Chapter 235: Chapter 189: Lorna: Where Are Your Manners?
Opening the great doors, what came into view were rows of Crystal Balls, each one emitting powerful and Mysterious waves of Magic Power. These were Sealing Demon Balls, treasures specifically used for preserving other treasures—and they were as high as Tier Three!
In other words, just the containers themselves were Tier Three treasures!
One could only imagine how valuable the items inside must be!
Isaac and Philo glanced at each other, a single thought shared between them—they’d struck it rich!
Yes, they were rich. Even after accounting for the treasures to be sold to other powers, the remaining quantity was still considerable. What’s more, the one handling the sales was Great Arcanist Mensa. With his vast knowledge and experience, it was virtually impossible for anyone to get the better of him and snag a bargain. Besides, he would never sell off the truly important items.
But in the next moment, Isaac’s expression darkened. He had suddenly realized that he would only receive a portion of these treasures—and a small one at that!
Otherwise, his fate would be the same as the Itra Kingdom’s!
After all, Itra had possessed a Tier Four Miracle Knight. If even a power with such an expert met this fate, how could he... fare any better?
Innocence is no crime, but possessing a treasure is. That principle held true in any world.
"Sigh..." Gazing at the dazzling array of treasures, Isaac couldn’t help but let out a heavy sigh.
Philo, standing beside him, was initially curious about why Isaac was sighing. A moment later, understanding dawned, and she gave him a look of sympathy.
Although she too would only receive a portion of the treasures, with the rest destined for the Imperial Capital to be stored in the Terra Vault, she was still a member of the Terra Royal Family. If she wanted something, all she had to do was ask; she could withdraw it at any time. The items just wouldn’t be in her personal possession for long.
But Isaac was different. If he took them, he would actually die!
Isaac stood in silence for a moment, then abruptly turned to leave. ’What’s the point of looking at this crap? The more I see, the more it pisses me off. I’m out!’
Philo’s gaze held a trace more sympathy as she watched Isaac. Then, she turned, entered the vault, and began to take inventory. The sight was frustrating for Isaac, but not for her. In fact, his vexation brought her a slight sense of schadenfreude as she tallied the treasures.
Leaving the vault, Isaac leaped into the air, summoned a gust of wind, and sped toward Roton Fortress. The affair in Itra was more or less settled; it was time to bring this Chapter to a close.
All that remained was to complete the trading ritual. However, the ritual itself would need some adjustments. It was now containing far too much energy, making the original design unsuitable. Even though he had allowed for some extra capacity in his calculations, that was just a theoretical number. The reality was bound to be different.
Before long, enveloped in a swirling gale, Isaac arrived at Roton Fortress. He spotted Lorna standing atop the fortress’s High Tower, warily surveying the surroundings.
Isaac landed beside Lorna with a speechless expression. "What are you doing?"
"Phew..." Seeing it was Isaac, the vigilant Lorna let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, it’s you. You scared me to death... I’m on guard duty. What if there are enemies?"
Seeing the matter-of-fact look on Lorna’s face, Isaac paused before speaking. "You’re a Caster. You should use a Caster’s methods, like setting up some monitoring Magic, not just use Enhanced sight to stare at everything!"
"But... but... monitoring Magic can be detected. It’s more convenient to just look with my own eyes."
"..." Isaac stared at Lorna, at a loss for words. "Did you... forget? With Angel’s Magic active, any intruder will inevitably be detected by the monitoring spells. It has nothing to do with your personal skill with Magic."
Lorna froze for a moment, then asked in surprise, "Uh... is that so?"
"Sigh..." Isaac heaved a heavy sigh. ’Just as I thought. Simply implanting Knowledge is useless; it has to be combined with practical application. But we can take our time with that. In her current state, I can’t in good conscience let her go out and fight alone. I suppose, just as with the Knowledge, I should first research a Privilege Magic for her to build up some experience.’
"Never mind, we’ll talk about this later. Has anyone attacked this place while I was gone?"
’Later...’ Lorna narrowed her eyes. Her intuition screamed that this was not a good thing! Still, she could rarely refuse Isaac’s decisions, especially when they were made under the banner of being ’for her own good’... even though they really were.
"There were some at first, but not anymore. They were all just some Tier Two Great Knights, and I drove them back without much trouble. They seemed... a little weak?" Lorna tilted her head, confused.
Isaac shook his head. "It’s not that they were too weak, it’s that you’ve grown stronger. Come on, let’s go check on the ritual."
"Oh, okay. Huh? I’m going too?" Lorna asked, pointing to herself with a dumbfounded expression.
"Of course. I am training you as my assistant, after all," Isaac said, slightly surprised. "What, did you plan on just freeloading?"
"An assistant... me? Can I really do it?" Lorna said, feeling both touched and worried.
She knew her own shortcomings, after all. She had to admit that when it came to research in Magic, she truly had no talent. ’And besides, doesn’t he already have Liu Li to help him?’
"Don’t worry. With me around, you’ll be fine," Isaac said nonchalantly as they walked toward the castle. "I can turn even a pig into a competent lab assistant!"
"That’s good to hear... Wait. What’s that supposed to mean?" Lorna’s eyes widened as she hurried to keep up with Isaac.
"It means nothing. I just want you to have faith in my teaching abilities!"
"No! You know that’s not what I was asking!"
"How do you know that I don’t know that’s what you were asking? You’re not me, after all."
"Huh? I guess you’re right... I’m not you, so I couldn’t possibly know... Huh? Wait a minute! You’re messing with me!"
Bickering, the two arrived at the ritual room. Standing at the entrance, Lorna’s brow furrowed. Even she could feel the overwhelming malice pouring out from within!
It was a malice so palpable that even someone as ditzy as her felt a primal sense of fear.
In fact, it was precisely this quality that made her so keenly sensitive to such malice!
Isaac, on the other hand, felt nothing—or rather, this was all within his expectations. After all, he had forcibly awakened the Master of Billions of Flesh from its slumber; it was perfectly normal for it to have a bit of a temper after being woken up.
If anything, the fact that its temper was this mild was a testament to the sheer scale of the offering.
But this was for the best. It meant he wouldn’t have to initiate his backup plan, which saved him a lot of trouble.
"You stay out here. The environment inside isn’t suitable for you. For now, just observe from the doorway," Isaac said before pushing the door open and stepping inside.
Lorna nodded, her expression grave. She had no objections; the current situation was indeed not one a novice like her should enter.
One wrong move could put her in danger and distract Isaac, forcing him to rescue her.
Therefore, staying put was the best choice she could make.
Meanwhile, Isaac stepped into the room. His pupils contracted as he took in the scene. Ninety percent of the materials originally arranged for the ritual had vanished, replaced by mounds of gory, pulsing flesh!
The flesh was even twitching faintly!
This was, without a doubt, a side effect of the Master of Billions of Flesh’s power leaking out. And this was with the entity doing its utmost to restrain itself. Otherwise, Isaac had no doubt the situation would be far worse.
This was understandable, though. It had been many years since the entity had received a sacrifice of this magnitude; a momentary loss of control was to be expected.
However, despite its attempts at restraint, the ritual had still been affected. The margin for error had plummeted from one thousand percent to six hundred and seventy-eight percent, perilously close to the danger threshold. It was in dire need of adjustment.
Although the ritual had been severely impacted, Isaac didn’t rush to check the restoration plan provided by his Golden Finger. Instead, a blue glow washed over his eyes as he fully activated his [Analysis] Authority. He was going to try modifying this seemingly perfect ritual on his own first!
This wasn’t the first time Isaac had done something like this. In fact, he went through this process every time he performed a trading ritual. While Isaac had no qualms about accepting and using his Golden Finger, he personally believed that only Knowledge stored in his own mind was truly reliable. To him, the Golden Finger was often just a mirror—one that reflected all his inadequacies, which he would then strive to overcome one by one.
The only regrettable part was that, when it came to rituals, he had never made any progress. Normally, one hundred percent is the absolute limit, representing perfection and flawlessness. The Golden Finger, however, used some inconceivable method to forcibly break the fundamental logic of the material world and increase the margin for error. He had never been able to understand how it accomplished this.
’But now, with my [Analysis] Authority, will the result be different?’ Isaac was eager to find out.
Isaac had gotten his hopes up.
[Analysis] was, in the end, only pseudo-Omniscience; some things were still beyond its capabilities. Take the ritual before him, for example. From the Golden Finger’s perspective, its margin for error was a mere six hundred and seventy-eight percent, leaving significant room for improvement.
But to [Analysis], it appeared as an unreasonably, almost absurdly perfect ritual...
"Sigh..." With a sigh, Isaac resignedly opened the Golden Finger’s complementary plan for the ritual and began to implement it seriously.
Fortunately, rituals for the Master of Billions of Flesh were always simple. The required medium was also simple and direct: Demonized Flesh. And right now, he was overflowing with the stuff. Therefore, Isaac only needed to make some rough modifications to the ritual’s foundational structure.
Soon, the ritual’s margin for error was back to one thousand percent!
Standing in the center of the Ritual Array, Isaac took a deep breath. This was the largest trading ritual he had ever performed!
He suspected there might never be another one this large again. For that reason, his anticipation was immense.
The ritual was about to begin!
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