Of course, the enhancement of Anxilin's dark magic power after absorbing Doomstone energy was very limited. However, this slight boost was enough to confirm that the methods recorded in the book were indeed authentic. However, during the experiment, Anxilin also encountered a problem. The consumption of Doomstone when using dark magic was astonishingly high. In most cases, the amount of Doom energy Anxilin absorbed in a dozen minutes could only sustain her to cast a simple spell for two to three seconds, or even less.
"If I can't absorb a large amount and store this Doom energy in my body, I won't be able to enhance the effect of practicing and using dark magic for a long time. It seems that the mixed method I have developed now is not enough to allow Amandea flowers, Agathis herbs, and Doom energy to react fully," Anxilin concluded after experiencing the effect of dark magic brought by Doom energy once again.
So in the next few days, Anxilin immersed herself in researching a new formula for absorbing Doom energy.
On this morning, the sky in the Dark Elf territory was overcast, making the Blackstone Castle, which stood in what was almost becoming a desert, look so eerie and forbidding, filling people with awe. As an important meeting was scheduled for today, Archbishop Anxilin had to drag her heavy body back from the basement to the council hall located at the top of Blackstone Castle.
Due to Anxilin's continuous research on the new formula for the past few days, as soon as she entered the council hall, she immediately slumped into the Archbishop's chair at the meeting room, saying nothing, just staring blankly at the cup on the table. Obviously, in the process of finding the perfect chemical reaction between Amandea flowers, Agathis herbs, and Doom energy, Anxilin had been exhausted by continuous failures.
At this moment, a servant respectfully placed breakfast in front of Anxilin on the meeting table. It was a cup of hot tea and a small plate of freshly made cookies. Anxilin picked up a cookie and mechanically chewed on it. Then, her face suddenly brightened a bit, and she couldn't help but praise the servant, "Oh? Siewen, the cookies you made today taste really good!"
"Hehehe! Archbishop, I'm glad you like it. This is a new method I've recently developed. After cutting the marinated dried fish into pieces, I bake them together with the cookie dough at high temperature, allowing the aroma of the marinated fish to fully blend with the smoke scent of fruitwood. Then, during the baking process, the cookie dough absorbs this smoky aroma thoroughly, so it's finally baked into these cookies with the flavor of marinated fish and fruitwood smoke," the servant named Siewen proudly explained the method of making these cookies since his cookies received praise from the Archbishop.
Speaking of this Siewen, he was actually a somewhat verbose servant. Although his habit of being verbose often tormented the elders of the Dark Magic Association, considering that he had served the elders of the Dark Magic Association in their daily lives for many years and did a very good job, everyone tolerated his bad habit of being verbose. After gradually becoming accustomed to his chatter, they no longer found it surprising.
Therefore, at this moment, Anxilin should have followed her usual practice, letting Siewen's chatter go in one ear and out the other, and erase all the useless information from her mind.
As a result, after hearing Siewen's explanation, Anxilin did not do that. Instead, her eyes lit up and she immediately exclaimed, "Yes! Why didn't I think of that! Smoky cookies? Siewen! Come with me to the laboratory right away!"
The servant Siewen, who was soft as mud on his seat one second and then as if injected with adrenaline the next, was startled by the sudden excitement. But before he could figure out what was going on, Anxilin had already dragged him back to the data room on the fourth underground floor without a word.
Upon entering the data room, Anxilin quickly briefed Siewen on her recent discoveries. Siewen obviously didn't quite understand the significance of Anxilin's talk of notes and energy. However, he understood Anxilin's idea of wanting to make a mixture using Amandea flowers and Agathis herbs.
"Does the Archbishop mean to let Siewen make some cookies using these ingredients based on the way of making smoky fish cookies?" Siewen asked.
"Yes, yes! Grind the Amandea flowers and Agathis herbs into powder and use them in making the cookie dough. Then, use the heat released by the Doomstone to smoke them. In this way, under the bonding of the cookie dough, not only can Doom energy react more fully with the two plants, but also, due to the better taste of the cookies, I may be able to absorb the Doom energy in the cookies better! Siewen, you are truly a genius!" Anxilin explained her idea excitedly and urged Siewen to start making the cookies.
Since the Archbishop had given the order, Siewen naturally did not dare to delay. So, he immediately followed the formula given by Anxilin and quickly made a batch of deep brown cookies mixed with the aroma of Amandea flowers and Agathis herbs, as well as a slightly harsh smoky flavor of the Doomstone.
Anxilin picked up a freshly baked cookie, chewed it quickly without hesitation, and then swallowed it hastily. Then, she closed her eyes, stood still for a moment, continuously adjusting her breathing. Suddenly, Anxilin opened her eyes again and without hesitation, cast a spell towards a training dummy not far away.
Although the purplish-black energy wave released by Anxilin seemed very thin, it still made a loud "bang" sound and successfully left a fist-like dent in the armor of the training dummy.
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"It worked! I did it!" Seeing the round dent with obvious burn marks on the dummy, Anxilin excitedly raised her fists and cheered.
Siewen, who had been watching the power of Anxilin's magic throughout, was extremely surprised. He kept clapping and praising, "My lord, you are truly worthy of being the Archbishop of our Dark Magic Association! Siewen only knows that our dark magic can enhance ourselves to some extent and can simply manipulate the corpses. But I have never heard of anyone who can directly use the energy of dark magic as a weapon."
"You know, even the dark magic experts at the level of the elders of the Dark Magic Association can only move the flames condensed by dark magic on a small scale at most, and cannot transform it into such an intense attack method! My lord, how did you do it?"
Anxilin did not rush to answer Siewen's question. Instead, after the excitement passed, she immediately focused on feeling the storage of Doom energy in her body. After a while, Anxilin was delighted to find that although the Doom energy in her body was slowly leaking, the speed of leakage was significantly slower than before. This indicated that the Doom energy absorbed through eating these more palatable cookies was obviously more helpful for her to store Doom energy in her body.
Although she had now found a way to better absorb Doom energy into her body and could ensure that the absorbed energy was enough for her to release enhanced spells completely, the problem of large consumption and inability to retain Doom energy in her body for a long time still existed. Alas! Perhaps this was the drawback of Doom energy! It seemed that if she wanted to continuously improve the efficiency of her dark magic practice with the help of Doom energy, she had to keep eating these smoky cookies to ensure that she always stored a sufficient amount of Doom energy in her body! After carefully studying her body's condition, Anxilin earnestly concluded.
In the following days, Anxilin conducted multiple experiments with Siewen in the data room, finally determining the optimal ratio for making these smoky cookies.
"Now that we know, as long as we replenish the smoky cookies according to the speed of Doom energy loss, we can ensure that there is always enough Doomstone in our bodies. Then, the biggest problem we face now is how to obtain sufficient Amandea flowers and Agathis herbs." Anxilin tasted the smoky cookies newly made by Siewen while saying.
At this moment, the data room was in a mess, filled with the smell of smoke, and there was no trace of its original appearance. Because Anxilin had already transformed it into a food research laboratory with its own cookie baking oven.
Since Anxilin had confirmed that the Doom energy recorded in this mysterious notebook was indeed real and usable, she naturally believed in the location of the Doomstone vein recorded in the notebook. Moreover, as the Dark Elves now almost all mastered the techniques of tunneling and mining, Anxilin was not worried about the supply of Doomstone.
However, how to solve the problem of obtaining Amandea flowers and Agathis herbs? Anxilin scratched her fluffy hair with some impatience, unable to come up with a good solution for a while. Planting Amandea flowers and Agathis herbs had very strict requirements for the natural environment, but it was impossible to immediately mobilize all the Dark Elves in their territory to carry out large-scale afforestation just to plant these plants, right?
You know, after thousands of years of vicissitudes, the Dark Elves' territory was severely affected by soil erosion. Wanting to restore the land here to the appearance of being completely covered by dense green vegetation would probably require more than just a little effort. Since the method to break through the bottleneck of practice was already in front of her, Anxilin naturally did not want to let the practice of breaking through the bottleneck stagnate just because she had to wait for the land to be suitable for planting Amandea flowers and Agathis herbs.
Moreover, considering the current living habits of the Dark Elves, who would be willing to waste their precious time practicing dark magic to participate in large-scale afforestation? Even if this land was desolate, the Dark Elves could still live here very well, right? Why bother to do those useless things?
Thinking about this, Anxilin couldn't help but shake her head in frustration. Actually, she knew herself that her ideas were somewhat unrealistic given the current situation of the Dark Elves. However, at the same time, Anxilin also knew that she must quickly find a solution to the reserve problem of Amandea flowers and Agathis herbs. She must quickly spread the news of the breakthrough method she had found. Because only in this way could Archbishop Anxilin dispel the doubts, opposition, and even public dissent from the Dark Elves towards her and the Dark Magic Association due to being stuck in the bottleneck for a long time. Only in this way could she effectively counter the pressure from those elders of the Dark Magic Association who wanted to seize the dominance of the association with the help of external public opinion, as their arrogance grew day by day.
"Otherwise, shall we go negotiate with the Leith Elves? From the current situation, buying Amandea flowers and Agathis herbs from them might be the fastest and easiest solution!" Just as Anxilin was still troubled by the issue of Amandea flowers and Agathis herbs, Siewen suddenly suggested.
"Buy raw materials from the Leith Elves?" Anxilin looked at Siewen puzzledly.
"Yes, my lord. Anyway, the natural conditions in the living area of the Leith Elves are very good, making it very suitable for the growth of Amandea flowers and Agathis herbs, and indeed, there are large quantities of Amandea flowers and Agathis herbs growing there." Siewen replied respectfully.
"Oh? Are you sure?" Anxilin asked.
Siewen answered with great certainty, "Yes, my lord. Because not long ago, um—about a dozen years ago, I had a chat with a Leith Elf who came specially to visit the Blackstone Castle. He told me that many places in the territory of the Leith Elves were growing large quantities of Amandea flowers and Agathis herbs, so recently they developed a flower wine made from a mixture of Amandea flowers and Agathis herbs. That fellow even gave me a bottle as a gift. Hey! I have to say, the taste of that flower wine was really amazing!"
A dozen years ago equals "not long ago," huh? Isn't his "not long" too long? Haoyun couldn't help but sarcastically comment upon hearing this. But then, upon second thought, after all, the basic lifespan of elves was there, plus the lifespan bonus given by practicing magic, making them all become old monsters with lifespans of thousands of years. So from Siewen's perspective, a dozen years of time equaled "not long ago," which seemed to be no problem.
Just as Haoyun felt a little sour hearing Siewen's Versailles-style speech, Elinna's narration on the other side continued.