It took Liam one and a half months to figure out the Parasite Worm.
That was a major improvement.
In actuality, it would have taken him more than three.
But the Inner World was just amazing.
It made things so much easier.
There were many other functions that it had,
The design of this morbid invention was unnerving.
Its tip was sharp and pyramidal, like a thicker version of a needle.
Liam didn’t feel comfortable repeating the same design repeatedly.
But for this invention, it seemed like he was forced to.
The Parasite Worm needed quick entry, something that pierces flesh upon contact.
The rest of the body, however, didn’t share the same quality.
It was soft and flexible, exactly like a worm’s exterior.
However, inside was where all the magic was.
It consisted of a single contraption.
Literally an imitation of a muscle.
What did this muscle do?
Contract.
It contracted and relaxed in rapid succession, like a hand being stretched and yanked back repeatedly.
Of course, this on its own wasn’t anything special.
At the Parasite Worm’s tail was a small ‘booster’ of sorts.
It sped up the Parasite’s burrowing speed by releasing a condensed jet-stream of gaseous darkness.
It used the same sciences a rocket did, which also meant that by the time the ‘booster’ ran out, the Parasite Worm would puff out.
But that was the good part.
When the Parasite neared its end, it would start melting inside the poor victim’s body.
It was a Rank 3 item that contained Liam’s new and improved Blood.
Even without inscriptions, the forged item on its own could inflict grievous wounds.
But that was that.
Liam stored the Parasite Worm and moved on.
As soon as Liam finished that project, he started another.
No seconds were to be wasted.
In between whatever he did, Liam constantly updated his Triumvirate Body.
Any time a new idea came to him, he’d jot it down and add it to the foundations of the technique. He had begun, but it was still in its very, very early stages.
Something like that wasn’t made straight away.
It was a gradual process. Like grains of sand that gathered into a pile then formed a hill.
Nevertheless, Liam shifted his attention towards the Black Hole next.
The Dark Vortex spell that Unforgiven Shadow had given to him proved extremely useful in helping him understand it.
But the most important aspect wasn’t there.
The gravitational pull.
Of course, it wasn’t impossible for Liam to imitate…
Probably.
If Unforgiven Shadow couldn’t do it, could he?
…Of course!
Probably.
Liam’s knowledge of Meanings and Links had reached the level of a respected expert, but he was still held back by experience that came with age.
Nevertheless, Liam continued to ram the problem from different angles until he eventually made a discovery.
Four months passed. ｎ𝚘𝚟ｌ.ｃｏ𝚖
Liam was now 18 years old.
Liam still hadn’t finished devouring Wild Fang’s corpse.
He had finished one hand and five fingers, but that alone caused his Blood to push past the middle-tier of Rank 2.
His core and mental sphere were also noticeably expanding at a faster rate. Just a little.
It would take at least a year or more to advance to a Rank 3 core.
Unfortunately, however, Liam still didn’t get how to invent a Black Hole.
He had no clue how to add a gravitational constant to his darkness and Shadow.
Liam initially used the analogy of a magnet to get the job done.
A south pole and a north pole that created an electromagnetic field which gained an attractive force.
But it couldn’t be called a success.
The resulting Shadow definitely emitted a faint attractive force… but before it could properly be utilized, it simply switched off.
Over time, the effects of his Blood merging with his Shadow had definitely gotten stronger, but nothing really held.
Liam was getting frustrated.
It was just too complicated!
Obviously, Liam wasn’t giving up… but he reckoned whether or not changing his priority was a good thing.
The Black Hole was important for a lot of his plans.
Mainly, the Triumvirate Body.
But with the sluggish rate that he was going, Liam would need at least a year or more to figure out the issues with such a technique.
…
But then… Liam turned to his chaos.
Perhaps there was nothing more repulsive than his Primordial Essence.
If a Black Hole had an opposite, then his chaos fit the bill.
So, what did Liam do?
He studied his chaos instead.
To the ignorant, that sounded extremely dumb.
Why study a polar opposite instead of studying the real thing?
However, to understand the darkness, one must understand light.
It was as simple as that.
The two forces came from each other.
Repulsion was a necessary force.
Attraction was also a necessary force.
Where they opposed each other, was where Liam studied.
Countless tests took place.
One boom after another.
One migraine after another.
One emptied core after another.
And after another two months…
Liam had achieved… something.
The result was a mix of his Shadow and three states of darkness… along with an unhealthy dose of Meanings added into it.
In his Inner World – which had reformed for the nth time due to the massive explosions done to it – Liam held his palm up.
Darkness gathered in the form of a small sphere, barely the size of a clenched adult fist.
Light bent around it, and seemingly reality itself did. A soft hissing noise surrounded it. Not as obnoxious as his chaos was, which was a good sign.
Liam still didn’t get his hopes up.
Too many failures gave him a cynical outlook towards near-successes.
If he didn’t see perfection at the last step, the beginnings didn’t matter.
A moment later, he willed out a precise measurement of blood from his free hand and poured it into the sphere.
The circular sphere absorbed it!
Slowly, it changed hue.
From pure black, it gained a dark red shade.
Liam gulped.
Liam kept pouring more blood inside.
Up until the sphere began to slightly brighten in color.
Then, Liam stopped.
The sphere wasn’t broken. It continuously swirled and rotated indifferently.
Was it a success?
Could he finally move on from this stupid task?
‘Time to find out…’