During the next few weeks, Illyan was rebuilding the cellar into his new laboratory with his newfound equipment given by Vael. His excitement was almost palpable as he toyed with each piece of equipment like a child would play with a toy.

The cellar was big enough to store everything, so he didn’t have a problem with that either.

Soon, a fully functional laboratory was in front of Illyan, whose chest was swelling with a feeling of accomplishment.

Of course, it still wasn’t fully done as there were still several wine racks, and he didn’t take everything Vael gave him yet. But still, if he wanted, he could already start with some kind of experiment if he was impatient.

But he was more interested in what Vael left him in the last boxes. Those were with the help of the Merchant Guild transported from the institution to his residence and then put right into the cellar to not hinder the space above.

He then unboxed one of the last boxes and took out some sophisticated machine.

‘What is this?’ With confusion, he started to look at it from several angles. It reminded him a little of the telescope that he read about. However, the tube didn’t point up towards the sky as described but towards the ground. There were also several big and small magnifying glasses on adjustable arms that could be aligned with that scope.

Furthermore, several small rectangular glass pieces were stored with it.

After watching a little, he could somewhat guess what it was for. However, he noticed a small note that was in the box that told him a detailed way how to use it.

‘This is called a Microscope. It is an invention from the Arkravav Empire. You can put any kind of substance between two of these small glass pieces and put it in front of the scope. Then you can adjust with the magnifying glasses how much enlarged the substance will look like. You can research those substances more in-depth. I will also give you a book that is a good combination with it.’

After reading that, Illyan took out the book with a red cover out of the box.

Its name was ‘How to utilize blood in a hundred ways.’

Seeing this name, Illyan was interested and started to browse through the book.

It was a medical book so most of the things here were to save someone’s life.

For example, transfusion of blood. It gave a detailed explanation of the several types of blood that were incompatible with each other and how to recognize them.

There was also a way to ascertain whether someone was blood-related or not.

However, most of that wasn’t important to Illyan right now. He would definitely read the book as soon as he finished the building of the laboratory, but it would be mostly from interest in new knowledge than from need. The book wasn’t at the top of his priority list right now.

That was until he browsed to the last method in the book.

‘How to ascertain your biological and chronological age’

Through this method, it was possible to find out your age and the state of your body. Depending on how someone lived, their bodies could be much younger than their chronological age and vice versa.

But for Illyan, this right now meant that he could finally find out for how long he was imprisoned in that damn iceberg.

That completely changed his plan for today as he wanted to plant all the seeds he collected in the Blood Crow Forest originally.

However, now he just quickly took the rest of the tools from the boxes, put them in their new places, and immediately started with the experiment as if he couldn’t wait any longer.

He took out a flask and filled it with water. He then put it on the bunsen burner which he set fire on and let the water boil.

He looked at the book if he didn’t miss anything and started to proceed according to its steps.

He started to put all kinds of herbs into it. Some of them had to be ground beforehand while others were thrown into it raw.

Unfortunately, he was clumsy with the new tools and after 30 minutes, the gray smoke started to waft out of the flask.

Illyan didn’t care much as all those herbs were common but wasn’t very happy with wasting them like this.

So Illyan shrugged and chucked down the liquid he created.

This wasn’t something he should drink as even if he did it right it was still undrinkable. However, it was just a failed mix of mortal stage herbs so it was impossible to kill him.

At most, it would damage him from inside which would subsequently heal on its own.

Why would he do that then?

To train his ability of course!

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How was he supposed to train his regeneration ability if he was studying behind the walls the entire time? He even considered stabbing himself with his knives as the form to train, but he didn’t want to deal with the mess it would cause.

“Hmm… This is actually a neat way to solve it.” Illyan muttered to himself.

Two birds were down with one stone thanks to this.

No, maybe even three. He didn’t need to waste his herbs despite him ruining the reagent he planned to make, and he could speed up the training of his ability thanks to it. Not only that, he also didn’t need to waste time by trying to get rid of this substance. It was not like it would magically disappear normally.

“Huuh…” Illyan shook his head as he started focusing on the creation of the reagent inside the book.

It took him another three tries before he finished it. Thankfully, the reagent itself wasn’t that hard to create.

He observed the substance inside with great interest, it didn’t have any color and became transparent and with every move of it, it started to bubble.

This was a reagent that should react together with his blood. He took the flask and poured some of its content into a very tall graduated cylinder. He only poured enough for it to reach the first graduation of the unit of measurement.

Then with a small needle, he pricked his finger and let the drop of his blood fall into a flask.

Sizzle

With sizzle, the reagent started to bubble as the bubbles started to rise. It also started to change color into that of blood as the surface of the substance started to rise.

From the first graduation to the second. From the second to the third and from the third to the fourth.

Eventually, the foam disappeared as only the reagent remained. However, this time the surface level was much higher as if the volume increased.

“Graduation of 58.7, huh.” Illyan looked at it and was satisfied. This test showed his biological age. With this number, he just needed to use a simple formula to calculate his age which turned out to be 20.

It was the same or at least a similar age he hoped his chronological age was. After all, he guessed he was minimally a year in the iceberg, but he hoped it was not more than that.

Since he was done with it he chucked the liquid down his throat and looked at the rest of the reagent in the flask.

He checked whether it was already cool. Once he did so and found out it was, he put it back at the bunsen burner and threw into it one herb. The herb seemed to melt inside in a matter of seconds.

Illyan stirred the contents of the flask and took it down again.

This time he took a little glass from the microscope and poured a few drops of the reagent on it.

After that, he pricked his finger once again and smeared it with blood before sealing it with a second glass.

This time, however, the reagent didn’t sizzle and didn’t show any reaction. Without any hesitation, he put the glass under a microscope and started to play with it. It took him some time to familiarize himself with it but soon he stared at the mix of reagent and his blood under a microscope.

He didn’t know what he was watching, but it didn’t matter as he mostly just needed to record it in his head and then use it for some kind of formula to calculate the result.

That made his mouth curl a little as he thought that his effort in studying mathematics started already paying off as he used it continuously today in the field of medicine.

Unfortunately, the mirth didn’t last for a long time.

“I-Impossible.” With a trembling voice Illyan stared incredulously at the calculation he just wrote on old parchment.

With a shake of his head, he started to calculate again as he was sure he made a mistake. But a few minutes later, he saw the same result.

“Did I make a mistake in making the reagent?” Illyan muttered to himself.

He didn’t ask anyone in particular, but ‘she’ answered his question as his mind turned unstable once again giving her a chance to speak with him.

‘You already know, don’t you? Time flows differently for everyone. Especially for those who meditate for a long time. It is not impossible for you to be unaware of time during that time since you meditated the entire time to not suffocate yourself to death. But take it positively. While it looks like a lot of time it doesn’t change anything for you even if you were encased there for hundreds of years. No, maybe one thing. The Thearas shaman would pass away by then and you wouldn’t be able to achieve your revenge, huhu~”

The serious voice suddenly turned cheerful in half of her speech as he was coming to terms with the fact that his chronological age was already 31 years old.

He was a little over 17 when he got frozen, and it was already a year since he got outside.

With a simple calculation, that meant he was inside of that place for around 13 years.

Over one decade, he wasted his time there…

‘You didn’t. You didn’t consider that with your measly talent it would be years before you would make a slightest breakthrough in [Nature Breath Method] and your

spiritual perception. Without the constant use it would take much longer. And while it may seem quite useless now I believe that in the future it will be a crucial technique.’

While incomplete, the [Nature Breath Method] was still the most incredible technique he had the honor to train in.

There were just two and a half stages in the inheritance the Bakur Tribe got.

First was Exhalation. It was the ability to spread out into nature. With it, you would become one with nature as your individual presence became insignificant and became part of nature.

The second stage was Inhalation. Once you were one with nature it would help you on its own accord. The rustle of the leaves on the trees, the smell of blossoms of the flowers and even the noises wild animals made would be clear in your mind as you would start to comprehend the language of nature itself.

And the third one was Primal Breathing which allowed you to absorb nature and primal energies in exchange for spiritual energy inside of your body. However, the explanation of the use of nature and primal energies was cut off and even Kaoran reached only the early second stage so Illyan didn’t know anything about it.

This kind of method was extremely difficult to cultivate even for talented people like Kaoran let alone someone like Illyan.

‘Not to mention, this was also the reason why your regeneration got so strong already. You had to endure the cold for so long that you can regrow even limbs now. Also, the coldness inside of your body won’t disappear completely by implementing [Blood Feeding Technique]. Only the excess energy that is hurting you. Of course, most of it is excess energy but there will still be some leftovers absorbed by you making your body tougher and more resistant to coldness. I think it is a win-win scenario.’

“Even so…” Illyan knew that what she was saying was true but he didn’t like the fact that he was in a powerless state for such a long time. The fact that so much time seeped through his fingers just like that…

Moreover…

“Zers is already 34… And his child is already-” Zephyr interrupted his muttering.

‘Cut it out, will you? It is not like you planned to visit him anyway. We can’t cross the sea unless you want to be frozen for an even longer period or die permanently. You probably won’t see him ever again. Deal with it. You will need to get used to it.’

With saying that, her presence dissipated as if never being there in the first place.

“Deal with it, huh.”

Illyan pondered for a second before shaking his head.

‘Like she said, at least the Thearas Clan was still intact by this time and the shaman was still alive.’

The revenge was satisfying enough to placate his heart a little…