Ivy did carry a trace of an ancient bloodline, a pity that the inheritance of the Pala Night Hawk bloodline ends with her. The traces had already thinned to the absolute minimum and only a bit of aura could be extracted from her blood but it did not have many uses.
“From this density, even if Ivy was completely exsanguinated, or made to bleed some blood from time to time, it wouldn’t be enough to even purify a single drop of the pure ancient bloodline.”
However, Leylin did not feel particularly disappointed or anything similar to disappointment.
It wasn’t that he would be successful with every single experiment of his. However, if one doesn’t even try, there will be no chances of success.
He had learnt this lesson back in his previous life.
“Moreover, this bloodline that carries a trace of the ancient creature’s aura, adding on with some of the broken magic artifacts pieces I’ve gotten in the secret plane, they could aid in the modification of the Fallen Star Pendant…”
A notion rose in Leylin’s mind.
The Fallen Star Pendant was only a low-grade magic artifact which was useful back in his days as an acolyte. However, for Leylin now it was somewhat of little value.
The A.I. Chip had been given the task of researching the possibilities of upgrading the Fallen Star Pendant, and now it seemed to have borne some fruits.
However, Leylin was a Warlock now, if he was able to add some power of the bloodlines on top of the other ingredients needed for the upgrade, it would definitely achieve a better potential!
“A.I. Chip, establish this mission as a subtask: calculate the possibility of adding Ivy’s bloodline into the Fallen Star Pendant!”
[Beep! Mission established, classified in a subfolder under the mission of upgrading the Fallen Star Pendant!]
The A.I. Chip intoned promptly.
Although he was unable to purify the ancient bloodline, but he had obtained an ingredient that could complement the upgrade of the Fallen Star Pendant. So Leylin felt that he had reaped a huge benefit and hence his mood was uplifted, too.
The next morning, he even greeted Ivy during breakfast, which was something that he seldom did. This caused the little girl to be confused and out of sorts. Seeing this scene, Leylin laughed inwardly.
After eating breakfast, Leylin brought the little girl and carried on with the journey.
He even bought a horse carriage while making a stop at a town, putting out the misery of the little girl, who had had to walk all along.
The reason why he did this was not because of kindheartedness. It was because the little girl provided him with blood every day, and while Leylin brewed some potions to replenish the blood, her mental state did not seem very well as her face was as pale as dead people.
After purchasing the horse carriage, Leylin led his life even more leisurely. He would journey when the sun was up, and at night, he would continue to extract the essence from the Pala Night Hawk bloodline to upgrade the Fallen Star Pendant.
“Dawn’s Peak! According to our speed, we should be able to reach the Great Canyon Margaret tomorrow!”
Leylin pointed to a mountain which peak was amongst the clouds as he spoke to Ivy behind him.
“… ”Ivy looked at the landmark in front of her and clutched her knees in silence.
His eyelids hung low, not knowing if it was because of the fears of what the future would bring, or because of bewilderment.
“The ingredients gathered are now sufficient. I will upgrade the Fallen Star Pendant tonight!” thought Leylin.
Naturally, he controlled the pace of the journey, so he was able to obtain enough blood right before reaching the Great Canyon Margaret tomorrow.
In the middle of the night.
The surroundings were dark and serene, and from time to time the sounds of insects and howls of wolves could be heard.
Ivy was in a deep sleep within the tent beside the horse carriage.
As for her who was in deep slumber, her eyelids twitched continuously, as if dreaming of a nightmare.
Seeing her in this manner, Leylin heaved a sigh of relief and returned to the horse carriage.
“A.I. Chip, simulate the start of the experiment!”
Leylin set up an illuminating spell and lit the interiors of the horse carriage.
In the middle, several wood boxes were set up in a flat platform with some apparatus displayed on it.
In the middle of all was a silver grey cross, with several fragments of jewels on it.
This was the original shape of the Fallen Star Pendant. Ever since he had advanced into a rank 1 Warlock, he had rarely used it.
The Fallen Star Pendant’s physical and magic defense were both valid for at most 20 degrees. As for any rank 1 spell cast by an official Magus, it would exceed these limits.
Hence, Leylin would think of methods to raise the capabilities of the Fallen Star Pendant, hoping for it to be of use again.
[Simulation for experiment over, success rate to be 87.9%.] After a flash of blue light, the A.I. Chip reported a string of data back to Leylin.
Right now, the A.I. Chip could simulate most parts of the experiment and produce the success rate. This meant that as long as Leylin followed the steps given by the A.I. Chip, he could attain the same success rate that was indicated.
As for those magicians who painstakingly gathered ingredients yet not knowing their success rate, the A.I. Chip’s capabilities showed that it could save Leylin a huge amount of resources.
So much so that this capability could even be employed during an advancement.
If the A.I. Chip’s success rate was too low, Leylin could give up on the advancement and amass more resources before trying to breakthrough. This was much better after comparing this with other magicians who try to breakthrough in the dark and even suffer from a backlash.
“First of all, it’s to separate the ingredients for the magic artifact!”
Leylin looked at the other items placed on the platform.
There was half a dagger and a broken arm. These spoils of war were obtained by Leylin during the bloodbath in the secret plane. Although some time had passed, the arm still shone with a silver light, completely concealing the fact that it was a human arm made of flesh.
“Silver-Claw Saurun actually imbued his magic artifact into his own arm, what a crazy fellow!”
Leylin picked up the silver arm and placed it within a golden funnel, setting it alight at the bottom.
A golden yellow flame continued to swirl in the funnel, turning the funnel red.
The blazing temperature continued to radiate from the hand. Once Leylin noticed the change, he began to drip some blue fluid, drop by drop, onto the arm.
The blue liquid fell onto the arm, turning into red immediately, extending it towards the whole arm.
The temperature increased yet again.
Leylin was ecstatic as he placed a transparent beaker below the funnel.
*Pitter-patter**Pitter-patter* Droplets of silver liquid continued to drip down.
Very soon, this liquid filled up half of the beaker.
Leylin’s right hand rapidly gathered some powder and jewels and tossed it into the beaker, while his left hand reached for a metal wire and stirred the beaker.
The powder and jewels melted immediately upon entering the beaker, and the silver liquid began to turn muddy.
A dozen minutes later, there were two obvious layers in the beaker. On top was a liquid the colour of flesh, and at the bottom, it was a layer that was pure silver in colour.
……
After being busy for a while, Leylin looked at the several ingredients laid in front of him with a gleeful expression.
The formerly mentioned dagger and silver arm had not turned into two blocks of black and grey metal as they shone with lustre.
As for the Fallen Star Pendant, it was now submerged within a beaker. The beaker was half filled with pink blood with the scent of orchids
“Keliesiding Guraweier Alo
ngsuo….”
Leylin chanted an incantation as he made a cut on his finger, dropping a dark red drop of blood into the beaker.
*Bang!*
Once the dark red blood entered the beaker, it immediately had a chemical reaction.
The pink coloured gases continued to rise and the blood began bubbling.
Threads of red liquid continuously climbed onto the Fallen Star Pendant, turning the original silver-grey colour into a dark red colour.
After the blood in the beaker completely evaporated, the Fallen Star Pendant turned into a dark red cross.
“What’s next is to modify the runes inscription!”
Leylin’s expression turned extremely solemn. This was the most crucial step to upgrade the Fallen Star Pendant!
135 - Angler Town
[Modifying the Fallen Star Pendant’s runes inscription, increasing illusory runes to make Host compatible with its control.]
A.I. Chip sounded at this very moment.
Blue light flashed across Leylin’s eyes, and many transparent patterns began appearing on the surface of the Fallen Star Pendant.
Next, all he needed to do was to proceed with the modifications according to the transparent patterns on the Fallen Star Pendant.
And the A.I. Chip could assist Leylin during his inscription process, so there would not be any mistakes.
Using a pair of tweezers to fish the Fallen Star Pendant onto a white cloth, Leylin took out a solid inscription pen and started to finely carve on the surface of the cross.
At this point, his hand was like a steel sculpture — it was as steady as possible, without even a single tremor.
This required an enormous amount of attentiveness and endurance and consumed a lot of time and energy.
As time passed, beads of sweat started to drip from Leylin’s forehead.
[Fallen Star Pendant’s runes modification is a success! It has newly added reinforced runes, energy dissipation runes, extension runes…]
As he listened to A.I. Chip’s reminders, Leylin revealed a smile.
Immediately, he picked up another inscription pen from beside him. It had grooves on its body and was just as solid.
“Next, I shall fill in these carvings!”
Leylin lit two beakers and proceeded to melt the raw materials he had separated earlier from the magic artifacts. Those beakers now contained only liquids.
Subsequently, Leylin followed a fixed proportion and mixed the two liquids together.
Leylin played with the grooves on the pen and it split open, revealing a hole to pour water into.
Immediately, he poured the concentrated silvery black liquid into the body of the pen.
Fine runes started to twinkle and flicker around the inscription pen, producing an enchanting radiance.
With a face of satisfaction, Leylin pushed the pen nib against the tracks of the inscriptions carved earlier on, repeating the process again.
But this time, the pen left silvery black liquid in its trail, filling every notch of the inscription.
After finishing the last stroke, Leylin sized up the completely reformed cross and nodded his head with satisfaction.
“Activate!”
Leylin used the ancient Byron language and read out two words.
*Pong* A cylindrical beam of gray light began to emit from the cross. Threads of silver light were moving along the rune inscriptions that Leylin had carved earlier.
As the silvery gray rays kept blending, they got brighter and eventually engulfed the Fallen Star Pendant in it.
When the rays completely vanished, the Fallen Star Pendant had changed in appearance entirely.
It only retained the shape of the cross but was bulkier than before.
Also, it had changed from a silvery black colour to a shade of dark red.
On the surface there were numerous fine and detailed rune inscriptions, causing the original fragments of gems to be concealed beneath it.
Leylin then took the dark red Fallen Star Pendant, noting its weight was heftier than before.
[Beep! Fallen Star Pendant’s upgrade is now successful with those middle-grade magic artifacts! Current Physical Defence: 24, Magic Defence: 25!] A.I. Chip sounded again, bringing Leylin the good news.
“Physical defence rose from 13 to 24, and magic defence rose from 15 to 25! Not bad, really not bad!”
This range almost surpassed the Scales of Kemoyin’s defense. It was almost equivalent to gaining another innate defensive spell. Leylin was naturally very pleased.
But there were a lot of other magic artifacts that have better innate spells. The would have another increase in power and defense in the future.
As for the Fallen Star Pendant, unless he finds even more precious materials to upgrade, it would be difficult to increase its defensive characteristics as per Leylin’s requirements.
Hence, in the long run, concentrating on his own innate spells was more dependable.
“In the south coast, acolyte ranks use beginner grade magic artifacts. Level 1 Magi use middle-grade magic artifacts and the occasional beginner grade magic artifacts. Only the extremely powerful level 2 Magi have the capability to get hold of high-grade magic artifacts!”
Leylin thought of the information he saw from the Book of Giant Serpent.
Although the era of the great Magus Serholm was somewhat distant, the general distribution of power and culture throughout the south coast could be seen.
Now that the Fallen Star Pendant had been promoted to a middle-grade magic artifact, it’s effective for Leylin as a level 1 Warlock. This, of course, put him in a good mood.
……
The Great Canyon Margaret spanned across the Inlan Dukedom and several nearby kingdoms. It was also a place that was necessary to travel through to enter the Ennea Ivory Ring Tower, controlled by the Light Magi.
Of course, this was only with regards to Magi.
Ordinary citizens of this dukedom seldom step out of the kingdom, from their birth until their death. Even their mercenaries only received missions within the kingdom.
Mercenaries and wandering bards who had travelled the vicinity could use the experience they gained to flaunt or gain respect.
“Great Canyon Margaret is filled with danger. Even a hastened journey takes several months…”
Leylin slightly frowned as he thought over the information about the Great Canyon.
Transportation in the Magus World was inconvenient, causing a great deal of inconvenience for magicians who travel far and wide.
Of course, he had another choice — he could ride in an airship.
But unfortunately, not only was this mode of transportation costly, there was only a fixed number of dates per year for its departure. Furthermore, there were stringent requirements for passengers. They needed a local family or an organisation to be their guarantor.
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