The Golden Experience Point [Part 1]

Chapter 41: "The Egg and the Living Objects"

"Thank you. All right, so I have materials now, but..."

Sitting before Rare was a huge pile of crumbling armaments and bones from dead knights, as well as glittering lumps of metal. At least some of it should turn out to be ingredients she needed.

"If a skill doesn't require any souls, that means it produces something that doesn't have a soul, right? I suppose that applies to most game items already..."

However, it was found in the same category as the homunculus recipe. If these skills produced regular items, they would surely be in a different row altogether. In fact, [Magnum Opus] had unlocked a ton of recipes in their own separate grouping. Not that she knew any of the ingredients that they required.

"Well, whatever, let's just try it out. Okay, I'll start with [Philosopher's Egg]."

After saying so, a giant egg-like crystal appeared in front of Rare. Based on the explanation, this was supposed to be some sort of flask, but it was hard to tell at first glance whether it was hollow or not. As instructed in the [Magnum Opus] recipe, she brought a lump of metal close to the egg.

"It would be a waste if this fails, so first, let's try with about five kilograms."

As soon as the metal touched the egg, the egg morphed, creating an opening that swallowed the lump of metal.

"I see now; I was wondering how to get it inside, but there was an arbitrary magical method."

Well, in the first place, the egg was floating in midair, so this indignation came rather late.

"The problem now is the Knight's Grudge. If it's taking the place of the [Soul] that a homunculus would need, then maybe it means the soul or spirit of a fallen knight or something? In that case..."

Rare picked up a rusted sword and fed it to the egg. If there were one thing that would be most likely to contain the soul of a knight, then nothing was more fitting than their sword.

"Even if it fails, I have more items to try, so let's just run with it. Activate [Athanor]!"

Underneath the floating egg, a golden light appeared that began to heat up the egg.

"So an athanor isn't a furnace. But isn't this basically just an alcohol burner?"

Despite claiming that, Rare had never seen an actual alcohol burner before. She had used one in VR school before, though. Not that there was much different about her current situation. After some time, the egg's contents melted into a rainbow of color and began swirling around like a whirlpool.

"So is it ready now? [Magnum Opus]!"

The egg emitted a golden light after it sucked up a significant amount of Rare's substantial MP.

"I wonder if I could use this for light in the caves, heh."

The light faded after a few seconds, and finally the only thing left inside the egg was a single sword.

"Huh? All that metal just disappeared? Did it fail?"

<Boss, please look more closely. That is not the knight sword you put in earlier.>

"Ah, you're right. The design didn't change that much, but it got a lot cleaner. It's also floating inside the egg..."

Before long, the egg broke open, and the sword inside gently floated down right in front of Rare.

"Is the Philosopher's Egg a consumable item...? That thing eats up a decent amount of MP."

The sword hung suspended in the air in front of Rare, completely unmoving.