"Teacher."
In the study, Xieman and Corey bowed respectfully to Sunan.
Even after becoming wizards, the two maintained the reverence and admiration they had for Sunan during their apprenticeship.
"Not bad. You two haven't let me down."
A look of approval appeared on Sunan's face.
Among the seven wizards in the Star Alliance, five had been recruited from outside and advanced from third-tier wizard apprentices. Only Xieman and Corey were true products of Starlight Academy.
This proved the effectiveness of the academy's training system.
"As your teacher, I shouldn't be stingy. These two wizard weapons will serve as your rewards."
With a wave of his hand, a ring and a black spearhead appeared out of thin air, floating into Xieman's palm.
Corey received the same items.
"These are Restricted Zone and Black Thunder, both first-tier wizard weapons. Instructions for their use are inscribed within. Just imprint your spiritual mark, and you'll understand."
Considering the two had recently advanced, Sunan provided only four-time enhanced first-tier wizard weapons.
These were similar in power to the ones he had crafted after his own advancement, but they were far superior to the unenhanced versions available on the Star Alliance's exchange list.
"Thank you, Teacher!"
Xieman and Corey's faces lit up with joy.
They knew well how precious wizard weapons were. Even wizards like Scepter and Rose, who had advanced decades before them, only possessed a single wizard weapon each—painstakingly earned through contribution points.
By comparison, receiving two weapons right after their advancement was a stroke of incredible fortune.
"If you have questions about being a wizard, consult Scepter and Rose. It's time you learn some things."
Sunan left the two visibly curious apprentices with this cryptic advice and dismissed them after a few words of encouragement.
"As the planar barrier continues to recover and the concentration of energy particles rises, more people will advance to wizards."
"Unfortunately, the resources on the Starlight Continent take time to recover. Even with the magical cube, I can't supply all the resources needed for the cultivation of so many wizards. Without adequate resources, few of them will likely advance to first-tier liquefaction, let alone crystallization."
Sunan could provide potions like Soul Crystals, but other resources were beyond his capability.
For example, elemental crystal cores. If Sunan allowed wizards to exchange them, a significant number might achieve first-tier liquefaction before the planar barrier's full recovery.
But Sunan himself didn't have enough cores, let alone extras to share.
Without cores, wizards had to hunt elemental spirits in the Elemental Planes—a task far beyond the abilities of first-tier gaseous wizards. It was a vicious cycle.
Only after the planar barrier's removal, when the Star Alliance could trade with other planes, would the resource shortages be resolved.
"With Xieman and Corey, the speed of elemental dust collection will increase further."
"If this momentum continues, I might break through to second-tier liquefaction in just two to three hundred years."
Sunan stretched his body before teleporting back to the training room to resume his daily absorption of divine energy.
Time flew by like water.
Sunan, who had never been overly concerned with the Star Empire's affairs, stopped paying attention entirely after Kaye's death, leaving everything to Lize's management.
As long as the imperial family remained the Ayanes family and there was no chaos, Sunan didn't care.
However, he did fulfill his promise to Kaye.
Under Sunan's orders, the Star Alliance annually provided the imperial family with resources dedicated to cultivating wizard apprentices. How these resources were distributed within the royal family was of no concern to him.
Over the following decades, the imperial family produced many wizard apprentices.
With more resources than others, royal apprentices grew rapidly.
The Ayanes family began to show signs of evolving into a wizard family.
By Starlight Year 1447, after more than a decade of experiments, Sunan finally synthesized a substitute for Orichalcum.
This new material, named Soul Gold, matched Orichalcum in malleability and magical conductivity but came with a slightly higher cost.
In the next seven years, Sunan developed substitutes for the remaining materials, finally assembling everything needed to transform into an alchemical body.
On the same day, he began the transformation process.
The procedure was exceptionally slow, taking nearly 40 years to complete.
By Starlight Year 1509, Summer Month (June), Sunan finally succeeded.
In the laboratory, Sunan carefully sensed the changes in his body.
"My physique hasn't noticeably strengthened, and my spiritual energy hasn't increased."
"However, my affinity for energy particles has improved, roughly equivalent to a 5% increase in spiritual refinement."
"This aligns with the data. It seems my elemental resistance has also improved."
Sunan proceeded to test his elemental resistance, and the results didn't disappoint.
The improvement was modest, only 5% to 10%, but it was satisfactory.
After all, the primary purpose of the alchemical body was to enable the engraving of alchemical imprints. Improved energy affinity and elemental resistance were mere bonuses.
"Next, it's time to engrave alchemical imprints."
Engraving alchemical imprints required careful consideration. An alchemical body couldn't bear unlimited engravings.
Each alchemical body had a carrying capacity, beyond which additional engravings would fail.
Just as a scroll could only hold a finite number of spells, a wizard's alchemical body had its limits.
The number of engravings depended on the wizard's spiritual energy and physique, as well as the type of engravings chosen.
Certain engravings, like Talent Enhancement, imposed higher burdens.
With his alchemical body, Sunan had already decided to engrave Spirit Reservoir and Talent Enhancement first. If he had enough capacity afterward, he would consider additional engravings.
In this matter, quality mattered far more than quantity. Maximizing combat efficiency and synergy with his fighting style was the priority.
Fortunately, the materials for engraving overlapped significantly with those for creating the alchemical body, saving Sunan much effort.
He immediately began preparing for the engraving process, starting with Spirit Reservoir.
"Quality over quantity, the most important thing is to suit your own combat system and maximize combat effectiveness."
The materials for engraving alchemical imprints overlapped heavily with those for transforming into an alchemical body. This saved Sunan the trouble of developing additional materials.
He immediately began preparations for engraving, starting with Spirit Reservoir.
In the laboratory, an intricate and mysterious magic array was drawn on the clean floor.
Sunan sat cross-legged at the edge of the array, placing one hand on a corner and slowly injecting spiritual energy.
A low hum resonated as the array began emitting a faint, misty glow, and strange fluctuations spread outward.
With a gesture, Sunan summoned a Mage Hand, lifting the nearby materials one by one and dropping them into the array.
As soon as the materials touched the glowing array, they melted swiftly, like butter exposed to heat.
Once all the materials were added, a layer of silver-white liquid pooled within the array. It resembled mercury, yet faintly glowed with light.
Under Sunan's control, the liquid levitated, forming thin silver needles that began engraving complex runes onto his skin.
The runes, though small, were intricate and incredibly dense. Each nail-sized rune contained at least a thousand interwoven lines.
A single misstep would result in failure. At best, the rune would become a decorative pattern; at worst, an explosion could occur.
One of the alchemical body's functions was to ensure that any engraving failures caused minimal physical harm.
With his level 5 Magical Item Crafting skill, Sunan smoothly completed the engraving process.
When the final stroke was made, Sunan's upper body was nearly covered in silver-white lines. The gleaming, serpentine patterns spread across his chest and back like coiling snakes.
The mysterious runes emitted a faint glow, appearing both eerie and aesthetically beautiful, like an ultimate work of art.
In moments of crisis, a single thought could activate these lines, granting the user immense power.
Sunan inspected the alchemical imprints with satisfaction.
With a mere thought, the silver patterns faded into his skin and reappeared as he willed, a practical feature unlike magical tattoos, which were always visible and easily exploited by enemies.
Calming his excitement, Sunan began testing the Spirit Reservoir, channeling spiritual energy into it.
However, even after the engraving was fully charged, it had only consumed about 20% of his spiritual energy.
"So little?"
Sunan frowned but quickly understood the reason.
The data referenced a second-tier gaseous wizard with two basic-grade talent crystals. However, Sunan possessed two super-tier talent crystals, vastly exceeding the baseline capacity.
In light of this, consuming only 20% of his spiritual energy was not surprising.
Understanding this, Sunan felt somewhat disappointed. If it could only hold 20% of his spiritual energy, the Spirit Reservoir would be far less useful to him—unless he enhanced it.
"Should I try synthesizing the alchemical imprint?"
Sunan examined the silver lines on his body, his expression contemplative.
Unlike physical objects, alchemical imprints used the body as a medium. They could not be simply thrown into the magical cube for synthesis.
He couldn't very well put himself into the cube, nor would that produce the required quantity.
However, this wasn't the first time Sunan had encountered such a situation.
Previously, he had faced a similar challenge with Talent Crystal Models. These intangible entities were successfully synthesized by integrating them with crystallized divine energy, providing a physical medium.
The same approach could work for alchemical imprints.
Without delay, Sunan extracted divine energy from an elemental crystal core, condensing it into a crystal. He then separated the Spirit Reservoir imprint from his body and fused it into the divine energy crystal.
As the fusion completed, the crystal emitted a dazzling silver glow, its entire surface turning radiant.
Sunan's lips curved into a smile.
If the fusion succeeded, synthesis was almost guaranteed to work.
Having verified the method, Sunan prioritized synthesizing Talent Enhancement instead.
Compared to the Spirit Reservoir, Talent Enhancement offered a more immediate boost to his combat power.
After engraving Talent Enhancement, Sunan conducted field tests.
The results were satisfactory.
Upon activation, the effects of both Liquid Metal and Absolute Zone were enhanced by over 20%.
Though slightly below the documented average, the results were reasonable given the advanced grade of his talent crystals.
Encouraged, Sunan produced more divine energy crystals containing Talent Enhancement, continuously synthesizing and testing.
After each synthesis, the new engraving was integrated back into his body for further testing, ensuring it did not exceed his tolerance before being extracted for the next synthesis.
Sunan was pleased to find that as Talent Enhancement grew stronger, the resulting effects began to push the limits of his control.
A weapon too sharp could cut its wielder.
After synthesizing the fifth Talent Enhancement, Sunan halted the process.
Further enhancements could turn this asset into a liability.
Fortunately, the strengthened Talent Enhancement now boosted his talent abilities by nearly 60% while consuming only half his body's load capacity. Sunan was more than satisfied.
With Talent Enhancement resolved, Sunan turned his focus back to the Spirit Reservoir, synthesizing six iterations before reaching the limit of his remaining capacity.
The upgraded Spirit Reservoir could now store his entire pool of spiritual energy, effectively doubling his reserves.
These two alchemical imprints brought Sunan's alchemical body to its limit, preventing additional engravings.
But Sunan was content.
With these two imprints, he felt confident in taking on a third-tier gaseous wizard.
Enchanted gems, wizard weapons, and alchemical imprints—these were Sunan's core assets.
Few in number, but each was a potent force in its own right.
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