After assessing his situation, Colin didn't rush to East City since it was only morning.
He went upstairs and called Demi and Renee to the basement.
"Relax."
Colin asked Demi to sit on a cushioned stool and took out a specially made long metal pen, preparing to perform the Blood Pattern Transformation on her.
This wasn't out of pure kindness or idleness.
The technique he had acquired from Luke was called the Blood Pattern Transformation Technique. The principle was to forcibly enhance the blood energy of the recipient through blood patterns, ultimately condensing a subordinate Life Seed and allowing the recipient to attain physical qualities between those of an Intermediate and Advanced Knight.
Such subordinate Life Seeds, unlike the normal Life Seeds naturally condensed through a Knight's training to Advanced levels, couldn't be improved further through self-practice.
In other words, the recipient's limit would be locked between the levels of Intermediate and Advanced Knight, which is why it wasn't highly valued.
After all, Intermediate and even Advanced Knights were commonplace in this world. Any guard in the city was at least a Basic Level Knight, and their captains were at least Advanced Knights.
In places like West City, the captains of the City Guards were even Great Knights.
The strength of a Knight always stemmed from their physique, and the human body had its limits…
How could the flesh and blood of humans contend against extraordinary witchcraft?
Take, for example, witchcraft like "Mind Shock" that specifically countered Knights; even if it hit a Great Knight several times, they could only die resentfully on the spot!
…Only Great Knights could earn a Wizard's respect and only they could extend their lifespan to 150 years.
But Colin had never heard of a transformation technique that could directly turn an ordinary person into a Great Knight…
However, what he valued most was the Blood Pattern Transformation Technique's ability to enhance blood energy.
Blood energy was the source of a Knight's strength, the condensed life force!
And fortuitously, his Talent, Middle Strong Life, also originated from life force!
If he could manage to break the limits of the Blood Pattern Transformation Technique using the Golden Paper… it might bring him some unexpected surprises!
But to break the limits, he first needed to practice it to its limits.
After continuously practicing for a month, Colin had advanced it to 67/100. His subjects, besides Arthur and Renee, were mostly small animals like rabbits.
With the enhancements from the Golden Paper, although practicing with animals like rabbits did bring some progress, it was minimal.
The progress he accumulated over the past month, half of it was from transforming Arthur and Renee.
Arthur was the first to be transformed; at that time, his progress had just reached 25/100. After the transformation, it jumped to 40/100. Later, he transformed Renee.
Perhaps because Renee's blood patterns were not as random as Arthur's, being a meticulous rose shape, the progress of the Blood Pattern Transformation Skill shot up directly to 59/100.
To speed up progress, he initially planned to transform Demi as well.
However, since Demi was just a child, to be cautious, he continued practicing on rabbits for a while until now, when his progress reached 67/100. Feeling confident, he began the transformation.
"Don't be scared, your sister is right here," Renee said, holding Demi's hand gently to comfort her.
"Sister, I'm not scared," Demi sat on the stool, looked up seriously at Renee standing to her left, thought for a moment, and then asked, "After the transformation, will I become as powerful as you?"
"Yes, you will become very powerful, able to lift such a big stone!" Renee spread her arms wide, describing exaggeratedly.
Well, it wasn't really an exaggeration, but given Demi's age, such strength might take a few years to develop.
"Okay!" Demi nodded vigorously, her soft blonde hair swaying, and she turned to Colin urging, "Master, please transform Demi now, Demi also wants to be strong like sister!"
Renee's eyes also held expectation.
She knew the limitations of the Blood Pattern Transformation Technique. Yet, for them, such extraordinary power was… immensely precious.
Colin's expression remained calm, as he picked up the long metal pen to start the transformation. But before beginning, he paused and asked:
"Demi, what kind of pattern would you like?"
Demi chewed on her finger, pondering for a while before finally deciding:
"I want a little bear, can I, Master? Just like my favorite little bear."
"Sure," Colin picked up the long brush and began the transformation.
Over an hour later, the transformation was complete.
Demi got her wish—she now sported a blood-colored little bear tattoo. Because the bear was rather large, its location differed from Renee's collarbone; it was on her left shoulder blade.
The Blood Pattern Transformation Skill didn't have strict requirements for the engraving location, as long as it wasn't on the limbs or the head.
After transforming Demi, she had fallen into a deep sleep.
In the following period, her appetite would increase significantly until she crystallized the Life Seed.
Colin instructed Renee to take Demi to rest, then he opened the Golden Paper.
At this point, the progress of the Blood Pattern Transformation Skill had reached 89/100, a boost of 22 points!
"Transforming Arthur gained 15 points, transforming Renee 19 points, transforming Demi 22 points." He couldn't help but ponder.
The transformations were the same, but the increases in scores got progressively larger... Clearly, it was because the blood patterns engraved later were more complex.
It seemed just a change of the blood pattern shape, but it wasn't as simple as imagined; it involved more complex designs of energy circuits.
In that case…
Colin's eyes flashed, and a conjecture emerged in his mind—
"Could it be that the complexity of practice affects the speed of progress?"
As previously stated, the witchcraft tome provided a standard template. At the beginning of practice, since one was new to witchcraft, all followed this template for casting practices.
Later, as the progress increased and mastery of witchcraft became more familiar, it was possible to step out of the template.
However, for Colin, apart from simulated battle trials, he would experiment with various variations and applications of witchcraft.
During practice, what he used most was still the standard template from the beginning.
After all, the practice recognized by the Golden Paper required full effort.
Of course, full effort could be applied while satisfying complex variations.
But undoubtedly, it was more troublesome; it was like having to punch with full force while making your arm make several fancy twists—not impossible, but undeniably more laborious.
This also led him to primarily practice casting using the standard template.
"Could the complexity of practice really contribute to faster progress?"
To verify this idea, Colin moved his thoughts and raised his right hand.
Whoosh!
A fireball suddenly appeared in his palm, hovering imperceptibly for a moment before shooting towards a nearby ironwood target!
Whoosh!
However, this time was different—the fireball did not explode upon contact with the ironwood target, but instead spread quickly like a gentle breeze, enveloping the entire target and transforming it into a giant torch!
The emanating orange-yellow glow brightened the entire basement.
He repeated this practice until noon, then Colin looked at the Golden Paper again.
Before practicing, he had checked the progress of the Limit Breaking Fireball Skill, which was 16/100.
And now, unless he was seeing incorrectly,
The advancement on the Golden Paper showed that the Limit Breaking Fireball Skill had changed to 17/100!
Increasing the complexity of practice was indeed effective!
A look of joy appeared on Colin's face, but he soon furrowed his brows slightly.
"Under complex practice, the progress is faster indeed. Yet more complex practice itself takes more time and effort compared to mechanical practice…
However, in terms of overall efficiency, complex practice is still more effective than mechanical practice!"
He looked at the rows of characters on the Golden Paper, feeling invigorated!
"It seems the rate at which I advance my skills can be significantly increased…"