"Ding ding dong dong!"
In the quarry, within the carving room.
Roy, like a stonemason, continued to busy himself.
"Work time is over!"
Suddenly, the bell in the carving room rang.
Roy didn't linger for even a second. He threw down his tools and in the blink of an eye, he was gone.
"Now, it's study time!"
In his own Alchemy Room, Roy carved a hand out of jade.
It was as delicate, slender, and beautiful as that of a maiden in her prime.
Though a thousand words could be spoken, it would still be hard to fully praise its beauty.
This was after Roy had discovered another half-human, half-horse maiden in the nearby Scarto City.
Just like when he had seen the City Lord Madam before, he was captivated and immediately set about drawing and sculpting a replica, recording this beauty that seemed almost divinely crafted.
Not long after, Roy stepped back to admire his latest masterpiece.
"I'm truly amazing!"
Roy praised himself with a hint of narcissism, patting himself on the back.
"By meticulously carving this slender jade hand, I've completely mastered its modeling."
A moment later, incantations filled the air.
"..."
A white light fell upon it, and the jade hand began to move on its own, flipping over, with the index and middle fingers walking like legs.
Under Roy's "impression," the intelligent body it was endowed with moved and danced like a maiden in her prime, performing ballet.
Soon, it hopped onto a nearby cabinet, still brimming with active energy, and leaped up with all its might.
Inside the cabinet, divided into different levels, were various hands, feet, waists, hips, hearts, livers, spleens, lungs...
All as if they had been taken from living people, lifelike and vivid.
If any adventurer were to stumble in here and see this, they would surely go back and write a little essay titled "Evil Wizard Dissects Human Bodies, Plays with Organs."
He was using this method to stockpile techniques for Automaton Golems.
After reading for a while longer and pondering the still-confusing "Shrinking Art," Roy began practicing "Petrification."
A further application of this was "Stone Skin," which could be used on oneself.
Compared to the unrelated "Shrinking Art," the changes in active energy were much more profound, both in theoretical learning and personal experience.
His progress in learning was rapid.
The only thing lacking was the "Innate Wizardry Inscription" that all formal Wizards had to undergo.
However, Roy was also making efforts in this direction.
...
A few days later, on November 15th.
Atedia came to Roy's Alchemy Room and cautiously reminded him.
"Lord Roy, Lady Celine has returned."
In a moment, the clanging sounds inside stopped.
Roy shook his hands, using his mental strength to gather all the dust into a ball and toss it aside.
Then a maid stepped forward to wipe his arms and face guard.
Celine walked in from outside, taking out some items from her Spatial Ring.
This Spatial Ring was bought for her by Roy, costing 12,000 Magic Stones.
Over the past year, he had been preparing extensively for the upcoming war, including sets like the Silver Battle Armor.
However, Spatial Rings were not a necessity for his followers; they were mainly for the convenience of trading goods.
Incidentally, they could also serve as practice tools for cracking in the future.
He quickly turned his attention to the items Celine had brought back—shiny shards of gemstones, as well as materials like animal hides, claws, roots, and fruits.
"It seems the trade went smoothly."
Roy had sent Celine back to the capital's estate to conduct business with local immigrants, Wizards, and apprentices.
He sold some of his unique alchemical products and purchased the materials he needed.
"The demand for Blood Mercury wasn't as good as expected, but the Blackening Potion—especially the new formula that can dissolve stone—was more popular."
Celine relayed the feedback to him.
Roy nodded. "After all, it's just one of the paths to becoming a Grand Knight, not the only one. Moreover, a Wizard's primary source of power still lies in their own Mental Strength and the Source of Magic..."
Suddenly, his gaze was drawn to a perfectly preserved white petal.
Its petals seemed to emit a faint white glow, as if bathed in the moonlight, frozen in that state forever.
But upon closer inspection, the light within it was actually a special kind of Wizardry Energy radiating outward.
Though subtle, it contained a wondrous power that shimmered and shifted with the focus of one's mind.
As for its scent, there was nothing particularly special—just a delicate, ordinary fragrance.
Celine said, "This is the Dreamy Magnolia you requested. It cost 115,000 Magic Stones."
Roy nodded. After using the [Eye of Hermes], he had already determined the true grade of this treasure.
In fact, the quality of such small-scale, familiar transactions was somewhat guaranteed.
After all, the same people came and went in this world.
The local residents and apprentices wouldn't dare to cheat him, and the official Wizards had no reason to either.
But when it came to the price, it was indeed expensive.
After all, this was a Low-Magic World.
What might be ordinary in high-magic realms could be a once-in-a-century treasure here.
So, something that might cost 10,000 or 20,000 elsewhere could easily become over 100,000 here.
But Roy didn't mind too much. He had once researched and found that this treasure, called Dreamy Magnolia, could be used to concoct a Magical Potion in the realm of the mind and soul—the Clarity Potion!
The clarity referred to here wasn't about the senses of the physical body, like the eyes or ears, but rather the effect of Mental Strength illuminating one's own soul during Meditation.
Thus, its purpose was clear—it was a potion that aided in illuminating one's soul and engraving Innate Wizardry.
Roy had already gained a deep understanding of the various aspects of [Animation Art].
His Mental Strength was also sufficiently strong.
Perhaps with this final push, he could truly achieve it.
"The difficulty of brewing this potion isn't too high; it mainly depends on the materials..."
He had gathered a lot of information for this purpose and knew that the main magical components were in the primary materials, not heavily reliant on various reactions and preparation methods.
To put it bluntly, even just steeping these petals in tea...
would have some effect.
So he could boldly and confidently give it a try.
Roy took out Ms. Gumos's magical alchemy tools.
"Alright, everyone, time to get to work. Brew me the Clarity Potion!"
A group of little ones hopped and skipped around, rummaging through boxes and cabinets, starting to bustle with fervent activity.
After a series of operations such as extraction, distillation, and purification, all the medicinal liquids were gathered together.
Finally, they were poured into that noisy beaker with the tape stuck on it.
(End of Chapter)