[The 17th Ceremony: Caravan of A Hundred Monsters.]

Conditions to complete the ceremony:

1) Participate in the racial master quest from the start to finish and contribute to at least 70% of the quest accomplishment.

2) Read the Royal Record during the quest, though it can be neither before the first half of the quest progression nor after receiving the quest's rewards.

Reward: Grant the holder a racial special ability, which varies by race.

(For the slime race, the special ability is for you to obtain more than three racial skills.)

Sila flipped through his Royal Record. He recalled he was the initiator of the Decolonizing the Slime Kingdom quest. He managed to accomplish this racial master quest—that normally required the cooperation from every player of the race—all by himself, so he unknowingly succeeded the 17th ceremony. Sequence of actions played a major role for the tenth gate. The participant could neither read the Royal Record too soon nor too late. Fowl explained that no one except for Nautilus could accomplish all the ceremonies since some conditions conflicted with one another regarding the sequence.

Normally, Royal Records would inform holders only about the ceremonies’ completing conditions. However, Sila happened to already complete his, so the reward was also shown. It was the same for Zero. His book contained the already completed 17th ceremony since it was a copy from Sila’s.

Each of Nautilus’ ceremonies was like a hidden quest with a high degree of difficulty. It asked more than the results, however, as even the sequence was incredibly important.

This kind of thing didn’t only require luck, timing, and skills like Fowl said it did. Thinking about it deeply, Sila found that the tenth gate required great luck, perfect timing, and extremely outstanding skills.

He would love to perform another ceremony, but he could do nothing about it. He couldn’t start one unless he got his hand on another Royal Record or met someone who had it and got the intel from them.

He flipped pages back to the sixth chapter, Art of Miracle, which he found a little problem with it.

Actually, the problem wasn’t little at all. It was like he found a deep pit before he even took the very first step.

Basic Divine Energy.

Conditions: Generate light-element magic power, regardless of tiers and levels, with your own mana. Hold onto it with both of your palms for an hour in a place devoid of light.

Effect: Basic Divine Energy is a basic skill you must possess in order to learn beginner-level divine spells.

It seemed each skill of the art could be learned even without the Royal Record and the Monster Stamp. Still, having both of them would reveal information such as its effect and how to get it, making acquiring it become much easier. Basic Divine Energy is the lowest-tier skill in the Art of Miracle. As long as one has light-element Magic Arrow and enough mana reserve to maintain the spell for an hour, the skill would be unlocked. Even non-magic types could do it.

Unfortunately, Sila didn’t only lack the important light-element spell, but he was also incapable of casting any spell due to the slime race’s limitations. To make things worse, using items or item skills doesn't count toward success. In fact, he wouldn’t be able to do it even if they did since Isabel always glowed with her semi-infinite mana reserve. Just taking her out would instantly brim the place with light.

Good things about Royal Records are the holder can see the art’s skill tree, each skill’s description, and how to get it. However, that only applies to the skills that they had the right to learn.

Basic Divine Energy is a special skill, necessary for learning other divine spells. Without it, all the other skills that branched out from Basic Divine Energy were greyed out, not showing any information. That left only two skill icons in the bottom of the chapter, which were unrelated to any other skills. In conclusion, Sila currently had only two skills that belonged to the Art of Miracle.

Omniscient Evil God Qi.

Conditions: Inherit it from the Miracle Star.

Reward: Obtain the Omniscient Evil God Qi skill — Level 0.

Evil God’s Essence.

Conditions: Possess the Miracle Star’s Monster Stamp.

Reward: Obtain the special skill, Evil God’s Essence.

Royal Records and Monster Stamps opened up a chance to let players learn things that the Ten Heroes had left behind, but knowledge was like droplets of water in an ocean. Even considering the Art of Miracle alone, there are either skills that pose limitations on races, or skills that require a specific set of items as sacrifices. It is almost impossible for a single player to learn all the skills.

Realizing that this was the extent the book could do, Sila sighed. At the same time, Varee approached him and sat down. She extended her hand to block the book from his view.

“Don’t just read books. Everyone is preparing a farewell party for you. How about checking them up? It’s quite hectic.”

Sila raised his head from the book. A corner of the Skills Training Ground had been set up into a party. Alpha, Miki, and Isaac were enjoying snacks and boozes while Midnight was boiling some liquid in a large pot. He held his Royal Record in one hand while using another to stir the liquid. Next to him was Fowl, giving him pointers.

“You’re stirring it too fast. Slow down, or the taste will go bad. Oi! Oi! Lower the temperature already.”

Miki was interested. “I never knew you have an alcohol-brewing recipe, Midnight.”

Midnight lowered the temperature. “The recipe seems easy, so I want to try it out. It’s my first time. I don’t know whether it will come out okay.”

Miki pounded her own chest. “No worries. The gourmet master is here. Delicious or not, I will rate it.”

“You clearly just want to drink it...” Isaac muttered, though he quickly shut his mouth as soon as he sensed Miki’s stare.

Alpha shook his head. “Given your personality, it’s a surprise there is a guy falling for you. I really don’t understand Mugun’s taste.”

“Huh? Mugen? You mean the 16th squad leader? Does he really fall for Miss Miki? Is he crazy?” Isaac asked seriously.

Miki waved her hand. “You’re mistaken. That guy is just nice to everyone, so he often invited me for a drink. We’re friends.”

Alpha felt sorry for Mugen. Well, it was true that Mugen was a gentleman who is nice to everyone. That’s exactly why Miki didn’t realize he was especially nice to her.

Sila joined the party. He asked Midnight “Are you already practicing the Art of Alchemy?”

Midnight nodded, his hand still maintaining the same stirring speed and motion. His gaze locked on to the fire under the pot. “Mn. It’s mainly just boiling the ingredients. This Vermillion Dragon Liquor recipe is pretty detailed. I happen to have some dragon bones left in my inventory. I can share the rest of them for you people to try brewing it yourselves if you want.”

Fowl’s gate was among the early ones, focusing on the use of ingredients, so the difficulty level to practice her art was significantly lower than the Art of Miracle, which was from the sixth gate.

In Zero’s book, the first gate alone was classified into many categories. Checking the potion category, he found over a hundred kinds of potions. Among them, he could perform twenty given his mastery. However, after checking his inventory, there was only a single recipe he could follow. It’s the Vermillion Dragon Liquor.

The Vermillion Dragon Liquor was recorded under the potion category. The item had many grades depending on ingredients used in the recipe. Zero selected the lowest grade, so only a few ingredients were required. With Fowl as a mentor, it was unquestionable that he would succeed in brewing even in his first try.

“Extinguish the fire and toss a piece of coal into the pot. Hurry up! You’re too slow!” Fowl pressed on Zero. For her, watching Zero was like watching a kindergarten calculating addition and subtraction. She was restless as Zero’s dull movements were driving her crazy.

Zero was actually properly following the procedures. He was a bit slow since he was doing it while reading the recipe. Fortunately, the Art of Alchemy in the beginner level allows a large margin of error. At the expert level, however, slight mistakes can result in failures.

Fowl was at the pinnacle of this art, so she was easily upset at Zero missing a crucial moment by a few seconds.

Flames ignited on the clear red liquid. Zero poured it into glasses and shared them to everyone. The liquor in the glass had a thin layer of flame coating it. The rest were hesitant to drink their glasses, but Miki unfalteringly drank it all in one shot. Witnessing so, they decided to wait to see her reaction.

“Gasp!” Miki pressed her neck. Blood rushed to her face, making it pink.

“Are you okay?” Isaac asked.

“Fwoooh~” Miki shot fire out of her mouth. She laughed. “The liquor is hot. It can also make me breathe fire. Haha! How fun!”

Knowing that it wasn’t dangerous, Alpha followed Miki’s example. He drank it in one go and breathed out flame. “It’s good. It tastes a lot better than ordinary boozes.”

Fowl opened her system window. “Art of Alchemy is a high-tier set of skills. Even the lowest grade potion is naturally better than ordinary potions. You are comparing a baby dragon with a snake. Hmph!”

“Would you like to try?” Zero handed Fowl a glass.

“Seeing you brewed is enough for me to know its taste. I won’t drink it to ruin my appetite.” Fowl took out a bottle of liquor. “The real deal must be like this!! Hey, you girl, take a sip and compare the taste.”

Fowl poured her version of Vermillion Dragon Liquor into a small drinking cup and gave it to Miki. The latter frowned, complaining, “Stingy.”

“I’m willing to share, yet you’re being greedy? Being gluttonous may kill you. At your level, this much is enough.”

The Vermillion Dragon Liquor glittered in the cup. The floating flame wavered like a dragon swimming in the lake of lava.

Miki drank it all in one shot and exhaled heavily.

“So delicious!! I thought Midnight’s was already very decent, but this is far superior.”

“Make way, make way.” Fowl waved her hand, telling people in the room to move away. “Girl, breath fire to that area.”

Miki took a deep breath and blew flames to the empty area. A blast of vermilion fire shot out from her mouth. It flowed continuously like a river. Even the stone floor was melted. The people withdrew further from the scorching heat. They were agape.

Fowl explained to Zero. “The finished product will reflect the creator’s ability. About the Art of Alchemy, there are many categories, such as potion, that the finished products can be used by anybody, not just the creator. They can be used without spending energy while ignoring both casting and cooldown time. The important thing is preparation. The weakness of the art is that all of the skills have short duration. Even the longest-lasting one lasts about only ten minutes.”

The power of the blast of fire was comparable to a high-tier spell. To think that Miki—who was at Marquis Rank—could unleash this kind of power without spending mana, casting time, and necessary skill. This demonstration made everyone interested in the Art of Alchemy.

Zero inspected his Royal Record and found that the Vermillion Dragon Liquor skill icon turned colorful. From now on, whenever he wanted to brew the liquor of this grade, the recipe would pop up in his head, eliminating the need for him to open the book while brewing it.

There were twenty kinds of beginner-level potions that he could make. With further studying the art, he found that he had to brew at least ten kinds of potions for him to reach the intermediate level. It seemed completing half of the total available recipe was necessary for reaching a higher level.

Come to think of it, all of this was only within the potion category. The Art of Alchemy split into ten categories. Just one art already had so much to learn .He wondered if he would have time to study other arts.

The rest asked to try brewing the same drink. Zero was the only one capable of reading the recipe in his record, so he slowly taught them how to do it.

After they finished making it, they had fun breathing fire to each other. Since they didn’t have Fowl’s Monster Stamp, however, the recipe didn’t record into their brains like Zero. They opted to write the recipe down instead.

“Varee, do you want to try some?” Sila handed the Vermillion Dragon Liquor, made by someone in the group, to Varee.

“Drinking it will make me breathe out fire, right? I think I will pass.” There was no way Varee would embarrass herself by breathing out flame like Miki. The action seemed too wild to her character. Well, she thought this kind of thing would suit Aqua, one of her friends who didn’t care about losing face.

Miki was getting drunk. She chased after Isaac, who was running away, while breathing fire at him. The sight caused the rest to laugh.

“Stoppppp it! It’s hot! Please, anybody, stop Miss Miki!”

Alpha was busy laughing. Instead of putting a stop to Miki, he cheered. “Oi! Miki, your aim sucks! Let’s compete to see who can burn Isaac’s hair first. You think white hair is cool, huh? I will burn it. Hahaha!”

“Uwahhhh! Leader, help meee!”

Sila shouted, “Breathe fire back at them! Don’t give up. This level of flames won’t kill you.”

The Vermillion Dragon Liquor that they made generated power even lower than ordinary fire arrows. Unless the target stayed still and soaked the flames, it wouldn’t burn them.

“Pffft.” The scene made Varee laugh.

“I never saw you laugh before.” Sila turned to her.

“It’s the same for me. You’re childish, but I never saw you play like a child.”

“Well, it’s because I like...”

Varee was getting shy. She muttered, “Me too...”

Sila missed her words. “...staying with these people. They’re funny. I’m fond of this kind of atmosphere. Hmm? Did you say something?”

Varee coughed. “Ahem. I said I also like this kind of atmosphere.”

Sila nodded. The two eventually joined the group’s conversation, spending their time in the 99th squad’s unofficial farewell party. He sometimes took a side glance at Varee and found that her cheeks went red for no reason. He bet she must have sneaky drunk the Vermillion Dragon Liquor at some point.