Chapter 296
Chapter 296. Upgrading the Warhorse
After Fulan obtained the dragon materials, she immediately returned to the Material Realm.
At the entrance of the cave where she was now staying, the black horse was standing there and resting.
When it saw Fulan wake up, it thought that Fulan was about to leave, so it deliberately walked over to her side.
But Fulan directly grabbed the black horse’s flank with one hand and used [Disruptive Touch].
The black horse only felt a familiar sense of losing control, then directly collapsed to the ground.
Fulan sighed and took out the materials she was going to use on the black horse. She poured all the liquid from the Infinite Health Bottle into the black horse’s mouth in order to maintain its life.
This was also a common measure used by the Modification School to maintain a creature’s life. After all, once a bottle of Life-Replenishing Potion went down, as long as the creature’s life force had not been exhausted, there was no need to worry about the creature dying.
It was just that the Life-Replenishing Potion needed for this was rather expensive. Most poor mages could not afford to use it and could only add a little Healing Potion.
If Fulan did not have this Infinite Health Bottle in her hands, even she would not have been willing to spend gold coins on modification surgery. After all, earning money was not easy for her either.
After confirming that the black horse had lost consciousness, Fulan directly used her Mental Power to cut open the black horse’s abdomen in one stroke.
However, after cutting it open, Fulan did not see the organs inside the black horse, nor did any blood flow out. What she saw was the wound on the black horse’s abdomen rapidly healing.
Fulan had long been prepared for this, which was why she had poured out the Life-Replenishing Potion so early.
She immediately used a spell she had learned from a paper, [Form Maintenance].
This spell was a spell specially used by the Modification School for modification surgery.
Many times, when mages performed modification surgery, they would discover that after they cut open the skin, the organs inside would twitch wildly, making it impossible to find a place to begin.
There were also times when they encountered creatures with rapid healing speed. The incision would heal directly after only a few seconds. To deal with this kind of situation, this spell, [Form Maintenance], had been developed.
Its function was to consume life force or the mage’s own Mental Power, allowing the target to maintain its current form even if its belly was cut open. It would not heal, nor would it move about at will, making it convenient for modification surgery to proceed.
After all, when mages of the Modification School performed self-modification, they all used this kind of method.
Therefore, later on, Fulan would also have to use this method to cut herself open and perform modifications on herself.
Fulan sensed that although the life force inside the black horse’s body was abundant, it was also rapidly draining away, so she did not waste time and immediately began to act.
First, although she wanted to place the dragon materials directly inside, that was impossible.
Just like the ‘Deep-Sea Song’ modification Fulan had obtained, when facing the materials of a Second-Tier dragonkind creature, one absolutely could not simply place them inside directly.
A pile of preliminary steps was still required to allow the black horse to adapt to this modification. Only then could she place the materials inside.
Thus, Fulan glanced at the giant heart she had taken from the dragon corpse. She did not choose it. Instead, she looked at the large bottle of dragon blood on the other side.
Fulan evenly sprinkled the dragon blood inside the black horse’s body, then used the Modification School’s specialized blood-replacement technique to replace part of the blood inside the black horse’s body with dragon blood.
The scorching dragon blood made a sizzling sound the moment it touched the black horse’s body, but Fulan ignored it. The black horse itself had no way to pay attention to it either.
Fulan watched the blood in the bottle in her hand gradually empty, while fresh red blood suddenly appeared on the ground. She knew that this step had succeeded.
After this step succeeded, Fulan did not immediately begin the next step, because she knew that she needed to wait for a while at this point.
Fulan lowered her hand, then focused on the black horse lying on its side on the ground. In Fulan’s eyes, the black horse’s body visibly grew larger by a circle.
This was the effect of replacing its blood with dragon blood. It made the black horse’s entire body grow larger.
Fulan felt that enough time had passed, so she directly guided the life force inside the black horse’s body to the wound, allowing the wound to heal.
The reason Fulan did not immediately transplant the dragon’s heart into it was that her Modification was about to level up.
[You have completed a blood replacement for your mount, strengthening its physiological functions. Modification proficiency +100]
[Modification proficiency is full. Level increased.]
[Modification (Proficient) (Proficiency: 24/10000)]
That was right. This was the reason Fulan had stopped halfway. Her Modification had already reached the verge of leveling up. She wanted to perform the true modification portion after her Modification increased.
Her panel would only recognize all proficiency gains and settle them at once after one of Fulan’s attempts ended, so Fulan had no choice but to perform a blood replacement on the black horse first.
If the proficiency had still not been enough, Fulan had actually also bought some small modification materials to practice with and increase her proficiency.
However, judging from the current situation, they were no longer needed.
Fulan took a deep breath, then opened the black horse’s abdomen again. This time, she deliberately found the dragon’s heart inside the Storage Bottle and took it out.
She found the black horse’s own heart, that heart which had been strengthened many times because of Earth Drake blood. Fulan cut out the heart at extremely high speed, then used Telekinetic Hand to take it out.
In an instant, Fulan sensed that the remaining life force inside the black horse’s body was rapidly draining away. She hurriedly placed the heart inside.
The dragon’s heart produced an intense sizzling sound the moment it entered the black horse’s body.
Fulan hurriedly connected the heart to the black horse’s body and used life force to repair the severed areas.
But in the end, this was still a Second-Tier organ. Normally speaking, at least three preliminary sequences were needed before it could be installed into another creature’s body.
The black horse’s current situation was the result of Fulan not following the experience summarized by the many mages of the Modification School.
She saw that the black horse’s outer skin and some of its small internal organs were bursting open with tiny wounds.
A dragon-blood-like liquid produced a large cloud of white mist the moment it came into contact with the outside world, accompanied by rapid sounds.
“Why does this sound like the steam sprayed out by a steam engine?” Fulan complained. Her hands did not slow at all, and she directly stitched up the wound that had opened again.
Fulan knew that if she did nothing now, the black horse would die on the spot, and the materials she had painstakingly collected would be wasted just like that.
Therefore, Fulan immediately reached for another large bottle of dragon blood. She was going to use dragon blood to make the black horse adapt to this heart.
Just like how the dragon Quentin had first wanted dragon blood after returning to Monsa, the dragon blood in Monsa was extremely beneficial to dragonkind creatures. It could accelerate their evolution and strengthen their power.
After exchanging its blood and receiving the dragon’s heart, the black horse could already be considered a standard dragonkind creature. Naturally, it could use the effects of dragon blood.
The dragon blood sprinkled onto the black horse’s body, causing the wounds that had opened to disappear instantly. At the same time, layers of tiny scales appeared beneath the black horse’s fur.
If Fulan touched it now, she would definitely be able to feel that the black horse’s body, which had originally been as solid as a lump of earth, now felt like metal. Its outer skin would also carry a high temperature.
Fulan nervously checked the remaining life force inside the black horse’s body. When only a small portion of life force remained, Fulan keenly sensed that the black horse’s body had begun to stabilize.
“Good thing it succeeded. I didn’t have to use my other insurance methods.”
Fulan wiped the cold sweat from her forehead that had flowed out because of her nervousness.
Then, before the black horse woke up, Fulan briefly cleaned up the things she had laid out and saw the prompt on the panel.
[You have installed a powerful organ into your mount. Now, your black horse can be called a First-Tier Monster. Modification proficiency +1000]
After some time passed, when she sensed that the black horse was about to wake up, Fulan deliberately helped the black horse up from the ground. Thus, when the black horse woke up, it could only sense that it was still standing.
During the process of helping the black horse up, Fulan clearly felt that the black horse’s weight had increased greatly. The added weight far exceeded the weight of the dragon heart.
Fulan was somewhat curious about where exactly this weight had come from, but she still knew that now was not the time to discuss this matter.
The black horse shook its head and instinctively wanted to approach its master. But when it tried to take its first step, its hoof seemed to crush something.
The black horse retreated in shock, then saw that the place it had just walked over, where the soil had originally been grayish-brown, had turned scorched black. A piece of it had even sunk in.
It did not quite understand why such a change had happened to its body. Since Fulan had not installed any organ that enhanced intelligence into it, it still regarded its own change as natural talent.
Although after the dragon’s heart was installed, its tier had also reached First-Tier, and Magical Beasts at this life level did receive an enhancement in intelligence, the black horse had only just advanced to First-Tier now. The increase in intelligence had not yet fully manifested in it.
Therefore, it still had not realized that its strength had increased after it lost consciousness.
The black horse continued shaking its head. After adapting somewhat to its new body, it walked to Fulan’s side.
Fulan sensed the heat radiating from the black horse’s skin, blinked, and felt that the black horse’s advancement in tier also had some drawbacks.
First, the good part was that the black horse was stronger now. If she let the black horse fight a First-Tier Magical Beast now, the other party might not even be able to defeat it.
Furthermore, the black horse now satisfied the condition that the mount did not fear flames. Now, as long as she completed the Trial of the Sun, she could obtain the Sunflame Knight profession.
The drawback was that riding the black horse in the future might not be very comfortable.
Fulan touched the high temperature on the black horse’s back. Although as a Professional, her Physique was higher than that of ordinary First-Tier Professionals, and she could definitely endure it, it was still not exactly comfortable.
“You gain some and lose some.”
Fulan mounted the black horse, then ran toward the village.