Experimental Log of the Crazy Lich

“How many Fate Points have I earned by now?”

[412.]

“Tsk, these guys are so worthless.”

I felt rather helpless about this. I had been slaughtering the magical creatures and weak demons in this dimensional level for three days already, yet I had only earned so few points.

[Although the creatures here are much stronger on average than those in the mortal plane, these creatures are far too dumb. Most of the species here don’t even have social structures. Their karmic connections are too weak, which is why the points you receive are so few.]

My Goddess of Order System explained things to me. It seemed that if I wanted more points, it would be inefficient to remain here in this swamp. Perhaps I should start focusing on more important demons who would have stronger karmic connections, such as the Demon Lord ruler of each dimensional level?

Previously, I had asked my System if there was any cheat-like shortcut to become stronger.

Her response back then had been rather vague.

[…There will always be losses with every gain. If you want to become stronger at a cheat-like speed, then you must pay an equivalent price, which will most likely be the most important thing to you that you’ve held for all this time…]

[…Just think about it for yourself. Your twin brother Karwenz is the Child of the Abyss, so that also makes you…]

I was no idiot. Her hints were more than enough to show me what I needed to do. Back in the day, I had also killed a great number of lives in order to obtain more points through my System in order to power myself up at a cheat-like speed. That helped me to swiftly become an Undead Emperor. My System meant that I would simply have to set aside my conscience and do that once more. Although, this time I would be instead slaughtering demon lives down in the Chaos Abyss where bloody battles never ended.

“How many more points do I need to exchange for the ‘shell’ of my first sword?”

[Which sword did you want first?]

“The one with the highest attack power.”

Through my lives so far, this was only my second time where I had an opportunity to achieve SemiGod rank. And this time, I had a complete and outstanding physical body. I would never be satisfied with “barely being” a SemiGod.

I had powerful natural talents and one of the best possible physical bodies. I possessed countless amounts of combat experience and life’s work. Several centuries of lives had given me an endless amount of knowledge regarding Concepts that I could use. This time, I was determined to reach the greatest peak of power.

I had already planned my future countless times already. If I succeeded here with what I obtained at Myth rank, that alone would give me the confidence to face any opponent.

For ordinary Myth-ranked individuals, knowing one’s future goal would only be the beginning. That person would then need to continuously gather resources and slowly make progress before finally reaching their goal. Along the way would also be countless failed experiments and wasted effort.

However, I was different from others. I had a relatively complete blueprint that I could use, along with many more Concepts than others. Not only that, I had a superbly strong body that could handle more powerful and more numerous Concepts. I could afford to be a little extravagant with my planning.

Plus, my System was now basically helping me to cheat in powering up. I could use Fate Points to exchange for resources that I didn’t have, as well as calculate the compatibility between my Concepts and the resources I wanted to use. I fully expected that I would succeed on the first try to reach Myth rank, and that this would greatly shorten the time needed for me to reach the peak.

As for how much the time could be shortened, that would depend on how shameless I was in slaughtering. As long as I had enough Fate Points, I could exchange for as many resources as I wanted, which meant I could finish my power leveling within the next few years.

“So, you’re still going to be a swordsman?”

“Strictly speaking, I’ll be a magical swordsman.”

Harloys was slightly downcast. This wasn’t one of her usual jokes. My former magic teacher was indeed rather unhappy.

A Myth rank individual choosing their personal weapon to create would also mean that they were choosing their future combat style. Harloys, a pure mage, had taught a disciple who ended up becoming a melee fighter swordsman. She naturally felt rather aggrieved about this.

“There’s no helping it. A magic swordsman job class focused on melee combat is the only one that will be the best use of all my abilities. And, there’s no more endless amounts of undead that can act as my meat shields anymore. Considering the future enemies I’ll be facing, being a pure long-distance artillery type mage will be far too dangerous, nor will I be good at being a frontline combat mage.”

I wasn’t being impulsive at all when I decided to be a magic swordsman. The very fact that my physical body’s stats were so well balanced had pointed out this path to me.

The Four Elemental Swordcaster job class had given countless people the opportunity to use a minor amount of magic. But from another standpoint, this was actually a job class customized just for me.

Magic swordsman had always been an unpopular job class option. That was because far too much was required for this job class. You would need to be skilled in both magic and martial arts. But, when you combined both on the battlefield, the typical effects were an example of “1 + 1 is equal to less than 1.”

It would be inconvenient to wear heavy armor if you wanted to cast spells. That meant that magic swordsmen couldn’t be effective tanks. And since you were going to be in melee combat range, you would be unable to incant long and powerful spells. This meant that you couldn’t use any long-distance powerful magic attacks. So, the end result of training in both magic and martial arts typically meant that both became worthless. Working so hard to train in magic for so many years, only to use that magic to cast a few buff spells on yourself? That was just such a poor deal.

However, the Four Elemental Swordcaster job class decreased the amount of time necessary for magic swordsmen to practice magic. This greatly shortened the overall training time required. These Four Elemental Swordcasters could then instead focus on how to use their magic sword techniques to improve their combat strength.

Human intelligence was limitless. A sufficient number of Four Elemental Swordcasters meant that countless new techniques were invented by them. In fact, many different subclasses had been invented, along with varying sword seals and how to improve on them. There were those who focused more on spellcasting—the Spellswords. There were those who focused more on how to use sword seals, using a balance of magic and swordsmanship to defeat the enemy—the Spirit Swordsmen. There were also those who treated their magic swords as remotes which could control various magical machines—the Mecha Controllers.

And, each subclass had several tens or even several hundred unique combat techniques and magical spells. This would be an astonishing wealth of knowledge and experience for myself that I could use.

“Although it’s not really a good habit to use other people as experimental subjects like this, it’s all thanks to everyone that the Four Elemental Swordcaster job class has truly been completed. I can rest assured and take this path to the peak now.”

In a way, all the Four Elemental Swordcasters had been my experimental subjects. Their intelligence and hard work helped to develop this job class for me. And since I had multiple magical and physical attributes, this would be my foundation for reaching the peak.

Since I was going to be a magic swordsman, I would naturally choose to craft swords for my Myth-ranked weapons. This was a custom of all swordsmen and magic swordsmen job classes.

What I needed to do was create the strongest magic sword in the world by using all of my accumulated knowledge. Then, I would utilize all the combat techniques and spells created by everyone’s intelligence, fully developing my magic sword’s power to its utmost.

The different elemental modes of the Four Elemental Swordcaster job class gave me the ability to use multiple different magic swords. Since I had so many available Concepts, I intended to craft several magic swords, one imbued with each Concept. Unfortunately, the highest-level resources required for crafting such swords wouldn’t be that easy to obtain.

“My most powerful offensive magic sword, the ‘Spirit of the Dead’, how long will it take to only craft its outer shell?”

[Your blueprint for that sword is absolutely fantastical. Theoretically speaking, this magic sword’s attack power will be so off the charts that it will break all records. However, since you inconceivably want this sword to be the vessel for seven different Concepts simultaneously, your Spirit of the Dead sword has ridiculously high requirements for the resources needed in its construction. If you obtain the resources purely through exchanging Fate Points, it would take a minimum of 200,000 Fate Points at a conservative estimate.]

Damn, that was really expensive. Even resurrecting myself from death would only cost me 100,000 Fate Points!

[Can’t you lower your requirements for your magic sword?]

“Absolutely not. This will be my ace weapon. And judging from its theoretical workings, even one less Concept will decrease its overall power level by at least half.”

Considering how I might be hunted down or ambushed at any time, I naturally wanted to craft my strongest weapon first.

I did some simple math, and found that I was almost there. I was only 190,588 Fate Points short of 200,000…

“How many Fate Points will killing this dragon give me?”

I glanced over at Hakas, who was currently sleeping, with evil intentions. However, my System’s reply made me feel rather helpless.

[He’s just a hermit dragon who has no connections to the outside world, which means he’s only worth 450 Fate Points. You might as well keep him around as a transportation tool instead.]

“Is there no other way to reduce the points required?”

“Sure there is. Find some top-quality resources on your own. That will reduce the amount of resources you have to exchange for. Since your planned sword will be filled with death magic and negative energy, you’ll naturally have to obtain resources from the undead. There’s also some undead living in the Chaos Abyss. I know someone who should be able to fulfill your requirements. He doesn’t live far away from here.]

I thought about things after I heard this. Since the Chaos Abyss was filled with demons, there were actually very few dimensions with undead in them. And, if there was a top-level undead near here who could fulfill my resource requirements…

“The Eldest One? Sheesh, just tell me directly if you want me to commit suicide!”

[You’re the one who came up with the blueprint for your sword. It’s up to you whether you want to go or not. I recall that he lives in the 112th level of the Chaos Abyss. It’s not that far away. Why not go pay him a visit and have a chat?”]

I could only smile wryly. Was this yet another way that I had shot myself in the foot?

The Eldest One. Perhaps he could be called the oldest living demon alive. Another one of his nicknames was “The Sleeping One”. He was a Gold Species member from the very first generation.

As he was an ancient artifact from Ayer’s generation, well, he could even be considered Ayer’s elder, he had already survived every single mythical battle between the Gods. Nowadays, he spent most of his time in his own dimension cultivating his crops. He had retired long ago, and had already forcefully erased his demon true name from all memory.

Only a single piece of information was more than enough to prove his power. The most famous information about The Eldest One was that he was the one who invented all of soul summoning and undead magic. Previously, I had mentioned that demons had invented undead magic. It so happened that the inventor was The Eldest One!

It was impossible to know whether or not he was on a Main God’s power level, because even the oldest of history books didn’t have any record of him ever fighting. But judging from how all the other Demon Lords in the Chaos Abyss left him alone, it was highly likely that he was on par with any Main God. That was because nobody in the Chaos Abyss would respect the weak or elderly.

“…Should I first try crafting one of my other three planned magic swords instead?”