This ritual was called the Witchcraft Sublimation Ritual.
As the name implied, it was used to sublimate Witchcraft. Upon the ritual's success, the sublimated Witchcraft would be greatly enhanced, undergoing a heaven-and-earth-shattering transformation.
The reason this idea had occurred to Isaac all started with the Goblin Nest...
The day after he returned to the castle, Smith arranged for people to deliver the Goblin Nest ahead of schedule. Isaac immediately began dissecting and studying it, but ultimately came up empty-handed. He even went to the site later to study the Goblin Nest while it was still alive.
Unfortunately, this thing was probably still too advanced for him. After dissecting it for half a day, all he learned was the structure of a Goblin Nest; he hadn't figured out anything else...
This was to be expected. After all, it was the product of a powerful being directly modifying the rules of the world.
But Isaac was unwilling to give up. He felt that this thing had great potential if combined with his Talent Witchcraft: Flesh Transformation!
And after some thought, Isaac finally came up with the Witchcraft Sublimation Ritual.
This ritual came from *Ten Essential Entry-level Rituals You Must Learn*, one of the three Magic Books Isaac had purchased in Lake Town.
Besides this book and the *Complete Collection of Basic Spells*, the third Magic Book he had purchased was *Path of the Wizard*. It roughly outlined the paths of various Casters, providing some direction for Isaac's future research.
For example, from this book, Isaac learned that advancing to Grand Wizard actually required performing three promotion rituals. After each promotion, one's Mana would enter a period of turmoil, requiring another waiting period.
Isaac had also gotten the idea of sublimating his Witchcraft from this book.
The so-called Witchcraft Sublimation Ritual was, in essence, a transaction with an extra-planar Existence, borrowing Their higher-level power to reconstruct a piece of Witchcraft. And conveniently, the book of ten rituals contained just such rituals for transacting with extra-planar Existences.
There were five in total, making up half of the *Ten Essential Entry-level Rituals You Must Learn*. This gave Isaac a general impression of what Legendary Mages were like.
It was worth noting that although there were five, only three were actually usable. Two had already been completely deciphered by extra-planar Existences, leaving them with a 0% margin for error. Not even Isaac's Golden Finger would work on those.
Of course, the reason the remaining three were usable wasn't because they were particularly profound. Rather, like basic Magic Spells, they were the most fundamental of fundamental transaction rituals, with no room left to be simplified.
The three rituals involved transactions with an elf, an Evil Demon, and a Demon God, respectively. All of them had a pitifully low margin for error of just one percent.
But for Isaac, this wasn't a problem.
Of these three transaction partners, Isaac chose the Demon God. The reason was also simple—it was easy.
Among the many Demon Gods, there was an Existence known as the Master of Billions of Flesh. The name alone sounded like it was destined to be connected to his Talent Witchcraft. Furthermore, according to Isaac's tests, increasing the ritual's margin for error was also very simple: he just needed to add more Demonized Flesh when setting it up.
In the ritual's original design, only one portion of flesh from each type of Demon could be used, with every ten different types increasing the margin for error by one percent. But in Isaac's hands, this changed: every ten portions of a Demon's flesh increased the margin for error by one percent, regardless of the Demon's type!
And the one thing he had the most of right now was goblin corpses!
The only downside was that each goblin corpse could only be refined into a single portion of qualifying Demonized Flesh. Because of this, he didn't even dare to destroy the Goblin Nest now, for fear of not having enough materials.
"Phew..." After processing today's batch of goblin corpses, Isaac let out a long breath. He glanced at the mountain of goblin flesh piled to the side and shook his head helplessly. 'I've been grinding for almost a week, and the margin for error is only at five hundred percent. I still have to keep at it for a while longer.'
When a Demon God was involved, he wouldn't dare to act without a margin for error of one thousand percent.
After leaving the warehouse, Isaac headed for his bedroom. Although the Witchcraft Sublimation Ritual was not yet possible, he could first research the creation of witchcraft tools.
In *Path of the Wizard* and *Ten Essential Entry-level Rituals You Must Learn*, there was also mention of the method Legendary Mages used to create witchcraft tools: another ritual.
However, it wasn't a ritual for transacting with extra-planar Existences. Of course, those could also be used to create witchcraft tools, but people generally didn't do so. After all, compared to creating witchcraft tools, it was far better to fuse the power from the transaction with oneself.
Before long, Isaac passed through a long corridor, arrived at his bedroom, and opened a secret door. A green flame ignited in his left hand, and he walked into the basement bathed in its emerald, sinister light.
The basement now had a completely new look. He had already cleared away all the gloomy, terrifying, and bizarrely evil materials. The Magic Array pattern on the floor had also been changed—it was now a Magic Seal ritual.
This was one of the most basic creation rituals. According to *Path of the Wizard*, upgraded versions of this ritual could be used to craft all sorts of Magical Creations, including but not limited to: Demonic Puppets, Golems, Magic Potions, Demon Beasts, and even... humans!
However, the version Isaac had mastered couldn't do any of that, not even if he used his Golden Finger to pile up materials. It would require a complete deconstruction and restructuring of the ritual.
At present, Isaac lacked the ability to do so, in terms of both money and Knowledge.
After a quick glance around, Isaac placed a vibrant green heart in the center of the Magic Array. It was a goblin's heart.
He wanted to see if he could use the ritual to strengthen a Demon Heart. If he could, he would be able to save a huge amount on research expenses!
It couldn't be helped; Demon Hearts were too expensive!
First, not all Demons had hearts. Second, the hearts he needed for transplantation had to be removed while the Demon was still alive—they were useless after death, a harsh condition. Third, a living Demon Heart was considered a living creature and couldn't be purchased directly in Lake Town.
Of course, they were for sale, but after purchase, they had to be delivered through other channels. The shipping fees involved were...
Exorbitant!
In any case, Isaac gave up on that idea after a single glance.
Although he could also buy them from the merchant guilds in his domain, the cost was no small sum. It would still require a huge expenditure.
But if he could strengthen a goblin's heart... then...
That would be amazing!
"Haaa... Hooo..." Taking two deep breaths, Isaac calmed his emotions, his gaze gradually turning serene as he looked at the ritual.
He had stacked the ritual's margin for error to two hundred percent, but that was just the margin for error of the ritual itself; it didn't guarantee the effect would be what he hoped for.
After all, this was not a transaction ritual.
"&*￥...&￥()&"
Following the deep, low chanting of the Spell, Mysterious Magic Power flowed out from Isaac, spreading across the floor and slowly illuminating the Magic Array. The flesh placed upon it dissolved along with this Mysterious Magic Power, transforming into ribbon-like, blood-red energy that merged into the green heart in the center of the Magic Array.
"Whoosh..."
A moment later, the glow of the Magic Power gradually faded. Filled with faint anticipation, Isaac picked up the goblin heart from the floor and then slowly sighed.
It was a failure...