Chapter 56 - 55: Dragon-Marrow Pill (2)

Chapter 56: Chapter 55: Dragon-Marrow Pill (2)

Cold sweat bead along his forehead as the black pages of the Grimoire whipped wildly in the windless room.

?[ Soul Power: 2 / 22 (Nascent) ]

?Above the open book, threads of primordial golden light wove together into a miniature vortex, condensing ambient world energy into a dense, physical sphere.

?Ding!

?[ Reconstruction Complete! ]

?[ Item Generated: Flawless Dragon-Marrow Pill (Nine-Cloud Mythic Grade) x1 ]

?[ Effect: Permanently reinforces the consumer’s bone density, muscle fibers, and meridians, significantly increasing Strength, Vitality, and Speed. Contains 100% medicinal purity and 0% pill toxin. ]

?The vortex of light vanished, and a single pigeon-egg-sized pill dropped softly into Aegon’s open palm.

?The instant the pill appeared, a thick, intoxicating aroma of ancient dragon blood and spirit orchids flooded the sealed refining room. Simply inhaling a single wisp of that fragrance made the blood in Aegon’s veins hum with vigor.

?Looking down at his palm, Aegon’s breath caught slightly.

?The pill was a deep, translucent ruby-gold, and swirling across its smooth surface were nine distinct, glowing golden cloud markings.

?"Nine-Cloud Pill Veins, and 100% purity," Aegon whispered, his heart beating fast against his ribs.

?In the Beliath Empire, alchemical pills were graded strictly by their purity. Because natural herbs contained earthly toxins that could never be fully burned away in a cauldron, even a First-Rate Alchemist could only produce pills with sixty percent purity. The remaining forty percent was lethal pill poison that accumulated in a mage’s organs, eventually crippling their cultivation if they relied too heavily on medicine.

?Only the three Grandmaster Alchemists of the Imperial Capital could occasionally concoct an eighty-percent pure pill, and whenever one appeared at a royal auction, Dukes and Archmages would bid tens of thousands of gold coins until they bled.

?A pill with one hundred percent purity and nine golden cloud veins was something that existed only in the legends of the Mythic Era.

Because it contained zero pill toxin, a mage could swallow ten or a hundred of them in a row without suffering a single side effect.

?If word ever leaked outside these walls that Aegon possessed a method to conjure 100% pure, Nine-Cloud Ancient Pills out of thin air without a cauldron, without a flame, and without extinct herbs, the entire continent would descend into madness.

The Alchemist Tower, the Imperial Royal Family, and the dark cults of the borderlands would tear the capital apart brick by brick just to lock him in a dungeon and force him to produce pills until the day he died.

?"This can never be sold or shown to another living soul. At least, not until I am strong enough to crush the entire Empire with one hand."

?Glancing at the wall clock, Aegon saw that he still had an hour and a half before the afternoon combat class at two o’clock.

?Without hesitation, he tossed the gleaming ruby-gold pill into his mouth and swallowed it whole.

?BOOM!

?The moment the Flawless Dragon-Marrow Pill touched his throat, it didn’t even need to be digested. It melted instantly into a surging tsunami of liquid golden fire that roared straight into his bones, muscles, and heart.

?Aegon clamped his teeth shut, suppressing a grunt as the searing medicinal power washed through every inch of his ten-year-old frame.

Inside his body, deep-seated impurities were incinerated into nothingness, while his bone marrow absorbed the golden essence, growing denser and harder like tempered dragon-steel.

?Thick white steam rose from the crown of his head, filling the refining chamber with a faint golden mist.

?Forty-five minutes later, the roaring furnace inside his chest finally subsided into a warm, tranquil hum. When Aegon slowly opened his eyes and clenched his right fist, a dull sonic pop echoed in the air from his raw grip strength alone.

?[ Name: Aegon Noiré ]

?[ Strength: 62 ]

?[ Vitality: 65 ]

?[ Speed: 60 ]

?[ Mana: 95 ]

?[ Soul Power: 2 / 22 (Nascent) ]

?"Every single physical attribute jumped by more than twenty points from just one pill. Right now, even without using a single drop of mana or drawing the Flame Sword, my bare body is as tough as a peak Second-Circle Knight."

?After washing off the layer of grey sweat in the villa’s hot spring and changing into a fresh S-Class uniform, Aegon unlocked the refining room and headed down Starlight Hill toward the West Wing.

?At five minutes to two, Aegon stepped through the towering iron archways of the S-Class Combat Arena.

?The building was a massive indoor colosseum constructed from black basalt reinforced with Sixth-Circle defensive arrays. At the center of the hall sat an elevated circular dueling stage thirty meters wide, surrounded by stone viewing benches.

?The other 29 freshmen were already gathered around the edge of the stage. Standing near the front steps, Aria spotted Aegon walking in and immediately walked over to meet him.

?"You made it just in time," Aria said, before pausing a pace away and blinking her crystal-blue eyes in confusion.

"Wait a second... Why does your body feel so much heavier than it did before lunch? Did you go to the Treasure Pavilion to buy potions, or did you secretly eat a young dragon while I was in the dining hall?"

?With her Eyes of the Astra, she could faintly sense a dormant, furnace-like vitality humming beneath Aegon’s calm exterior.

?"Must be because the air on Starlight Hill is very good for digestion," Aegon replied smoothly.

?Before Aria could press him further, a loud burst of mocking laughter echoed from the opposite side of the arena.

?Standing beside Julian Von Draken was a tall, broad-shouldered boy with cropped brown hair named Derrick Vane, the ninth-ranked freshman and the heir to a prominent Marquis house allied with the Von Draken Duchy.

?"Eat a dragon? Don’t make me laugh, Lady Aria! My older cousin works as an apprentice clerk on the first floor of the Treasure Pavilion. Just twenty minutes ago, he told me what our glorious Triple Crown champion bought with the fifty Academic Credits he won this morning!"

?Around the stage, Prince Larsen, Veera, and the other elite freshmen turned their heads curiously.

?"What did he buy, Derrick?" Julian asked, folding his arms across his chest with an amused smirk.

?"He walked past all the First-Tier healing potions and spent every single one of his fifty credits on a three-hundred-year-old, completely petrified Dragon-Marrow Pill from the trash bin!" Derrick roared with laughter, slapping his knee.

"The clerk even warned him that all the medicinal energy had evaporated centuries ago and that eating it was no different from swallowing river gravel! Yet this country bumpkin still bought a dead pebble for fifty credits!"

?A wave of stunned silence was quickly followed by uproarious laughter from the noble faction.

?"So those 50 Academic Credits for a dead rock from the specimen bin?!"

?"Hahaha! I knew someone from a backwater subordinate kingdom wouldn’t know the first thing about high-level alchemy! Did he think soaking a petrified pill in hot water would bring it back to life?"

?Even back in the shadows near the wall, Veera let out a cold, derisive snort.

Watching Aegon make a fool of himself over a worthless stone finally relieved a fraction of the suffocating anger in Veera’s chest.