Chapter 329 Qualification Enhancement Technology

Decades have passed quietly amidst busy research and preparations for dimensional transformation.

Inside the laboratory, the lighting was adjusted to be slightly dim, with only a huge cylindrical reinforced glass jar in the center emitting a faint red glow.

Standing in front of the jar, Jemin frowned slightly, his fingers unconsciously scratching his somewhat messy hair, his eyes showing a hint of the frustration that comes with being stuck in the inertia and bottleneck of research.

The container was filled with a viscous liquid that looked like a molten ruby, and phantom energy that seemed to possess life swirled and circled within it like fish.

These ethereal energy forms emanate pure and vibrant elemental fluctuations.

In the center of the liquid, a somewhat gaunt male wizard apprentice with his eyes closed floated silently.

His body was like a black hole, greedily absorbing the energy from the surrounding liquid and the swimming "fish".

"How is the situation?" With light footsteps and spatial fluctuations, Viola's figure appeared through a teleportation array in a corner of the laboratory.

She walked a few steps to the tank and observed the scene inside with great interest.

Without turning around, Jemin's gaze swept over the several precision instruments connected to the tank, displaying complex data streams.

He nodded, his tone calm and even: "Very good. The process of enhancing his aptitude went smoothly, with no adverse reactions and energy absorption efficiency meeting expectations. It is anticipated that after the enhancement is completed, his elemental affinity talent will directly increase by ten levels."

"Wow!" Viola clapped her hands lightly, looking at the apprentice inside the jar, her eyes sparkling with amazement and undisguised interest. "Junior, your skills are getting more and more astonishing! How many years has it been? You've even developed alchemy to enhance aptitude? And the effects are so powerful!"

Jemin finally turned his head, but there was no smugness on his face; instead, there was a hint of regret.

He shook his head expressionlessly: "The effect is acceptable, but at this stage, this technology has no practical significance."

“How could it be meaningless?” Viola clearly disagreed. She crossed her arms and retorted, “I bet that no matter how expensive the resources this technology consumes, for those ancient wizarding families, at the crucial moment of cultivating their core descendants, they would absolutely be willing to pay a price that will leave you speechless! And those old wizards who are trapped at a low level by their own aptitude, and who are about to die but cannot break through, would go bankrupt to beg you!”

She paused, then lowered her voice: "You don't know, but among high-level alchemists, those who can be involved in the field of aptitude enhancement are extremely rare. However, everyone who has mastered similar techniques, even if the effects are not as exaggerated as yours, is incredibly wealthy and is treated as an honored guest by various powerful forces!"

Jemin shook his head again and did not continue arguing.

He knew in his heart that the key issue was not just the cost problem that Viola had mentioned.

The core of this aptitude enhancement technique does not originate from the alchemy of the wizarding system, but is a cultivation secret method that he modified from "The Great Dao Book Pavilion" to cleanse one's roots and improve one's aptitude by using "the spirit of nature".

Its core raw material is the strange "crystal fish" that he discovered and captured in the Purgatory Sulfur Plane back then (Chapter 154).

After in-depth research, he confirmed that these crystal fish were not ordinary elemental creatures, but rather the manifestation of an extremely rare "spirit of nature".

Then Jemin adapted the secret techniques of the cultivation world and successfully applied them to individuals in the wizarding world.

In terms of effect, it is indeed miraculous—it can unconditionally raise a creature's elemental affinity by ten levels!

It means "increase" by ten levels, not "increase to" level ten.

This means that an apprentice who was originally only at level five can jump to level fifteen after using it!

However, the limitations of this technology are also enormous.

Besides purely technical issues, this technology also has significant limitations in practical applications.

First of all, it is basically meaningless for mid- to high-level wizards.

The idea that wizards are no longer limited by aptitude once their level increases is not just a joke.

On the path of a wizard, each advancement to a higher realm is accompanied by a leap in life level and a qualitative change in spiritual power. This leap itself will naturally bring about a significant improvement in all aspects of aptitude.

If quantified using data, when a wizard apprentice is promoted to a full wizard, their aptitude will be increased by an additional 10 levels on top of their previous level.

Level 2 wizards, add 20 more levels; Level 3 wizards, add 30 more levels... and so on.

Therefore, even the initial level 10 super geniuses can only maintain their talent advantage until the level 3 or 4 wizard stage.

Later on, the advantages brought by innate talent will become negligible, and effort, opportunity, and the depth of understanding of knowledge will be far more important than initial talent.

Moreover, Jemin's technology improves the elemental affinity qualification, and in addition, there are more than ten other related qualifications.

Therefore, for mid- to high-level wizards, this technology is not actually as important as one might imagine.

Secondly, and most fundamentally, is the issue of raw materials.

"Spirits of Nature" are treasures naturally nurtured by the plane, and are almost non-renewable.

The number that can be generated in each plane is extremely limited, and most of them are hidden and difficult to find.

Its value, on some levels, is even greater than that of the plane's origin.

Those forces or individuals who can afford to use such things to enhance their qualifications often possess more mature, stable, and less side-effect-prone alternative technologies.

Although the improvement in qualifications may not be that dramatic, they can use a combination of technologies to improve their skills.

Therefore, in Jemin's view, his technology is somewhat of a "white elephant" for customers who can actually afford it.

It's utterly tasteless, yet too good to throw away.

"The enhancement is over." Jemin stopped thinking about it and turned his attention back to the experiment.

He manipulated the control panel, and the red liquid inside the glass jar, as if it had a life of its own, was quickly absorbed by the recycling system on the jar walls and at the bottom.

Losing the buoyancy of the liquid, the wizard apprentice inside went limp and fell downwards.

Jemin raised his hand and gestured, and an invisible force supported the apprentice, whose eyes were still somewhat dazed and who seemed to be immersed in some kind of strange feeling, allowing him to float steadily.

Immediately, a glimmer of alchemical light flashed at his fingertips, and the few remaining red slime residues on the apprentice's body instantly reformed and transformed into a clean and tidy gray wizard's robe covering his body.

Ignoring the apprentice who was looking at his hands with delight and feeling the surging elemental affinity within him, Jemin turned to Viola:

"Considering that you provided this qualified test subject and helped me collect key data, this 'self-service' enhancement service will only cost you 200 million military merits."

Viola showed no sign of pain; instead, she laughed even more heartily.

He immediately pulled out his magic network terminal and started operating it: "No problem! Military merit transferred! Thanks, junior!"

She deftly picked up the wizard apprentice, who was still savoring the changes in himself, as if he were a brand new toy, waved to Jemin with a grin, and left the laboratory through the teleportation array.

As Jemin watched the two figures disappear into the pillar of light, especially the apprentice's barely suppressed joy, he couldn't help but shake his head with pity.

Judging from Viola's expression, which seemed like she had struck gold, this lucky (or unlucky?) apprentice was probably already burdened with a huge debt that would keep him fighting for it for the next few hundred years.

Of course, the premise is that he can survive in the perilous battlefield of the plane until the day he pays off his debts.

The battlefield is ruthless. No matter how high the expected gains are, if a person dies, everything will be reduced to zero.

However, none of this concerns Jemin anymore.

His intention in bringing out this technology was not to benefit the public or to earn military merit—although military merit is indeed a good byproduct.

His real goal is to further strengthen his Black Giant army!

In addition to technology, energy, and dimensional foundations, there is another indispensable element in building a religious and religious system—believers, or rather, the intelligent beings that form the basis of "society".

His purgatory sulfur plane is a harsh environment, filled with sulfurous gas and raging fire elements, making it fundamentally unsuitable for ordinary carbon-based life forms to survive.

Certainly, he could make it habitable through large-scale environmental remediation projects, but that would be extremely costly and time-consuming.

Jemin had a better idea—to have his "cannon fodder units," those black giants, settle directly in the plane as a servant race.

They became the first and most important "residents" of the temple!

Given the characteristics of the black giant, he is indeed quite suitable as a "believer" in the incense-burning religion.

First, the Black Giants are not only able to adapt to the harsh environment of the Infernal Sulfur Plane, but also possess extremely high intelligence, which perfectly meets the standards of believers.

Secondly, as beings created by Jemin himself, Jemin naturally possesses extremely high divinity in their beliefs, so there is no need for them to go to great lengths to create any miracles.

Moreover, in Jemin's plan, if the incense and divine path is completed in the future, the black giants, with their powerful strength and racial qualities, can be easily transformed into Dao soldiers.

However, to achieve this, the key lies in changing their "conceptual" attributes from purely "weapons of war" and "consumables" to giving them "sociality".

A core foundation of sociality is the ability to reproduce naturally—to reproduce on its own and perpetuate the group without the continuous intervention of the creator.

Therefore, Jemin turned his attention to the core of cultivating the Black Giants—the incubation pool.

The predecessor of this incubation pool originated from the breeding system of lava giants.

Despite undergoing numerous modifications by Jemin, incorporating Yeti talents, energy absorption properties, the "Five Organs Sacrifice Divine Skill" technology, and even a self-destruct module, its most fundamental basis concerning "life creation and continuation" still retains the core structure of the Lava Giant Hatchery.

What Jemin needs to do now is to absorb the core technology of the incubation pool and then create new incubation pool technology.

(End of this chapter)