The Asshai's Bloodmage

 I smiled contentedly as I stood inside the natural refinement pool and looked at the message on the system:

[Cannot strengthen the body anymore]

[Body refinement 40%]

It took 4 days of refinement to complete the medium-level refinement of my body and achieve the effect of 40% reinforcement. I clenched my hands tightly and felt my body's new power. After that, I spent 3 more days letting the fire worm soak in the lakes. Its advantage was that it didn't need 6 hours, only 3, maybe because I was no longer using the lake with it.

Could it be that he was receiving the benefits of the basic and medium-level refinement, or was his potential higher than the average human? Zhang refined his body by 40% with the basic refinement and another 40% from the private medium refinement of the tower. These were the benefits of his body affinity. Could magical creatures and mutants go beyond this?

There was no way I could figure this out at the moment; perhaps if my system provided some way to check my animals in the future, I would have an answer. When the fireworm finished its refinement and began to ignore the lakes, we continued to climb until we met some members of the group on the third underground floor.

There was no one in the miraculous pools, and when I told them, everyone started to enjoy it right away. I continued climbing and found Asimov on the second floor. He smiled when he saw me and gave a curious look to the fireworm that was crawling right behind me. Its size was now twice as big as before, and it could no longer hide on my body.

"Rafael, it's good to see that you're okay. Come with me to our tent, there's good food waiting for you."

I followed him to a magical barrier, and while eating a nice fresh meal, he told me that they still found some more lizardmen on the first 3 underground floors. They were captured alive to earn more rewards, and I confirmed that all the lower floors were clear of these creatures. And then I explained to him about the benefits of the small lakes.

Asimov said that before we told headquarters about the natural treasure, we should let everyone in the current exploration group use the lakes at will. I agreed and told him that I had already taken advantage of them, but that I would wait for the rest of the group to enjoy the benefits. After all, we had more than 10 men, and they could complete the refinement in less than 2 weeks.

After that, he told me about another benefit of the tower, a soul stone farm. These parasites had a strong soul and could be converted into inferior soul stones. Most of the tests Asimov had carried out since he joined were on the reproduction capacity of the parasites and their natural regeneration within the tower. It was confirmed that some could lay tiny eggs, but over time, the tower would generate more if the numbers reached critical levels. It is important to note that inferior soul stones were used in basic and simple rituals or as a form of energy for tower functions.

They could be created by sacrificing creatures and beasts of low intelligence. And they were the most widely used currency after gold. The Grand Auction that took place every 100 years in Asshai mostly used only these stones as currency. Some unique and valuable items would only be traded in higher soul stones that were made using sacrifices of intelligent humanoids. These were even more valuable and also showed the cruel reality of the inhabitants of Asshai.

"That's good news, Asimov. If a farm is formed, our share should be very good. We will not only earn from the refinement pools but also a share of the soul stones. Do you think my group could make a deal over the pools? We have something very valuable here. If the information leaks, you know the consequences."

"There are only two active vice-leaders in the alliance; the others are busy with their own affairs until the Masters return. I believe that as long as the deal is favorable to these two, they should agree. I know Vice-leader Xu personally. If you have any valuable information, you can use it as a form of bribery when bargaining with him. Vice-leader Liana is hard to predict. She is mysterious even to us, the oldest members of the alliance."

"Thank you for the information, Asimov. I will talk to them when we leave the dungeon. Now, let's get back to work. What can I do in the next few days to help?"

And with that, the exploration of the Mage's Throat was completed in less than a month. Breaking several records for the exploration of a medium dungeon. My rank in the alliance went from D to C. This was also unprecedented since there was no such level increase with just the completion of a single dungeon. The Immortal Soul Dungeon was also very special; it had incredible benefits that only those inside it knew about, but rumors were already spreading among the members... And the delay in its completion was further proof that there was something peculiar about it.

Ever since the dungeon was completed, I had been completely busy, Henry had returned, I had my meeting with Vice-leader Xu, an important mission from the Order of the Sages was about to begin, and in the middle of all this, Zhang left for Stygai, Omar and the others were still inside the dungeon and I gave Zaya a well-deserved break, after my long period inside the dungeon and she had taken care of everything.

Vitarys was in charge of matters within the city itself, and I couldn't overburden him. That left only Liza, but the girl was the one who studied the most among us, trying to catch up since she was the one with the least magical knowledge. I took advantage of her enthusiasm and also had her make as many copies of all the classes possible inside the Garden of Beasts. There were others doing the same as her, and they were all well rewarded by the Order since all their beast points were going towards their classes.

And last but not least, I was catching up on all the classes I had missed during the several days I spent inside the dungeon. Among the classes this year were Shadowmancy 2, Blood Magic 2, Intermediate Alchemy, Intermediate Prophetic Magic, Animal Taming 2, etc.

Among these second-year classes, there were also new things, such as Artifact Creation and specific classes for Necromancers, Shadowbinders, and Blood Mages. Each of these professions had its variations, just as doctors specialized in different areas. This year, I chose the artifact class because it had some points in common with Blood Magic, and I was trying to learn these methods to adapt them to my style of magic.

As for the advanced levels of the artifact creation classes, I would leave that to my blacksmith and his new apprentice, who was one of the students who joined the Order after our wave of recruitments.

Natasha, who had joined the Order, was fitting in well but had not taken on anything important yet, remaining more like an external member. I respected her space and left her free, but thanks to that, we lost a possible new sage in the Order. Since Henry had just arrived, I postponed my meeting with him and was now heading towards the Adventurer's Tower, it was time to meet with Vice-leader Xu.

***

 Meanwhile, inside the Immortal Soul Dungeon, Omar, Jack, and Jhon were elated to have joined this exploration. The reason? Within this place filled with high-level souls and vengeful spirits, there was a huge benefit that the explorers were hiding.

Ever since they started exploring the lower floors, these immortal souls had been increasing as you descended deeper and deeper, there was nothing but them inside the tower and most thought that there would be no benefit in exploring such a place, at most a soul stone farm would be created, since the souls inside this dungeon were constantly generated...

But after arriving at the fourth underground floor, there was a change, some poltergeists began to appear and these monsters would rarely drop a certain crystal, after studies related to the item it was discovered that they were an extremely valuable natural treasure. Those who consumed the crystal could instantly learn a soul-type spell regardless of their affinity.

This caused a huge stir among the participants of the exploration, and the leader soon decided that everyone should have at least 1 of these crystals for themselves before the exploration ended. The big disadvantage was that poltergeists were rare and would not always leave behind the item after death and, like the other souls in this dungeon, they could only be killed by spells, dragon glass and now, thanks to Omar's arrival, they discovered that Valyrian Steel was also effective on these eternal creatures.

With such a new weapon in hand, the greed of the members was awakened. And they decided to collect 1 extra crystal for each of them before finishing the attack. With the accelerated speed of Omar's help, they expected to accomplish this goal in at most 3-4 more months. The reason the leader decided this was because he tried to use his second crystal and realized that they could only use this method once per person.

Therefore, in addition to the crystal for personal use, each member of the exploration group would only have 1 extra crystal to give to someone or sell; this was to avoid reprisals from the vice-leaders of the alliance for being too greedy. After all, some of these items would still reach the hands of the participating members later due to the percentage gained by conquering the dungeon...

Of course, this would be different if they could use several crystals, but such a benefit was already a natural treasure from the heavens for allowing the instant learning of a spell that they had no affinity for; its level was only inferior to the so-called primordial treasures. The only regret of Omar and the other participants was that such treasure had soul affinity, an affinity with few spellbooks currently in the Order and in Asshai itself. But little did Omar know that such rare affinity books would soon be filling the Order's library...

***

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