Chapter 110: The Blood-Refined Divine Artifact 1

“Illumination! Healing!”

Kent cast two spells in rapid succession.

Light-element magic naturally suppressed dark magic, nether magic, necromantic magic, and undead magic.

Kent had no idea exactly what kind of spell Daphne had fallen victim to, but if it belonged to any of those schools, light magic should at least be able to counteract it.

He immediately cast a light-element Healing spell on her.

To his frustration, however, Daphne still did not wake.

Kent’s expression darkened.

If the Healing spell had failed, then there were only two likely explanations.

Either Daphne had not been affected by any of those forms of magic...

or an ordinary Healing spell simply was not powerful enough to overcome whatever had taken hold of her.

Kent suddenly remembered the strange staff he had taken from the kobold mage.

He pulled it from inside his clothes and, without further hesitation, began pouring wood-element mana into it.

The result was completely beyond his expectations.

The instant the staff came into contact with wood-element mana, it reacted like a starving wolf catching the scent of fresh meat.

It began devouring his mana madly.

Kent felt his magical reserves disappear almost instantly.

Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—Kent’s body was anything but ordinary.

The mana stored throughout his flesh immediately began seeping out to replace what he had lost.

But the moment that power emerged, the staff swallowed it as well.

Kent forced himself to remain calm.

At the same time, he desperately tried to sense the strange current of energy he had cultivated within his body.

He knew that if he could not find some way to stop this, the consequences could be unimaginable.

Still, there was one thing that gave him a little relief.

As the staff continued absorbing his mana, a hazy green radiance spread outward and filled the entire room.

Under that gentle green light, Daphne’s complexion quickly became rosy again.

The strange smile on her face vanished.

Her breathing grew deep and steady.

At the same time, the staff itself began to change.

The shaft, which had originally been almost completely black, gradually took on the faintest trace of green.

Kent closed his eyes.

He concentrated with all his strength, desperately searching for that familiar cool current beneath the soles of his feet.

Without it continuously drawing magical elements into his body, the best possible outcome would be complete mana exhaustion.

And that might not even be the worst of it.

Kent had heard that certain divine artifacts were capable of draining far more than mana.

If things went badly enough, an artifact could even drag a person’s very soul into itself.

The more Kent thought about that possibility, the harder it became to concentrate.

Sweat poured down his forehead.

Not from exertion.

From panic.

“Ghk...”

Kent clenched his teeth.

Cold sweat covered his face, and his thin robe was already soaked through.

It felt as though the staff in his hand were sucking away every last trace of strength in his body.

A terrible emptiness spread through him.

Still, he could not focus enough to awaken the strange sensation beneath his feet.

Kent was growing weaker by the second.

Even his thoughts were beginning to blur.

“Damn it!”

He bit down viciously on his tongue.

Pain exploded through his mouth.

A thin stream of blood slowly trickled from the corner of his lips.

Kent knew he could not allow himself to lose consciousness.

If he passed out now, who knew whether this damned staff would drain him until nothing remained but a dried corpse?

It already felt as though even the blood in his body were being pulled away.

His eyelids grew heavier and heavier.

What frustrated him most was that the strange current he had practiced summoning every single day simply refused to respond now, of all times.

Ever since Kent had discovered that peculiar posture could awaken a refreshing current of energy and dramatically increase his absorption of magical elements, he had never neglected the practice.

For the past several months, he had trained it almost every day.

And during his desperate flight from the Hellhound, he had even achieved a major breakthrough.

Previously, he had only been able to draw magical elements through one foot.

Now, both soles could absorb them at the same time.

That had been an enormous improvement.

But after making the breakthrough, Kent had never had an opportunity to properly stabilize or consolidate it.

Perhaps...

that was the reason the ability was failing him now.

Kent could feel the strength steadily draining from his body.

His consciousness was fading with it.

By now, his appearance had become frightening.

His body had withered until he looked almost like a skeleton wrapped in a thin layer of skin, and even the light in his eyes was gradually disappearing.

Then, at the very instant Kent felt as though his consciousness were about to float free of his body, his mind suddenly jolted awake.

Two streams of brilliantly colored energy surged from the soles of his feet.

In an instant, they poured into his Mana Source.

The Mana Source, which had already been completely exhausted, immediately began converting the torrent of mixed magical elements into wood-element mana.

That newly generated power then flowed continuously into the staff.

Kent finally let out an inward sigh of relief.

The elemental torrent entering through both feet scraped painfully through the magical channels within his body, making every part of him ache.

But Kent could not have been happier.

At the same time, a lingering fear remained in his heart.

If his Mana Source had not undergone that strange mutation—if it had not gained the ability to convert magical elements of any affinity into whatever type of mana he needed—then he would have died here today.

Kent watched as his shriveled arms gradually began filling out again.

At the same time, the staff in his hand continued changing.

Its shaft had originally been black.

Now, little by little, it turned a rich emerald green, until it looked almost as though it had been carved from flawless jade.

As time passed, the green radiance pouring from the staff became brighter and brighter.

“Good grief... that nearly killed me.”

At last, when the entire staff had become emerald green, it finally stopped devouring his mana.

Instead, it slowly floated into the air.

In its transformed state, the staff looked almost like a tender green branch bearing a single green fruit at its tip.

The brilliant light surrounding it gradually withdrew back into the staff itself.

Only then did Kent finally relax.

He had come frighteningly close to death this time.

More than half an hour passed.

Then a trace of excitement appeared on Kent’s face.

While replenishing his mana, he suddenly discovered that he had advanced.

He was now a Level Three Mage.

The space occupied by his Mana Source within his mind had expanded to more than twice its previous size.

His body could also store far more mana than before.

Kent was secretly delighted.

That delight, however, soon turned into a headache.

The staff was still floating in front of him.

And he still had no idea how to claim it.

“There isn’t even anywhere to place a spiritual imprint...”

Kent cautiously probed the staff with his spiritual power once again.

The result was the same.

There was not a single magical formation inside it.

And without a magical formation, there was no way to control the staff through the conventional spiritual-imprint method.

He could still hold it in his hand, of course.

But that was hardly the same thing as truly making it his own.

Kent gripped the staff tightly and began searching through the knowledge buried in his mind.

This time, he focused on Divine Alchemy.

“Damn... there really are other methods.”

The more he searched, the more surprised he became.

Apart from the spiritual-imprint method commonly used on the continent, there were several other ways to bind a magical artifact.

There was Soul Binding.

There was Blood-Refinement Binding.

There was even something called the Affection Cultivation Method.

Soul Binding required the user to split off a fragment of their own soul and implant it into the object being bound.

Once completed, the artifact would become directly connected to its owner’s mind.

With nothing more than a thought, the weapon could move and even attack on its own.

To Kent, it sounded remarkably similar to the magical treasures described in cultivation stories back on Earth.

Unfortunately, Soul Binding required several materials that Kent had never even heard of.

As for the Affection Cultivation Method...

that was practically the same as raising a child.

It required far too much time.

After comparing the available options, Kent finally made his decision.

He would use the Blood-Refinement Binding Method.

Following the knowledge stored within his mind, Kent used his own blood to draw an extraordinarily complex magical formation directly in the air.

This was a formation designed specifically for Blood Refinement.

Once the array was complete, Kent placed the staff at its center.

Then he released a portion of his blood essence and wrapped it completely around the staff.

The final step was simple in principle.

He only needed to pour mana into the formation.

That was the essence of Blood Refinement.

As long as every drop of blood surrounding the staff could be refined and fused into the artifact itself, the binding would be complete.

Of course, actually accomplishing that was anything but easy.

The process consumed enormous amounts of spiritual power and blood essence.

Fortunately, Kent currently had more than enough mana to sustain the formation.

He had no idea how much time passed.

At last, the refinement succeeded.

A brilliant flash of intertwined red and green light swept across the staff.

Then the artifact drifted gently downward and settled into Kent’s hand.

He immediately examined it.

The staff looked different now.

Thin red lines had appeared throughout the emerald-green shaft.

They resembled veins running through a living body.

Even more strangely, the crimson lines seemed to pulse and flow faintly within the staff itself.

Kent used what little spiritual power he had left to sense the artifact.

His eyes immediately widened.

The staff no longer felt like an external object.

It felt almost like an extension of his own arm.

Kent temporarily abandoned the idea of examining its exact abilities.

The eerie noises outside the room were growing louder and louder, leaving him no time to experiment.

Even so, the immense vitality he sensed within the staff was enough to prove that its origins were anything but ordinary.

More importantly, during the Blood Refinement process, Kent had gained a much clearer understanding of the materials from which the staff had been constructed.

The gemstone mounted at its tip truly was a Stone of Life.

And not an ordinary one.

It had reached three-star grade.

This star-ranking system came from Divine Alchemy.

Materials could be divided into five grades according to their quality, luster, properties, and overall effectiveness.

One star was the lowest.

Five stars were the highest.

By comparison, even mithril and adamantine were only considered one-star materials.

Magic Silver ranked somewhat higher, reaching two-star grade.

That alone was enough to show just how extraordinary a three-star material truly was.

Yet the Stone of Life was not even the most shocking part.

The shaft of the staff itself was made from the main trunk of a Tree of Life.

That material was also three-star grade.

Kent could hardly believe it.

The main trunk of a Tree of Life was not something anyone could casually obtain.

Once a Tree of Life lost its central trunk, the entire tree would begin to degenerate and wither.

And the value of a living Tree of Life was practically impossible to calculate.

Even ignoring everything else, the Water of Life it produced each year was already worth a fortune beyond measure.

Kent stared at the staff in his hand.

The more he understood its construction, the more stunned he became.

“This is way too damned extravagant!”

He could not help blurting out a curse.

That alone was enough to show just how deeply the staff’s materials had shaken him.