Chapter 213   – Philosopher’s Stone (6)

What he said was extremely direct. This may have been why the Large Clans blacklisted him.

On the other hand, he was also slightly worried. Could he bring Henova in like this?

“It’s an important topic. It can’t be leaked.”

Henova realized that Yeon-woo was being serious, and put his pipe in his mouth. He nodded with a frowning face.

Yeon-woo began to explain what happened with the Philosopher’s Stone. He purposely left out the parts about the Red Dragon and Cheonghwado. Instead, he talked about how he gathered materials according to the Emerald Tablet, and how Brahm had helped him to research it.

Yeon-woo was a bit hesitant to bring Henova in.

Phante and Edora were different. They were similar in that he didn’t explain himself to them, but the reason was not the same. It kept on occurring to him that he might be pulling Henova into a thorny path.

However, Brahm had spoken without sugarcoating his words.

-All I can help is with theories and experiments. The only person who can actually carry them out is probably Henova. We need his help.

Something always goes wrong in the process of invention and creation. Finding the mistake and fixing it was the most important part, in this case. In that aspect, Henova was the best man for the job.

Then, Brahm had continued, making Yeon-woo’s heart heavier.

-I don’t know much about your relationship with Henova, but I know about Jeong-woo’s. They were close like father and son, right? Are you planning on breaking that relationship apart?

-I know Henova will be pained. And he will suffer. But wouldn’t that be better than living a whole lifetime feeling guilty about your son?

Guilt.

The moment he heard that, there was one thing that popped up in Yeon-woo’s head.

The Magic Bayonet.

It was the first artifact that Yeon-woo had received from Henova. And the summary window, it had said that it was made thinking of someone Henova cherished, and as that person died, the sword was filled with regret.

Wouldn’t that person have been his brother?

Henova had lived with guilt about his brother his whole life. If only he had given him better weapons. If only he had stayed by his side. If only he had cared a bit more.

Wouldn’t it be different?

And Henova had made Yeon-woo the Magic Armor Set with that mind.

-You said your fight will be filled with thorns in the future, right? And that you don’t want to take Henova in there. But that’s not something for you to decide. It’s up to Henova.

Brahm scolded Yeon-woo and told him not to hide anything. He said that ignorance wasn’t bliss, and that Yeon-woo shouldn’t be the judge of whether to put someone in danger or not.

From then, Yeon-woo began to change his mind to tell Henova everything. However, Henova might be shocked if Yeon-woo suddenly brought it up, so he was planning on finding the right time.

Also, there was something he wanted to say in his brother’s stead.

That he was thankful.

“…..And that’s what happened.”

“Hm.”

Henova was deep in thought with the pipe still in his mouth.

Only when the smithy was completely filled with smoke did Henova take the pipe out from his mouth and stand up.

Then, he started to pack his tools one by one as he spoke.

“Where do we need to go?”

“Are you going to help?”

“Who’s helping who? I just wanted to see Brahm since it’s been a while. Also, the Philosopher’s Stone sounds fun.”

Henova must’ve been embarrassed even as he was grumbling because his ears became slightly red.

“Thank you.”

Yeon-woo bowed his head with sincerity. To his brother, and to himself, Henova was really someone deserving thanks.

***

“Long time no see, Henova.”

“Tsk. How did you get caught up with this fool? Anyways, it’s been 20 years. Nice to see you.”

Henova and Brahm had hugged each other as soon as they met. After they met 20 years ago, they became close enough to send letters to each other and ask how the other was doing.

They acknowledged the skills the other had. It wasn’t because they were one of the top 5 artisans, but because their knowledge in their area was extraordinary.

The two were tense about making the treasure of the century, the Philosopher’s Stone.

Yeon-woo summoned Boo and Rebecca as well.

Boo was showing rapid growth after Yeon-woo gave him the Lawless Book a while ago.

Boo would be a great help in this endeavor.

The same went for Rebecca.

Her experience with Cernunnos had given her immense knowledge.

On top of this, the Head Elder of the One-horned tribe was there as well.

“I just hope this oldie doesn’t hold you back.”

The Head Elder adjusted his glasses and smiled warmly.

“To think the ‘Bloody Philosopher’ is saying that about himself. Then should the rest of us all need to die? Huhu!”

Henova shook his head from side to side. But the Head Elder just smiled.

The Bloody Philosopher. There weren’t many in the Tower who remembered him, but it was the nickname of the Head Elder.

The Martial King had been able to lead the One-horned tribe to a new era only with the support of the Bloody Philosopher.

There was no one who could match his knowledge and martial arts. Some even said that the former leader of the Devil Army, ‘Black Dawn,’ could barely stand face to face with him.

But as time flowed, a new Head Bishop arose from the Devil Army and killed Black Dawn, and the Martial King was born.

From then, the Bloody Philosopher has stepped back from the front lines and focused on helping the tribe as the Head Elder.

But even then, he didn’t slack off with his studies, so the knowledge in his head was probably equivalent to Brahm’s. One could easily say that he had all the knowledge of the One-horned tribe.

However, the other Elders who Yeon-woo had thought would be interested, hadn’t participated.

If there were too many people in this group, something could leak out, and the current atmosphere of the One-horned tribe was extremely violent.

‘The Bow God…..’

Yeon-woo quietly mumbled. Then, he looked around at the people around him.

“Then let’s begin.”

Henova, Brahm, Boo, Rebecca, and the Head Elder.

He was in charge of leading all of them.

He was lacking in many ways in front of these incredibly skilled players, but his understanding of the Emerald Tablet was the deepest, and he was the one who had laid out the plans.

So he needed to lead them so there wasn’t any confusion or mistakes in the middle.

Under the mask, Yeon-woo’s eyes flashed.

***

The research progressed at a quick pace.

He already had the overall direction in his head, so they just had to work with that.

Of course, it wasn’t like there weren’t any setbacks.

Even though he had gone over it several times, there were still errors in the formula that Yeon-woo made, and even if it was the correct formula, it sometimes just paused for unknown reasons.

In those cases, he had to make the formula from the very beginning all over again, and restart the experiments.

Brahm, the Head Elder, and Rebecca repeatedly ripped apart and stuck together the formula again. Boo used this as a background to see if what they made was possible or not.

And once he judged that it was, Henova would materialize it.

If it still didn’t work after that, Henova would use his knowledge that he learned from the field and point them in the right direction.

Since the most skilled people in the Tower were working together, they were able to quickly find the answers they wanted.

However, this all took up a lot of money.

Here, they didn’t particularly need any money for living. However, for their experiments, they need materials, and money was needed for that process.

The price could be paid with the gold and silver in Intrenian.

But even that was quickly running out. To make the Philosopher’s Stone, many expensive ingredients were needed.

However, they almost saw the end, and thanks to the Martial King’s orders to help, Yeon-woo was able to catch a breather.

Just when they were almost finished, they were met with a problem that they hadn’t expected.

“It’s tiring.”

Brahm rubbed his eyes with his thumb. He had the Homunculus body, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t emotionally tired.

The Head Elder also took off his glasses and lay down to cool his head. Numbers and shapes were running around in his head.

Rebecca was also lost deep in thought looking at the shapes on the wall.

Yeon-woo looked at the shapes as well. He continued to make calculations with his Time Difference, but he couldn’t find the answer.

‘We found the way to steady the vessel and its content. But there’s no way to pour the contents into the vessel. I’m going to go crazy.’

The stone was the vessel, and the contents was the energy source. Yeon-woo still had the energy source of Agares’s Devil Cores.

The problem was that there wasn’t a smooth way to input the Devil Cores into the Philosopher’s Stone.

It could be moved. But the problem came after. Most Devil Cores had an incredible amount of demonic energy within them. To force them in place would lead to them exploding.

Now, he didn’t have any Karma, and he couldn’t borrow the help of the Guardians. If the Devil Cores were ruined again, his body would come apart.

No, his body might demonize and he could turn into a demon.

And even if they managed to move it, there wasn’t a way to fix it onto the Philosopher’s Stone.

A month passed while they were stuck on his point.

They had progressed through it without any bumps, and a long time passed where they didn’t make any progress at all. Everyone became frustrated.

“Ridiculous.”

Even Brahm began to feel anxious.

Sesha would only be cured and Ananta could be saved only after the formula was finished. Although he had a god’s knowledge, he couldn’t see the path.

Most people said that gods were omnipotent, but gods actually weren’t the perfect beings people thought they were.

Rather, they were pitiful creatures that were trapped in their position.

[What the heck is all that stuff? Isn’t that just an alien’s language? Is that from the same world as us?]

[…..]

[But Hanryeong, you’ve been pretty quiet these days.]

[Because I’m also thinking.]

[Stop. How dare you try to get out of this? Are you saying you understand that?]

[Of course not. What help would it be to look at something I don’t understand? I’ve just been researching the 72 Bian.]

Shannon and Hanryeong continued to bicker from boredom.

Just then—

Rebecca slowly lifted her head after a lot of thought. Her deep eyes landed on Yeon-woo.

[Master.]

“What?”

[If you can’t get a formula no matter how hard you try, how about asking for the help of someone from another field? We might find the solution if it’s looked at from another perspective.]

Everyone here had reached the end of their knowledge.

Bringing someone else in might solve the situation.

Actually, there were people who specialized in this field.

The guild of the magicians, the Magic Tower.

The homeland of the witches, Walpurgisnacht.

Even the Elohim had all kinds of knowledge.

If he got their help, they would probably be able to find some kind of solution.

But Yeon-woo firmly shook his head.

Everyone here was someone that he could trust. They were basically like his comrades.

Others were different. He couldn’t trust them.

Also, in this situation where a lot of people were interested in Yeon-woo after what happened on the 23rd floor, he couldn’t mix any unknown variables into this.

[What if it’s someone who’s not tied to an organization and, rather, rejected from society? And at the same time, if they’re smart and cares as little about the world as we do.]

Yeon-woo’s eyes flashed.

If there was really someone like that, even if it was dangerous, it would be less risky. And if needed, it would be easy to close their mouths.

“Is there someone like that?”

[Yeah. It’s someone you know well too.]

“Who is it?”

Rebecca spoke with a nod.

[Victoria.]