Chapter 88: The Devil's Bloodline

According to the Chronicle of the Founding of Gilles Academy, when Dean Connignio first began building the wizard tower, it took twenty-seven years before it was officially completed. By comparison, that was still remarkably fast.

Some elven records state that most elven wizard towers took more than a century to build. In the Maieri era in particular, the completion of a single wizard tower could take over two hundred years.

Now Born finally understood why a wizard tower required so much time: most of it was spent inscribing runes and magical formulae into the walls.

On top of that, the tower’s many systems of reinforcement, defense, amplification, and support were all vast undertakings, measured in years rather than months.

Conflicts between formulae, engraving mistakes, and all the rework they demanded were far too common, greatly prolonging the project.

The Leman Merchants Guild alone occupied over five thousand square meters. As a headquarters, it did not require so many functions; aside from expanding and gathering magical energy, only a few basic defensive measures were necessary. Yet even these combined formulae, if Born alone were to inscribe them, might take four or five months without eating or drinking, and that was only because the chip helped him analyze and correct errors in real time.

Even so, Born still felt it took far too long. As the boss, how could he possibly descend into such repetitive, mechanical labor himself?

So Born called Leman, the Ranger, and the two children together, and gave each of them a scroll.

“The scroll in your hands contains part of the design for the guild’s magic array,” Born said gravely. “Remember to keep it with you at all times, and keep it secret. No third party must see it. No matter who asks you for the scroll along the way, do not hand it over.”

Leman and the Ranger both looked solemn. The latter was trembling all over, clutching the scroll tightly in both hands, his eyes already red. If the occasion had been different, he would likely have torn out his own heart on the spot just to swear loyalty to Born.

Perhaps only he understood how precious this opportunity truly was. As a half-baked druid, he had never received the full druidic inheritance. A caster from the lower classes, raised outside the proper tradition, had it far too hard. The most one could usually touch were low-tier spells, and even the occasional mid-tier spell would be incomplete. As for advanced knowledge such as rune engraving, that was something else entirely.

Though it was only simple magical engineering, even this “simple” field contained a wealth of learning. Among the more common disciplines, such as casting applications, transfer applications, and exchange applications, each was considered elite knowledge even among the elves. In Netheril, such lore was jealously guarded by the major houses and counted as core family inheritance.

Such advanced magical knowledge was something many casters might never see in their entire lives, let alone hear of.

Blake and Lilith were delighted. Though they did not know what such things meant, in their minds, being able to help Born proved that they possessed value.

Aside from Leman, who already had some experience with drafting, the other three had never come into contact with it. Born therefore demonstrated the process for each of them, then explained in detail the method of engraving and the matters requiring attention before sending them off to work.

As for the final quality, Born was not worried. With the chip’s analysis, so long as the general framework was in place, it would be no problem for him to correct any mistakes later.

If magical rune engraving did not require magical power for support, Born would have even dragged Sethli and the knight captain into it as well.

As for why Blake and Lilith were included, it was mainly because they were currently in a state of bloodline awakening. Ordinary physical training alone could not fully resolve the influence of surging magical power and negative emotions. Rune engraving, which demanded pure control over magic, was especially suited to those whose bloodlines were boiling. By the time they had finished engraving everything, they should also be able to master the power within their bodies.

This method was one of those recorded in the materials provided by Lisper.

In the days that followed, Born began acting as a supervisor. He need not worry at all about Leman, while the Ranger gradually found his rhythm by the third day.

As for talent, Harbwick might even have been stronger than Leman; otherwise he would not have been chosen by the elven druid. Even with those incomplete druidic elven spells, he had actually been able to cast them successfully through sheer talent, which spoke volumes.

Blake and Lilith were slower by far. What surprised Born most in the end was that, compared with Lilith, Blake understood things more quickly.

When Blake concentrated fully on engraving and channeled the magical power within his body, the transformation amulet would briefly fail, his twin horns beginning to show at the crown of his head, while his skin turned red and gave off the smell of sulfur.

“So much bloodline power. It seems this devil was no nameless nobody in the Hells.”

Born stroked his chin, watching Blake’s devilish features appear from time to time, and thought to himself, “The Material Plane really is irresistible. Once a loophole appears, creatures from the Abyss and the Hells will do everything they can to force their way in, not even sparing their own descendants. They even use bloodlines to leave coordinates. Truly worthy of devils.”

If Born himself did not possess an exceptionally high aptitude for space, he would never have detected that when the offspring of gods and fiends awakened their bloodlines, it could draw the attention of the bloodline’s source.

It was truly infuriating. Devils and even deities with an evil bent both liked to stir up trouble through their descendants.

Using offspring as vessels for incarnations, reviving themselves through borrowed bodies, and all manner of such filthy tricks were basically nothing more than treating their descendants as tools.

Born sneered, then added another shielding magic array to Blake’s transformation amulet.

At the same time, in the boundless Nine Hells.

There, the air twisted under unbearable heat. In rivers and lakes flowed scalding magma, bubbling endlessly. Countless fissures split the crystal-bright, searing ground, and malice-filled flames burst forth from within.

Within it stood a great palace fortress. The air reeked only of acrid sulfur. Deep in the dark and lightless depths of the ancient castle, two flames suddenly rose...

They were a pair of eyes burning with fire, seeming to pierce through endless time and space and cast their gaze upon the continent of Faerun.

...

At last, after a week, Lilith too could engrave independently, and Born was finally able to withdraw from the process entirely.

Returning once more to the private laboratory, he found that after several days of arrangement and tidying, supplies in the lab had gradually become more plentiful.

Born could not help but marvel that alchemy truly was useful, especially with the chip’s assistance. Whatever was needed, he could simply make it by hand.

In particular, the alchemy bench was practically an industrial mother machine of the supernatural world. So long as the materials were sufficient, it could produce even a giant combat machine. Of course, the protagonist would not be building giant robots; in this world, even the gods themselves might not be safe, and there were certainly no shortage of people capable of ripping a giant robot apart with their bare hands.

...