Experiments

Inside Arthur's laboratory, a human body was lying on the table.

It belonged to a preparatory knight who had died in training. The man was called Allan Winter, an orphan who was promised a better future if he joined the Landragon Army. Little did he know, for he would die miserably in a spar. In fact, it wasn't the spar that killed him, but it was a rather unfortunate chain of events. He received a concussion from the spar, which made dizzy. It was only known later on that he had fallen from the wall during a patrol.

To Arthur, his death was an opportunity to experiment. After filling the body with ice elemental particles, Allan Winter's body had become the perfect vessel for [Ice Monster Creation]. Although it was possible to create [Ice Monsters] from elemental particles alone, Helena Fireborn's experiments had proved that the monsters would have better durability and strength if it originated from a human body.

Arthur started to engrave runes on Allan's body. Filling Allan's body with ice elemental particles had been quite coslty in terms of mana. The process had taken him several hours. However, it was worth it.

Regular knives would be chipped upon trying to cut Allan's body.

As a result, Arthur was using a high-quality knife he had found in the Landragon Family's treasury. Although there was no enchant, it was sharp enough to engrave runes.

Each rune was the result of years of research from Helena within the Ivory Tower Library. She inspired herself from tens of thousands of Runic Formations, and eventually settled on an original runic formation that kept the ice elemental particles from dispersing.

A regular human body required 316 runes to be drawn on its body for the second step of the [Ice Monster Creation] process to be completed.

Each rune required utmost focus, since the single deviation from the textbook reference would result in the runic formation being ineffective. Just like alchemy, it was not something that could be achieved in one, or two tries, no matter how talented the runic engraver was.

It was something that could only be achieved with hundreds, if not thousands of tries.

Fortunately, Arthur had gotten his father's authorization to use war prisonners for his experiments. It was unholy, but since a war was incoming, any addition to his strength would result in many lives being saved. Although it didn't justify his actions, pragmatism had convinced both his father and John to let him do as he pleased.

'Success...This is the third time I succeed here...'

Out of 876 experiments, this was the third time he had successfully engraved the 316 runes on a human body.

[Name - Allan Winter | Class - Level 8 Frozen Warrior

HP - 60 / 60 | Mana - 80 / 80

Attributes:

Strength – 4 (+3) | Agility – 2 (+1) | Vitality – 4 (+2) | Magic Power - 8

Status - Healthy

Perk - Ice Monster [+3 Strength, +2 Vitality, +1 Agility], Frozen Skin [8 Defence against physical and magical attacks]

Skills - Beginner Swordsmanship (25), Horsemanship (15), Spear Mastery (10)...

Spell - Frozen Sword [Low-grade] (30)]

Knight Skills - ø]

'Incredible...', Arthur thought upon looking at those stats.

However, the ice monster quickly started to scream.

"ARGHHH"

It didn't take long for the ice monster to break free of his constraints and grab a sword.

Soon enough, the sword was frozen, yet its sharpness didn't diminish one single bit. In fact, it was sharper than before. Furthermore, a blue light made it shine. Very similar to Arthur's own spell [Ice Poison Aura], Frozen Warriors that Arthur created could cast [Frozen Sword], a basic spell that consisted in fueling one's weapon with ice elemental particles, granting ice elemental damage and freezing properties to one's sword techniques.

Arthur sighed: 'In the end, it's another failure, huh...'

The Frozen Warrior would be a tough opponent for anyone who wasn't used to deal with body refinement acolytes. Most knights, including newly advanced intermediate knight with no prior encounter with magic would not know how to defend against a sword imbued with [Frozen Sword] spell. As for acolytes, they had trouble fighting with unknown beasts. What's more, the beast that Arthur had created could use refined swordsmanship.

However, Arthur could only smile as he moved his sword forward.

[You have activated your knight killing technique [Power Thrust]. You have dealt a critical blow to the target's vital core]

[You have dealt 80 points of damage]

[You have killed [Level 8 Frozen Warrior]. Because it is your creation, you have not earned any point of experience]

[Recent experiment has increased your understanding of ice magic]

[Recent experiment has led [Ice Magic Knowledge], [Magical Knowledge] to increase by 1 point of proficiency]

[The research on [Ice Monster Creation] has reached 100%]

[You have reached the utmost potential of Helena's research on Ice Monster Creation. Do you wish to continue the research?]

Arthur nodded, as he was obviously not pleased with the results.

[Do you want to spend 3 000 EXP to unlock [Frozen Warrior Creation] Research?]

Arthur smiled.

Until now, he had been saving his EXP for leveling up. However, unlocking the creation of frozen undead warriors made his blood boil in excitement.

'Based on the stats I have seen, a [Frozen Warrior] is much stronger than the original body when it was alive, not to mention its spell [Frozen Sword] and its perk [Frozen Skin], making it an amazingly strong companion to have'

Arthur nodded, and mentally agreed to the contract with his ring.

Experience was like a resource, a currency. To Arthur, EXP was like demonic energy. At first, he didn't notice it, but the past few months stacking experience allowed him to feel the energy that EXP held. Killing, acts of cruelty...Anything evil truly made him earn more demonic energy.

[You have unlocked [Frozen Warrior Creation]. Current Proficiency: 5 points]