"That's great!" Frank was clearly thrilled to be of help. He scratched his head and continued, "Actually, I've recently been working on crossbreeding wheat with fish. I've got some ideas already…"
Alaric fell silent for a moment but ultimately held back any objections. After all, Frank's strength lay in his boundless creativity.
As long as it's edible and harmless, a bit of strangeness is fine, right?
Alaric reassured himself inwardly.
After finishing his conversation with Frank and instructing him to plant red mushrooms on a large scale in the Forsaken Land of the Gods, Alaric didn't rush to leave. Instead, he headed to another place.
... City of Silver.
At this moment, City of Silver was noticeably less populated than before. A significant portion of its residents had already moved to the outside world, and those who remained would soon be arranged to follow suit.
Alaric's sudden visit to City of Silver wasn't for any trivial reason but to retrieve Omebella's remains.
"Omebella," a name both unique and significant, tied to an equally extraordinary existence. Her significance stemmed from her true identity as the eldest daughter of Primordial One and the Mother Tree of Desire, as well as her subtle connection to the Mother Goddess of Depravity.
After Omebella's fate was mistakenly stolen, killed by the Ancient Sun God and her identity usurped by Lilith, her uniqueness was elevated to an even higher level.
"The Earth Mother Omebella doesn't exist… You truly are a Non-Existent as well…" Alaric gave a faint smile as he gazed at the sealed artifact formed from Omebella's remains in his hand. His purpose here was to acquire the auxiliary material needed to concoct the Fictionist potion.
His guess proved correct. Upon obtaining the sealed artifact, Alaric confirmed he could extract what he sought... "the Spiritual Crystal of the Non-Existent."
Extracting such a thing from a sealed artifact was no easy task. Fortunately, after regaining his memories, Alaric had mastered various useful techniques. After some effort, a translucent, shimmering "crystal" appeared in his hand.
The crystal was a deep green, with faint traces of dark resentment swirling within... born from Omebella's bitterness at being killed by her "father." Strictly speaking, The Ancient Sun God wasn't truly her father, but in occult terms, The Ancient Sun God, as Quasi-God Almighty, could indeed be considered Omebella's father.
"After stripping away the spiritual crystal, the sealed artifact's negative effects have changed… Not necessarily a bad thing." Alaric smiled faintly. Originally, the sealed artifact formed from Omebella's remains carried a severe drawback: within its effective range, one could only be killed by their closest kin, or they would degenerate into a terrifying monster.
This negative effect had caused generations of tragedy in City of Silver, with kin forced to kill kin. Though City of Silver no longer needed to rely on this sealed artifact or endure its consequences, change was still better than stagnation.
Alaric carefully stored the crystal and returned the altered sealed artifact to the current leader of City of Silver in the Forsaken Land of the Gods, informing them of the artifact's new properties.
Seeing the complex expression on the leader's face after learning of the changes, Alaric gave a slight smile, chatted briefly about City of Silver's recent developments, and then took his leave.
"…This millennium-long curse is finally over." After Alaric departed, the leader of City of Silver gazed at the sealed artifact in hand and let out a sigh, his expression a mix of complexity and relieved joy.
…
After leaving the Forsaken Land of the Gods, Alaric immediately sought out Sasrir to report Frank's experimental results.
This was undoubtedly good news for Sasrir, who let out a sigh of relief. While mushrooms couldn't replace staple foods, a sufficient supply could still play a significant role.
After discussing the subsequent planting and handling of the mushrooms with Sasrir, Alaric left the council hall and headed to another laboratory.
Indeed, it was the mechanical laboratory centered around Roselle and the God of Steam and Machinery.
Unlike the chaotic biological laboratory, filled with bizarre plants and animals, the mechanical laboratory appeared far more orderly. At the very least, there was nothing here that would drastically unsettle one's sanity.
Alaric passed by several members of the Church of Steam conducting experiments or tinkering with machinery. Arriving at the main laboratory's door, he peered through the glass and saw Roselle adjusting a device resembling a walkie-talkie.
An incarnation of the God of Steam and Machinery stood beside him, following Roselle's instructions while employing Beyonder abilities in operations Alaric couldn't quite comprehend.
Not wanting to interrupt, Alaric waited until they finished before knocking lightly on the glass.
"Who's there?" Roselle looked up, momentarily stunned upon seeing Alaric. He set down his tools, opened the main laboratory door, and said with some surprise, "Boss, what brings you here?"
"I just visited the biological laboratory, where they've made some promising progress on the food issue, so I thought I'd drop by to check on things here," Alaric replied with a smile. His gaze fell on the walkie-talkie-like device on the table, and he asked curiously, "Is that a walkie-talkie?"
"It's more like an intercom, limited to about a five-kilometer range for communication. I'm working on extending that distance," Roselle explained briefly, noting that the device wasn't purely mechanical but also relied on Beyonder abilities.
"Any inspiration?" Alaric asked. Communication devices were, of course, highly important, and this was one of the recent tasks he had assigned to Roselle.
In any era, the transmission of information was critical. While leaping straight into an information age might be ambitious, developing something akin to a telephone would make many things far more convenient.
"I'm wondering if we could leverage the properties of uniqueness…" Roselle said, his eyes gleaming with enthusiasm. "As we all know, a uniqueness's signal can practically cover the entire world. Those who possess a uniqueness can easily receive prayers from across the globe. If we could use a uniqueness as a signal base, we might be able to establish a worldwide information network in one fell swoop…"
"A very creative idea, and quite feasible," Alaric nodded, giving Roselle's concept his approval.
"So, boss, could I borrow the Black Emperor's uniqueness for a bit?" Roselle finally revealed his true intent. Though as a former Black Emperor, he could theoretically reclaim the Black Emperor's uniqueness automatically upon entering the resurrection phase, he hadn't yet reached that stage and thus couldn't summon it.
After Alaric had overthrown the Augustus family, the Black Emperor pathway's Sequence 1 characteristic and its uniqueness naturally fell into his hands.
***
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