Chapter 395: Reaching Grandmaster Alchemist 1
｢Dragorugio - Set Equipment (5 pieces) (Optimal)(Infused)
Rank: Epic (Evolvable)
Effect;
- With 2 pieces equipped: Grants the passive skill 'Black Dragon's Heritage - Rank 2'
- With 3 pieces equipped: +30,000 HP
- With 4 pieces equipped: +2,000 STA
- With 5 pieces equipped: Grants the active skill 'Black Dragon's Roar - Rank 2'｣
Draco's body shivered. He had been looking forward to many things after his Rank up, but nothing could reach the level of his desire towards the Black Dragon's Heritage skill, for it entailed the entirety of his plans going forward.
Draco noticed that the stat boosts had increased greatly. His HP now got boosted by 30,000 points doubling the previous 15,000 increase. His already scary amount of HP that had been above 100,000 was now pushed slightly beyond 150,000 points, putting him on equal footing with the Captain Rank Ursa from back in the day.
His stamina had similarly doubled... only this was useless to him. Draco frowned when he thought of his Demonic Might passive skill that negated all Stamina costs.
Every other played would kill for getting 2,000 extra STA at Rank 2, even without the capability of further rising with higher Ranks, but Draco felt like someone had gifted him a 30-inch screen when he already had multiple 50-inch screens at home.
However, the set had been rebalanced twice already, so he would have to live with it. His only hope was when he upgraded it to Legendary, some change would manifest and give the system another chance to give him some other effect.
Still, he took a deep breath and checked out the two skills that came with his set.
｢Black Dragon's Heritage - Passive skill (Rank 2)
100% Source Origin of a Medium-ranked Black Dragon｣
Draco began to hyperventilate. It happened! It actually happened!
He had only dared to speculate this outcome back when the AI rebalanced his set as a whole, but now that he saw that it was true, his knees began to wobble.
What was Draco's plan?
Well, it was simple. He originally wanted to reach Rank 7 and head to other worlds to acc.u.mulate power, because becoming a True God tied one down to their realm of origin.
What was it they said? With great power comes great responsibility? Exactly that. Once he became a divine being of this world, wanting to leave after enjoying the power was a pipe dream.
HOWEVER!
A new loophole had appeared. The system acknowledged that per the quality of Draco's bloodline, he should be a Primogenitor Rank Dragon. There was no denying that, yet the mechanics did not allow for that.
So, in order to compromise between its directive for fairness and the mechanics, it had created this resolution. Draco would increase his Draconic Source Origin with every Rank up.
Rank 1 was Low-Rank, Rank 2 was Medium-Rank, Rank 3 was High-Rank, Rank 4 was Supreme-Rank - the level he previously stood at - Rank 5 God-Ranked (True God), Rank 6 was Dragon God (Semi-Origin) and Rank 7 was Primogenitor Dragon (Origin God).
The implications of this were clear to even a rat. Once Draco reached Rank 5, he would be able to use Divine Energy and control it, although he would not actually have the combat power of a True God.
True Gods were their own State of Being, almost its own race. One had to ascend through the Combat Ranks and State of Being Ranks to reach that level, while Draco was granted a shortcut to acquiring the State of Being of a God-Ranked Dragon without actually putting in the work.
The same restrictions applied to him for his Dragon God and Primogenitor Dragon Source Origin.
However, Draco did not give a damn. Shit, once he was able to use Divine Energy or later Origin Energy, he had many uses for them that would still shoot his power up greatly.
All he cared for was the State of Being, he didn't need the raw power that came with it. This also meant that he could never have a church, gather followers to bless them in exchange for Faith Energy, and other things of that nature.
He would basically be a runt of a True God at Rank 5 as well as a runt of an Origin God at Rank 7, but still, it didn't matter. Once half his foot was through the door, it was enough for him to manage.
Because in the end, he would retain the one thing the True Gods and those above them did not have... which was the ability to traverse realms! He would also be carrying his upgraded Source Origin with him too, ready to bully (or most likely be bullied by) those on the other side.
As such, the future was bright!
With happiness in his heart and contentment in his soul, Draco checked the Black Dragon's Roar skill.
｢Black Dragon's Roar - Active skill (Rank 2)
Effect: Send out a soundwave containing elements of destruction that boosts damage dealt by the user by 600% over a distance of 400 miles.
Cooldown: 8 minutes｣
Draco was startled. It had also increased, but not as much as he honestly expected. The previous 500% had only gone up to 600%, as opposed to the 1,000% he had hoped for.
Then again, the set was still at the Epic Rank. Damage boosts around and above a 1,000% were usually only seen on Legendary items and above with scary cooldowns of 1-3 days, if not longer.
Compared to this skill that now had a lowered cooldown of 8 minutes compared to the previous 10, he had no goddamn right to complain. The distance quadrupling to 400 miles too was great, as that covered more than the size of an entire city.
It was enough to do a lot of damage to any group of enemies and possibly even wipe them out. Draco closed his screens and landed on the lawn of the Evergreen Manor, where he had just left about an hour ago.
He retraced his wings and walked into the manor slowly. The various maids who had decided to stay quickly prepared a bath for him and practically dragged Draco in there to wash him down.
He had already seeded most of them, and since he wasn't in the mood to play, he just let them pamper him before leaving for dinner. Draco noticed that Natasha was nowhere to be found, and Hoover reported that she had disappeared as well.
He frowned but put the matter out of his mind. Instead, he walked to the workroom and locked himself inside, telling Hoover to only allow bring food and drinks in front of the door and knock for him to get them himself.
Hoover acknowledged the order and left Draco to his work. The fellow sighed and brought out Pair Dadeni first. As one could imagine, he was about to craft the Legendary potion he needed to reach the Grandmaster Rank.
He had many ideas on how to do so previously. He could try his luck and mix a new formula or try and improve an old formula he had created in the past elevating it to the next rank. Either way was viable really.
However, even with the help of the Legendary Rank Pair Dadeni, what Draco was about to attempt was nothing short of madness. He was going to refine the formula while crafting it, completing both at the same time.
That was like a military bomb defuser trying to defuse two bombs at the same time in the middle of times square. One mistake, even the slightest hiccup, and everything would go sky-high.
However, there was no one around to advise or stop this vile beast. As such, he took out many Legendary reagents he got from the markets and supply zones of the inner section.
He could naturally use Common reagents and raise them up, but it would disrupt his flow and make things harder. Working with actual Legendary reagents would not exactly make things easier, but the chance of failure would be reduced significantly.
Draco took out his Semi-Epic Alchemy set and began filtering the materials carefully. His refinement of them was slow and methodical, like a surgeon cutting up a patient's skull to remove a brain tumor.
As such, he was pleased when the result of this was a Superb quality batch. He never hoped for Exquisite or even Perfect. He honestly expected to get Notable or Average quality.
With Superb, his chances of success were even higher than before. After this, Draco gathered the materials and wore a solemn expression. It was time to begin the process.
He called out his Fire of War and used it to heat the Cauldron. He began utilizing his level 6 Refined Star Technique, which allowed him to place the reagents into the cauldron at the (seemingly) perfect timing.
Every time a new one was placed into the brew, it would shake the entire cauldron and cause a reaction, but Draco was able to stabilize it each time so far with the help of Worldly Energy and his technique.
However, the fellow was only halfway through before he was sweating profusely something that should be impossible with his rebuilt body and his inability to lose stamina.
Draco understood that he had underestimated his current recipe and the method he was using to craft it. The kinds of things he did to conquer Epic potions when he was still at the Expert Rank could not be done to those at the Legendary Rank.
The formula was being pressured by the world, demanding perfection in its formation, while the brew was bubbling dangerously, as it was clearly something beyond Draco's level of skill.
As one could expect, just about 3 minutes later, the cauldron was about to explode. In fact, the cauldron actually did explode, but Draco was fast enough to activate the skill of the cauldron, Return on Failure, before the whole mansion went up in flames.
The ability to restart a failed process up to 5 times was his trump card in accomplishing his crazy feat. Draco had full confidence that he could achieve success in 5 tries. Worst case scenario, he would have to wait about 4.5 days to try again thanks to the cooldown.
Draco was sent back to the moment where he finished filtering and refining the reagents, his hands poised to throw one in. He paused to marvel at the effect of what was clearly time magic, before repeating the same process again.
This time, he spent less effort on making the brew perfect, but rather observing the chain reactions between the reagents as they were put in with his Eyes of Caelo.
The Void of Perfection could not go to the microscopic level, but the eyes could. He noticed some flaws in his placement process that the level 6 Refined Star Technique failed to account for due to the very same issue mentioned above.
It was too late to rectify those flaws, so he simply noted them and continued with the process, putting any new flaw that appeared to mind. He let his body move on auto-pilot with the technique while his mind was busy extrapolating the data from what he was seeing.
He was editing the formula a bit in his head while his body had begun the crafting process and was stirring. Draco had to become a bit more active here as only he could channel Worldly Energy into the brew to stifle it.
However, with the Eyes of Caelo, Draco noticed something shocking. The Worldly Energy he was infusing into the brew didn't have the same effect of purifying and calming the brew, but rather tainted and forcibly suppressed it, which led to a stronger rebound.
Draco was puzzled by this but didn't stop the process. He continued to watch it all with the eyes and saw that the brew became more unsteady with every passing second, and the more he stifled it, the lower the quality of the brew, and the more violent it became.
Draco understood now that even if he miraculously succeeded in this, he would most likely end up with a Semi-Legendary potion and not a Legendary one with how much it had degraded.
Naturally, the brew soon exploded, but the fellow used his second chance to restart everything, returning to just after filtering the materials. Since he could not afford to pause here, as the refined materials would be tainted after time, he had to toss them in.
This time, he followed the new sequence he hastily drafted in his mind. He was pleased to find that it was less volatile and more acceptable, but Draco still needed to ponder the effect he saw before.