But Dulles’s talent was trash.
Even after abandoning the Corpse Hall’s mainstream “Corpse-Plague Acolyte” path for the “Wizard” path—supposedly better for those with strong minds and ticulous focus—he still couldn't crack the first-rank barrier.
So, he’d turned to a desperate gambit: a potion and a ritual to force his way through.
The ritual, of course, was the one Pandora had already experienced. The core of it was in the cultivation room. The rule was simple: kill the first person to “accidentally” intrude, and the ritual’s power would erase any “accidents” during his advancent, boosting his minuscule chance of success.
That was why, from the very beginning, he had to kill her. No other option.
As for his lie, about having Pandora bring another “accidental person” back for him to kill... whether that actually fulfilled the conditions of the ritual, Dulles himself didn’t know.
Pandora’s guess? The mont she left the ritual area, the whole thing was declared a failure. Even if she had honored that so-called “promise” and returned with another person, all she would have found was a cold corpse, completely drained of all value.
She didn't care much for the tedious ritual and its ridiculous restrictions.
But the potion? That was different.
In his notes, the script was practically spidery with excitent as he described his stroke of luck. He had, by so miracle, traded nearly all his savings to a retiring inspector from the Flesh-Shaping Foundry for a single, precious vial of “Witch’s Blood.”
The blood of this special creature had a miraculous effect: it cald the mind and stabilized the soul. For a profession like “Wizard,” which constantly wrestled with frenzied ntal forces, it was a treasure beyond asure.
But it also had an extrely terrifying side effect—it would cause the physical body to gradually and silently lose control, undergoing irreversible, grotesque mutations.
But Dulles remained suprely confident and optimistic.
He believed that, theoretically, this one vial of potion was enough to help him advance to the second rank as a “Wizard.”
So, he’d poured a massive amount of energy into researching the “Witch’s Blood.”
And in the end, he actually succeeded!
His talent might have been useless in every other respect, but in potion-making, he seed to have a shocking, intuitive gift.
After consuming more than half the vial of “Witch’s Blood” and enduring several failed experints, each accompanied by minor mutations, he had successfully developed a potion he personally nad—“Dulles’s Red Moon’s Tears.”
This potion could greatly stabilize the Witch’s Blood’s soul-soothing effect, amplify its benefits, and effectively suppress the onset of malignant mutations.
In his notes, Dulles gave this potion an ecstatic, glowing review.
And from Pandora’s perspective, the effect was every bit as good as he claid. At least, according to his own account, if he hadn’t used this potion, he would have instantly collapsed from the ntal backlash after his first failed promotion, descending into madness and death.
But in reality, Dulles had not only endured at least one failure, but even after Pandora killed the second-rank Live Iron Golem, he was still rational enough to hold a normal conversation. He had even boasted he could last for twelve hours.
And while that was ultimately proven to be the desperate exaggeration of a dying man, it was more than enough to prove the astonishing efficacy of this “Red Moon’s Tears”!
However, as excellent as Dulles’s potion was, if the materials were gone, it was just an unattainable legend in soone else’s diary.
But…
Pandora’s gaze shifted from the open diary to the ssy desk in front of her.
On the desk, two sealed, partitioned glass tubes lay quietly.
Inside each test tube was a single drop of liquid, like congealed, purest ruby.
Two drops of Witch’s Blood.
Enough for two doses of the potion.
Pandora flipped through Dulles’s notes again, comparing the sections on potion concoction and the advancent process with her own situation. The thoughts in her mind began to connect, to spark with new life.
The first rank wasn't actually a very “extraordinary” concept.
According to the definition at the beginning of Dulles’s notes, from a “general academy course” level, the first rank was, in fact, just a description of “an ordinary person with professional training.”
Dulles, an ordinary person who’d received two years of theoretical and practical education from the Demon Hunter Academy, was first-rank.
And Pandora herself? While she lacked knowledge, after several life-or-death battles, her physical fitness, enhanced by the Corpse-Red Mist, had reached a superhuman level. She absolutely t, and even surpassed, the physical requirents for the first rank.
According to the notes, she could even attempt to break through to the second rank at any mont!
If she were a legitimate apprentice of the Corpse-Plague Furnace, it would be perfectly normal to jump straight to her second-rank advancent, making up the boring classroom instruction later. She had already hit the ceiling of the first rank; the acquisition of knowledge could wait.
But…
Pandora wasn't optimistic about her chances of being officially granted a “power system” by the Demon Hunter Academy. She’d killed the Warden they had personally appointed. Thinking she could just walk up and ask for power was a fantasy.
So, the path of the Wizard—completely different from the Academy’s mainstream systems yet tacitly approved by it—beca Pandora’s first choice. Or rather… her only choice.
Furthermore, the “Wizard” described in Dulles’s notes revered knowledge, commanded the spellcasting power to warp reality, but was absolutely not the path of a fragile, one-hit-wonder spellcaster.
For Pandora, who’d always had a soft spot for the the “badass mage” class, the appeal was undeniable.
Better yet, she already held the key: the “exclusive potion” that would let her do it safely.
Pandora no longer hesitated. She began to search carefully through Dulles’s room.
Soon, from a secret compartnt in the bedside table, she found the book Dulles had treasured, the one passed down through his family…
the Wizard’s Book.
This book looked ancient. Its cover was made of an unknown, dark red leather, with no words on it, only a single, twisted symbol embroidered with silver thread.
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