For Wanderers, the Origin Sea was the source of all their powers, and at the same time, it was also the greatest obstacle on the path of harnessing the said powers. From luring them with temptations to obscuring their understanding of its Mysteries and Aspects, even going so far as to urging the powers they already had under their control to backlash against them at the slightest hint of weakness within their Heart, the Origin Sea stopped at nothing to hinder Wanderers from harnessing its powers.
As someone who had already experienced quite a few of the Origin Sea’s tricks, Alnea naturally knew how dangerous the Origin Sea could be. Especially when Wanderers tried experimenting with unfamiliar powers. Like his father. And though Alnea was not unfamiliar with the Glyph he was going to experiment with, it was the first time he was going to try inscribing it in a semi-permanent state.
“I am going to begin.”
“…Try not to blow up the mansion.”
“It should be able to block an Intermediate Stage Glyph from getting out of control, right?”
“…Let us not take any chances. Especially since our new teammates probably do not have Glyph Arrays strong enough to protect against an unexpected explosion of Glyphs.”
“I thought you would be happy if I blow up Vestia by accident.”
“…Though I do not like her, I cannot deny her usefulness to the team. Besides, she is not the only new teammate in the mansion.”
“…Fine. I will be careful,” Alnea said to Yuri, before turning his attention the ring on his hand. “Evi, block all sounds. Even the ones coming from Yuri.”
“It is just a Glyph. What are you getting so nervous for?” Evi mumbled, but complied with his instructions anyway, blocking out all sounds from reaching his ear. A function of the ring that Alnea had discovered only recently, after he complained about hearing Cecilia and Vestia argue all day. He had already been having a headache about how to lead the team. Especially since the task he had given to himself had not going as well as he had expected it to go. Listening to the girls bickering with each other had only irked him even more than before.
In desperation, he had instinctively asked Evi to simply block out all sounds. A request that he had never expected to be fulfilled. It was the Ring of Fate he was wearing, after all, not the Ring of Day and Night. But it looked like he had underestimated the Divine Treasure once again. Somehow, despite harnessing only on the Mysteries of Fate, Evi had still managed to do as he had requested, bringing him the serenity he needed. Unfortunately, that peace had not lasted for long.
Not long after learning the new function of the Divine Treasure, Alnea had been forced to take an Oath to never misuse the new function of the ring. It was, after all, a dangerous function that could become addictive. A headache would be the least of his concerns if he ever missed the sound of his enemies sneaking up on him, or some important information that he could have overheard otherwise, just because he did not like the noise.
After some brief discussion, Alnea and Yuri decided to not use new function of the ring unless necessary. Especially Alnea. Using the ring to aid his meditation was absolutely forbidden. He could block out the sounds when he was Forging his Spirit or training his Martial Styles, but only if he was in a relatively safe place. Like his room. And even then, he could not block out Yuri unless his training needed absolute concentration. Like when experimenting with Mysteries or Glyphs. As he was about to do at the moment.
Indulging in the absolute silence, Alnea took a deep breath, before taking out all the materials he had prepared. A piece of red bark, a couple of dark brownish claw bones, a piece of skin in a faded red hue, ten vials of dark red blood, two smaller vials each containing a drop of thick viscous liquid glowing in silverish blue light, a slightly larger vial filled with an orangish powder, a couple of thumb sized greenish white crystals, a feather with a red shaft and an orangish vane, and nearly half a dozen other exotic materials, all fascinating in their own rights.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
It was not as if Alnea had never seen such exotic materials. The Reaper’s blood and the Crown Ancestor Tree’s sap that his master had shown him before were both far more valuable and rarer than the materials resting in front of him. And before he came to the Lost City, he was used to killing Oren Beasts and dealing with their bodies on almost a daily basis. Just a couple of claws and some vials of blood were not enough to mesmerise him.
No matter how mundane the materials in front of him were though, Alnea did not dare to underestimate their danger. The piece of bark, for example, once infused with the Mysteries of Fire, be it from the lineage of Creation or Destruction, could burn for days at end. Of course, that in itself was not a problem. Rather, it was exactly this property of Red Oak Trees that made it so popular among Wanderers with mastery over Glyphs of the Fire Series. Especially since a sufficiently old tree was capable of withstanding Mysteries of even the Mystic Rank.
As long as they were handled properly, Red Oak Trees could indeed be considered to be rather superior material for Fire Glyphs. When not handled properly though… With the potential of reaching a terrifying temperature comparable to that of the molten river of fire flowing under the land, even a ten year old Red Oak Tree could explode with a devastating power no worse than that of some Peak Stage False Wanderers.
Though Alnea himself was not afraid of such an explosion, he could not say the same about the mansion. Not to mention that he was not exactly alone in the mansion either. His conversation with Yuri was not entirely a joke. There really was a chance that he might blow up the mansion, along with Vestia and Karl, if he was not careful. Even if the mansion could subdue the explosion from his failed experiments, it would leave him with endless troubles to deal with. And as the Captain of the Star Seekers, how could he allow himself to cause troubles for his team?
Fortunately, the other materials he had bought were not as dangerous as the Red Oak Tree. At least not on their own. When combined with each other, those materials could still potentially harness powers comparable to that of some Advanced Stage False Wanderers, but as long as they were properly proportioned, their danger could be easily mitigated. In the end, the only uncontrollable factor was the bark of the Red Oak Tree. So, Alnea left the bark for the end, and began dealing with the other materials.
Placing the claws in a bowl, he began pounding them with a wide mallet, crushing them into smaller pieces, stopping only when they had turned into a fine powder. Just to be sure, he sifted through the powder with his bare hands, crushing whatever larger pieces of bone fragments that he found. It was not until he did not find any large fragments in three consecutive siftings that he moved on to the next step.
Picking up two of the vials containing the Red Tailed Scorpion’s blood, Alnea emptied them into the bowl, allowing the blood to seep into the powder, before mixing it with his hands, creating a thick, red paste. Just creating a paste was not enough though. So, he kept stirring the paste in the bowl until it had taken a homogenous texture. Then, and only then, did he empty the bowl on the Fire Eating Rat’s skin, spreading it evenly in a thin layer, before setting it aside to dry.
Yet, the red paste was just one part of his preparation. There were many other things he had to prepare, many other materials to deal with, most of which required him to use his bare hands. So, while the paste was drying, Alnea went to the bathroom and thoroughly rinsed the bowl, ridding it of any residual paste, before washing his hands and walking back to his seat to continue dealing with the other materials.
Inscribing Glyphs, at least in a semi-permanent state, stable enough for other people to use it, required three main ingredients. A base, some ink, and a pen or a carving knife. Of the three, he had set the Red Tailed Eagle’s feather to be used as the pen, and the skin he had set aside earlier was going to form the base. It was not yet complete, and needed further processing, but he had to wait for it to dry before he could work on it again, so he proceeded to the next ingredient, and began working on the ink.
Placing the thumb sized greenish white crystals in the bowl, he began pounding them just like he had pounded the bones earlier, grounding them into fine powder. And just like what he had done with the reddish powder earlier, he sifted through the bowl, making sure that no chunks of the crystals were left behind in the powder.
Next step, just like how it had been with creating the paste, was to pour blood into the bowl, except this time, instead of two vials, he emptied six of them. Coupled with how small the amount of powder was in the bowl; it was only natural for the resultant mixture to look more like blood than a paste. No, not exactly like blood.
When stirred with the mallet into a homogenous state, the mixture soon turned into an orangish shade, differentiating it from the Red Tailed Scorpion’s blood. Even the way it smelled was different. Rather than carrying the hot, metallic sensations to his nose, the fumes wafting from the blood made him feel as if he was sitting next to a fire, using its heat to ward off the chill climbing along his legs…