NOVEL NEXT Chapter 198: Trait Acquisition
•••
It had been hours since Caius returned from Lochxen.
His father, Lucian, sat in the dining hall by himself having dinner after accepting that his son would not be joining him.
"He's still at it?" Lucian asked. It sounded almost like he was speaking to no one.
But someone answered.
"Yes, Lord Lucian," Roland answered with a fond laugh. The young master remains locked in with his Alchemical set. Children will play and play, I suppose."
"Seems more than play, actually," Lucian said.
There were vents in the Alchemical Chamber that had been prepared for Caius, all pulling out the vapors of refinement and letting them out into the atmosphere. In the hours Caius had been at it, the vapors had gotten thicker and thicker, never once ceasing from being released.
Something serious was happening behind closed doors. Lucian was willing to check it all out but ultimately held himself back. He didn't know much about Alchemy besides purchasing the products he needed, but he could at least posit that Isolation and room to focus were likely best for the process.
•••
The fumes from the Alchemical chamber continued to escape through the vents well into the night. Darkness had descended, the moon was high in the sky and Caius was still hard at work.
He had no concept of time as he kept on with his Alchemical attempts, so far he had failed the already terrible odds that accompanied Blood Alchemy.
He had gone past simply making an energizing or healing potion and had stepped into a far more… intensive aspect of Blood Alchemy; Trait Acquisition.
Trait Acquisition worked on the principle that certain creatures have the very core of their makeup within their blood. Some of such creatures are Vampires whose entire existence, growth, and Magic rely on their Blood.
Humans are not quite like this. Sure, there can be a genetic component within a person's blood that grants them a unique quality such as unique elemental Affinities, but in general, the strength and power of a person lies in the channels that move Mana through their bodies and the quality of that mana.
Another such example of creatures whose core lies in their Blood, is Magical Beasts and they were the targets of Caius's current Alchemical experiments.
Magical Beasts have their Mana channels and blood channels essentially mixed up. Apart from their 'instincts', it is what grants their natural predisposition to whatever trait they possess even without being taught.
Their Blood of course also limits them. As Lea Gilligan had taught the class on their first day of Study of Magical Beasts—as well as Caius's own Knowledge of the world from his reading of [To Kill A Demon Lord…]—Magical Beasts cannot evolve. They are born and grow within their set level of strength or magical ability. Sure, age can be a factor, body size—which increases as they grow or can become stunted—can also play a part. But generally, their threat rating will never change. And the rating is always based on the fully grown specimen of that Beast, marking its maximum potential.
Anyway, Blood limits Magical beasts but it's also the reason why they stake so much pride in it. Unlike the humans/humanoids whose Hierarchy can he subject to change due to evolution, that of the Magical Beasts is essentially set in stone.
The more strength and magic a Magical Beast's blood grants them, the more pride they feel. And sometimes there are qualities and ego boosts granted by blood that do not even really show themselves in strength of body or Mana.
Take the Wyverns for example;
They are rated Seven Stars by the Adventurer's Guild which meant that, on a norm, they would be quite a match for a Seventh Circle Mage/Mage-Knight. Of course, fights are never so cut and dry but we digress.
Seven stars is a great rating but there are beasts higher, however, Wyverns still possess a Bloodline pride, as they believe themselves to be cousins to the legendary dragons. Many have done research and believed there was no such link. Sure, Wyverns do look like smaller dragons, but that was it. The sheer Magic that dragons possess in just their breath, a Wyvern doesn't have a smidge of it in its whole body so the talk of relation is believed to mostly just be propaganda.
Funny enough though, this so-called relation does grant Wyverns some boost in the Magical Beast hierarchy. Only, it can be quickly squashed by a Beast stronger than they are so it often doesn't result in anything past their Seven-Star rating threat level.
Still, even at 'Seven Stars', Wyverns are known for flight speeds capable of keeping pace and maybe even outpacing an Eight Circle movement spell. The greatest of their kind once beat a Ninth Circle Mage in a race. So maybe the relation to Dragons is not all bullshit despite what their magical strength and signature say.
Caius's Alchemical experimentations were of course, making use of the Wyvern Blood his father continued to supply him. He didn't think he would ever stop receiving canister after canister of the stuff as he had a feeling his father still hoped it was at least sating his thirst enough to not go wild while feeding on actual people as Lucian already believed Caius was doing.
That aside, Caius hadn't learned anything spectacular about Wyverns other than the fact that their Blood possessed power that far outclassed his and that was enough for him because, here is where 'Trait Acquisition' comes into play.
Because of how much blood mattered to the traits of a Magical Beast, a good enough sample of it could be used to refine a potion that would grant the drinker that trait.
It wasn't supposed to have a lasting effect, but it did work nicely for its limited duration.
Which brings us to the consequences of a normal human/humanoid drinking this 'Trait Acquisition' Potions;
The potions carry the possibility of mutating one's blood, locking you into whatever level of strength of the Beast whose Blood was used in the process. And that was if the Alchemist who worked on it was capable of extracting the entirety of the Blood's quality.
Caius, for example, being at the Third Circle could not possibly extract the true Seventh Star magical might of a Wyvern from its blood and if his potion was fed to a human/humanoid and the power is used and allowed to take effect within their body rather than instantly expelled, they could forever be locked to whatever level of strength Caius was able to acquire from the Wyvern blood in the refining process.
Worse (or better if you're feeling lucky) is that 'Bestial unpredictability' makes it so that there is no set number of times you can take the potion before you suffer the consequences. It could be your first time, it could be your second, and one would have to be ready to gamble all they've worked for and all they could ever become for that attempt at a momentary boost in strength.
But that was the case for humans/humanoids. Vampire Blood is far too strong and corrupted (in its own way) to be overwritten by the blood of a Magical Beast. They could tinker and do as they pleased but their Vampiric curse and their path to continued evolution will never change.
In other words, it was safe for Caius to drink.
If he was able to complete the Trait Acquisition, that is.