But Dulles’s talent was trash.

  Even after abandoning the Corpse Hall’s mainstream “Corpse-Pgue Acolyte” path for the “Wizard” path—supposedly better for those with strong minds and meticulous focus—he still couldn't crack the first-rank barrier.

  So, he’d turned to a desperate gambit: a potion and a ritual to force his way through.

  The ritual, of course, was the one Pandora had already experienced. The core of it was in the cultivation room. The rule was simple: kill the first person to “accidentally” intrude, and the ritual’s power would erase any “accidents” during his advancement, boosting his minuscule chance of success.

  That was why, from the very beginning, he had to kill her. No other option.

  As for his lie, about having Pandora bring another “accidental person” back for him to kill... whether that actually fulfilled the conditions of the ritual, Dulles himself didn’t know.

  Pandora’s guess? The moment she left the ritual area, the whole thing was decred a failure. Even if she had honored that so-called “promise” and returned with another person, all she would have found was a cold corpse, completely drained of all value.

  She didn't care much for the tedious ritual and its ridiculous restrictions.

  But the potion? That was different.

  In his notes, the script was practically spidery with excitement as he described his stroke of luck. He had, by some miracle, traded nearly all his savings to a retiring inspector from the Flesh-Shaping Foundry for a single, precious vial of “Witch’s Blood.”

  The blood of this special creature had a miraculous effect: it calmed the mind and stabilized the soul. For a profession like “Wizard,” which constantly wrestled with frenzied mental forces, it was a treasure beyond measure.

  But it also had an extremely terrifying side effect—it would cause the physical body to gradually and silently lose control, undergoing irreversible, grotesque mutations.

  But Dulles remained supremely confident and optimistic.

  He believed that, theoretically, this one vial of potion was enough to help him advance to the second rank as a “Wizard.”

  So, he’d poured a massive amount of energy into researching the “Witch’s Blood.”

  And in the end, he actually succeeded!

  His talent might have been useless in every other respect, but in potion-making, he seemed to have a shocking, intuitive gift.

  After consuming more than half the vial of “Witch’s Blood” and enduring several failed experiments, each accompanied by minor mutations, he had successfully developed a potion he personally named—“Dulles’s Red Moon’s Tears.”

  This potion could greatly stabilize the Witch’s Blood’s soul-soothing effect, amplify its benefits, and effectively suppress the onset of malignant mutations.

  In his notes, Dulles gave this potion an ecstatic, glowing review.

  And from Pandora’s perspective, the effect was every bit as good as he cimed. At least, according to his own account, if he hadn’t used this potion, he would have instantly colpsed from the mental backsh after his first failed promotion, descending into madness and death.

  But in reality, Dulles had not only endured at least one failure, but even after Pandora killed the second-rank Live Iron Golem, he was still rational enough to hold a normal conversation. He had even boasted he could st for twelve hours.

  And while that was ultimately proven to be the desperate exaggeration of a dying man, it was more than enough to prove the astonishing efficacy of this “Red Moon’s Tears”!

  However, as excellent as Dulles’s potion was, if the materials were gone, it was just an unattainable legend in someone else’s diary.

  But…

  Pandora’s gaze shifted from the open diary to the messy desk in front of her.

  On the desk, two sealed, partitioned gss tubes y quietly.

  Inside each test tube was a single drop of liquid, like congealed, purest ruby.

  Two drops of Witch’s Blood.

  Enough for two doses of the potion.

  Pandora flipped through Dulles’s notes again, comparing the sections on potion concoction and the advancement process with her own situation. The thoughts in her mind began to connect, to spark with new life.

  The first rank wasn't actually a very “extraordinary” concept.

  According to the definition at the beginning of Dulles’s notes, from a “general academy course” level, the first rank was, in fact, just a description of “an ordinary person with professional training.”

  Dulles, an ordinary person who’d received two years of theoretical and practical education from the Demon Hunter Academy, was first-rank.

  And Pandora herself? While she cked knowledge, after several life-or-death battles, her physical fitness, enhanced by the Corpse-Red Mist, had reached a superhuman level. She absolutely met, and even surpassed, the physical requirements for the first rank.

  According to the notes, she could even attempt to break through to the second rank at any moment!

  If she were a legitimate apprentice of the Corpse-Pgue Furnace, it would be perfectly normal to jump straight to her second-rank advancement, making up the boring cssroom instruction ter. She had already hit the ceiling of the first rank; the acquisition of knowledge could wait.

  But…

  Pandora wasn't optimistic about her chances of being officially granted a “power system” by the Demon Hunter Academy. She’d killed the Warden they had personally appointed. Thinking she could just walk up and ask for power was a fantasy.

  So, the path of the Wizard—completely different from the Academy’s mainstream systems yet tacitly approved by it—became Pandora’s first choice. Or rather… her only choice.

  Furthermore, the “Wizard” described in Dulles’s notes revered knowledge, commanded the spellcasting power to warp reality, but was absolutely not the path of a fragile, one-hit-wonder spellcaster.

  For Pandora, who’d always had a soft spot for the the “badass mage” css, the appeal was undeniable.

  Better yet, she already held the key: the “exclusive potion” that would let her do it safely.

  Pandora no longer hesitated. She began to search carefully through Dulles’s room.

  Soon, from a secret compartment in the bedside table, she found the book Dulles had treasured, the one passed down through his family…

  the Wizard’s Book.

  This book looked ancient. Its cover was made of an unknown, dark red leather, with no words on it, only a single, twisted symbol embroidered with silver thread.

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