The degree of importance Master Morven attached to this matter exceeded Pierce’s expectations.

  Early the next morning, he appeared before Pierce.

  Excluding the time it took Payne to travel to Aurora City to deliver the letter, the time it took Master Morven to arrive here was likely less than half an hour.

  Upon meeting, Master Morven got straight to the point.

  "Let me see Victor's corpse."

  Pausing, he added, "I have already set up isolation and purification arrays around the stone house. There's no need to worry about any residual negative energy or malice."

  Pierce nodded and brought out Victor's corpse.

  Having spent only a single day inside the dimensional bag, the corpse was already tainted with a faint layer of blackish-gray. Wisps of visible black mist seeped out from the body, condensing in the air into hollow-eyed skulls.

  Master Morven paid it no mind. He stepped forward and examined it closely.

  A moment later, he nodded with a solemn expression.

  "Indeed, these are the unmistakable traces of an Aberration's possession. Furthermore, it's already showing signs of developing into a source of infection. It must be dealt with as soon as possible."

  He then turned to Pierce and asked, "Where is the Aberration?"

  Pierce immediately handed over the crystal ball containing the sealed Aberration to Master Morven.

  Master Morven took the crystal ball, an unreadable expression on his face. He stared at it for a long while before putting it away. Then, with a wave of his hand, five Faith Crystals slowly floated toward Pierce.

  "You have rendered a great service this time. Consider these Faith Crystals your reward."

  "Do not speak a word of this Aberration incident to anyone. Leave it to me to handle. I will take both the corpse and the Aberration with me shortly."

  Pierce naturally wouldn't refuse such a good deal.

  Not only were the Aberration and Victor's corpse completely useless to him, but figuring out how to dispose of them was also a massive headache. He was more than eager to hand over these two hot potatoes. Getting five Faith Crystals in exchange was entirely unexpected.

  As long as he still had Zachary’s corpse, that was enough.

  Having concluded the serious business, Master Morven's expression softened slightly, a trace of a gratified smile appearing on his face.

  "Your performance has exceeded my expectations. To be honest, I never imagined you would be capable of killing a Rank 2 Wizard head-on."

  "It was just good luck," Pierce replied modestly.

  Though it wasn't entirely false modesty; he had been a hair's breadth away from turning tail and fleeing.

  Master Morven smiled and said nothing.

  A Rank 1 Wizard killing a Rank 2 Wizard—that was not something that could be explained with just the word "luck."

  However, this wasn't the first or second time Pierce had brought him surprises. He had a much easier time accepting it now.

  "Cultivate diligently. I hope that by the time you return from the Planar Battlefield, you will already be a Rank 2 Wizard."

  "Yes, Mentor," Pierce nodded emphatically.

  That was his goal as well!

  Well, his minimum goal!

  Master Morven soon departed, taking the Aberration and Victor's corpse with him.

  Pierce tossed the matter to the back of his mind and threw himself into his cultivation.

  With an ample supply of Faith Crystals, condensing his mental power naturally became his primary task.

  Inside the spell laboratory.

  Pierce sat cross-legged, his eyes tightly shut, concentrating entirely on resisting the incessant whispers echoing in his mind.

  At this moment, the vast majority of the gaseous mental power within his Spirit Crystal had already completed liquefaction. Only a few wisps remained, slowly drifting about.

  A moment later, this final wisp of gaseous mental power condensed into a liquid droplet, falling and merging into the pool of silver liquid at the bottom of the crystal.

  With this, the final step of mental power liquefaction was complete.

  In an instant, an indescribable sense of fulfillment washed over Pierce.

  He opened his eyes and let out a long breath, feeling as though his entire being had undergone yet another sublimation.

  "Finally broke through."

  A joyful smile appeared on Pierce's face.

  Strictly speaking, liquefying mental power didn't actually increase one's mental energy level. Instead, it freed up space within the previously full Spirit Crystal, allowing for further accumulation of mental power.

  Regardless, he was now a Rank 1 Liquid Phase Wizard.

  "Next, I can resume meditation to increase my mental power."

  Pierce glanced at the task bar. The deduction of the Bloodline Stimulation Technique still needed about three days to complete.

  After that, deducing the secret technique for increasing and condensing mental power would likely take some time.

  During this period, he would have to rely on Resonance Potions to supplement his meditation.

  "I only have about twenty bottles of Resonance Potion left. It's time to brew some more."

  Pierce touched his spatial ring, the corners of his mouth curling upward slightly.

  He had just come into a massive windfall and had more than enough Magic Stones to purchase potion ingredients.

  He could also buy the gemstones needed for his Magic Tattoos while he was at it.

  Naturally, he handed these errands over to Sophia and Payne.

  Poor Sophia and Payne had thought they were finally going to get some real combat experience to test their recent gains in strength. Instead, they took a quick trip outside, did absolutely nothing, and came right back.

  It seemed they would have to continue their arduous training for a long time to come.

  Three days passed in a flash.

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  The Bloodline Stimulation Technique was successfully deduced. Pierce immediately issued a new command.

  Omniscient Eye, using the Bloodline Stimulation Technique as a reference, deduce a secret technique for rapidly increasing and condensing mental power.

  [Task Created: Deduce Secret Technique for Increasing and Condensing Mental Power. Estimated requirement: 129.2 Mental Energy Levels.]

  "Not bad. It reduced the cost by over 150 points."

  Pierce nodded in satisfaction.

  As he had guessed, the Bloodline Stimulation Technique served as a significant reference for this type of secret technique, drastically accelerating the task's progress.

  Now, the secret technique would be complete in four days at most!

  Suddenly, another thought popped into Pierce's head.

  In the past, someone had developed a specific method to counter Bloodline Wizards based on the Bloodline Stimulation Technique. Could he do the same?

  Omniscient Eye, based on the Bloodline Stimulation Technique, create a spell capable of inflicting severe damage specifically on Wizards with the Yugoloth Serpent Bloodline.

  [Please set the specific conditions.]

  Pierce thought for a moment and added parameters.

  "A spell that can cause an effect similar to 'Bloodline Ignition' in Yugoloth Serpent Bloodline Wizards."

  Igniting a bloodline was completely different from Overcharging a Magic Tattoo. Not only did it fail to provide a massive surge in power, but it also endangered the user's life.

  For a Bloodline Wizard, the ancient creature's bloodline was entirely integrated with their physical body and even their soul. Igniting their bloodline was no different from igniting their life force and soul.

  [Task Created: Create Spell. Estimated requirement: 27,359 Mental Energy Levels.]

  "That much?!"

  Pierce's mouth twitched. As expected, achieving such a devastating effect in one step wasn't so easy.

  Since that wouldn't work, he had to lower his requirements.

  "A spell capable of weakening the power of their bloodline."

  [Task Created: Create Spell. Estimated requirement: 1,293 Mental Energy Levels.]

  Compared to the previous task, the required energy had decreased significantly.

  However, Pierce was still dissatisfied.

  1,293 Mental Energy Levels. Even with full acceleration, it would take roughly forty days to complete.

  He couldn't afford to waste that much time just to create a spell that only worked on a specific target.

  But if he reduced the spell's effectiveness any further, it wouldn't be of much use even if he created it.

  "Forget it. Spending this much effort would be better utilized on improving my overall strength."

  After a moment's thought, Pierce abandoned the idea of creating the spell.

  He could always revisit it later when his mental energy level reached a much higher point, and the need arose.

  As for when the need would arise... as long as House Prescott existed, that day would come sooner or later.

  "Now, I just have to wait for the secret technique deduction to finish."

  Two days later.

  The secret technique was successfully deduced.

  Pierce named it the Visualization Technique.

  This was because the cultivation principle of the secret technique involved visualizing a specific ancient creature within one's mind, forming a resonance with the soul, which in turn stimulated the growth of mental power—originally, it was meant to stimulate the bloodline to increase its awakening level.

  And because it was based on House Prescott's Bloodline Stimulation Technique, the ancient creature visualized was, coincidentally, the Yugoloth Serpent.

  "Judging by this, it should be possible to swap the visualization target for other ancient creatures in the future."

  Pierce thought to himself thoughtfully.

  But that was a matter for another time.

  Clearing his mind of unnecessary thoughts, he immediately tested the effects of the Visualization Technique.

  The results left him highly satisfied.

  Under limit meditation, his mental energy increased by 0.13.

  And this was without taking a Resonance Potion.

  The next day, Pierce tried meditating while combining it with a Resonance Potion. The resulting boost increased to 0.24.

  "Taking a Resonance Potion alone provides an increase of 0.13."

  "From the looks of it, there's a certain degree of diminishing returns when stacking the two."

  Even so, Pierce was more than satisfied.

  Under the current circumstances—even factoring in the diminishing effectiveness of the Resonance Potions—it would take him at most five or six months to reach the limit of the Liquid Phase.

  If he supplemented his training with Sprouts of the Holy Spirit, he might be able to push his mental energy to 64 in just three or four months.

  By that time, he should have accumulated enough Faith Crystals to immediately break through to the Crystalline Phase.

  Pierce immediately made his decision. It was time to head out, execute missions, and earn Merit Points. Only then could he exchange them for Sprouts of the Holy Spirit.

  "It just so happens that optimizing the Bloodline Mark still requires time."

  Pierce checked the task bar.

  The optimization of the Bloodline Mark still required over 350 Mental Energy Levels. It would likely take about seven days to complete.

  "There's also the technique for extracting magical creature bloodlines to strengthen the physical body. I need to optimize that as well."

  Pierce already had a plan for this.

  Strengthening the Physique was a given; he definitely had to keep that.

  But increasing Shadow affinity had to go. He needed to change it to increasing Lightning affinity, as well as increasing his body's capacity to contain Lightning-attribute energy particles.

  The latter was primarily to allow his body to contain more Lightning Elemental Power and bear the burden of more Lightning Runes.

  Being able to bear more Lightning Runes, in particular, would yield an immediate, dramatic boost to his combat strength.

  During his fight with Zachary, if he had been able to contain more Lightning Runes—not even that many, just thirty would have sufficed—he would have reduced Zachary to ash on the spot, completely avoiding such a harrowing battle.

  "However, to optimize it in this direction, I need to find a suitable magical creature first."

  The extraction technique Pierce obtained primarily targeted seven types of serpentine magical creatures.

  And this was the culmination of thousands of years of research by House Prescott.

  Adding a new type of serpentine magical creature to the extraction roster required an immense expenditure of effort and resources.

  But Pierce didn't need that many targets.

  He only needed the single most suitable one.

  Taking all factors into consideration, the extraction target had to meet several conditions.

  First, it had to possess a formidable physical body.

  Second, it must possess an innate spell-like ability to manipulate the Lightning element.

  Third, the species had to be relatively populous and easy to find, making it convenient for him to gather materials.

  Provided these three conditions were met, he would then balance the target's strength level against the final enhancement effect to select the absolute best candidate.

  Thanks to the Omniscient Eye, Pierce was now a walking encyclopedia. His mind stored a vast amount of information regarding magical creatures. Spending a few days to select a suitable target wasn't difficult at all.

  "Once I finish optimizing the Bloodline Mark, I'll start working on the extraction technique."

  Pierce thought to himself.

  Besides Lightning, the extraction technique could naturally also be used to enhance Fire-related abilities.

  But he wasn't in a hurry. He had to proceed step by step. Pierce intended to take things one at a time.

  Stretching lazily, he stood up, preparing to call Sophia and Payne to head out to the battlefield.

  White Ice City, Battlefield Buffer Zone.

  Gwendolyn followed behind three Wizards, advancing cautiously through a dense forest. Their footsteps made soft rustling sounds as they stepped on the thick layer of fallen leaves.

  The forest was quite peaceful, filled only with the crisp chirping of birds and insects—a scene of serene tranquility.

  But no one dared to truly let their guard down.

  In just the past three hours, they had already encountered two waves of attacks.

  If they hadn't been vigilant enough, their squad would likely have suffered casualties by now.

  Because the area was uninhabited, there were no real paths in the forest. In many places, they had to clear their own way as they advanced.

  The physical exertion wasn't severe, but after keeping their minds tightly wound for half a day, everyone was feeling a bit fatigued.

  The leader, Jorik, raised his hand, signaling the group to stop. He turned and said, "There's a sheltered cave up ahead. We'll rest there for a while."

  The others nodded in agreement.

  Gwendolyn let out a long sigh of relief.

  Of the four of them, she was the weakest. She had to expend far more mental and physical effort just to keep pace with the others' movements. After half a day of this, she was utterly exhausted, both mentally and physically.

  Seeing this, Jocelyn, who was beside her, patted Gwendolyn's shoulder with a smile and said, "You've worked hard. When we get back, let's hit the tavern and drink to our hearts' content."

  "It's not hard work. I'm a member of this squad; it's what I should do," Gwendolyn shook her head, then added, "As for the alcohol, I'll pass. I'm not a fan of drinking."

  The three Wizards all chuckled, traces of admiration in their eyes as they looked at Gwendolyn.

  To be honest, when they first accepted that lord's commission to let Gwendolyn join their squad, they had been worried that a Wizard Apprentice would drag them down.

  But after fighting alongside her, they discovered that Gwendolyn was highly competent, incredibly resilient, and possessed an innate, acute instinct for combat.

  Although her strength was far inferior to them—formal Wizards—she consistently made the correct judgments and took the right actions at precisely the right moments.

  She also handled all the squad's miscellaneous chores with impeccable order.

  After a few months together, they suddenly realized that having an extra Wizard Apprentice on the squad wasn't a bad thing at all. Gradually, they had genuinely accepted Gwendolyn as one of their own.

  "Your strength has improved significantly over this period," Jocelyn said with a smile. "At this rate, you might be able to advance to formal Wizard in less than a year."

  At the mention of this, Gwendolyn's spirits instantly lifted.

  It was true. During her time on the Planar Battlefield, she had gained a massive harvest.

  Compared to when she was at the academy, her strength had more than doubled.

  If all went well, she might even be able to advance to formal Wizard faster than Yuna!

  —Of course, compared to that monster Pierce, she was still miles behind.

  Thinking of Pierce, Gwendolyn's gaze turned slightly distant.

  She heard that guy had gone to Red Maple City. She wondered how he was doing lately.

  Just then, Jorik up ahead suddenly let out a low shout.

  "Someone's here! Everyone, on your guard!"