The Golem Mage

”They have already regrouped and are in close proximity to the Academy, but it seems they have no intention of returning today, should I leave a message for them to hasten their return?” asked a man clad in the uniform of the War God Mage Academy.

He was delivering a report to Selene, who was engrossed in reading a scroll.

Without looking up at the mage, she shook her head and replied,

”No!

They have successfully completed a series of missions that we believed they wouldn’t finish within the given timeframe, not only did they accomplish them magnificently, but they have also grown stronger beyond our expectations, although they are not yet at a level we deem them sufficient to win the inter-academy competition, but we now believe they will not suffer an embarrassing defeat like their predecessors.” Selene concluded with a shrug

”But if they fail to arrive on time, we will be late for the opening ceremony of the inter-academy competition,” the mage interjected, clearly surprised, however, Selene didn’t appear concerned about the timing.

”It doesn’t really matter if we attend the ceremony, the crucial thing is that we arrive before the first events start, why should we participate in a ceremony where we would be the subject of ridicule?”

” It’s simply a display of wealth for the prestigious academy, and considering our academy’s limited resources, we wouldn’t stand a chance, so, it’s best to forgo it, you may leave now,” Selene responded dismissively, gesturing for the mage to depart.

–

Alec’s team had rented the entire top floor of an inn he met them, Despite the team’s jubilant mood, Alec had other plans, as he urged them to continue celebrating without him while excusing himself, claiming to be exhausted, he them made his way to his room.

As soon as Alec entered the room, he flopped onto the bed and closed his eyes, succumbing to a deep sleep, soon, he found himself awake in the familiar dark space of his Amulet Artifact.

Alec approached the solitary Black Tree, which stood proudly with the weight of numerous slain demonic beasts from the Beast Forest adorning its body, the first and only branch of the tree, which is previously adorned with just a single leaf, now boasted ten fully opened leaves that had sprouted.

However, Alec’s focus was solely on the drops from the first leaf.

As the leaf, adorned with a vibrant yellow and white colour, perfectly matched the colours that had sprouted from the Chronomancer’s corpse when it was been digested, Alec gently touched the leaf, prompting a system notification to appear:

[> Pay 50,000 system points to harvest this plant (Y/N)]

Alec exhibited no surprise at this prompt, as similar notifications had been occurring since the fifth day the leaf devoured the Chronomancer’s remains, In awe of all that had transpired, Alec had initially decided to defer his curiosity.

However, the system spirit had assured him that whatever the tree produced, Alec stood to gain significantly, as it was no ordinary tree considering it was inside the still unknown Amulet Artifact.

Without hesitation, Alec accepted with a resolute ”Y-yes.” Instantly, the leaf shimmered with a blinding light and levitated towards Alec.

As the radiance receded, Alec beheld several objects suspended in front of him.

Three immense orbs bobbed in mid-air, their magnificence shining through as though they were adorned with sparkling glitters. And there were also around ten pills, of an excellent grade quality, glistened with an ethereal brilliance.

This phenomena was unique to only excellent-grade pills, lastly, three floating cards completed the ensemble.

As Alec stood in awe, his eyes fixed on the spectacle before him, the branch itself came into motion, the long branch extended, and the tip transformed into a fearsome maw, lined with a multitude of menacing white teeth.

As it ruthlessly clenched down on one of the demonic beasts previously slain by Alec in the Beast Forest.

Stunned, Alec remained rooted to the spot, his gaze locked on the astonishing sight unfolding before him, he could only watch in disbelief as the tree branch meticulously chewed and swallowed the entire deceased demonic beast, nonchalantly returning to its original position as though nothing extraordinary had just occurred.

After returning to its place, Alec watched in shock as the body of the recently devoured demonic beast sprouted at the edge of the branch, and despite all the tearing caused by the tree’s chewing, the head of the demonic beast still remained intact.

Long black leaves began to cover the newly formed demonic beast’s body, and in that moment, Alec finally understood why all the corpses of the slain demonic beasts he killed had been brought back to the tree’s root from inside the Beast Forest.

And he concluded that they were awaiting the tree’s consumption, transforming into beneficial nourishment for Alec, however, despite this realization, Alec struggled to accept the fact that he had been nurturing such a fierce tree all this time.

Nevertheless, Alec had absolute certainty that the tree would not hurt him, as It had never exhibited any intentions of killing intent towards him before, and this incident marked the first time he had witnessed a branch of the tree devouring something, and he felt fortunate to be the one who owned this unique entity.

Once the strange moment had passed, Alec shifted his attention to the loot he obtained from the Chronomancer’s corpse:

[> Ding! Acquired loots - - -]

[> 3x memory orbs]

[> 10x Tier 5 cultivation pills (+100,000 exp)]

[> 3x Random Spell card]

Though Alec didn’t fully comprehend the purpose of the first and second loot, he recognized the value of the cultivation pills.

They had always seemed familiar to him, but he had initially failed to identify them due to them being excellent grade, but now, glancing at the name on the system panel, he finally realized he was staring at Tier 5 cultivation pills.

These pills could only be crafted by esteemed Mid-rank or High-rank alchemists, an attempt by a low-rank alchemist to refine such pills could result in death or an explosion injury during the refining process.

Cultivation pills were exceptionally rare, even though their main ingredient could be altered, to power stones obtained from slaying different races of the second dimension.

The success rate for refining cultivation pills was notoriously low, leading small clans to deem it unworthy of their limited resources, as they couldn’t afford to support an alchemist or squander their scarce power stones on creating a few pills that only a select few could benefit from.

As a result, the concept of cultivation pills was almost non-existent in low and mid-ranking clans, However, in high-ranking and ancient clans, cultivation pills were used in nurturing their most talented geniuses, helping them establish a strong foundation.

As In the mid rank realms, relying solely on power stones for cultivation yielded minimal progress compared to seeking out an alchemist who could transform the stones into potent cultivation pills.

Meanwhile, in the higher ranks, power stones were predominantly converted into pills, as using them directly led to minimal or no discernible progress.

Yet, as Alec counted the ten cultivation pills he had obtained from just a single Chronomancer’s corpse, he realized the magnitude of his fortune.

Even the most skilled Tier 6 alchemist, boasting a perfect rate of pill refinement, would never have the audacity to claim that they could produce ten Tier 5 pills from the remains of a Tier 5 Mage.

Alec had come across accounts stating that if an alchemist could refine five pills from a single Tier 5 corpse, with at least one pill being of Tier 5 rank while the rest were Tier 4, that alchemist would be hailed as a super genius.

Alec’s acquisition far exceeded these expectations, leaving him awestruck by his newfound abundance of Tier 5 cultivation pills.