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

　After lying down for ten minutes, Dark began to rest using the "Netherworld Art" until dawn.

　Thursday morning has two elective classes.

　After getting through those two elective classes, Dark went to the academy's magic factory to inspect the production of various props.

　The mass production of props was the job of the academy's factory; Dark was just there to check if the prop cards met his requirements.

　This is because the function of those item cards is closely related to solving the secret passage levels. If the function of the item cards malfunctions, many secret passage levels will become unsolvable.

　After visiting the magic factory, he tested various finished product cards, made final adjustments while thinking, and then permitted mass production.

　Meanwhile, inside the castle on the other side, staff had already set up a secret room in the castle's upper floors.

　To avoid interfering with students' studies, they usually work at night. First, they embed the "secret rooms" into various rooms, and then create levels within the secret rooms according to the blueprints.

　To facilitate production, most levels adopted a modular design.

　In other words, it is entirely possible to mass-produce modules first, and then use those modules to assemble various levels.

　This greatly improves the efficiency of level creation.

　Dark took a walk around the upper floors of the castle, and seeing that the staff were working diligently and that Professor Mydia, who was in charge of "supervision," was also standing there properly, he left satisfied.

　He then returned to his dormitory and began creating the "Knight of the Golden City" golem! He had already completed the creation of the "Gravedigger of the Golden City" and "Guardian of the Golden City" golems. However, the creation of those two golems was based on existing Magical Spirit cards, and each was a three-star and a six-star Magical Spirit card, respectively.

　The materials used for "Knight of the Golden Land" are of a significantly higher quality than those used for "Grave Digger of the Golden Land" and "Guardian of the Golden Land," and since the Magical Spirit Card was not crafted beforehand, the overall difficulty of crafting it has undoubtedly increased by two levels.

　Breaking through it is extremely difficult!

　.....

　...

　I slept fitfully last night, but I still managed to sleep until this morning before getting up to write. Although I'm still dizzy and lightheaded, I've taken this difficult first step.

Chapter 1363 Darkdemon, Online Sweetness (5k)

　The next two days.

　Dark basically shuttled between his dormitory, the magic factory, and the hidden laboratory.

　Although he always acts like it's none of his business, he's actually a very concerned person deep down.

　As the sense of crisis from both internal and external sources gradually weakens, his true nature naturally begins to emerge.

　Therefore, even though he had delegated all tasks outside of design to Professor Mitia, Dark would still check on the progress of the prop cards' production and the completion of the escape room challenges. He would then offer suggestions for modification based on his own ideas and requirements.

　In addition, he also took time to visit the hidden places to keep an eye on the professors' continued research on the "Demon King's Isotope".

　As the research continued, the professors gradually discovered more uses for the two "Demon King's counterparts".

　According to Dark, there are three factors that can be studied in the "Demon King's Isotope": "Demon King", "Hero", and "Ferryman of the Styx".

　The "Demon King" element should have been the main one. However, the "Third Demon King" was banished to the underworld in the form of a soul. He was able to reconstruct his physical body after consuming the "Ferryman of the River Styx," which is the "demonized half of the hero Bright God."

　Therefore, not much related to the "Demon King" can be found in the physical bodies of those two "Demon King counterparts".

　However, because the "Third Demon King" devoured and assimilated many demons in the underworld who had long been extinct in the mortal realm, the blood of this "Third Demon King" can be used to cultivate the flesh and blood of those demons.

　This is the physical body of the "Demon King's counterpart," and its greatest use.

　The professors especially wanted to cultivate the "Twin Demon Slayer" series. Therefore, they believed that "fusion factors" could be extracted from the materials used in the "Twin Demon Slayer" series!

　"Fusion Factor" is a magical spirit used to create fusion materials, and is also necessary for creating [(Fusion) cards.

　Moreover, the "fusion factor" of the "Twin Demons" must be of high quality.

　If you can obtain a large number of high-quality "fusion factors" through this, it will be easier to refine the desired fusion materials.

　Putting aside other factors, Dark Knight's demand for "fusion factors" is also extremely high.

　Therefore, he very much hopes that the professors can cultivate materials for "Twin Demons" as soon as possible.

　Besides the "Demon King" factor, the "Demon King's counterpart" also has the "Hero" and "Styx Ferryman" factors that can be studied.

　The "hero" in this story is Brett Gold.

　The physical body of the "Third Demon King" is roughly 70% derived from the demonized half-body of Bright God.

　而「魔王同位体」虽然有两具，但这两具「魔王同位体」实则为一体，也就是并非【1+1=2】，而是【1+1=1】。

　While that defies mathematical logic, it's a characteristic of the "Twin Demons." Therefore, it's impossible to fuse the parts belonging to Bright God from the two "Demon Lord counterparts" to create a single Bright God.

　Moreover, even if they could synthesize it, the final product would only be a demon that looks like Bright God.

　In that case, it might create a new demon king that is even more terrifying than the "immortal demon king".

　However, as long as one doesn't think about it in terms of "synthesis," the part of Bright God that belongs to the "Demon King's Isotope" is actually very valuable for research.

　Finally, and most importantly, is the "Ferryman of the River Styx".

　The "Third Demon King" devoured the "Ferryman of the River Styx." Not only did it take over its function, but it also gained some of its abilities and inherited memories.

　And now, those memories have been partially completed through the dream-making machine.

　The professors determined the significance of the "Ferryman of the River Styx" class in the underworld.

　It also clarifies that there is indeed a very rigorous promotion system in the underworld.

　However, because the "Ferryman of the Styx" is only at the very bottom of the promotion sequence, it inherits very little information, and doesn't even know how many stages the entire promotion sequence has.

　However, one thing is clear: this is a promotion system based on "dead souls".

　The souls of the deceased enter the underworld and, after being tempered by time without losing their spirituality, have the opportunity to be promoted to "Ferrymen of the River Styx" and become a member of the underworld's system of ferrymen.

　Further up, there is a tree-like progression chart, but in the end, they all lead to the same goal: becoming a "god of the underworld".

　The system itself is not complicated, but promotion in each sequence is extremely difficult.

　Simply advancing from "Dead Soul" to "Ferryman of the River Styx" is enough to filter out 99.999% of the dead souls.

　The souls of the dead who can wander aimlessly beyond the River Styx for decades, centuries, or even millennia, yet remain spiritually immortal, are mostly those who achieved great things in their lifetimes.

　This has little to do with factors like bloodline or aptitude. After all, you can't take your physical body with you when you die; once you enter the underworld, only your soul remains. Bloodline and aptitude, which are solely related to the physical body, all vanish into nothingness and become meaningless.

　After figuring this out, Professor Cazell and Professor Steven Harvey immediately connected it to "Heroic Spirits"!

　The literal meaning of "Heroic Spirit" is "the soul of a hero." However, the "Heroic Spirit" that the professors are researching originates from "Lord of Heroes," and is something that has little to do with this literal meaning, existing somewhere between life and death.

　A very special existence between them.

　They used "grave essence" extracted from the "cemetery" to create "heroic spirits" using the souls of mice.

　This process, while not entirely identical to the underworld's method of elevating "dead souls" into "ferrymen of the River Styx," shares at least 70% similarity. The difference lies in the fact that the dead souls in the underworld are special souls who have undergone natural selection and emerged as outstanding individuals. Through an "ascension ritual," their soul essence is ultimately altered, transforming them into "ferrymen of the River Styx" who are free from the concepts of birth, aging, sickness, and death.

　The process of turning the souls of mice into "heroic spirits" involves artificially intervening in the souls by filling them with a large amount of "tomb elements," ultimately making them special beings that exist between life and death.

　The "tomb element" extracted from the "cemetery" created to resemble the underworld is itself a substance containing the characteristics of reincarnation.

　This can be understood as the "tomb element" giving ordinary mice a soul similar to that of rare, deceased souls that retain their spirituality despite the passage of time.

　But similarity does not mean sameness.

　Dark has also been involved in the research on the creation of "Heroic Spirits". However, as the survival time of the "mice Heroic Spirits" has become longer and longer, the entire experiment has hit a bottleneck.

　Because "Heroic Spirits" are a species that do not possess the concept of life and death.

　However, their research on books like "Rushumin.o" is a mistake in their "pathway".

　All the previous research was simply to accumulate knowledge from scratch.

　However, after accumulating enough resources, the "path" had to be reversed, but this process was not smooth.

　On the contrary, the path to advancement from "the dead" to "the ferryman of the Styx" is a very mature, even perfect, path.

　If we can glean the secrets of the "Ferryman of the Styx"'s ascension from the "Demon King's Parallel Body".

　Their "Heroic Spirit Creation Experiment" is bound to achieve an unprecedented breakthrough.

　It's even possible to reach the finish line directly!

　Once a "Heroic Spirit" can be successfully created, the limitations of life and death can be broken.

　To put it simply, this is the "method of immortality" that countless people throughout history have been pursuing.

　However, in the age of gods, the trait of "immortality" was not unusual.

　Because countless gods possess lifespans so long that the end is unseen. Humanity's yearning to become a god is, in essence, a voyeuristic pursuit of "immortality." However, neither Dark nor the two professors were conducting research for the sake of "immortality."

　The professors were more focused on the "growth" that the research itself could bring. Dark, on the other hand, was focused on advancing the "life-giving of magical spirits."

　Once the "Heroic Spirit Creation Experiment" is successful, the research project on "Genre of Magical Spirits" can truly be put on the agenda.

　Dark had initially thought it would be a rather long period. But to his utter surprise, the Demon King had so kindly presented them with a crucial opportunity.

　By participating in the experiment, Dak had almost seen a clear path to success.

　Perhaps the "life-transformation of magical spirits" is not far off. And in this process, experiments such as transforming Sherry Augustine, who is essentially a "parasite," from a monster to a heroic spirit, and then sewing her heroic spirit body into a flesh and blood body, thereby turning her back into a human, can naturally be successfully achieved.

　Therefore, Shirley Augustine, who has been coming to the lab as an assistant from time to time these past two days, has been very excited.

　However, Dark is currently unable to participate in the experiments and can only "reap the benefits" by absorbing the professor's experimental results.

　Although he has always had the means to be a kept man, he is unwilling to do so. Therefore, he is actively seeking out and learning various basic principles and operating techniques.

　It must be said that his research and study in this area also provided him with many ideas for creating golems.

　Professor Kazel's method of golem creation differs from the crude and shoddy alchemy of the past; it is a method that leads directly to the ultimate alchemical achievement of "creating life."

　If Dark wants to achieve something in the path of golems, he cannot limit himself to creating "simulacrum-level" golems.

　In summary.

　The three topics he is currently researching—"golems," "heroic spirits," and "magical spirit life"—all share a considerable degree of convergence.

　Even if we don't say they all lead to the same goal, they are still three routes that can run parallel. These three routes complement each other, and one leads to all three.

　In this way, his research path became completely clear.

　The overall research objective has become increasingly clear.

　All that's left is to charge headlong into that goal!

　October 30th, Friday afternoon.

　Because the secret chamber was so large, the academy had to seal off all floors above the third floor of the castle on Friday afternoon, starting construction half a day ahead of schedule.

　After this notice was issued, students' expectations for this year's Halloween activities instantly rose to a whole new level.

　All the students were excitedly discussing what changes this year's masquerade ball would bring, to the point that it overshadowed the usual "ambiguous" atmosphere of the event.

　The students discussed the topic enthusiastically and tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

　In the midst of his busy schedule, Dark designed a new identity for the magical elves and maids who wanted to participate in the event—"Candy Distributor".

　When the masquerade ball begins, his magical elves and maids can carry pumpkin lanterns and candy bags, handing out candy all over the castle.

　Unlike the "Candy Merchant" character, the "Candy Distributor" is a purely welfare-oriented character. No duels or sacrifices are required; simply encountering and solving the puzzles designed by the "Candy Distributor" will earn you "candy."

　This "candy" can be any kind of candy that replenishes magic power or stamina and provides buffs, or it can be any kind of resource or item card.

　However, in addition to the basic resource packs and item card packs given out at the beginning, the "Sugar Giver" also needs to kill monsters to obtain more items.

　Of course, they cannot ignore the ghosts and monsters; if they want to live in the castle, they must strive to survive.

　They can also use item cards to solve escape room puzzles. However, this is only possible if no one is currently participating in the puzzle and the treasure chests within the puzzle cannot be opened. But stickers can be left in the puzzle to guide (mislead) students.

　They will not earn points or credits.

　However, the resources they obtain from killing monsters can be reimbursed by the person in charge after the event ends.

　In short, the "candy giver" is like an Easter egg in the Halloween event. Dark didn't see Professor Nini on the list of "candy merchants." But after proposing the role of "candy giver," he received Professor Nini's application, which he readily accepted.

　Escape room, props, candy merchant, candy distributor...

　October 31st, Saturday noon.

　As the masquerade ball was about to begin, Dak suddenly realized that he hadn't prepared his costume yet!

　At this moment, even his magical spirits had prepared all sorts of costumes, but he had forgotten about himself!

　As the person in charge of this masquerade ball, he's also just an ordinary third-year student. There's no reason for him to be excluded, is there?

　But of course, he couldn't actually attend the masquerade ball as a student, so he had to choose between the identities of "candy merchant" and "candy distributor".

　The "candy merchant" clearly has a greater sense of participation and interaction. However, because of the tasks involved, they actually lack freedom. In fact, it's not as relaxed and enjoyable as the "candy distributor."