A week has gone by since the caravan settled in the Ancestral Glade. When I first came to the glade it had the combined area of 3 Yankee stadiums (.14 km²). Now after constant expansion the glade had turned into 6.07 km² glade with rolling meadow-like hills to the west. A small rock formation taller than the trees, giving the impression of a mountain to the north. The large .125km² wide lake in the center and a misty barrier all around. In the south, the elves had set up a small steading around the hollowed tree, similar to the dark elven settlement.
The only area with no real changes was the eastern portion of the glade. Even the island at the center of the lake expanded to .025 km², giving me more room for the Race Restoration ritual. Anyway, during this past week, besides magic practice and hunting, I have also been assisting Katya with Geoff’s construction and occasionally sparing with Andy.
Tonight, will be the night I begin the ritual. According to uncle’s teachings, I will need to purify the Elven blood within the crystal vessels. The best way to do so would be to use high quality magoi crystals, orichalcum, crystalized darkness particles. Lastly, I’ll need to extract the refined mixture from a plant with the longest lifespan and highest magoi density available.
Currently the only plant that meets those requirements is a hard-to-reach herb given it can only be found in monster cradles created around it. The herb is called Deathless Lilac. These flowers are believed to have been in this forest before the demonic dragons’ reign and can only grow in an area surrounded by monsters, magic beasts and/or sentient beings’ corpses. What’s most disturbing is, unlike clover peach mandrakes, all living creatures save other plants are a food source for this foul flower. To be exact, the flower as a seed invades one’s heart and grows there like a parasite.
When the seed reaches full maturity, the flower will cause its host to kill others around it until nothing, but corpses remain. The seedling will then spread its roots towards the mountain of corpses and continue developing. Deathless Lilac is considered fully matured when the flower blooms with 12 putrid-red petals. Still, I would rather burn the lot of them, instead of using them for the ritual.
2 days ago, I and a few elves set out to harvest the flower as too many of them cannot be allowed to exist. I mean… their seeds may spread to the settlement in the south. When we reached the monster cradle, the monsters had vines completely wrapped around them piercing in and out of their cadavers. They were nothing but puppets for this flower.
To ensure the seedlings of Deathless Lilac do not spread, everything must be set ablaze. Additionally, capturing the lilac without being its host, required inclosing the deviant plant in a sphere of wind layered with another sphere of water and then earth. I needed to maintain this evocation until it could be placed in a special crystal container. The hard part was preventing it from breaking out. A few times I almost kissed this world goodbye when vines shot out aiming for my eyes and heart.
While I had been gathering the deviant herb, the Elder sent word back to the settlement. He requested the other three minerals I would need to be gathered in high quantities. The lake had magoi crystals and orichalcum. Sadly, the quality of the lake’s resources were not a high enough quality. Lastly, the best place to gather crystalized darkness particles are dwarven mines. Luckily, the settlement had tons of crystalized element particles in storage.
I waited until after the sun went down and the moonless night sky shone brightly to begin. Unlike Vessel Tempering, I will not have to melt the metals in the smelter or grind things to dust. Instead, I decided to use magoi evoked earth to carve and shape the ritual circle. I then filled the ridges with the purified magoi infused lake water.
Next, I evoked magoi to carve smaller magic circles in each cardinal and ordinal position. The smaller circles were all different since they would contain a different element. Afterwards, I embedded 10 magoi crystal with the highest purity into each smaller circle. After ensuring the Elder was a safe distance outside the ritual area, I sat in the center and retrieved two crystal vessels full of blood. One was awarded by the system, and the other left behind by uncle. I also removed the purifying ingredients and calmed myself.
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I recalled everything leading up to this moment. My life coming to an end over and over again. Having a new family who love and care for me. Meeting uncle again and learning the truth
I considered my future as long as I succeeded here. I will truly begin my own unique path to power. Currently I have yet to follow any Ohmdorran path to power. According to uncle, it was wiser not to use this world’s paths to power. Each path leaves a brand on one’s soul the moment they enter the path. The only exceptions are Novice mages as they have yet to create their mage cores. The other exception are Pawn warriors since they’re only stronger physically when compared to normal folk.
In my case, I created mana palaces which reinforce one’s body and strengthens one’s soul No soul brands involved in the process. Further, my physical body has been purified to a near divine level. I can still bleed and die unlike real divine bodies. However, my body will naturally adapt to my growth and development. I won’t have to work out for conditioning, but will need to ingrain combat styles into my muscle memory.
Anyway, as long as I succeed, I will create a new path to power. This path will be one only for myself and void of this world’s influence. That alone is motivating enough for me to press forwards. I will truly enter the realm of “main character” status heroes and the like!
With renewed confidence I took out my inscription knife and began carving the required celestial runes into my naked body. Blood flowed out, but I continued until every part of my body save my d*** and sections of my face were covered in runes. I sat calming and using magoi manipulation, caused my blood to flow out even more.
In a matter of minutes, I lost enough blood to fill the entire magic circle. Yet I did not allow it to mix with magic water, or all my effort would be in vain. Instead, I had my blood slowly gather in the air and form a sphere of blood.
Once enough blood had been removed from my body and collected into the sphere, I set the sphere ablaze. I require a sanguine crucible for the first part of blood purification. Next, I cast orichalcum ingots into the sphere with the remaining highly pure magoi crystal which totaled around 250 crystals the size of lemons. Internally, my heart bled at the site of tossing those crystals and ingots into the fire.
At first, I waited an hour, but nothing happened. It would be after another 40 minutes when the 50kg of orichalcum ingots began to melt. Meanwhile the magoi crystal went from a solid state to liquid, then finally gas. When the first batch of materials were processed, I tossed another 100kg of orichalcum ingots and waited for everything to fully melt. This continued until I had only 50kg worth of ingots left, which I was saving for later.
Looking at the bubbling metal and misty magoi, I cast all of the darkness particle into the crimson crucible. It only took 3 minutes for the whole solution to turn black while absorbing the misty magoi. Now was the hard part. Taking the blood-filled vessels, I guided the blood into the crimson crucible, but did not allow it to mix with the black solution. Next, without allowing the fiendish plant free, I casted the crystal container with the Deathless Lilac into the black solution. Once inside, the lilac sent its vines into both the black solution and the ancestral blood.
The lilac began consuming the fluid, and like a filter started expelling a bring pink gas. While maintaining everything, I had to now split my focus to collect the pink gas using another crystal vessel. This Vessel was placed next to the container with the lilac inside. Using neutral magoi, the vessel started to suck the pink gas inside itself and condensed it into purified ancestor elf essence. I had to maintain everything until the vessel was completely full of the essence which would take 1 full day.
The following evening, I was almost complete with the blood purification. Currently, the Deathless Lilac had completely grown inside the container and many vines were sucking the black solution and blood all at once. The crimson crucible was almost empty of the solution and blood and very soon I will need to squeeze the deviant plant of all the essence it absorbed. Sure enough, after another 3 hours, only the flower remained.
Using the crimson crucible as a press, I began applying pressure on the evil flora, causing it to wail and secrete even more pink gas. I of course did not show any mercy as no matter how many of these herbs you destroy, there are always more. I increased pressure on the plant for another 2 hours, until the wailing finally stopped, and the lilac was completely shriveled.
Not taking any chances, I set the husk on fire which created a greyish fume. Afterwards, I guided the fume outside of the crucible into the open air until only the crystal container and the essences filled vessel remained. Calling back the 2 objects I allowed the crucible to dissipate in the red smoke and rested for an hour. My mana had been full the entire time given the living artifact perk, but my mind was tired. I decided to rest for a bit before moving on.
-End of Chapter