Sovereign of the Ashes

Black Oblivion’s task was not urgent, and Sein still needed time for preliminary research and preparation.

Since Sein entered the core ruins of the Eiyurant Papillon Civilization, a year and a half had passed in the outside world, while nearly four years had elapsed within the ruins themselves.

Current research suggested that the time dilation ratio remained roughly 1:2.7.

Over these four years, the Magus Civilization had breached multiple grid barriers and uncovered several minor ruins.

Even remnants of the Black Merlot Civilization had now been discovered here, confirming that a war between the Eiyurant Papillon Civilization and the Black Merlot Civilization had once taken place within this subspace.

For most of these four years, Sein stayed alongside the exploration team’s mages, rarely leaving the subspace.

After all, Sein was not one of those burly knights. Compared to boring guard duties out there, assisting with exploration inside the ruins gave him occasional opportunities to pursue his own research.

For example, during his time within the subspace ruins, Sein took advantage of his frequent interactions with Master Gilbert to repeatedly seek guidance on the deeper principles behind releasing energy from inert crystals.

Of course, Sein never asked for advice without offering something in return. He understood that mages always needed resources for experiments.

Fortunately, during his years on the Marvelous Plane battlefield, Sein had collected a number of rare specimens from Aquaria.

Master Gilbert always accepted these unusual materials with a smile.

On one occasion, Sein even spotted Master Valerie holding a conch shell he had previously gifted to Gilbert.

In the pursuit of truth, even the smallest imprecision could have profound consequences.

At this point, Sein could only unlock ninety-seven percent of that high-grade Gray Quartz’s energy.

While ninety-seven percent was already formidable, Sein knew that raising it by even a couple more percentage points would dramatically amplify its destructive power, based on his understanding.

Moreover, for mages, unlocking one hundred percent of an energy crystal’s potential was considered merely average.

From the moment they became magic initiates, they were taught that a truly qualified mage should be able to draw out two hundred percent—or even more—of a crystal’s potential!

Then again, inert crystals were fundamentally different from conventional energy crystals, making direct comparisons of utilization efficiency meaningless.

Even so, as a mage, Sein still pursued perfection in his experiments.

With Master Gilbert’s help, Sein managed to unlock 98.17 percent of his super magic bomb’s potential.

Though this appeared to be only a tiny increase, calculations showed that it would boost the bomb’s explosive power by nearly twenty percent upon detonation!

This kind of dramatic qualitative shift, brought about by meticulous refinement and alchemy, was the most satisfying, captivating, and exhilarating part of a mage’s pursuit of truth.

***

That day, Sein suddenly sensed a faint tremor while working on potions in the laboratory.

The vials on the experimental table quivered slightly, and Black Oblivion lifted his head, looking around with curiosity.

Black Oblivion was currently in his true dragon form and was sprawled across Sein’s experimental table.

Being treated as a test subject was hardly a pleasant experience.

Even so, Black Oblivion was happy to cooperate after receiving two vials of modified ancient civilization genetic mucus from Sein.

Based on Sein’s research and Black Oblivion’s firsthand feedback, the genetic mucus from the Black Merlot Civilization proved extremely effective at strengthening Black Oblivion’s constitution and unlocking his latent potential.

Among the civilizations the Magus Civilization had encountered, the Black Merlot Civilization was indeed the most suitable for research and exploration, as it too was a cultivation-based civilization.

This ancient genetic mucus had little effect on Sein and other knights and mages of Magus World, yet it offered unimaginable benefits to beast-type creatures like Black Oblivion.

That said, two major issues had emerged so far, and they were also the greatest drawbacks of this ancient genetic mucus.

First, Sein could not replicate several of the crucial special factors within it. Nearly one-third of the core ingredients in the potions he gave to Black Oblivion came directly from the mucus preserved from tens of millions of years ago.

Perhaps Lorianne could rework the formula or develop a substitute with similar effects, but that was beyond Sein’s current abilities.

The second issue was that the genetic mucus did indeed contain a trace amount of “toxin”.

In small doses, this posed no threat to Black Oblivion, given his resistance to toxins and formidable physique.

While this potion could dramatically boost his combat power in the short term and unlock more of his bloodline’s primal potential, consuming too much of it could also lead to severe consequences.

The most serious was genetic collapse, which could trigger a frenzy or even set him on a path toward death.

Before giving the genetic mucus to Black Oblivion, Sein explained his latest research findings in detail.

In the end, Black Oblivion accepted Sein’s experiment but excluded his two relatives from it.

He explained that he could not subject his blood relatives to such unpredictable risks.

During the actual procedure, however, Sein could not help but wonder whether Black Oblivion had said that out of greed.

Since Sein had not devoted all his time and energy to this research, the amount of genetically modified mucus he had refined recently was limited.

Whatever Sein managed to produce all ended up in Black Oblivion’s stomach, and each time, the dragon looked as though he longed for more.

On top of that, consuming the genetic mucus left Black Oblivion extremely drowsy, giving Sein the perfect opportunity to observe and study his physiological responses in detail.

Sein patted Black Oblivion’s jet-black dragon scales and said, “I’m going out to take a look.”

Black Oblivion nodded. His eyes had barely closed before the sound of snoring followed.

In that regard, Black Oblivion and Tourmaline were remarkably alike—no wonder they were siblings.

When Sein stepped outside the laboratory base, Yuri was already circling warily through the sky, piloting her Burning Flame Unit.

She had clearly sensed the earlier anomaly as well. As Sein’s sole trusted companion brought into the ruins, Yuri had faithfully carried out her duty to protect him over the years, occasionally assisting with his body-tempering experiments.

Over the past two years, however, Yuri had shared a strange incident with Sein.

This had first been reported to her by Burning Flame herself.

According to the mecha, she had constantly felt as though something were watching her from the shadows in recent years.

She had actively searched for the source, yet found nothing.

As Burning Flame’s master, Yuri felt no such presence.

And as Burning Flame’s master’s master, Sein had also scanned the surroundings with the Faceless Mask, only to find nothing.

Could there truly be other beings lurking within these core ruins?

In the end, Sein could only dismiss Burning Flame’s claims as a misperception.