Chapter 68 : Chapter 68

Chapter 68. Blood of the Furnace

When Fran came back to her senses, she witnessed a scene that shocked her.

The red ring clenched in her hand shone with a dazzling light, and that light held her suspended in midair.

The ground where she had been standing had completely vanished. Beneath her feet was what appeared to be a spherical crater.

Because it had not yet been filled with anything, she could clearly see its curved inner surface.

And directly below her now was a vast pool of glowing liquid.

Its surface was perfectly calm, yet from the rising steam Fran could feel the intense heat emanating from it.

As for her enemy, it seemed only a scream had remained.

Everything else was gone.

Fran could not see even the slightest trace of Belori.

Seeing this scene, she first let out a long breath of relief. The ring Habos had given her was unbelievably powerful. It had instantly eliminated her opponent.

No matter how she looked at it, that was good news for her.

But now… what should she do?

Fran looked at the calm red liquid below, its surface not even rippling. She swallowed nervously. Her hand still gripped the glowing ring, and she found herself in a dilemma.

If she used the ring’s force, she might be able to swing herself toward safe ground.

But what about the ring itself?

It was practically a piece of Divine Equipment. Something capable of creating such devastation—instantly killing a true mage.

Fran did not want to abandon it. Even if she did, she would have no way to explain it to Habos.

“Hm?”

She sent her Mental Power into the ring again.

It seemed that she could actually control the spell.

Only now did she finally discover a short line within the ring—

Third-tier spell: Blood of the Furnace.

Other than that, there was no additional information.

She only sensed that she could manipulate the spell’s “state,” though she had no idea what those states corresponded to.

After glancing around, she decided to gamble and began adjusting the spell’s state as if she were sliding a progress bar.

This caused her already exhausted Mental Power to decline even further.

However, she had been prepared this time. She forced herself to stay conscious.

What happened next shocked her even more.

The ring in her hand stopped glowing.

At the same time, her feet seemed to touch solid ground.

She opened her eyes in disbelief.

The scene before her looked as if time itself had reversed. The spherical crater vanished, replaced by the original ground.

And what shocked her even more was what lay before her.

The person she had fought moments earlier—the true mage from the Modification School—was lying on the ground.

Her face was lifeless. Her eyes stared blankly at the starry sky.

Her arms were stiffly folded over her abdomen, and Fran’s longsword was still embedded in her shoulder.

A small stream of blood slowly flowed from the wound, dripping onto the ground.

Fran stepped forward to examine the body.

Only after confirming that Belori was truly dead did she suddenly understand what the spell actually did.

Just like the process of smelting iron in a furnace, the spell converted all surrounding matter into a red transitional liquid state.

Then came the truly bizarre part.

It could convert everything back exactly as it was.

Fran suspected that there might also be a shaping phase within the spell—one where Mental Power could mold the liquid into a desired form before restoring it.

But she was still only an apprentice.

She could not possibly utilize such advanced functions. All she could use was the conversion effect.

Even so, its power was terrifying.

Looking at Belori’s lifeless body, a chill ran through Fran’s heart.

Converting inorganic matter was one thing.

But if living creatures were caught in the spell, even if they were restored afterward, their consciousness was completely gone.

Fortunately, the ring had been designed with a protective function specifically for its user.

It truly was Habos’s masterpiece.

Fran suddenly felt very grateful toward Habos. With such a powerful ring, her safety in the future had increased tremendously.

At that moment, she finally noticed a panel notification.

【You used Blood of the Furnace to defeat an enemy far stronger than yourself. However, you do not appear to meet the casting conditions for this spell. Blood of the Furnace Proficiency +1】

What the hell? That even gives proficiency?!

An overwhelming sense of excitement flooded Fran’s heart.

This had opened up a completely new path for her—a path to learning spells from other schools.

Although the various schools worked hard to prevent their spells from leaking out, they did not guard against spells being engraved into rings.

After all, who could possibly understand how a spell worked just by using a ring?

Although crafting such rings required the cooperation of someone capable of casting the spell, members of the schools were always willing to do it if paid well.

After all, engraving a spell into a ring was a perfectly normal service. Their schools would not forbid it.

Previously, Fran had avoided these spell rings because they were simply too expensive.

Her original plan had been to craft her own in the future—something far better than buying rings made by others.

Now she wished she could start making rings tomorrow and shamelessly harvest spells from every school.

But first, she had to deal with the scene before her.

She looked at the corpse on the ground, then glanced around. It was already late at night, and no one had noticed the battle.

Using Telekinetic Hand, she lifted the corpse.

As for what to do with it, she had already made up her mind.

---

Fran’s house was now filled with a layer of white mist.

Although she had extinguished the Steam Engine’s furnace before leaving earlier, her home’s ventilation system was clearly not very effective.

She carried the corpse into the basement, turned on the lights, and placed the body on a table.

Originally, she had not decided what the basement should be used for.

If she placed the Steam Engine here, the exhaust would be a problem. Using it for storage was also inconvenient because everything had to be carried up and down a ladder.

But now she had an idea.

She picked up the purple short sword and slid it across the corpse’s throat, peeling back the skin.

Beneath it was a small structure emitting a purple glow.

She carefully observed how that structure connected to the surrounding flesh.

【You observed a case of an Extraordinary organ existing within a human body. Insight gained. Modification Proficiency +3】

Exactly.

Fran was simply making the most of available resources.

As a true mage from the Modification School, dissecting this corpse alone would probably grant her plenty of proficiency.

She tried using the short sword to pry out the small purple object.

However, she had misjudged its stability.

She applied only a little force, yet the structure suddenly popped free, shot up to the ceiling, bounced several times around the basement, and finally landed on the floor—its glow completely gone.

【You performed a failed extraction of an Extraordinary organ, but you mentally recorded the mistake to avoid repeating it. Modification Proficiency +5】

Fran remained expressionless.

Although she had just lost something that looked extremely valuable, she knew there was no way she could safely keep several Extraordinary organs anyway.

Using them to farm proficiency was the wiser choice.

“This liver has clearly been cultivated… the heart seems to have been soaked in some kind of liquid, turning it blue… and there are green bumps on the skin. What are those?”

After raising her Modification skill to the beginner level, she could now understand how many of these organs had been altered.

However, some procedures still confused her.

After an entire night of effort, Fran looked at the skill section of her panel.

【Modification (Mastery) (Proficiency: 13/1000): You have mastered how to cultivate an organ and transplant it into a human body. Of course, the success rate still requires verification.】