CH 235

“This reaction is a bit different than usual… shouldn’t we stop?”

Knowing that the rotational speed of the extractor should be constant once it reached a certain equilibrium, Quiet Heaven expressed concern when the extractor seemed to constantly increase its rotational speed; however, Merlin shook his head. Since Merlin was focused on other things, he couldn’t afford to answer Quiet Heaven verbally.

Ting!

In the ever-accelerating extractor, Merlin recalled what happened when he received his Howling Archer [Occupation] title.

Merlin, Yongno’s second self, was aware of the existence of bonus stats, but Merlin was surprised to find that his stats rose as soon as he received his occupation as a Howling Archer.

Unlike when he raised his ability and skills through training, wherein his stats changed based on how much he developed, when Merlin received the Howling Archer occupation title, his stat window displayed the change ‘first’, and later his body and spiritual power reflected this stat ‘change’.

Since all users’ bodies were made of a rare resource called Anyform Stones, based on the observed reaction when he received his Howling Archer occupation title, Merlin deduced and realized that users who trained or meditated to increase their mana were essentially raising the quality level of their allocated Anyform Stones; on the other hand, development through the increase of stat points meant that a user was allocated a greater quantity of Anyform Stones.

‘Of course, it’s probably impossible to separate the Anyform Stones that comprise a user’s body. The main issue is that the DIO system’s protection mechanisms are considerable, and, above all, the shape is fixed.’

If a user’s arm was cut off, the severed arm would remain intact for a while before dispersing into golden smoke. As soon as the Anyform Stone, which could be made into any material, was separated from a user’s body, it turned into a rare-metal, in this case, a gold colored, ‘pass-through’ material that could easily be transported through space, allowing the material to automatically return to Dynamic Island, where it could be reallocated.

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Since the Anyform Stone was a precious metal with great value, even the all-powerful Noblesse took a considerable number of precautions to protect this precious resource. If someone really wanted to obtain the Anyform Stone within a user, one would have to create a tremendously large facility where one could trap another’s soul, with no chance of escape, and kill the user within that hermetically sealed-like space. However, since the Noblesse put various protections on their Anyform Stones, in the worst-case scenario, the taken stone would harden and turn into a useless stone, so if one really wanted to steal it, one would have to overwhelmingly surpass the Noblesse’s defenses and skills.

However, there was one fluid and freely changing conceptual Anyform Stone.

‘Bonus stats.’

Of course, the bonus stat allocation of Anyform Stones was a very small amount compared to the overall Anyform Stones that made up a user’s body. Above all, DIO’s system essentially made it so that one would constantly use up one’s bonus stat points once one obtained them, so it wasn’t very practical for a user to be in possession of a substantial number of bonus stat points. However, Merlin’s bonus stat points currently read ‘2,550 points’.

100 bonus stat points were given at each level increase up to Level 10. From Level 11 to 15, 150 bonus stat points were given for each level increase. From Level 16 and above, 200 bonus stat points were given for each level increase. Merlin was currently a Level 19 user. He received all the bonus stat points he could get before reaching the transcendent realm, and he hadn’t used a single bonus stat point; thus, he had amassed the maximum of 2,550 bonus stat points.

Obviously, this was a huge amount. With 2,100 points, let alone the 2,550 that Merlin possessed, one could raise one’s spiritual power from 0 to 600 points in one go. In terms of internal energy, one’s internal energy would increase by 1,550 years in one go.

For internal energy users, 1,550 years of increased internal energy equaled an additional 25 cycles and 50 years of internal energy. Once these bonus stat points were added on top of the base stats that a user possessed, one could imagine just how strong users could become through the use of bonus stat points.

However, because Yongno didn’t use any of his bonus stat points, Yongno’s stats were considerably lower than Arthur’s when Yongno and Arthur were both Level 19.

In terms of stats alone, Yongno was slightly inferior to a general Master. After reaching a certain level, Yongno had focused on developing his internal energy and magic power, so, although his spiritual power was quite high, his other stat areas were quite lacking compared to other users at the various relative levels. If one were to ask how Yongno was able to not fall behind even amid this drastic difference in stats…

‘Everything that I lacked was shored up with my gear and items.’

Unlike other games, in DIO, there was no stat requirement or limitation to equip gear or use weapons. The only condition was one’s level. Due to this, Yongno had covered his entire body with a lot of reinforced gear items, which recalibrated and upgraded his base stats. Bruce, the rich pay-to-play user, was a walking billboard of the fanciest and most expensive magic items, but even Bruce couldn’t contend against Merlin, the primary producer and exclusive supplier of the most sought out reinforced magic items.

Ting!

“Ugh!”

While Merlin was immersed in these various thoughts, the centrifugal pressure the extractor exerted on him was getting stronger. To be precise, it wasn’t pressure. It wasn’t a suppressing power but a form of extraction power that was gathering and forcefully pulling out his spiritual power in a centrifugal process.

“Are you alright?”

“No. I feel like I’m going to die.”

Merlin was only barely able to open his mouth and offer an answer. He felt no pain. Although there was no pain, there was still a lingering sense and feeling of pain. The feeling of a mighty flow of mana forcibly overturning the power inside one’s body wasn’t a pleasant experience. The influence of the rotation of mana in one’s body was so strong that a great number of ancient martial artists and mages had undergone Qigong Deviation in the past due to runaway mana circulation.

‘Should I consider myself lucky? The Seven Jewel School and the Golden Pill Immortal Technique… both techniques are rooted in the materialization of mana, so the unity of my mana is relatively strong.’

The rotation kept getting faster and faster. But even so, the reaction Merlin expected didn’t occur.

Whoosh! Crack!

Instead, a different reaction occurred. Countless cracks formed on his skin, and golden smoke leaked out, as the sound of his bones twisting and breaking started to ring out. When the rotation of mana exceeded a certain level, the rotation of mana began to exert physical force on Merlin’s body, and Merlin’s body, which didn’t possess a particularly high HP, became injured.

“Hey! This isn’t right! I’m going to shut this off!”

“No!”

When Quiet Heaven was about to move, Merlin yelled out. Merlin then refocused his mind to withstand the barrage of outside interference on his body by concentrating and focusing his spiritual power.

And at that moment…

Whoosh!

A handful of light masses emanated from his damaged skin and gathered in one place according to the flow of the extractor. Quiet Heaven continued to express its doubts.

“Huh? What? Why isn’t your blood disappearing?”

When users bled, the blood normally turned into golden smoke and scattered. The blood would become a ‘pass-through’ material, with its unique property of leaping through space and returning to its original source. The blood that had just leaked from Merlin’s body turned golden in color, as expected, but it wasn’t converting into the usual pass-through material.

“Turn it off!”

Hearing Merlin’s scream, Quiet Heaven stopped the extractor. At the same time, Merlin, who was sitting in a seated lotus position, quickly escaped from the extractor and let out a breath that he had been holding in.

“Ugh! Ack! Damn it. It’s a lot harder than I imagined. I thought it wouldn’t be too bad because of DIO’s pain control system.”

“Duh! This extractor wasn’t made for people to enter in the first place! Anyway, what the hell is that? Did you have poison or something foreign in your body?”

Based on his worldview and breadth of understanding, Quiet Heaven could only infer this conclusion after observing the existence of a gathered mass within the extractor. In the first place, Quiet Heaven didn’t possess any special information about users' bodies other than the knowledge that they weren’t normal.

“Dude, think about it. What is extracted from an extractor?”

“The individual magic ingredients that comprise something.”

“Right.”

“…?”

While Quiet Heaven was still in a state of confusion, Merlin poured the golden, liquified Anyform Stone into a bottle on one side of his lab. Although it should be in the form of a jewel, the Anyform Stone could be transformed into any material, just like the mystical Philosopher’s Stone that alchemists throughout the ages had dreamed of.

‘However, unlike the Philosopher’s Stone, this liquified Anyform Stone doesn’t produce energy on its own. No, rather, it consumes energy to recreate a higher-class material.’

This was why users could only manifest for an hour on Earth and why one’s Divine Weapon could only be used for a brief period of time. Outside of Dynamic Island, which was a very special artificial environment, certain conditions and a considerable amount of energy were required to maintain the form and properties of an Anyform Stone.

“Ah, I get it! Wow, you masochistic bastard! That’s why you used your own body… to extract its basic magic ingredients…”

“Let’s head out.”

Poof!

In an instant, the two teleported through space. Even though there was no record of Merlin’s login and access into DIO, Dynamic Island was a space dominated by the Noblesse, so Merlin was mindful to move in a way that left the least trace and fewest number of witnesses as possible.

“It’s been a while. I see you’ve brought your bird brain pet as well.”

Aidelin, who had an impressive mane of white hair and a muscular body that was unlike an old man’s, spoke without looking back. As expected, he was fully focused on his furnace’s burning white flame.

“Ah, I told this geezer not to call me a bird brain, but he refuses to listen.”

“You’re a bird brain because you have a bird brain… What's the problem? Should I call you horse head?”

“Ugh, this old man…”

Quiet Heaven muttered curses under its breath. However, Merlin was surprised to see something else. ‘Oh, this old man, while I wasn’t looking, his skills have improved even more. He’s about as powerful as Aung Nina.’

Unusual energy emanated from the white flames within Aidelin’s furnace. The emanating energy illustrated that Aidelin’s ‘knowledge’ and ‘understanding’ of fire had gone beyond the Virtuous Gate (5th Gate), the gate that one reached when one initially became a Master, and had reached the Human Gate (6th Gate). Since Aidelin’s ‘understanding’ of fire reached the Human Gate, Aidelin could now rule over all lesser concepts of fire, which meant that Aidelin had become a truly powerful figure.

“Do you have a lot of back orders?”

“I’ve been focused on training, so I tend to leave the production to my apprentices. I’m only personally producing the most important items.”

“Like reinforced weapons?”

Aidelin nodded at Merlin’s words.

“Yes, like reinforced weapons. I’ve made so much money because of you that I’m starting to get scared. By the time I die, there’ll be an uproar over inheritance issues amongst my extended family. I make billions of won every time I make a weapon.”

In the past, Merlin’s reinforced weapons fetched a market price of 100 million to 2 billion won each. The reinforced weapons were created by applying overlapping spells to Beast Metal, which contained a spiritual life form named ‘Salk’. The performance of these reinforced weapons was incomparable to their conventional counterparts; only a few Divine Weapons and a few S-class weapons could compare. Since DIO was an all-consuming immersion-type game, the amount of money that flowed through the goods market was enormous. Though reinforced weapons were initially just in-game items, they possessed too much value to be ignored as simply ‘gaming items’ once manifestation became an option.

And now that the Noblesse had revealed their identity and aliens had begun to invade Earth…

“Well, it can’t be helped. There are so many people who want to buy such weapons… the going price has jumped more than ten times on average.”

For example, the +10 Fantasy Magic Sword, which Merlin had made a while ago, was recently resold for a whopping 30 billion won. At this point, no individual could afford to purchase such an item; the astronomical price necessitated the participation of giant corporations or countries. However, the larger problem was the lack of such reinforced weapons. This was because Merlin couldn’t and didn’t want to spend all his time making reinforced weapons.