Jason spoke up once he had Esdath’s attention.
’Have you heard about this pill before?’
Esdath answered while looking through a text book he had been reading.
’Yes, I’ve heard about something like it. It’s similar to the Qi refinement pill my people used whenever we were attempting to cross the threshold of the higher Qi rankings. I don’t know how the researchers managed to process the pill so perfectly, but from the amount of power flowing off it, I can tell you that it is legitimate.’
Jason let out a calm breath when he heard all this.
’So it can really help people advance through the rankings?’
Esdath closed the book and nodded.
’If used correctly, it can. The power of the Primordials is one of the strongest energizers in existence. When consumed by a mortal, it should take them beyond their limit and allow them to ascend to a new realm of power... hypothetically.’
’Hypothetically?’
’Of course. I’ve never used something like this before, so I can only give you information based on the knowledge of what we had in my world. So yes, hypothetically.’
Esdath huffed like he was insulted by Jason’s question, and Jason shook his head in annoyance! Esdath’s advice and insight were always invaluable, but Esdath never failed to annoy Jason whenever they spoke! Jason was about to close down the connection when Esdath called out to him again!
’Wait, Jason! Can you send some more of these mangas in here? I’ve been reading them nonstop, and I’m hooked!’
Jason had given Esdath a few Japanese manga to read while he was inside the Alternate Dimension, and Esdath had loved them so much that he read all of them in less than a week! Esdath needed more to read! But Jason just rolled his eyes, and he closed down the connection with Esdath before he turned to look at the [Mortal Severance] pill once again! Jason couldn’t believe something like this actually existed!
The idea of rising through ranks without having to train or fight was absurd, and a small part of Jason felt reluctant to believe that something like this was possible! But Jason knew that there were many things in this world that couldn’t be explained using logic. Jason couldn’t use his own limited idea of what was possible to describe what was actually possible! If what Neph just said was true, then that would mean that this pill would allow an SSS rank to go up into the TITAN ranks without needing to fight! It had the ability to completely change the military landscape of any world!
But Jason couldn’t help but feel like the pill was a little too good to be true! There was no way something this beneficial would exist without having some downsides! Jason turned to Neph and asked:
"What sort of side effects would the pill have on the mage that uses it?"
Neph smiled and answered with a confident tone.
"For the first time you take it, the only side effect is a few days of mana intoxication. You’ll be absorbing mana that is completely different from what’s inside your body, so it will take some time to get used to it. But from the second time onwards, the effect of the pill starts to drop drastically. In all our experiments, most mages gained a single rank increase after taking the first pill, and they had to take three or four pills before they gained another rank. No matter how many pills they take after this, they don’t gain any more ranks, and they also stop gaining ranks the moment they leave the mortal rankings. TITANs and above don’t gain any benefits at all."
Neph’s chest was puffed up in a way that showed just how proud she was of this achievement! Even though the benefits sounded small, it was still one of the greatest magical breakthroughs of this millennium! Being able to gain an entire rank in exchange for a little mana intoxication was probably the best tradeoff anyone could ask for!
Jason let out a small breath as he felt an excitement coming over him. Jason couldn’t help but think about how much he could achieve with a power like this! Even though Jason had already successfully raised five TITAN ranks on Earth, there were still millions of superhumans who would need to get much stronger before they could stand up to the other worlds in the Primordial Expanse! If Jason managed to secure these pills, then he would no longer have to worry about the humans being too weak!
Jason turned to Jaen and spoke in a serious tone.
"Other than the scientists in this Academy, how many people know about this?"
Jaen shook his head and said that there was no one else. All the scientists here took an oath before they began working on the Primordial Corpse to ensure that they didn’t mention it to anyone outside the building. It was impossible for them to have told anyone about it!
Jason frowned.
"If they don’t know about this, then why were the Jamani trying to get into the academy? What could they be after other than the pill?"
"We have many other research projects being carried out by our teams to aid agricultural and magic development around L’horm. It’s possible they heard about one of those from the rumors spreading around. Many of our projects are very popular."
Neph spoke up with a slight frown on her face, but her voice didn’t seem very certain, and Jason couldn’t help but feel like she was trying to convince herself as much as she was trying to convince him. The Jamani weren’t a small group of thieves who would go around looking for any random research project that they could steal. They were a massive mercenary group who had made a name for themselves across multiple worlds! They wouldn’t be so desperate to get into the academy unless they had somehow gotten news of what the researchers were really doing in here!
At that moment, Jason couldn’t help but feel like he was very lucky! If Jason had been just a few days later, then there was a chance that the Jamani would’ve broken into the Academy and taken this experiment for themselves. Jason didn’t want to even imagine how much destruction the Jamani could cause if they found the [Mortal Severance] pill! This pill would allow them to take any random SS Rank from across the Primordial Expanse and transform that person into a TITAN Rank powerhouse! Their numbers would soar overnight, and they would become one of the largest armies in this entire domain! If they ever got that big, then it would take a lot more effort for Jason to put them down!
Jason turned to Jaen again, and he said:
"I have a feeling you didn’t call me here just to tell me about your academic achievements. You could’ve kept this hidden and simply waited for me to get rid of the Jamani, so why did you decide to reveal it to me?"
For the first time since they started talking, Jason saw Jaen’s lips widen into a smile, and Jaen told Neph to please excuse them. Neph bowed to Jason once more before she turned to leave, and once she was gone, Jaen spoke.
"I knew you weren’t ordinary from the first moment I saw you in the Hall of Fallen Heroes. In truth, I was very skeptical about your appointment as the Overlord. I didn’t think you were mature enough to know how to run an entire domain. But after watching you for so long, I can say with certainty that I misjudged you."
....
A/N: Please vote with GT!