After returning to Inotia, the City of Magic, on Pegasus…

“There are a few things you need to create first,” Woohyuk ordered Dexter, the runesmith.

He ordered Dexter to craft Seven Color Rainbow Ring and reinforce Andvaranaut.

Both must succeed, so he called upon Dexter, who was the most likely to succeed.

“… You’ve collected a lot of ingredients,” Dexter said in awe as he stared starstruck at the items Woohyuk brought out.

The S-grade artifact he created last time became nothing in his mind.

Dexter couldn’t even fathom what kind of product would come out from these materials.

“How long will it take to complete these tasks?” Woohyuk asked.

“I don’t know. I think it’ll take at least three months,” Dexter answered while scratching his head.

In actuality, three months was just a wild guess, a.s.suming everything went according to plan.

After thinking for a while, Woohyuk took out the Hourgla.s.s of Time.

“You’ll be needing this. I brought it over from the Rhine Kingdom.”

“T-That’s…”

“Don’t worry, I’ll give you enough time. However, you won't be able to leave the workshop until you complete this mission.”

In Neustein, Dexter had a dedicated, private workshop.

It was also filled with three different types of combat meals.

After putting Dexter in his workshop, Woohyuk went to Aris.

“What are the current research achievements?”

“Eh? Asura~, it’s been a while! The a.n.a.lysis of the Qliphoth Fruit is now complete, and the treatment is being produced…”

A fairly long report followed.

a.n.a.lysis of Alice the Queen of Thorns was currently in progress.

The research on Unit 1 Ishvar had been completed, was reproducible, and could be commercially produced.

Other miscellaneous studies were also in progress through the efficient allocation of laboratory personnel and resources.

“How much longer before your studies on Alice are complete?” Woohyuk asked.

“I’m not sure. I’d say about 2 to 4 weeks, depending on how many people are a.s.signed to the a.n.a.lysis?”

It seemed that he wouldn’t have to use the Hourgla.s.s of Time to get results on Alice.

It was being used for Dexter’s workshop anyway.

“I hope we can ma.s.s-produce 100 Ishvar units to defend Inotia. I hope that the Homunculus, which was damaged this time, will be repaired in a hurry… Of course, the current priority is the production of treatments for the Qliphoth Fruit.”

“Okay~ I see! By the way, are you not going to the High Sage’s Arcane Tower? If everything went as planned, they’ll be exiting today,” Aris asked.

“I have to interrogate some prisoners, so you’ll have to go alone,” he replied.

After giving Aris the task of transporting the attack squad back safely to Inotia, Woohyuk swept his eyes past all the people in the laboratory. 

“You’ll all be working hard even if I’m not here to observe everything, right?”

“Eek… y-y-yes!” Alphone eked out.

“We’re always working hard!” Agnes added.

Alphone and Agnes, who were sitting and knocking on their respective boards, suddenly stood up and answered Woohyuk.

They were a.s.sisting Aris and learning the laboratory research trade.

Meanwhile, Lucas, who liked biological research, was a.n.a.lyzing the cell traits of monsters in the bas.e.m.e.nt.

“How have you been?” Woohyuk asked as he made his way down to the bas.e.m.e.nt.

“O-Oh! Oh, h-h.e.l.lo, s-sir!”

Lucas was frightened and took a military attention posture in front of Woohyuk.

Woohyuk glanced at the monsters Lucas was studying and then asked,

“It looks like you’re in the chimera research project group. How far have you been able to progress?”

“It’s difficult to say exactly in terms of numbers… but it seems to be about 90%.”

90% meant that they were almost finished.

Woohyuk nodded his head and gave a parting piece of advice,

“I’ll say it again, but don’t do anything stupid. I know that there are only girls in the lab.”

“I-I would never t-think of anything l-like t-that! I swear, I’ll focus on experiment and research only!” Lucas replied with a loud voice. It seemed that he equated loudness with truthfulness.

After leaving the laboratory, Woohyuk visited Cadiz, the Death Alchemist, who was locked up in a cell.

“Do you know why I kept you alive?” Woohyuk asked.

“… To find out Adamante’s secret?” Cadiz replied.

“You know well.”

The quest stated that he should kill Cadiz, but it didn’t state whether the alchemy production process of Adamante would be given as a reward.

So, Woohyuk saved Cadiz to find out for himself.

Of course, he was going to hypnotize him if he refused to answer or rebelled.

“I’m the only one who can make Adamante. Even if you steal a peek at the process or do exactly as I do, you won’t be able to make it,” Cadiz responded softly. He understood his situation.

Woohyuk nodded his head and then sent the guard outside to bring in the coffin and alchemy tools he asked for the guards to prepare in advance.

“If so, try it. Show me your miraculous alchemy skills,” Woohyuk said.

Inside the coffin was the body of a man who had just died.

Cadiz placed his hand on the body without hesitation.

SAh.

Black fumes rose from the corpse and gathered in the air above it, forming a sphere.

At the same time, the corpse gradually disappeared.

Woohyuk watched Cadiz’s alchemy process with interest.

‘That’s why the hidden cla.s.s’ name seems to be Death Alchemist.’

The corpse represented death.

Thus, the Death Alchemist used a corpse as a material to create a miracle mineral, Adamante.

The value of the mineral would be hundreds of times that of gold at present.

However, there was a problem.

Cadiz must be killed to complete the legendary quest that began with Midas’ Hand, but there was no guarantee that this process of making Adamante would be pa.s.sed along if he succeeded in completing the quest.

‘… One can’t kill the duck that lays golden eggs.’

Considering the options, it seemed better to keep Cadiz alive.

Killing and eliminating him was always possible.

Woohyuk carefully watched as Cadiz put the sphere made of black smoke into a boiling cauldron.

Bronze. Silver. Gold. Lead. Amethyst.

There were fewer ingredients than Woohyuk expected, and the ingredients’ amounts were very small.

This further proved Adamante’s economic value and profit-producing capability.

Soon, after the alchemy process was over, Cadiz covered the cauldron lid and looked at Woohyuk,

“If we wait like this for 10 minutes, only Adamante crystals will remain in the pot. It’s as simple as that.”

“Though each step in the process seems simple enough, it’s a miracle that only you can make happen,” Woohyuk commented.

“Well? Can’t you just make me work under you? I can work under you, for a good salary, of course.”

Cadiz knew that Lucifer, with who he had signed a master-slave contract, had died.

Woohyuk nodded as he recognized that Cadiz had already devised a realistic way to survive.

“What kind of salary do you want?” Woohyuk asked.

“Let me continue to live in this city. It’s okay to guarantee the minimum to sustain human life.”

Cadiz, an alchemist, saw Inotia, the City of Magic, and fell in love at first sight.

He never knew there were such beautiful buildings in this entire world!

Inotia was the perfect s.p.a.ce for him and a huge influential turning point in his life.

‘I want to learn magic engineering,’ he had immediately thought after seeing the city.

Alchemy was fun for him, but it did not leave a deep impression or motivate him like Inotia.

So, Cadiz decided that he wanted to become a magic engineer.

Of course, in return, he would provide Adamante to Woohyuk.

“You’re fairly innocent for an ancient devil’s contractor,” Woohyuk said with a slight hint of surprise.

“I sold my soul to Lucifer because of my academic aspirations. Research into the forbidden areas of education was always entertaining for me.”

It was the principle of wanting to do something more when it was not allowed.

Magic engineering was also an academic field that was largely rejected by the Eeth continent’s people.

It was natural for a person like him to be interested.

Woohyuk nodded and put his hand on Cadiz’s shoulder and said,

“Then, let’s make a master-slave contract.”

No matter how strong and pure his academic motives were, it was better to take the sure route.

After Woohyuk made Cadiz his contracted servant, he opened the cauldron lid.

As Cadiz said, a small Adamante crystal remained in the bottom of the cauldron.

‘It’ll take quite a few corpses to make enough to arm the army.’

Whether one thought it was fortunate or unfortunate, it wasn’t very difficult to find and gather corpses these days due to the great chaos of the times.

Woohyuk went out of the cell room with Cadiz following behind him.

“I’ll give you a dedicated workshop s.p.a.ce. Ask Fiona, the manager here, for details,” Woohyuk said.

“Where is Fiona?” Cadiz asked.

“Did you find me, Hero King?” Fiona asked.

As soon as Cadiz asked the question, Fiona appeared out of thin air.

“I guess you’ve figured out how to move around this place freely,” Woohyuk said.

“Yes, it was uncomfortable to move around in such a large place, so I conducted my own research and found a way to instantly move from place to place,” she answered.

Fiona then went on to eagerly explain how this technique worked.

However, Woohyuk, who wasn’t used to listening to technical jargon, let her words enter one ear and pa.s.s through to the other.

“Well, okay. If you say so. This guy is a new tenant, so please be nice to him,” Woohyuk said.

“Yes, Grand Duke!”

Woohyuk was engaged to Emperor Eleonora and received the t.i.tle of Grand Duke by Emperor Tiberius.

Of course, that didn’t mean that he was handed the Croix Princ.i.p.ality yet.

‘Ophelia will take care of that.’

While going through trials and tribulations, he gave up on becoming an emperor himself.

If he stayed still for a moment, a Catastrophe would occur, then ancient demons would come from the abyss and cause problems.

Places such as the Holy Aperia Empire and the Rhine Kingdom were more convenient to dominate indirectly from behind the scenes through a ruler.

He remembered that there had been such a case in the real world before being summoned to the Eeth Continent.

He couldn’t remember what the word or case was because it had been such a long time, but he recalled that the event caused quite a stir in that world’s society during that time.

After putting this thought off as something not related to this world, Woohyuk went to go meet the heads of the nine dragon tribes.

“I have something to say to you all,” Woohyuk stated.

“What is it, hero of the human race?” One of the dragon tribe heads asked.

“I collected all the tokens/marks of the nine dragons.”

In other words, he met the qualification to become a Dragon Lord.

Of course, his current cla.s.s slots were full, so he wouldn’t actually become the Dragon Lord.

The heads of the nine dragons were surprised by Woohyuk’s remarks and took a few steps backward.

“Well, then, this person is our ruler?” one dragon tribe head shouted out.

“There is clearly a precedent, Carlos, but…” another murmured in shock.

“I never expected another Dragon Lord to appear so quickly!” another shouted hysterically.

All the dragon tribe heads seemed at a loss, that is, except for the Yellow Dragon King, Adakar.

“Excellent, human. I knew you could do it,” Adakar said.

“But there’s a problem. I can’t become a Dragon Lord,” Woohyuk replied.

He then went on to briefly explain his situation.

Adakar nodded and asked,

“Then, to whom do you intend to pa.s.s the t.i.tle to? If possible, please choose a person with sufficient qualifications.”

“I’m going to choose either Lia or Canelion as the next Dragon Lord,” Woohyuk replied.

Of course, he would decide after putting them through the appropriate tests.

When Woohyuk spoke of his plans, the heads of the nine dragon tribes responded positively.

“That’s a good idea. Lia is the daughter of Adakar, King of the Yellow Dragons, and Canelion is the daughter of Archana [sp?], the former King of the Red Dragons,” one dragon tribe head stated.

“How about we test them right now? This is an important issue for our dragon race,” another suggested.

Aris was currently bringing Lia and Canelion to Inotia through the flying shuttle transporter.

Thus, after waiting for a while, Aris communicated her arrival,

[Hing~ Asura, we’ve arrived!] 

[Okay, I’ll be there soon.]

In Inotia, there was a flying shuttle docking station where the shuttle could land.

Woohyuk rode Pegasus towards the docking station.

1. Previously also referred to as Hextech City