Just by looking at the description, one might think this ritual was nothing special, but when Alan saw the cases of Travers ancestors who had used this Bloodline Alchemy, he felt the true malice of this magic. When the Travers ancestors performed Bloodline Alchemy, they mostly used it as a tattoo, drawing the magical array directly onto their bodies.
The most successful case was a wizard named Sigurd, who once captured a Norwegian Ridgeback. He used a massive amount of dragon blood and his own blood to draw the Bloodline Alchemy array across his entire body. When the array was complete, he used the Imperius Curse to control the dragon, forcing it to tense its skin before bleeding it out. Sigurd bathed in the blood as the dragon died from blood loss, gaining defensive capabilities comparable to the beast itself.
Of course, Sigurd's ending was quite dramatic. After gaining such power, he became incredibly arrogant, plundering resources everywhere. Then he met Gryffindor, one of the founders of Hogwarts. Gryffindor hated evil and loved dueling, so after seeing Sigurd's deeds, he stepped forward and challenged him.
According to the records, their first duel ended in a draw; Sigurd's defense was too strong for Gryffindor to break, but he couldn't defeat Gryffindor either. Both retreated and agreed to a second duel. During the interim, Gryffindor discovered Sigurd's weakness: when Sigurd was bathing in the blood, a leaf had been stuck to his shoulder, making that single spot vulnerable. In the second duel, Gryffindor seized this opening and killed Sigurd. Since then, it was said that Gryffindor's sword possessed the sharpness to pierce dragon hide with ease.
This record seemed somewhat outrageous to Alan; it looked exactly like a fairy tale from Norse mythology, and he didn't know who had copied whom. However, regardless of how much of the story was true, it proved that the ritual was powerful.
The only issue was that the amount of bloodletting required was staggering. In all records, both steps required a large amount of fresh blood from the target. If it were Tonks, she would likely die during the first stage.
"It seems I need to experiment with other materials first. This array is ancient, and there might be room for improvement. I also need to determine the exact amount of blood required." Alan closed the magic book, deciding to try it on a magical creature first.
He set his sights on a Tebo Warthog in the park. Their skin strength is remarkably high. He planned to perform the Bloodline Alchemy ritual on a piece of ordinary cowhide to see if he could make it as tough as Tebo hide. Moreover, Tebo Warthogs are sturdy and have plenty of blood, making them durable for experiments—and even if he accidentally killed one, it would provide a good meal.
With a plan in place, Alan gathered the materials, found a strong Tebo to draw blood and hair from, added a few drops of his own blood, and mixed everything into a crystal bottle before sealing it away.
A week later, Alan took out the bottle and found the liquid had turned transparent as described, looking just like plain water. However, during the subsequent process of drawing the array, the experiment ran into problems. The evaporation rate was even more exaggerated than the records suggested. Alan had barely begun drawing when half the potion was already gone, forcing him to quickly reseal the cap.
"No wonder the first step requires so much blood. With this evaporation rate, you'd need twenty times the standard amount just to finish the array." Alan began to ponder the situation.
Finally, he came up with an idea: he created a device that connected the carving pen directly to the bottle cap. By inverting the bottle, the potion would feed into the pen like ink in a fountain pen, significantly reducing waste. For an alchemist of Alan's caliber, this was an easy task. The finished product worked well; although the liquid still evaporated, it avoided unnecessary exposure, and despite being a bit heavy, it was acceptable.
After carving the array onto the cowhide, he didn't immediately drench it in pig blood. Instead, he took out two of his newly developed alchemy tools. One resembled a metal microscope, though the stage was a flat metal plate without a light hole. The other was a handheld magnifying glass.
These were the observation tools Alan had just finished; they were essentially the same device, just with different strengths. The magnifying glass had good penetrability, allowing one to see the flow of magic within other alchemy tools and identify hidden runes. With it, Alan could observe the craftsmanship of products in any alchemy shop. The microscope was even stronger, capable of penetrating the bodies of magical creatures to observe their internal magic flow. Unfortunately, it could only observe and not measure, so his magic power measuring device still required blood draws for now.
Alan had previously observed Tonks and determined her talent was indeed Bloodline Magic. He first examined the array on the cowhide, identifying the core components. Subsequently, he went to the magical creature park, restrained the Tebo, and stimulated it with electricity to tense its skin. He bled it onto the cowhide, continuously monitoring the reaction with his magnifying glass.
The basin-sized cowhide began to produce a magical reaction the moment the blood covered it. Alan restricted the blood flow, but the reaction continued, indicating the ritual didn't require a continuous wash. After stopping the Tebo's bleeding, Alan watched the array's reaction until the patterns on the cowhide completely vanished. The state of the leather had been transformed.