There were two thods when it ca to creating ritual formations. Ritual could an many things, but the one Michael focused on was the formation thod, more commonly known as magic circles.
The first thod relied on a concoction. This was created by combining various materials rich in a desired energy, things like monster parts, specific herbs, and other compatible components, then processing them together until the mixture could be applied directly as the dium for drawing the circle itself.
Once drawn, the caster would invoke their mana into the completed formation to activate it. The grade of the resulting circle was not fixed. It rose and fell entirely with the quality of the materials used to produce the concoction.
Better materials produced a higher grade formation, which ant greater stability throughout the process and a aningfully better chance of success.
The thod was flexible by nature, since the range of usable
components was broad enough that a resourceful practitioner could work with whatever was available rather than hunting for specific items. The formation mattered more than the mixture. It only needed to be rich in the desired elent.
The second thod placed its emphasis on treasures rather than the concoction. The circle was still drawn, but the concoction used to create it could be deliberately kept simple and inexpensive, since it was not the primary driver of the ritual's power.
The real weight of the process fell on dark-aligned treasures placed at the anchor points of the formation. Rather than relying on the concoction to generate the necessary elental energy, the treasures served as attachable conduits, channeling relative energy steadily through the anchors and into the circle for as long as they remained in position.
This produced a formation that was considerably more stable from the mont it activated and maintained that stability throughout the entire process.
Using both thods together, a high quality concoction applied across the circle lines and substantial treasures placed at the anchor points, produced the most reliable outco that ritual ans could offer.
Since Michael wanted to use a ritual formation created specifically to revive undead, all his resources needed to be rich in dark elental energy.
Unfortunately, between the two thods, Michael could only realistically use the first. He had a few treasures, but their elental properties were scattered across different affinities and could not be repurposed for this. He was severely lacking in dark-aligned treasures. That left only the concoction thod, which Michael happened to have materials for.
His blood.
After his first evolution to High Human, Michael had beco sothing beyond the ordinary. In the supernatural world, as one grew stronger they tended to begin embodying the nature of their own power.
Soone deeply aligned with life or nature energy would develop extraordinary regenerative traits, their blood and even their body fluids gradually becoming closer to elixirs. The stronger they were, the more pronounced those properties beca.
It was precisely this reason that the bodies of high ranking supernaturals were always considered treasures in their own right. Every part of them carried the concentration of decades of cultivated power.
Michael's evolution had made this more pronounced in his own case. Even when he was still a standard Necromancer, his highest
elental affinity had been darkness. He could use other elents before and after his evolution, but darkness had always remained dominant.
His transition to True Human had granted him a divine body embryo, which continued that trend and deepened it further.
But after his class transition from Necromancer to Death's Heir, the connection beca sothing closer to identity. The class forced him to use darkness as his primary elent freely while suppressing all others in comparison, and combined with his divine body embryo growing stronger, Michael's current physique had beco sothing that could genuinely be described as a physical representation of the dark elent itself.
His blood carried that sa quality.
For the concoction thod, what better material was there than that?
Michael called Lucky to his side.
The wolf in its humanoid form responded as he stepped out. At Michael's silent instruction, Lucky let the wood-aspected energy flow
from his body.
Thick roots pushed upward from the floor of the coffin space,
twisting and curling around each other as they grew.
Within monts a wide bowl had ford, constructed from
interlocked tree trunks dense enough to hold liquid without leaking, its interior smooth from the compression of the wood itself.
Michael glanced at it briefly. It would do.
He held his left wrist over the bowl and opened a small hole in the skin. There was no usage of tool. Just precise internal pressure applied to a single point until the flesh parted cleanly.
As one grew stronger, control over one's own body extended to things like this. It was the sa principle that allowed Michael to wear earring-type equipnt without needing to pierce himself in any
permanent sense. He simply opened what was needed and closed it again, leaving no mark behind.
Dark red blood welled up from the opening and began to flow down
into the bowl.
It was not the red of ordinary blood. It carried a deep golden undertone that shifted toward green depending on the angle, the two colors sitting beneath the dark red. The volu built steadily.
When the bowl had filled to a level Michael was satisfied with, he
closed the wound and flexed his wrist once.
"Just one more step now."
The concoction on its own would produce a workable circle, but
there was one more step that would raise the quality of what he was
working with considerably.
Michael decided to include his blood essence to the mix.
Blood essence was not the sa as ordinary blood. Ordinary blood
carried the surface qualities of a person's cultivation.Blood essence carried the core of it.
It was denser, more concentrated, and losing too much of it had consequences that took significant ti and resources to recover
from.
Compared to the bowl of ordinary blood already collected, a single drop of blood essence would carry more concentrated dark elental
energy.
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