The villainous young master just wants to live a Buddhist-like life.

　Their primary criteria are young, promising individuals with uncomplicated backgrounds.

　Of course, it has to be a woman.

　With the allure of the Valkyrie, the Duke's mansion rarely encounters resistance as long as it is willing to intervene.

　As a result, the maid corps gained several more reserve members.

　After glancing at it, Dak skipped over it and went on to inquire about matters related to the congressional election.

　Although the second phase of the council election lasted fifteen days, several alternate councilors with strong backgrounds simply did not have the patience to wait fifteen days. They used up all the votes they could in the next two or three days, which caused the vote gap to widen instantly.

　The same applies to the Duke's mansion, which was filled with Lord Montilfari, propelling it to second place.

　The top-ranked candidate was a member of parliament fully supported by the Holy Church. First and second place didn't matter; as long as they were in the top five, it was fine. To maintain her ranking, Aurora led the people of the Free City on a lobbying campaign, garnering even more votes.

　Lord Montilfali's ranking is basically secure now; the key is whether anything unexpected will happen in the third phase.

　Lord Montilfali has begun preparing for the third phase of her speech: the Hall of Heroes, the council elections, and negotiations with the Golden Kingdom. The information blockade was successful, but the negotiations with the Golden Kingdom failed. The Golden Kingdom has closed its doors to all visitors and is refusing contact with anyone.

　However, according to the Duke's speculation, the Golden Kingdom has not truly closed itself off; it must have deployed spies and informants to try and observe the world with its own eyes.

　Culture, language, customs...

　Equal exchange is based on mutual understanding. If the Golden Kingdom wants to integrate into the world, it must first understand the world.

　The Duke's mansion did not press the matter too much, but simply waited patiently.

　At the same time, they mobilized their forces and quietly seized Karah Territory, the springboard for entering the Death Desert from the outside.

　Even the nearest orc kingdom, the Desert of Death is a place that no one wants to associate with.

　The orc kingdom had no time to react.

　News of the emergence of the Golden Kingdom was completely cut off, and the Duke's Mansion patiently waited for the moment when the Golden Kingdom would be willing to open its doors for communication.

　The Death Desert remains quiet now. It's even safer than it used to be.

　As he left the maids' quarters, pondering the information he had just obtained, he arrived at Professor Kazel's dormitory.

　Upon hearing the knock on the door, Professor Cazell warmly welcomed him in and engaged in a long, pleasant conversation.

　About half an hour later, Dak finally spoke to Professor Cazell about the Golden Kingdom.

　Then, with a smug look on his face, he took out the Spheres of Truth, each containing a different type of golden element, from his bag and placed them on the table.

　"The golden mummy, the golden saber-toothed beast, and the golden horse rider—each of them contains the power of gold within them," Dark said, listing them off with great familiarity.

　Professor Kazel picked up a Sphere of Truth and examined it closely: "Each of these gold elements can turn lead into gold."

　Dark raised his hand, his fingertips gleaming with golden light: "That's right. But their alchemy effect isn't long-lasting."

　Professor Cazell nodded, indicating that he understood.

　Turning lead into gold is the original and highest pursuit of alchemy.

　If we could truly turn stone into gold, then modern alchemy would not have declined.

　The Golden King was able to maintain the ability to turn lead into gold for ten thousand years without fading, truly deserving of the title "the earliest alchemist".

　Feeling inferior, he approached the task with a learning attitude, striving to study and understand. The golden elemental creatures that Dark brought were the greatest gift; he could extract golden power from these five creatures for research.

　However, the real surprise was yet to come.

　Like a child showing off his accomplishment to his parents, Dark proudly displayed the "Golden Alchemy Array".

　Professor Cazell exclaimed upon seeing the "Golden Alchemy Array"

　My breathing became rapid.

　If the "Power of Gold" is the energy source, then the "Gold Alchemy Array" is the method of utilizing that energy.

　By infusing the "Power of Gold" into the "Gold Alchemy Array," one can theoretically achieve the "turning stone into gold" effect.

　However, simply having the array diagram is definitely not enough. You must understand and master it in order to make it work.

　The principles of ancient alchemy are crucial in this process. A long-lost fervor shone in Professor Kazel's eyes as he eagerly selected an Orb of Truth and opened it to release its power.

　The golden mummy immediately appeared in the room.

　"Freeze." Professor Kazel pointed, and magic surged into the golden mummy's forehead, deeply manipulating it and directly stopping its movements.

　“It really is a high-level golem,” he said. Dark asked, “About what level?”

　Professor Kazel said, "Level 4, Simulation Level."

　The fourth-level "realistic" golems are almost indistinguishable from the structures of real life.

　The legendary "Secret Puppet" is of this level.

　Dark had initially believed that the golden elemental beings in the Golden Kingdom were already real life forms. Now it seemed they weren't; it was just that neither he nor Emma had noticed.

　However, a realistic golem would be too difficult for him.

　After all, creating a realistic golem is the ultimate goal that only alchemy masters can achieve. He has only been studying alchemy for a year...

　Although Professor Kazel's special task for him was to create a "realistic" golem before the end of his third year, to be honest, he had absolutely no idea how to do it.

　This slightly dashed his hopes of emulating the Golden Elemental, crafting golems from the Golden Kingdom series, and then sealing them in a "Curse Cage."

　While Professor Kazel was carefully studying the golden mummy, he thought it over and realized that he still had to face reality and first find a way to create a magical spirit from the Golden Kingdom series, and then go back and use it as a reference to create a golden golem.

　—Doesn't this sound like the chicken-and-egg dilemma?

　But if it were him, he certainly had the ability to conjure chickens first. However, before that, he would first need to master the ability to mass-produce the materials for the Golden Kingdom. In other words, he would need to master the "Midas touch"!

　However, the ability to "turn lead into gold" is not achieved by understanding the "Gold Alchemy Array," but rather through a different method.

　—Creating Ritual Cards!

　Dak already had a plan in mind.

　Therefore, his next visit was to Professor Steven Harvey.

Chapter 1115 Darkdemon's Research Finally Achieves a Breakthrough (4k)

　The reason for visiting Professor Steven Harvey was partly because he possessed the "Dream Machine," a magical artifact for crafting "Mystic Cards."

　On the other hand, it's because the monsters in the Golden Kingdom series are essentially "undead".

　Speaking of immortals, the Heroic Spirits created by the "King of Heroes" should also be considered immortals, right?

　A flash of inspiration struck Dak, but he was soon drawn to Professor Kazel's research and gradually became involved.

　Golden mummy, golden saber-toothed beast, golden horse rider...

　These three research samples, from low to high, are divided into three levels, which is very conducive to gradual research.

　Under Professor Kazel's guidance, Dark dismantled the golden mummy with him and found its energy core—an energy core formed from the power of gold.

　The energy core is located in a heart-like chamber in the center of the chest. The walls of that chamber are carved with circuits flowing with golden power, turning it into a "furnace".

　This "furnace" does not have a fixed shape, but is a spherical structure similar to a barrier.

　When the golden mummy enters battle mode, its energy core merges into its body and flows through its limbs and bones via circuits.

　The energy core and "furnace" can only be seen so clearly when it is not in combat mode.

　At this point, the golden mummy was completely under Professor Cazell's control and unable to react responsively; it could only watch helplessly as its chest was torn open.

　"Let's call this thing the Golden Core."

　Professor Kazel stared intently at the golden core, using the "Eye of Truth" to continuously analyze its properties and structure.

　But Dark was drawn to the circuit on the inner wall of the "furnace." If he had seen this circuit a while ago, he wouldn't have reacted at all. But now that he had transformed the "altar incantation" into "magic runes," the comparison between the two made him extremely surprised to find that the circuit and the magic runes were very similar.

　The main functions of magic runes are "protection" and "enhancement".

　Dark suddenly realized that if the "furnace" and "golden core" of this golden mummy were flattened, wouldn't they be structurally the same as the "Great Sin Card"?

　Thinking of this, he immediately took out his notebook and copied down the circuits on the inner wall of the "furnace".

　Professor Kazel is studying the "Golden Core." Dak is studying the "Furnace Circuit."

　The two of them began studying their own things, and the room suddenly fell silent.

　An hour or two later, Dark suddenly looked up and saw a brand new "Greedy Rune" on his notebook.

　This was at least three versions of the magic runes he had previously researched. He was not surprised at all that he could successfully refine and enhance "Greed" using these runes.

　Of course, that wasn't enough; his ultimate goal remained "Greed Level 1." But now, they also possessed even higher-level Golden Saber-toothed Beasts and Golden Horse Knights!

　"I wonder if their furnace circuits are the same as those of the golden mummy's furnace."

　Dark suddenly felt his "greed" rising, and quickly used a "Netherworld God Technique" to quell it instantly.

　His expression instantly calmed down, becoming as if he had "successfully entered sage mode." Professor Kazel suddenly asked.

　Dark nodded slightly and said, "We've gained something, but it's not enough." Professor Kazel then smiled and said, "Then let's continue dismantling the Golden Saber-toothed Beast!" Dark's lips curled up: "Okay."

　Having gained experience in dismantling the golden mummy, they became much more successful in dismantling the golden saber-toothed beast.

　Although the Golden Saber-toothed Beast was a stronger and more malevolent being than the Golden Mummy, Professor Kazel had prepared in advance, immediately holding it off after unsealing it to prevent it from entering "battle mode."

　Immediately afterwards, Professor Cazell and Dark dismantled his chest and found the "Furnace" and the "Golden Core".

　Both individuals developed their own research independently.

　Professor Kazel studied the "Golden Core," while Dark studied the "Furnace Circuit." The "Golden Core" of the Golden Saber-toothed Beast was significantly larger than that of the Golden Mummy, and its energy fluctuations were also more intense.

　The circuits on the inner wall of the "furnace" were similar, and even more complex than those in the golden mummy's "furnace circuits."

　Dark was delighted at first sight, immediately copied down the findings for study, and then compared them with previous results to continue optimizing the study.

　Simply writing and drawing in a notebook wouldn't suffice. But Professor Cazell's room had plenty of tools and materials, so he started experimenting and testing directly, finally optimizing the results after two hours.

　The hands of the clock on the wall had already passed midnight, but neither of them paid any attention to the time.

　continue!

　Professor Cazell had made further preparations and successfully froze the "Golden Horse Knight" the instant it was unsealed.

　Next came the disassembly, which got straight to the point.

　But upon disassembling it, the two discovered that the "Golden Horse Knight" actually possessed two "furnaces" and two "golden cores"!

　The two "golden cores" could actually interact with each other through the connection between the "furnace," increasing their energy level by at least fifty percent.

　This has a limited impact on Professor Cazell, whose research focuses on the "golden core".

　However, this has a significant impact on Dark, who is currently undergoing the "Furnace Circuit". The Golden Horse Knight's "Furnace Circuit" is inherently more complex than that of the Golden Saber-toothed Beast.

　The enhanced effect produced when these two "furnaces" interacted instantly broadened Dark's thinking and pointed him in a new direction.

　He stood there thinking rapidly for a full three minutes before suddenly turning around, picking up his notebook, and starting to study.

　"Would drawing two layers of magic runes on a single magic card achieve a similar enhancement?"

　The initial excitement quickly cooled down.

　It wasn't long before Dark discovered that the magic runes he had previously optimized could not produce any beneficial "interactions".

　He calmed down and continued to optimize the magic runes by referring to the Golden Horse Knight's "Forge Circuit".

　There must be something extremely special about the Golden Horse Knight's "Furnace Circuit" that allows the two "Furnaces" to interact and enhance the energy level of the "Golden Core".

　Only by optimizing the "Greedy Rune" based on the Golden Horse Knight's "Furnace Circuit" can a benign "interaction" be generated after creating a double-layered rune.

　If this experiment succeeds, he can find a way to extract the special elements and then apply them to the "Arrogance Rune" and the "Bliss Rune" which has been optimized to its limit.

　Dak was in high spirits, and his brain became increasingly excited.

　He realized that he might have found the right direction, and that Pride IV and Greed IV V were right before his eyes.

　Two o'clock in the morning.

　Dak's research has hit a bottleneck.

　He stopped voluntarily, his excited mind cooling down slightly. "Professor, I'll head back now."

　He closed his notebook and spoke to Professor Kazel, who was still studying the "Golden Core".

　Professor Cazell paused his research, glanced at the clock on the wall, and said with some surprise, "It's already two o'clock." Darke smiled and said, "Yes. Professor, you have class tomorrow morning, right?"

　Professor Kazel nodded and said, "Remember to come to class tomorrow."

　Dak nodded in agreement, then said "Goodnight" and took his leave.