“Listen, Rak. I trust you, bro. I do. But even trust has limits,” Allan spoke up with a flat tone.

“If you’re too scared to touch it, you can just admit it.”

“I never said that!”

“That is precisely the point,” Marie retorted teasingly and the blond groaned sadly.

Meanwhile, Nyx reached for one of the hearts. She wasn’t the kind of person to hesitate touching something because it looked gruesome. Furthermore, she knew that no blood would be left on her afterward since this was obviously a spell that would be dispelled sooner or later.

“May I ask what this entails exactly before anything else?”

“Scavenger,” Rakna began. “Nirvana Skills have magic matrixes behind them. Well, I say that but, after studying mine, I barely could understand a percent of it. Especially The Harvester. But all I needed was the core part of Scavenger anyway. Long story short, I copy-pasted it to make a sub-spell of Star Hearth. The magic theory creates the balance, with Anubis’ legend, and the core of my Nirvana Skill allows it to create hearts capable of transferring power.”

“So, it’s possible that these will increase our attributes?” Flavia inquired.

“Yes and no. Obviously, none of you have Scavenger or Harvester. The effects will be lowered to an unknown extent. Additionally, since you don’t have the proper physiology, you probably won’t be able to eat as much as me. And finally, these hearts are level 10 to 20. With all of these stakes against you, it won’t do anything. But all I need for this test is that you eat them and tell me if you recover some mana or stamina. At the same time, tell me if the System notifies you that your level is too high to receive attributes or not. If it works, then continue to eat until you feel full. That’ll give me an idea of your limit.”

“I see. Then, if that’s it, let me do the honors,” Nyx remarked and brought the muscle to her mouth and managed to take a bite in a rather refined manner despite what it was. She calmly ate the rest of it and cleaned the trail of blood near the corner of her mouth with her thumb.

She closed her eyes and everyone looked at her in anticipation. After a moment, she let out a small smile and opened her eyes again. “It worked. I felt the flow of mana and internal energy. I also felt the very minute amount of life force trying to merge with mine but it got overpowered. While the System didn’t react, I am sure that if you used a heart from a higher-leveled beast, I would at least gain a few points to my attributes.”

Rakna huffed satisfyingly and leaned back on the couch. “Well, that’s a good thing. Now, you guys’ turn,” he added whilst looking at the others.

“Huh?! But didn’t Nyx already prove your theory? We don’t need to eat these anymore, right?”

“Allan… you’re going to have to do it at some point to gain more INT. You need 50 to learn Stone Eye. You’re not going to reach it before your First Ascent if you don’t absorb attributes. Also, didn’t I tell you already? I want to see how much you guys can eat at once. What if I feed you a level 100 or 200 heart and you blow up? I need to know your limit; each one of you.”

“Ugh…” The blond grunted and looked back at the plate of hearts, only to see that some more had been taken away. He looked around in shock to see everyone taking a bite. “Seriously?”

Higure cackled as she cut one heart in two with her claws. “Come on, boy, the ladies are all doing it. What kind of man are you?” She quipped and tossed one bit in the air. She caught it on its way down and grinned, swallowing and licking her lips. “It’s surprisingly good, you know?”

“I have to agree,” Marie nodded agreeingly as she licked her fingers. “Who knew such a crude thing could taste so good,” she commented and Allan’s eye twitched.

“Wait… am I really the only one who feels weird doing this…?”

“Just take one already,” Rakna retorted and tossed him one of the hearts. The blond fumbled and almost let it fall on the floor. He grumbled under his breath and hesitatingly tasted it. After a short moment, he started chewing, and his face switched expressions several times in a few seconds.

“What the… how though? It actually tastes good. It’s kinda warm too… It’s as if I’m eating a lightly cooked steak, just enough to make the exterior crispy and the interior still bloody.”

“Side effect of Harvester, I’d say,” the therian replied. “It’s the energy contained inside the heart that you truly gobble. The heart itself is converted into something absorbable by your body, which fools your taste buds into thinking that you’re absorbing perfect food. In other words, the taste is what you unconsciously prefer it to be.”

Allan blinked twice. “Right,” he uttered as if he understood and continued to eat, causing the others to laugh a bit.

“My Lord, do I also have to do it?” Natsu asked afterward and Rakna hummed.

“You could try if you want. But I doubt it would work on you. The boost of my Legendary Imperial Guard aside, your attributes are nonexistent. You don’t have a physical medium through which you can refine those hearts. You probably won’t even regenerate mana from it.”

The Celestial Blaze. “I see.”

“It’s not like you need it, right? From what I researched on you before finding you, you don’t even need experience to level up. As long as you grow older and get better control over your power, you will naturally evolve. Your INT and Level jump by hundreds each time as if they are decided from the start.”

“You would be correct. But who knows when my next evolution will be? At the very least, there’s one positive thing I can take away from serving under you. I feel like these additional points to my physical attributes might help me find a path to evolution faster.”

Rakna glanced at him, “Good to hear.”

* * *

Ultimately, after the spell ended, taking away the hearts and blood with it, only half of the group reached their limits. Namely, Allan, Evelyn, Flavia, and Marie. They each ate between 10 to 15 hearts. As for Nyx, Pronos, Tyran, and Higure, they ate less than their limit due to the lack of hearts, but based on how they felt, Rakna estimated them to be able to digest at least 20.

According to probabilities calculated by Eye of Symphony, the first group should be fine being fed hearts between 100 and 150, while the second should be capable of taking in the energy of hearts between levels 150 and 250.

Five minutes later, Rakna had told everyone to choose a room in the mansion. It was bigger than enough to welcome all of them. Now, he was currently watching Evelyn pace from one side of the room to the other, moving flasks of alchemical reagents to various electronic devices such as centrifuge machines, magnetic stirrers, scales, liquid baths, and other objects such as condensers and test tubes engraved with magic circles bearing the crest of the Malcanthet.

This was the equipment Evelyn had taken from her family’s house before leaving. Rakna had given her the green light to use one of the rooms as a laboratory and to use the house’s power line.

“Honestly, all of this looks so… chemical rather than alchemical,” Rakna deadpanned.

Evelyn chuckled wryly as she poured one of the many mana and stamina potions laid out on one of the tables inside a flask. Rakna was the one who had given them to her, along with a few dozens of pills that weren’t worth preserving at his level. There was also a small pile of frozen hearts that had been sliced into bits by her a moment earlier.

“Purist alchemists like to believe only transmutation circles are enough these days,” the succubus said as she pressed on the buttons of a heating device. “But they are fools to think that magic can’t be used alongside science. Well, I’m sure you know that more than anyone else though…”

Rakna snorted. “True. At the end of the day, it’s a matter of perspectives. Humans were capable of making incredible advancements in technology because they didn’t have magic. To be exact, they were forced to continue improving because their continuous survival depended on it. But for those that have magic? They are content by improving individually, gradually getting to be good enough to do whatever science could potentially do. Which is why they have a hard time uniting the two.”

“The System is the perfect example, and yet, they are still blind,” Evelyn mused. “I wonder what it is that makes them like that exactly…”

“Pride.”

The succubus paused on her work and looked back at him. “Pride? How so?”

“Think about it. Let’s say you dedicate your entire life to a craft and then someone tells you that you could do so much more by studying the craft of someone else, would you take it well?”

“Well… I would probably be infuriated. But I wouldn’t dismiss the idea.”

Rakna smiled faintly. “That’s only you. Not many can swallow their pride. For them, learning from science is like an architect asking for pointers to someone whose job is to demolish houses. It does sound ludicrous at first but if you think about it, an architect can learn a few things such as what parts of a house the demolisher has found out to always be the weakest and so on… But that’s only one of the two reasons.”

“Huh? What is the second then?”

“The second aspect of pride; to not want to appear weak or clueless. You can even call it fear. They are absolutely horrified and disgusted by the idea of having to dabble into a new expertise because it means there will be plenty people to look down on them. Most people cannot accept something like that. It’s downright normal for someone who’s an expert at something to loathe the idea of asking help to someone who’s far below you in your specialty; but far better than you in what you want to learn.”

“That’s… surprisingly exhaustive,” Evelyn tilted her head. “Did you consider this line of thought in the past?”

Rakna shrugged. “You could say that Flavia was a good teacher. And I had a certain acquaintance who excelled in describing how the mind works. I suppose you’re bound to catch on to some stuff when you hang out with someone who takes your beliefs and thoughts apart for the fun of it.”

“That acquaintance sounds like quite a menace,” Evelyn said in amusement and turned back to her equipment when a certain transmutation circle automatically activated itself; this particular circle didn’t have her family’s crest on it but Rakna’s personal one.

She waited until the glow disappeared and opened the lid of the contraption sitting on top of the circle. Inside was a blue liquid as clear as water. At the surface, several red pills with black waving patterns were floating. Evelyn took out one of them and her eyes glowed as she appraised it. With a nod and a smile, she handed it to Rakna who had walked to her side.

“What do you think?” She asked as Rakna looked at the system window in front of him.

❮ ◈ ❯

Designation: Consumable/Cardiac Scavenging Pill

Tier: Special

Description:

A pill refined by an intermediate alchemist with the heart of a deceased creature. This pill should normally have been nothing more than a nutritious supplement considering its ingredients but due to the maker’s ingenuity, it became a special consumable containing the transmuted form of a complete heart, performed thanks to the unique properties of the Legendary Wolf Emperor’s Nirvana Skill and magic crest.

Effects:

- Heals physical wounds and mild illnesses.

- Recovers 5% of MP

- Recovers 5% of STA

Note: The effects above only apply to consumers other than Rakna Xiorra. Since their physiology will not be compatible, they will only be able to take one per hour and it will become ineffective for beings above level 100.

Personal Note: If consumed by you, factoring in your higher-level and Ascent, you will only regain 10% of your mana and stamina. Most injuries will be healed other than lost organs or limbs but not brought back to an unscathed state.

❮ ◈ ❯

“You made this batch with the level 90 hearts, right?” Rakna asked and Evelyn nodded. “Then it’s not bad. The percentage recovery is quite promising too and I could add these in my plans to make the company with Old Wang. But since only one can be taken in an hour, it’s not appealing enough.”

The succubus smiled knowingly. “You want me to perfect it, right?”

He smiled back and nodded. “Is it possible?”

“As long as I have the Magic Crest and Nirvana Matrix you gave me, I should be more than capable of reaching a good result. Let’s see… I don’t think I can change the ‘cooldown period’ of this pill but I can at least raise the recovery values to something around 30%. But it would be nice if I had hearts of better qua--”

Before she could finish, Rakna pulled out a card from his storage and offered it to her. She blinked at it before slowly grabbing it. The card itself had no writing on it but it had the emblem of the Pavilion. “This is…?”

“It’s a bank card issued by the Pavilion. If you buy something with it, it’s essentially the same as if I was the one doing it. It takes the money from my account and even includes my discounts.”

“Eh?!” She exclaimed nervously. “Why are you giving me something so precious?!”

“Use it to buy hearts at Trafford. There should be something close to 140 million in it,” Rakna said and smiled internally when she choked at the amount. “I allow you to use up to 40 million. Add my 70% discount and you get a buying power of about 132 million. That should be enough.”

“That’s more than enough!” She retorted with the hand that was holding the card trembling. She had never held that much money in her life. She took a deep breath to calm down as Rakna looked at her with an amused eye.

“Don’t worry too much. You can even buy more equipment for yourself if you want. What you do with that money might earn us far more later on. Also, I want you to buy and use level 200 or 300 to make pills for only me. After all, I’d be better off in a fight if I don’t have to eat frozen hearts in case of an emergency. Give some to the others too afterward.”

Evelyn sighed. “Understood. Give me a few days and I should be able to figure it out.”

Rakna nodded with a faint smile. “Good luck then. I’ll probably be occupied for the rest of the day, so I’ll see you tomorrow,” he added and left the lab.

The succubus exhaled when he left and stored the bank card in a safe place. “Let’s get back to work then… I’ll have to buy a dimensional fridge to preserve those hearts too,” she muttered to herself as she resumed her research.