Glenn had moved the Gadfly which had been nurtured in Mina's drops of blood into his own body, and with it fully growing in his body, his mind was filled with a feeling of both delight and misery.
Glenn was gleeful because he had made surprising discoveries-- his capability in mastering fire element had been growing exaggeratedly. Beyond that, his body could feel, albeit vaguely, the existence of free fire element energy in the air. It had to be mentioned that the ability to feel the energy out there in nature belonged exclusively to sorcerers!
With the crystal ball floating in the air, Glenn conducted the Fire Bird sorcery which had an offensive power nine times its raw, primitive power.
Boom!
A fire with high temperature followed the explosion and when it settled, Glenn moved his hand towards the crystal ball and felt the degree of the attack. He couldn't help but yell in a thrilled voice.
"The attack power reached 138 points!"
Up to this point, Glenn had 29 points of mental strength, and 280~301 points of magical force. Considering the students' utilization rate of mental strength, which should be about a quarter, then the raw attack power was about 7 points. When the fire element attack was launched in the form of Firebird, its power should be somewhere between 55 points and 65 points, since the Firebird would enhance the raw power by 8 times. Then why was it indicated at 138 points on the crystal ball? There were about 80 points left unaccounted for. So, by doing the math here, Mina's 'Body of Flame' property had elevated the raw fire element attack power to a level that was tenfold! The Firebird enhanced it by 9 times, and the Body of Flame by 10 times! When put together, the attack power would be 19 times of its raw attack power!
Green took in a cold breath.
No wonder Mina had behaved so arrogantly and overbearingly in the Gory Test, as if no one could compare to her. Now with her Body of Flame, and 29 points of mental strength, Glenn could almost match her energy level, and he could easily pull off a fire element attack with over 100 points of power.
In addition, the Body of Flame had an affinity to fire element, and because of this, a fire element assault which was below 65 degrees would be totally negated by Glenn. And Glenn was still evolving passively because the Gadflies in his body were helping him become more resistant to attacks of various elements.
The Body of Flame was indeed a very powerful talent for sorcery students!
Highly strengthened sorcery skills led to Glenn's ecstasy. However, a crack had appeared on his Life Code, which sentenced him to a miserable state. Artificially modifying Life Code, however small a part of it, would inevitably cause it to crack.
According to Glenn's guess, if modifications were done more than three times to the Life Code, then it would then break down entirely. As a result, his life form would be in a disorder. Technically speaking, the situation would be what ensued when the Gadflies were fully energized and yet there were no liquids to control them.
And the crack thing happened when Glenn merely copied a tiny part of Mina's life information into his Life Code, and Mina and him were both humans. If it had been creatures of other sorts, his Life Code might have been brought to a complete failure by just altering once.
This restriction could be explained this way: besides his own gift, Glenn could only possess three gifts belonging to other sorcerers. Now, it was his realization that a sorcerer's strongest power originated from knowledge, and gifts would only represent tools that played auxiliary roles in a certain period.
Having tested his Body of Flame, Glenn recovered his composure after a long time.
"The Body of Flame is surely a strong sorcery, and I can still copy two more sorceries from others for my own use. Maybe I'm little bit short-sighted for now, but I'd still believe copying sorceries was a great sorcery itself. So there needs to be a name to mark it for its eternal commemorative significance. Let's call it the 'Glenn Secret Tri-Sorcery'."
Apart from the Body of Flame, Glenn's Life Code could allow two more gifts. But there was no need to rush in getting them. Body of Flame had been the strongest gift he had witnessed in the Gory Test. So it would be a pity if the two chances were wasted on sorceries that had less potential. Gifts couldn't determine a sorcerer's achievement, yet they could decide hisher orientation of development.
At least for now, Glenn had no knowledge on how to lift the limits concerning how many gifts could be etched into his Life Code.
As Glenn was leaving the room, intending to work on the intoxication sorcery, the demi-human bowed to him with a respectful looks on her face and said in a low voice:
"My master, Glenn."
Glenn replied by giving her a nod.
This demi-human was called Yulia. Glenn had promised to set her free and to let her lead a normal life in the sorcerer world. But the premise was that it had to be when the pouch in her body had evolved and had grown used to living in humans. By then Glenn would transplant the pouch into his own body.
This pouch was the crane's organ which had produced the liquid. After having done some transformation on the pouch, Glenn had placed it in Yulia's body for it to adapt to a human body.
Glenn reached out his hand and stroked Yulia's belly. She grew shy and her hands were lost for position, but she did not dodge. By using his mental strength, Glenn could feel what was going on within the pouch. It was displaying a strong vitality. By this vitality, Glenn knew that it had succeeded in adapting to a human body.
"Are you experiencing any discomfort?"
Yulia shook her head timidly and replied, "No."
"Ok." Yulia's answer was what Glenn had expected. He then replied lightly, "Then next month, we'll do the transplant operation. If successful, as I've promised you, I'll let you have a normal life here."
Glenn did not pay attention to Yulia anymore and walked towards the intoxication room in the laboratory.
"Thank you, Master Glenn." Yulia appreciated Glenn and sobbed in her delight.
'For that male subject, I need to preserve him well.' Glenn thought.
One year later.
The symbol representing the inextinguishable fire element had been etched onto Glenn's basic Fire Element Matrix. Thus, his understanding on certain properties of fire element energy had been fundamentally intensified. The change was as fundamental as the shift of liquid water being solidified into ice.
In a sizzling sound, a flame was produced on Glenn's fingertip. Glenn enjoyed how it didn't die out. Half a day later, Glenn had developed some basic insight into it.
This flame was most effective in attacking those sorceries and enclosements which relied on physical shields. The flame fed on the energy in the shields and this way, it became truly inextinguishable. But one premise for it to not go out was that the energy points stimulated by Glenn and his rival's attacks hadn't encountered a qualitative change. But even if the other side was not using a shield, his flame could still cause enduring and constant damage to the enemy. And this "not going to be put out" attribute could also be used to create a defensive sorcery--to form a flame armor.
If Glenn had been equipped with the Body of Flame and the Inextinguishable Flame, he would have been able to hold down the other six Desperaters in the third mirror drop place and commandeer their rewards. Actually, what Glenn was capable of now was the ideal state Mina' mentor had expected Mina to be at.
Apart from the two mentioned sorceries, during the past year, Glenn had upgraded his Fire Bird element matrix to the Bat element matrix. It meant that the Fire Bird's nine times enhancement was now upgraded to ten times up from the raw attack power.
"When the upcoming compulsory task is completed, I'll try to learn two sorceries controlling fire element. I'm lucky that there are several good choices listed in the library, otherwise, I'll have to consult sorcerers on the third and fourth floors of the Black Tower at the cost of magical stones," Glenn murmured.
All these sorceries Glenn had been studying were all achieved by element sorcerers who had used knowledge to lever skills up. And now, after Glenn had energized the Gadflies within him, with the pouch producing liquids to regulate them, he stuck out a finger slowly, and it immediately transformed into a tendril, and at its very end was a mouth packed with teeth, looking heinous and grisly. And Glenn's blond hair, when ruffled, bristled like needles made of steel, keeping his back from harm as if it was an armor.
As for how he appeared, unlike the sorcerers who had cultured Hematology Sorcerery, he looked just as normal as other humans, yet he had now embarked on the road of evolving to a monster. And this was definitely a road of evolution for senior sorcerers.
Several months later, Glenn got out of the closed stone chamber, which was used for radioactive purposes. He had stayed there for one hourglass to expose himself to radiation. He sighed because the radiation didn't work.
"I'm almost immune to this low-energy radioactive stone. I'd better inject the formula toxins now."
Another half month passed. Glenn, with his black crystal ball in his hand, was feeling his health status:
Mental Strength: 30 points;
Magical Force: 285~309 points;
Constitution: 36 points;
Stamina: 100~101 points;
Physical Strength: 35~120 points;
Vitality: 110~157 points
Glenn made a wry smile, sneering at himself for having such low points in stamina, physical strength and vitality while his constitution was measured at a wobbling 36 points.
As Glenn's mentor had emphasized, knowledge was not sufficient for a steady enhancement when it came to a constitution-building sorcery. He had to go outside for some exercise to line up his basic attributes (stamina, physical strength and vitality) with the essential power (constitution).
Still, a two-year compulsory task was going to be assigned. Glenn wondered what his mentor would ask him to do. But he was sure that whatever that task was, he had to travel far.