However, the pinnacle of the source bloodline was also the end of their Adept path.
When Adept with a Fifth Grade Bloodline finally became a Fifth Grade Adept, he would be forced to face the fact that the road ahead of him was completely cut off. He would never be able to proceed further after reaching Fifth Grade.
This was the saddest thing about these Bloodline Adepts!
Once they chose to walk this path, and picked a wrong bloodline, the chances of them reaching the top of this World of Adepts was forever lost.
Chapter 30
Since the path of Bloodline Adept was so tough to get into, and the fact that, though they could grow quickly, their growth was limited from the start, Greem decided to eliminate this possibility.
So, all he had left in front of him was to become a Principle Adept or a Profound Adept.
Between these two choices, Greem strongly preferred Principle Adept. Whenever he envisioned those powerful Elementium spells that were capable of such vast destruction, and the bizarre and frightening curse spells, Greem wished for that power, and really wanted to master some incredible spells.
But, the path of Principle Adept was also the hardest, as it was without any short-cuts. In order to climb up to the top rungs of the Adept hierarchy, a Principle Adept had to take one step at a time, diligently improved their elemental affinity, and then mastering any related Elementium spells. Then they had to have a strong understanding of the core Plane Principles. Only when he became the master of a principle could he proudly announce that he was a Principle Adept.
This was, usually, something that could be achieved after reaching the Seventh Grade.
If he didn’t have the Chip, Greem wouldn’t ever choose this path. Because, if he did, that also meant he had to spend a huge amount of time meditating and improving his elemental affinity. In fact, in order to make oneself have a better elemental affinity, many Adepts would try their best to replace their body with the Elementium that they had the highest affinity for, even if that would eventually transform them into an Elementium life form.
Analyzing from all aspects, no doubt the path of Principle Adept was an obvious choice for any Adept, as it was the path that had the highest possibility of reaching the pinnacle of the Adept world. So, with the plan laid out by the Chip, Greem felt this was the best path for him.
However, before he became truly strong, Greem would have to find ways to compensate, as he was currently weak, or else, how could he make his way out of the intense and brutal competition among Apprentices?
So, after decided he would make Principle Adept his primary path, Greem also planned to learn some of the skills of Profound Adepts to support the slow growth of his primary path. And, no doubt the ‘Golem Creation Manual’ he obtained before was one such Profound Adept method that could help improve his current fighting ability.
“Chip, what’s the progress of organizing the data of the ‘Golem Creation Manual’?”
*Beep* “The copying of magic spell book ‘Golem Creation Manual’ had been completed… the data has been optimized, and useless content has been removed. The list of suitable golems has been constructed…”
Greem’s eyes instantly brightened when he heard the message.
“Send me all the data!”
*Beep*… A stream of data was immediately transferred over. Closing his eyes, he silently looked over the additional magic knowledge that suddenly popped up in his mind.
Strictly speaking, it was a list of items.
……
……
It had, previously, been a long list, but after the Chip removed those golems that were beyond Greem’s current abilities, and other useless content, all that was left were these two elementary golems, which had been repeatedly optimized.
Yes, the Chip recommended a Golem, rather than a Titan.
Comparing their fighting ability, no doubt a Titan, who had a fixed body, was stronger than a Golem, which was more like a summon. But, with the lackluster resources that Greem currently possessed, perhaps it was not realistic to hope he could gather enough resource to create a Titan.
Take the most basic Clay Titan as an example.
An eight foot tall, six hundred pound Clay Titan was made entirely of soft clay. This took no account of the crafting cost in building it. Just the soft clay alone would cost him nine thousand gold coins. For everything he would need to make one Clay Titan, the basic price was twenty-one thousand gold coins.
Compared to that, the Golem suggested by the Chip was way cheaper, as the only required raw material was an Advanced Apprentice level demon core. Although it required a lot of magic knowledge in order to successfully create one, the total cost was around seven thousand gold coins.
By his calculations, Greem would be able to save up that much money, which was a huge relief to him.
Greem couldn’t create an Acid Golem now, because he lacked a suitable Water Elementium Demon Core. But the Clay Golem was a perfect choice, as he just obtained the head of an Earth Elementium demon, which would be a perfect core for the Clay Golem.
When he thought of that, Greem quickly walked to the wooden rack in the corner of his room.
A large glass jar was placed on top of a wooden tray. It was covered with a black cloth so that no one could see what was inside.
Greem gently lifted the black cloth, leaned forward, and quietly stared at Sinbad’s head, which was soaking in a yellowish liquid. Perhaps noticing Greem’s glance, some indistinct twitching movements could be seen on Sinbad’s face, and he felt the weak soul was begging for mercy.
A strong smell, similar to formaldehyde, was lingering near the jar.
Scientifically speaking, the Ghost Nanny was not considered an immortal creature, so their organs had to be carefully stored away after being taken from their body, or else the usable value would quickly diminish. Although Sinbad’s head had not been originally acquired by Greem, it was clear that Alice had taken a good care of this head. She also trapped Sinbad’s soul within it.
Of course, Greem had no idea whether this was because Alice wanted to vent her anger by torturing Sinbad, or if she had other plans, but, no matter what, this had given him a huge advantage. At least he had no complaints about not getting Sinbad’s heart.
In order to maximize the benefits brought by this head, Greem even went to some Apprentices who were experts in anatomy and borrowed a complete set of tools.
In order to safeguard his secret, Greem was forced to use his room as a laboratory.
A couple of minutes later, Greem had prepared everything for the operation. He put on a sterile, non-magical white cloth and stood in front of the operation table. Sinbad’s head had also been taken out from the liquid, and was lying flat on the table with her eyes wide open, angrily cursing at the human in front of her.
Since Greem had been working toward becoming an Adept for the last few years, he had long been mentally prepared for this kind of surgical operation. Even though it was the first time he carrying a biological experiment, he was calm, in control, and well prepared.
Ignoring Sinbad’s evil glare, Greem calmly gave a command to the chip.
“Chip, perform a deep scan of Sinbad’s head!”
*Beep* “Mission has been received.. Beginning scan…”
With the flashing of blue light in his eyes, a unique spiritual wave started scanning up and down on Sinbad’s head, revealing the secrets hidden inside, inch by inch.
Most demons, as they had a strong life force had mixed together with their bizarre innate abilities, had formed an energy field that similar to a shield. Thus, Greem nornally couldn’t scan beneath their skin with Elementium Vision and Spiritual Vision, which made it nearly impossible to analyze what was inside.
But, because Sinbad had lost all her strength, and her life force was nearly depleted, the energy field, which would have formerly blocked Greem’s vision, no longer had any effect. After probing and scanning multiple times, a three-dimensional image of Sinbad
’s head had been constructed in his mind.
A tough skull was wrapped around a deflated brain. The cerebrum, cerebellum, and brainstem were hidden deep within the cranial chamber. This complete model of Sinbad’s brain was presented right in front of Greem’s eyes. And, right in the center of the deflated brain, a thumb-sized, yellowish crystal could be seen.
As Sinbad was a Ghost Nanny Leader, and had mastered some Elementium abilities, a unique core had grown in her brain. Thus, her heart, brain, throat, and stomach were no longer vital organs. As long as this core and her soul still existed, her damaged organs could always be restored.
Without hesitation, Greem stabbed his razor sharp scalpel into Sinbad’s head. As the skull opened up, a stinking, dark purple blood instantly sprayed out, staining Greem’s clothes. But, he didn’t even took a look at them, and just kept adjusting the depth and angle of his cut. With the help of the hammer, chisel, and other tools, Greem carefully dismantled the skull.
With dozens of large candles lit, the room was ablaze with light. Covered in sweat, Greem stood firmly in front of the operation table. With the sound of a chisel cutting flesh and bone spreading thoughout the room, he slowly broke apart Sinbad’s skull.
Finally, under the swaying light of candle, Greem took out a light yellow, half transparent crystal, which smelled like dirt, and held it up to the light to gave it a closer look.
At the same time, a message from the Chip resounded in his mind.
*Beep* “High energy demon core detected. Type: Earth Elementium creature…”
A smile of relief finally emerged on Greem’s bloody face.
He now had a core from which he could create a Clay Golem!
Chapter 31
It was impossible to create the equipment to summon a Clay Golem in Greem’s room. So, he left and hurried up to the Alchemy Laboratory, located on the third floor of the tower.
After paying three Knowledge Points and thirty gold coins, Greem was allowed to use the most sophisticated alchemy station available for three hours. This was nearly half of Greem’s saving, so, if it wasn’t that he wanted to have the highest success rate for this first Golem, he would never willing to pay this much money.
The floor was clean and tidy and the walls were smooth and shiny. There were wooden racks against the walls, on which laid all sorts of items. There were labeled containers for all the commonly used magical materials, and there were Elementium sticks, which were used to detect the Elementium characteristics of an item. There was a full set of metal armor, which was used to test the strength of a magical item… besides all these, there were many items of which Greem had no idea what their usage was.
But Greem’s didn’t care about any of these. What he was most interested in was the shining Magical Alchemy Station in the center of the room.
There were metal chains hanging from the ceiling. A brightly glowing stone was hanging on the end of each metal chain. Eight metal chains; eight bright stones. They made a perfect circle around the Alchemy Station. With this, the operator could put all their focus into crafting a magical item without being disturbed by shadows.
These were basically magical versions of an astral lamp!
And the Alchemy Station was, in fact, a magical version of an industrial crafting table.
The Alchemy Station was an 8 x 4 meter object with some raising platforms and indentation on its surface. It was covered with mystical equipment that was beyond ordinary people’s imaginations. To be precise, the surface of the station was divided into sixteen working areas, and each area was capable of accomplishing some specific crafting task.
For a master Alchemist, who was familiar with the process of crafting, they would be fully competent with all this equipment and be able to smoothly accomplished a well-planned experiment. But for someone who was new to this Alchemy Station, perhaps just getting used to this magical equipment would take several days.
However, this was not an obstacle for Greem, who had the help of the Chip.
“Chip, begin scanning this Alchemy Station. Analyze the procedures of a crafting experiment!”
*Beep* “Mission has been created… Beginning scan…”
As a flashing blue light appeared in his eyes as all the equipment placed on the Alchemy Station, and magical mechanisms and formations hidden within the Alchemy Station, were scanned by the Chip and stored in Greem’s mind.
Combining previously analyzed data and the on-site scanning task, the equipment placed on top of the Alchemy Station was quickly stored in the Chip’s database. Afterward, they were projected into Greem’s retina.
Now, whenever Greem glanced around the Alchemy Station, whenever a strange or mysterious item came into his vision, a clear annotation would appear near them.
To put it simply, the Alchemy Station was an amalgamation of many of earth’s crafting and forging machines, all fused into one convenient platform.
A magnifying glass was mounted on a movable mechanical arm. It was not using the same concave-convex lens, which he had back on Earth, but a glass that had been etched with a special magical formation. Greem had chosen the highest standard Alchemy Laboratory, so this glass could give him a magnifier power of 300-500x. If it was a normal Alchemy Laboratory he chose, perhaps the maximum magnifier power would just be 150x.
This was so important because, when crafting most magical items, a microscopic carving was required. Usually, on a specific region of the magical item, one would need to carve a few independent, yet tightly interconnected, magical formations. For some expert Alchemists, they could even carve more than hundred magical formations on a fist sized ruby crystal.
As a beginner, Greem wasn’t capable of accomplishing this, but he only needed to carve seven magical formations on a thumb-sized demon core.
The Summoning Rune was a must have, as it was the most integral rune, which was required to summon the Clay Golem. It was found in every single magical summoning item.
The formation of Elementium Body Construction was also a must have, as it would weave the magical forces of this world to construct an Elementium body for the Golem. His current project would construct a body of soft clay.
The Mind Control Imprint System was the most important among all the formations, as, during the crafting process, Greem had to leave an imprint of his own soul in the formation. This was what would make the Clay Golem obey his commands.
In order to let the Golem freely control the Elementium constructed body, the necessary energy nodes and circuits would have to be carved as well, because this directly affected the mobility and combat ability of the Golem. Obviously, he couldn’t afford to make any mistakes on them.
Of course, Greem didn’t understand these highly difficult runes at all, but, fortunately, he had the Chip, which helped him complete the design and optimization. Hence, all he needed to do was just followed the plan laid down by the Chip.
But even with this, the difficulty of Greem’s work was still beyond imagination.
In the past six years, Greem had only performed a handful of alchemy experiments, and he had just done some common experiments, such as Elementium purification and extraction. Honestly speaking, he was still a rookie in the field of alchemy.
But today he didn’t have the resources for a test run, because he only had one demon core!
If he failed, his dreams of a Golem army would come crashing to a halt.
…………
Greem stood still in front of the Alchemy Station for nearly fifteen minutes, not moving a bit. In his mind, using a simulation, the Chip was repeatedly showing him the procedure of crafting the Golem core. He only stopped doing that after he could recant every single detail by heart.
Greem after standing still for over fifteen minutes, he finally moved.
From his waist pouch, he took out a bar of Black Magic Iron and threw it into a crucible. In next second, he sent his Spirit energy into the controlling magical formation of the Alchemy Station. A popping sound was heard as an Elementium
fire was ignited below the crucible.
If he worked without this magical Alchemy Station, he would need to create his own Elementium fire to heat and melt this Black Magic Iron. Throughout the entire process he had to maintain a stable output of Elementium fire for more than fifteen minutes, or else it wouldn’t melt it correctly.
And now, with the help from this Alchemy Station, he only needed to activate the magical formation hidden underneath it and the equipment would automatically heat up and melt the crafting material according to the temperature and time he set. And while waiting for the Black Magic Iron to completely melt, he could have time for some other preparations.
This alone fully demonstrated the benefits of using a Magical Alchemy Station.
After carefully placing the core took out of Sinbad’s head on top of the Alchemy Station, Greem adjusted the magnifying lens to an appropriate position and correct power level. Only then did he start preparing the equipment for a microscopic carving.
The tool used to perform a microscopic carving was a special magical item. Depending on the strength of magic energy injected into it, this tool could produce a laser-like beam of heat as tiny as a mosquito’s leg. This heat beam was specifically modified and adjusted by master Alchemist. Although it was small, it was excellent at cutting.
Let alone those commonly used magical metals, even the Eighth Degree Gold, Underground Wrought Iron, and Kryptonium Steel, which were all unique metals which possessed a hardness beyond any ordinary man’s imagination, were easily carved by this heat beam.
What Greem needed to do now was to use this equipment to carve the required seven magical formations on the thumb-sized core, one Summoning Formation, one Mind Control Imprint System formation, one Elementium Life Granting formation, four energy nodes, and a few extra energy circuits…
This was all easier said than done. Greem calmed his mind, then he leaned forward and placed his eyes above the magnifier lens, finally starting to work on the project he had been preparing for.
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