BXBX NOVEL Chapter 251: Altar Upgrade and Ideas
Cedric pursed his lips as his tools came and went out of his hands. Under his ministrations, the small Demon Soul Purifying Altar changed just a little bit.
It's general design didn't change a lot; there just seem to be additional symbols here and there. But the overall mechanics of the altar changed greatly because of the addition of new arrays. That said, the core function of the altar remained the same: it still purifies demon souls.
"Okay, let's see if this works," Cedric muttered.
He then took out ten Tier 9 Essence Souls and injected them into the altar. Once the Essence Souls were secured, he pressed his palms on the new array he installed and watched as the Essence Souls fused together into a single entity.
Cedric focused on and analyzed the process. Every minute change that's happening to the essence soul was reflected on his mind. Time even seemingly slowed down, allowing him to keep up and record everything in his memories.
In reality, the fusion process only took a minute to be over. It was quick, silent, and efficient. Cedric could probably reduce the time needed for the fusion, but it's really not that necessary right now. What's important is that it succeeded.
"System, analyze the material, please," Cedric ordered.
**
[Analyzing...]
[Beep!]
[Unnamed Energy Source (Bronze Rank)]
This material has striking similarities with the recently discovered Essence Soul, but this one has greater energy signatures compared to Tier 9 Essence Soul.
This material was created as an alternative for Demon Lord Souls, and like Essence Souls, it is 20% more effective than an ordinary Demon Lord Soul.
**
"Awesome!" Cedric exclaimed. Then, his expression changed into pondering: "But... bronze rank? What does that represent?"
"It represents that this material is suitable for planar travelers to use." Charles' voice sounded behind him, prompting Cedric to look at him. "More specifically, it's suited for 1st to 3rd Change Planar Travelers."
"Next is the Silver Rank for 4th to 6th Change, and then the Gold Rank for 7th to 9th Change Planar Travelers," Charles added to fill the gaps in Cedric's database.
Cedric emitted a hum of understanding as he went back to his craft; this time, he's going to try to create a silver-ranked essence soul.
Charles knew what he was trying to do and had a complicated look on his face.
The three of them were there throughout the process of Cedric's upgrade on the altar. They saw him work with an uncanny familiarity and certainty. More importantly, he succeeded on his first try, which was insane.
As an inventor and the literal Tech God himself, Charles knew that this was no mere luck. Cedric was way too confident in his actions for this to be called an attempt. As far as Charles knew, Cedric already knew exactly what he needed to do, even before he brought out his tools.
Beyond this, Cedric's display of skills was an eye-opener for him too. This kid's vision was vast. Charles initially thought that the rumors about the Young Sage were a bit exaggerated, but now that he has seen them in person, he can say that they're still underestimating him.
"Oh, there we go! A Silver Ranked Essence Soul. But it required 10 Bronze Rank Essence Souls to create. I assume that it's the same for a Gold Rank then? Hmm..."
Cedric continued converting Demon Souls to create more Essence Souls, and a few minutes later, the product ended up appearing before him.
"Nope. Gold Rank needs 15 Silver Rank Essence Souls," he muttered before looking at Gabriel. "Archbishop, I think we're going to need to build an exchange platform before we launch this update. Since we can't purify Demon Lord Souls directly, the users will need to exchange them for Tier 9 Essence Souls to use the new functions of the altar."
"That is a wonderful idea, Young Sage. Leave it to us." Gabriel was obviously more than happy to assist him with this.
"What are you going to do with the Lord souls you collect, then?" Charles asked with a raised brow. "You know that you're essentially introducing a new form of currency to the public by doing this, right? The supply and demand will start to wildly fluctuate because of this new addition."
"While it's not possible to directly purify Lord Souls, it doesn't mean that we can't convert into a different energy source, like you know." Cedric then looked at the Tech God knowingly before continuing, "...electricity?"
Charles' eyes widened in shock mere seconds after Cedric replied to his inquiry.
"Oh, that is devious. I fucking love that."
Charles then sat on the ground and took out writing materials before starting to scribble furiously. Cedric then looked at the confused pair and felt like he owed them an explanation.
"I am unable to directly purify Demon Lord Souls with my current skills, but that doesn't mean that I'm out of options. Since I was able to discover how to convert Demonic Corruption into a safe energy source for humans to use, I could think about dozens of ways to do the same with Lord Souls."
Those words caused Gabriel and Lissandra's eyes to widen in pleasant surprise.
"Electricity is the most common energy source we're familiar with, especially Tech God over here. While I still don't know how much electricity a lord soul can produce, I bet it's enough to create at least a handful of Tier 9 Essence Souls. That way, we can meet the supply and demand for them."
"That's fantastic!" Lissandra exclaimed. As an educator herself, she could easily understand the implications of this cycle.
"As expected of you, Young Sage," Gabriel praised him with a wide smile. Even he was a little excited about this.
Cedric didn't bask in their admiration too much. He instead sat down next to Charles and peeked at the design he's making. Well, he's not designing the actual model itself; he's still in the process of listing all the necessary materials that could handle a Demon Lord Soul safely.
"Care to tell more about your ideas for this?" Charles asked as he continued listing the materials.
"Well, I didn't particularly think of a design when I initially thought of this. But since we're here, I think the ones that we're familiar with already work just fine: windmills, wind turbines, water wheels, etc. It could be any of those. So long as it's built to withstand the full might of a Demon Lord Soul, just in case, it'll do."
"Hmm, I see. Okay, we'll go with that then," Charles replied. "What are you calling the upgraded version of Essence Souls? You created it, so you name it."
"Greater Essence Soul. Let's keep it simple like that," Cedric replied. "Oh right, I actually want to request something from you since we're on the subject of energy production."
"Shoot," Charles replied without tearing his gaze away from his notes.
"Can you make something that could also harness the excess energy on the Misdirection Formation they installed?" Cedric asked.
His request made Charles look at him. "What do you mean?"
"The Misdirection Formation was upscaled by you and your guild, no?" Charles nodded at that. "When I made it, I considered the size of the area it's supposed to cover. The mist it produced at that scale is just enough to focus on the purpose of'misdirection'."
"When you guys upscaled it, I think you overlooked that part. Because of that, we're draining too much corruption from the environment. And while that's generally good, that will also alarm the demons since, you know, they're the ones producing it."
"Simply put, this formation was draining too much corruption and producing too much mist. Before long, the entire continent will be affected. We could use that to our advantage, yes. But it will also increase the wariness of our enemies towards us."
"I'm just saying that we could tone it down," Cedric suggested. "We can reduce the production of the misdirected mist and turn the excess energy into something else we could use to increase our strength. We don't need to disappear from their sight just yet."
Charles gaped at him for a bit before releasing a defeated sigh. He slumped and grumbled.
"Alright! Yeah, sure. Give me more work, why don't you? Awesome, great, fantastic."
The sarcasm in his voice was evident, and it made Gabriel and Lissandra chuckle at him.
"Sorry," Cedric apologized, thinking that he's overstepping his bounds. "I can help if you want."
"No, no. It's fine." Charles sighed. "Really, it's fine. This is my fault anyway. Thank you for pointing it out. Don't worry, me and my guild can handle this just fine.
You should focus on maintaining your image while steadily increasing your strength. The stronger you are, the better."
"Thanks for your concern; I'll do just that."
"Alright, I'll go back to my lab now. You've given me a lot to think about. I'll see you later."
As soon as he said that, Charles promptly disappeared from Cedric's room, despite the isolation runes still active. Cedric didn't mind it, of course; Charles is, after all, a star traveler. He never thought that he'd be able to keep him here, even if he dared to.
Cedric then looked at Gabriel and asked:
"How's the preparation of the Sun Disc, by the way?"