"119: A Crazed Idea"

"You make a good point," said Su Mo from the DanMachi world, nodding thoughtfully. "According to legend, the alchemist who once created a Philosopher's Stone here had also awakened the Mystery development ability."

The Mystery development ability was extremely rare, rumored to touch upon the very secrets of the gods' divine powers. Judging by skill alone, the key components for creating Philosopher's Stones in the DanMachi world appeared to be Mixing and Mystery. Su Mo from this world had already acquired Mixing when he advanced to Level 3. As for Mystery—

"Strictly speaking, we've already mastered divine authority ourselves," Fairy Tail Su Mo interjected. "If the Mystery ability represents humans reaching toward the divine, we've already seized many gods' powers outright."

It was an overwhelming advantage from the top down. However, Index Su Mo shook his head. "Unfortunately, none of the divine authorities we've acquired relate to alchemy." Each divine authority governed entirely different domains. Although they had obtained god-like abilities, none were tied to the craft of alchemy. So their current knowledge of synthesizing Philosopher's Stones still relied solely on what Fullmetal Alchemist Su Mo knew—and his method required sacrificing human souls.

"That's true," Fairy Tail Su Mo admitted before shifting gears. "However, when it comes to Philosopher's Stones, I think we already have enough theoretical knowledge. The problem with mass-producing them isn't technique or formulas. The real bottleneck is raw materials."

The difficulty wasn't in creating a single Philosopher's Stone. That was never a challenge for Su Mo; there were plenty of people who deserved to go to hell. The challenge lay in how to manufacture them at scale. Fundamentally, mass production still demanded a large supply of raw materials. The human-soul-based array from Fullmetal Alchemist Su Mo was out of the question. But if they could identify substitute materials, the process could become far simpler.

"For example," Fairy Tail Su Mo suggested, "if we could extract Philosopher's Stones from animals like pigs, sheep, or cows, we could simply run slaughterhouses to collect the stones. We'd even have meat to sell afterward—two birds with one stone."

"That actually sounds plausible," Index Su Mo agreed. "The Philosopher's Stone, the Fifth Element, the Elixir of Immortality, the power of transmutation… At its core, it's still just a crystallization of spiritual essence. To ordinary magicians, the Philosopher's Stone might seem impossibly mysterious. But to us, it's just a rare magical artifact. Even the gods of Orario wouldn't find it that shocking. Human souls are rich in spiritual essence, so theoretically, animal souls should work too."

From a purely theoretical standpoint, their logic made sense. But Fullmetal Alchemist Su Mo quickly shook his head. "In theory, yes. In practice, the military has already tried extracting Philosopher's Stones from animals."

He sighed. "Unfortunately, animal souls seem to fall short in terms of spiritual strength. No matter how many animals they used or how they combined them, they couldn't extract Philosopher's Stones."

It was a bitter truth. If animals like pigs could be used to create Philosopher's Stones, then the homunculus Father wouldn't have needed to spend centuries orchestrating his grand plan. He wouldn't have had to build a nationwide transmutation circle or sacrifice an entire country. He could've just raised pigs for centuries and generated enough Philosopher's Stones while simultaneously feeding the population with pork—a win-win scenario, and no villainy required. But alas, reality didn't cooperate.

Having read extensive military records and done his own research, Fullmetal Alchemist Su Mo had tried everything. Whether birds, beasts, or fish, none could produce Philosopher's Stones. He speculated that their spiritual intensity simply didn't meet the required threshold.

"The average animal soul just isn't strong enough?" Genshin Su Mo repeated, deep in thought. Suddenly, an idea struck him. "What if… what about Pokémon? Would their souls be strong enough?"

Pokémon, after all, were highly intelligent creatures. Many possessed intelligence equal to, or even exceeding, that of humans. They were leagues above ordinary animals in terms of mental capacity. If that logic held, then perhaps Pokémon souls weren't so different from human souls—and might meet the threshold for Philosopher's Stone synthesis.

But as soon as he said it, Fairy Tail Su Mo gave him a horrified look. "Are you insane?"

"You're actually considering sacrificing Pokémon to make Philosopher's Stones?" Index Su Mo piled on. "If the Su Mo from the Pokémon world ever heard you say that, you'd be done for."

True, Pokémon were technically animals, but their level of intelligence rivaled that of humans. Mass slaughtering Pokémon to create Philosopher's Stones would mark them as public enemies in that world. Even Team Rocket's evil schemes would pale in comparison.

"It was just a hypothetical!" Genshin Su Mo quickly waved his hands in defense. "I never said I actually planned to do it."

Of course, he wasn't that deranged. It was simply a theoretical observation about the potential compatibility of Pokémon souls.

"Wait!" someone suddenly interjected.

At that moment, Index Su Mo suddenly remembered something. "Speaking of creatures whose soul strength far surpasses ordinary animals and exist in large numbers—" his gaze immediately shifted toward DanMachi Su Mo. "Doesn't your world have plenty of them? The monsters inside the Dungeon!"

The monsters of the DanMachi world, while not as intelligent as Pokémon, were still far superior to ordinary animals in terms of combat ability and basic instincts. And most importantly, they existed in massive quantities, constantly respawning every day. If these Dungeon monsters could be used to craft Philosopher's Stones, it would provide them with an endless supply of raw materials. Compared to the idea of using Pokémon, this was far more practical, both in terms of availability and ethical concerns. After all, nobody would feel guilty about using Dungeon monsters for this purpose.

Hearing this, DanMachi Su Mo paused in thought before a look of excitement appeared on his face. "I can't believe I forgot about that! You might be onto something!" Dungeon monsters lacked higher intelligence and self-awareness, except for the Xenos, yet their combat instincts and mental faculties were still well above ordinary creatures. If their spiritual essence was sufficient to synthesize Philosopher's Stones, then given the Dungeon's limitless supply of monsters, there would never be a shortage of materials. He could easily trade Philosopher's Stones for the knowledge he sought. "Of course, we'll need to run some experiments to verify it first."

There was no way to be sure without testing. Moreover, since the Dungeon monsters derived their life force from magic stones, perhaps the creatures themselves weren't even necessary. The magic stones might be sufficient as raw materials for the synthesis. If that proved true, he would have discovered an incredibly stable shortcut to power.

"Damn... so jealous!" Fairy Tail Su Mo couldn't help but feel a pang of envy watching DanMachi Su Mo find such a promising method. "If I had such a convenient way to obtain Philosopher's Stones, I wouldn't even need to keep studying magic. I could simply keep trading knowledge at the Gate of Truth and dive deeper into the abyss of magic." Compared to his current painstaking efforts to learn magic, this shortcut seemed infinitely easier. Sure, his world also had monsters and demons, even dragons, but nowhere near the Dungeon's sheer numbers or respawn rate. Resource-wise, the Dungeon world was simply on a different level.