The Witch's Magic Notes recorded over a dozen magical potions, each with wondrous effects—such as the "Brown Owl," which restored spiritual energy. The three most precious were the "Gate of Magic" potion, which helped Magic Apprentices who struggled to thoroughly understand spell structures forcibly advance; the "Silver Moon" potion, which aided a Magic Apprentice's normal promotion to mage; and the "Weeping Soul" potion, which could directly awaken the power of the bloodline in a healthy adult.
What tempted Lucian the most right now was the "Weeping Soul" potion.
Both the "Gate of Magic" and the "Silver Moon" required extremely rare materials that would be nearly impossible to find in a short time, and their prerequisite was that one's spiritual energy and soul already be close to those of a full mage. Only the "Weeping Soul" potion could be used by a normal adult after a certain amount of training.
It was a product developed by ancient mages to rapidly cultivate low-level squires when specific circumstances demanded it, at the cost of overdrawing the body's potential in order to awaken the power of the bloodline. As a result, its side effects were severe. Once someone used "Weeping Soul" to advance to knight, they would never again be able to enhance their bloodline through training, and their strength would be somewhat inferior to that of a normal knight.
However, for Lucian, who had little hope of becoming a knight in the first place and had already chosen the path of Arcane Magic, this was not a significant drawback. It was a method for rapidly increasing his strength in a short period of time.
The problem was that the materials required for this magical potion were either very expensive or very peculiar. For a novice Magic Apprentice like Lucian, gathering them all would be equally difficult. Moreover, if one's physique did not meet the standard of a normal adult, drinking the potion would not only carry a high chance of failure but could also endanger one's life. A healthy adult had a certain chance of failure, and the better one's physique, the easier the success.
The "Weeping Soul" potion was an outstanding achievement of necromantic magic. The simplified magical equation was:
Black Corpse Mushroom + Water Wraith Brain Tissue + Wraith Dust + Moonlight Rose Powder = "Weeping Soul"
Among these, the Black Corpse Mushroom was a strange fungus that grew on rotting corpses. Before maturing, it was a milky white like milk. After maturing, it turned completely black within a day and could remain un-withered for a month. It had a mild hallucinogenic scent, and consuming it directly would cause corpse-poisoning. The blacker the Black Corpse Mushroom collected, the more potent the final "Weeping Soul" would be.
The Water Wraith Brain Tissue was, as the name suggested, the brain tissue of an undead Water Wraith. The more powerful the Water Wraith, the more potent the resulting "Weeping Soul." The same held true for Wraith Dust.
As for the Moonlight Rose, according to the Witch's records, it was an extremely rare plant that emitted a silver, moonlight-like glow at night. It had an auxiliary effect when a High-level Knight Squire awakened the power of their bloodline, making it extraordinarily expensive—more costly than many materials that only a formal mage could use. A single gram cost one Gold Thaler, which was a hundred silver Thalers. Furthermore, when used, a successful brewing of the potion required at least ten grams, while the entire process of a High-level Knight Squire awakening bloodline power required anywhere from five to fifty grams, depending on one's ability.
The Witch had once considered brewing the "Weeping Soul" potion to rapidly boost her strength, making it easier to search for the "Ice Gorse" afterward. After all, the strength of a first-tier knight was considered formidable throughout the entire Vorlite Principality—enough to be a true noble. From what Lucian had learned over the past few days, all the knights officially enfeoffed by the principality numbered only a little over four hundred. Of course, in Altor, there were many powerful figures who exceeded the strength of ordinary knights.
Unfortunately, the Witch could not afford Moonlight Rose at present. As for the other three materials, she had learned that Water Wraiths had recently been causing disturbances along the River Belen at night, and she knew that Wraith Dust could be produced by combining the apprentice-level spell "Summon Low-Level Undead" with the "Blood of Evil Creatures." She had been forced to set the matter aside for the time being.
As for this, Lucian could only continue with his Arcane Magic studies for now, focusing on meditation training, spellcasting practice, and magical experiments, while secretly searching for information on these materials.
…………
As it neared the "Month of Blazing Fire" (July), the sky grew bright very early. Clouds of stunning beauty, like orange-red gemstones, shifted and changed slowly.
Lucian rose even earlier still. He had already conducted an experiment using spiritual energy vibration frequencies to replace incantations for spellcasting.
The magical experiment was a success. It was indeed possible to use controlled pre-vibration of spiritual energy to replace incantations for activating the "Ring of Uncontrollable Force" spell. However, the results were far from satisfactory, because Lucian discovered that doing so demanded an extremely high level of control, draining his spiritual energy enormously.
"If I use incantations in combination with spellcasting, three casts of 'Ring of Uncontrollable Force' would exhaust my spiritual energy. But using pre-vibrated spiritual energy for spellcasting, a single cast is enough to leave me completely drained. Unless under special circumstances, it's of little use." Lucian offered this disappointed assessment.
After one session of meditation training, Lucian's spiritual energy recovered. He tidied up the small cottage that had been left in disarray from casting the "Ring of Uncontrollable Force" and headed out toward Aunt Elisa's home.
"Good morning, Brother Lucian! Come have breakfast with us!" Evan opened the wooden gate for Lucian. He had been helping Aunt Elisa at the Altor Textile Guild lately and looked much more composed.
Lucian smiled. "Of course. I timed my visit specifically so I wouldn't miss breakfast."
"Heh heh, young Evans, you're getting funnier by the day. It seems a week of studying has given you quite a bit of confidence. Will you be joining us for the service tomorrow morning?" Joel was sipping a wild vegetable soup with softened black bread, quite pleased with the visible maturity and confidence Lucian had gained.