Chapter 139: Mark of the Death Knell, Five Years of Promotion
Starlight Calendar 1255, Sumr Eclipse Moon.
After half a year of recuperation, the Starry Principality gradually recovered from the shadow of war. Kei’s control over the Principality was increasingly stable. Now, he focused most of his energy on rebuilding the Frost-Dye Province, striving to restore it to its forr glory.
In the sa month, the knight academies of the six provinces officially opened, admitting their first batch of freshn.
Ti flew by until the Blaze Moon arrived, the weather becoming increasingly hot.
Base 2.
In a spacious and bright laboratory.
Su Nan carefully imprinted the last trace of blood-red pattern on the back of his right hand. A flash of blood light erupted, and a horn-shaped crimson mark appeared on his hand.
“It’s done!”
A genuine smile of joy spread across Su Nan’s face.
After the battle of Kasham, he devoted most of his energy to researching the Death Knell Striker. It took him more than two months to successfully create a bloodline mark using the Death Knell Striker’s bloodline.
“The ancient bloodline concentration of the Death Knell Striker is still a bit low. It needs to be combined and enhanced in concentration before it can be made into a bloodline mark.”
“Let’s call it the Death Knell Mark.”
Su Nan stared at the mark on the back of his hand, his smile growing more intense.
The Death Knell Mark’s effect is to instantly release a powerful sonic wave, more potent than the sonic attack released by the Death Knell Striker itself.
Preliminary estimates suggest it could instantly kill a Second-Ring Legend.
Even a Third-Ring Legend wouldn’t survive a hit without serious injuries!
The only drawback, if it could be called one, is that it’s a one-ti use item, disappearing after use, and its creation is not easy.
Without harming the Death Knell Striker, it takes about fourteen days to accumulate enough blood to create one Death Knell Mark by extracting a small amount each day.
“Creating four or five for self-defense should be enough.”
With a new trump card in hand, Su Nan felt exceptionally happy. He turned and left the laboratory, heading towards the confinent area.
This was the most heavily guarded place in Base 2, aside from the warehouse and the laboratory.
The forr two’s defenses primarily targeted external threats, while the confinent area focused on internal threats.
Multiple formations were set up here, including but not limited to enchantnt suppression, weakening, and heavy pressure effects, ensuring that every creature imprisoned here had their resistance weakened to the minimum.
Inside and outside, nurous magic puppets and double-bladed spiders stood guard, making it airtight.
Arriving in front of the room where the Death Knell Striker was imprisoned, Su Nan looked inside.
The Death Knell Striker lay on the ground, listless and dejected. Hearing the footsteps, it looked up, saw it was Su Nan, and imdiately let out a fearful cry, instinctively shrinking back, its beastly eyes revealing a human-like plea.
Seeing its pitiful and dejected look, where was the majesty of an ancient bloodline descendant?
No way, who wouldn’t beco like this after being constantly bled for more than two months?
The Death Knell Striker’s current listlessness wasn’t entirely due to the confinent area’s formation suppression; it was primarily because of the continuous extraction of its blood.
Su Nan couldn’t help but feel helpless.
Whether it was bloodline marks or divine energy, research required a significant amount of experintal material. To accelerate research progress, he had increased the frequency and amount of blood extraction by a “slight” margin.
After all, it was an ancient bloodline descendant. It would recover after so ti.
Unfortunately, the Death Knell Striker’s ancient bloodline concentration was still too low, not enough to awaken divine energy.
Ugo’s desire for the Starfire Sect’s divine remains was also to extract the divine energy inside for fusion with the Death Knell Striker, enabling it to awaken divine energy and break through to a higher realm.
Fortunately, Su Nan didn’t need to go through all that trouble.
He had other thods to enhance the Death Knell Striker’s bloodline concentration.
The Stealthy Dragon was a good example.
“Unfortunately, your power level is too high. Otherwise, I could contract you as a magical companion, and your bloodline concentration would directly increase.”
Su Nan felt a tinge of regret.
The higher the power level of a creature, the harder it was to contract as a magical companion.
Unless the wizard (apprentice) had significantly higher power than the contracted object.
For a creature like the Death Knell Striker, a Third-Ring Legend-level ancient beast, at least a full-fledged wizard could attempt to contract it as a magical companion, and even then, it wouldn’t be a guaranteed success.
Therefore, many wizards (apprentices) cultivated their magical companions from a young age.
It wasn’t that they didn’t want to contract powerful beasts, but they simply couldn’t.
However, even if he couldn’t contract it as a magical companion, taming the Death Knell Striker wasn’t difficult.
As long as he implanted a little trick in its body, this beast, whose intelligence was no less than humans, would choose to submit to save its own life.
In fact, the Death Knell Striker was already showing signs of submission.
It wouldn’t be long before Su Nan could ta it.
“To raise its bloodline concentration to the point where it can awaken divine energy, it’s likely to take a long ti.”
“Take your ti.”
After extracting more than ten tubes of blood from the Death Knell Striker as usual, Su Nan left the confinent area with satisfaction, heading towards the ditation Chamber.
Three days ago, he had already constructed the fourteenth Star Ring.
The 15th level of the Star Ring ditation thod required two million proficiency points to upgrade again.
“My current daily proficiency gain is around 4600. At this rate, it’ll take about fifteen months to construct the fifteenth Star Ring.”
“The spell instant casting training progress is almost at 70%. At the latest, by next year’s Revival Moon, I should be able to master it.”
“I still need twenty-eight more alternative tals for the magic emblem core.”
“I now have over eight kilograms of mithril, about half of what’s needed to craft the mithril puppet.”
“I still need two-thirds of the magical mithril needed to craft the mithril magic puppet. Most apprentices are busy crafting magic puppets these days. Once the magic puppet market saturates, I’ll adjust the task proportion, increase the reward for crafting magical mithril, and the speed should pick up.”
“I need to collect miniature soul crystals in advance, synthesize them into small soul crystals, and use them to make the mithril magic puppet’s soul core.”
Su Nan ntally reviewed the things he needed to do in the near future.
“The only thing left is opening up the magical plant garden.”
Six new knight academies need Dragon Blood Fruit, a large quantity. I need to open a new magical plant garden to et the demand.
However, Su Nan was busy researching bloodline marks and divine energy these past few days, and he hadn’t had ti to deal with this matter.
Now that the research had co to a temporary end, it was ti to get started.
“The available manpower is still too limited.”
Su Nan sighed involuntarily.
Even one or two more available people would make things much easier for him, he wouldn’t have to do everything himself.
While browsing the wizard intelligence gathered by the Starry Royal Family, he even considered recruiting a few Second-Rank Wizard Apprentices.
He believed that those Wizard Apprentices who had experienced the pain of resource scarcity would not refuse a trading platform with ample resources.
As long as the base could guarantee sufficient resource supply and fair trading rules, there would be no need to worry about the loyalty of these Wizard Apprentices.
However, before Su Nan could act, good news ca from the base.
Starlight Calendar 1255, Harvest Moon (September).
Xie Man and Kore consecutively constructed their third Star Rings, becoming Second-Rank Wizard Apprentices.
Base 1.
Public Rest Area.
Xie Man and Kore were surrounded by many apprentices, bathed in their adoring gaze, with congratulatory words flowing endlessly.
“Congratulations, seniors.”
“I knew Senior Xie Man and Senior Kore would definitely beco Second-Rank Wizard Apprentices!”
“It only took them a little over five years to beco Second-Rank. Senior Xie Man and Senior Kore are truly geniuses.”
“I’m so envious. I’ve only constructed my second Star Ring.”
“Senior, can you share so tips on your advancent?”
Atiel looked at Xie Man and Kore, who were surrounded by others, with a smile. While happy for them, she also felt a bit complicated.
Her talent was inferior to Xie Man and Kore. She was still a considerable distance away from constructing her third Star Ring. It would probably take another two or three years at the very least.
Even Ethan, from the second batch, advanced faster than her. It was very likely that he would surpass her and beco a Second-Rank Wizard Apprentice sooner.
“Alright, thank you all for your congratulations. We still need to see the teacher. We’ll talk about our advancent tips another ti.”
Xie Man said with a smile.
Hearing that it was the teacher who summoned them, everyone quickly made way.
Xie Man and Kore walked out of the crowd and left the public rest area, heading towards the central area.
That was Su Nan’s exclusive area, where his laboratory, ditation Chamber, and magic technique training area were located. No one could enter without his permission.
Two elite stone magic puppets stood guard at the entrance.
Seeing soone approaching, the two magic puppets imdiately turned their thick heads, their black eyes paused on the two for a mont, and a chanical, monotonous voice ca from their mouths.
“Target retrieval in progress. Permission to enter granted. Access allowed!”
As the voice fell, the two heads clicked back into place.
Kore looked at the elite stone magic puppets with blazing eyes.
This was a Legend-level puppet.
More powerful than clay magic puppets and stone magic puppets.
If one day he could also craft puppets of this level, then he would be truly amazing.
They had been to the central area countless tis before, and they were already familiar with the layout. After passing through the gate, they went straight to the study.
Just as they reached the door and Xie Man was about to knock, a voice ca from inside.
“Co in.”
Xie Man and Kore straightened their expressions, pushed the door open and entered. Looking up, they saw the teacher sitting behind his desk, holding a book in his hand, looking at them with a smile.
To their surprise, Amy, who often stayed in the underground world these days, was also there.
It was lying in the corner of the desk, enjoying itself, cuddling a catnip stick and sniffing and sucking it.
“Teacher, Amy.”
Xie Man and Kore bowed together.
“ow, it’s Xie Man and Kore.” Amy ca back to its senses, waved its paw at them, “I heard you two beca Second-Rank Wizard Apprentices. Congratulations, ow.”
Xie Man and Kore smiled at the sa ti, just about to be humble, but heard Amy’s change of tone.
“But you’re a bit slow, ow. Back in the day, if you hadn’t beco a Second-Rank Wizard Apprentice in over five years, you would have been kicked out of the academy.”
Their smiles froze on their faces.
Amy continued, “Su Nan only took less than a year to beco a Second-Rank Wizard Apprentice, ow.”
Xie Man and Kore were shocked. They looked at Su Nan with admiration.
As expected of the teacher, he had crossed the Second-Rank Wizard Apprentice barrier in such a short ti.
“Alright.” Su Nan interrupted Amy, and looked at them with a smile, “Don’t listen to Amy’s nonsense, you two are already doing great.”
This was the era of the Elent Desert, how could it compare to a thousand years ago?
And it was even more incomparable to him, who had a cheat code!
Xie Man and Kore only took a little over five years to beco Second-Rank Wizard Apprentices, this talent was already quite good.
Of course, this was also because the base provided abundant resources. If they were Wizard Apprentices outside, it would take them twenty or thirty years to barely beco Second-Rank.
Those with slightly lower talent might even take fifty or sixty years to cross this hurdle.
With Su Nan’s praise, smiles appeared on Xie Man and Kore’s faces.
“It’s all thanks to the teacher’s guidance!” they said in unison.
Su Nan smiled slightly, “I only provided you with a platform. To get to where you are today, it’s primarily thanks to your own efforts.”
Then, his smile faded, his expression turning serious, “However, you cannot beco complacent. Second-Rank Wizard Apprentice is just the starting point of the wizard path. It only ans you’ve beco qualified apprentices. On this continent, you need to be at least a Third-Rank Wizard Apprentice to be considered strong.”
“Becoming a Third-Rank Wizard Apprentice is far more difficult than you imagine, let alone becoming a full-fledged wizard. You need to be ntally prepared, there’s still a long way to go.”
“Yes, teacher!”
Xie Man and Kore’s expressions beca solemn, and they bowed together in response.
After giving them a few pointers, Su Nan softened his tone and smiled, throwing a vial of potion to each of them.
“This is a Super Ability Potion, a second-order potion that can enhance ditation efficiency. It’s a gift for your promotion.”
“However, there are restrictions on taking this potion. You need to reach a certain level of spiritual power before you can take it. You two should cultivate for a while, stabilize your realm, and then take it.”
A second-order inferior Super Ability Potion requires 13 spiritual power to take.
For newly promoted Second-Rank Wizard Apprentices, even if their spiritual power hadn’t reached 13, it wouldn’t be far off. After cultivating for a few months, they would et the requirents.
“Thank you, teacher!”
Xie Man and Kore were overjoyed.
Potions that enhance ditation efficiency always require more contribution points than other things to exchange.
Not to ntion a second-order potion.
If they were to exchange it with contribution points, they would probably have to complete tasks for half a month.
“Go back. Co back to see after you stabilize your realm. I have sothing I need you two to do.” Su Nan waved his hand.
The two responded in a low voice, bowed respectfully, and then left.
Walking out of the study, Xie Man and Kore looked at each other, and a smile appeared on their faces simultaneously.
“This ti you promoted thirteen days faster than , you won. But next ti I’ll definitely surpass you!” Kore said resolutely.
In the past, Xie Man would simply laugh it off when Kore said this.
However, after the death of Old Roger, his attitude towards improving his strength had undergone a dramatic change. Hearing Kore’s challenging words, a confident smile appeared on his face.
“Then I’ll wait and see. But be prepared, I won’t let you win!”
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