-five... twenty-eight, twenty-nine...

No one knew how much time had passed before Richard finally woke from his slumber.

Rumble, rumble, rumble.

Richard opened the coffin lid and climbed out. The once pale green liquid inside had already turned transparent, and the Magic Stones he had placed along both sides of the coffin had been completely used up.

"How long did I sleep?"

Richard shook his head and carefully went to the washroom to clean the potion residue from his body before changing into a new set of clothes.

With the lesson from last time, Richard knew that his physique must have improved greatly.

Looking at the clothes stretched tight by his swollen muscles, Richard scratched his head.

"A little small."

After heading out to find Jacques, Richard learned that he had slept for an entire month during this Bloodline Alchemy.

"Junior Brother, this formula of yours is pretty good. You already look this strong after just your second alchemy." Jacques patted Richard's bulging muscles and could not help praising him.

Back then, he had even suggested that Richard cleanse his bloodline and switch to Gerald's school formula. But now that he looked at it, Richard's own alchemy formula seemed to work even better.

"It's all right. This formula mainly increases strength and regenerative ability the second time around."

Jacques found a Crystal Ball for Richard to test his current physique. Richard was astonished to discover that his physique had risen from twenty-three to twenty-nine point nine, just a little short of triggering the feedback effect.

Looking at the data, Richard said regretfully, "I was just a little short. If I could trigger the feedback effect, it would save me so much meditation time."

"Don't dream of that good fortune, Junior Brother." Jacques smiled as he put away the Crystal Ball. "That tiny bit may seem small, but breaking through it is a chasm between heaven and earth. So many masters who study physique prepare all kinds of secret medicines and risk life and limb on the battlefield, all just to break through that layer of physique bottleneck.

"The Meditation Methods we use may be slow, but before becoming Wizards, they do not have a single bottleneck."

"Sigh, true enough." Richard sighed. If physique improved faster than meditation, then the mainstream among Wizards would be Bloodline Wizards, not Shaping Wizards who controlled energy with spiritual power.

"By the way, Senior Brother, I have a small favor I need your help with." Richard stopped Jacques, who was about to return the Crystal Ball, a sheepish smile appearing on his face.

Jacques looked at Richard suspiciously. Something was off—very, even nine parts out of ten, off.

"What do you need help with?"

"Well... I want to use your Chimera to help me get used to my body."

Thanks to reader 9709 for the Monthly tickets.