Seeing the reward for planting the Divine Joy Flower, Ciel's heartbeat suddenly accelerated.
All ritual magic-related rewards advancing another tier? Currently, he possessed Diamond-level Demeter ritual magic, which had brought him countless benefits—both brewing accelerated growth potions through Demeter's silver chalice and providing blessings to plant seeds to elevate their tiers.
Even disregarding the mysterious Demeter oracle whose purpose remained unknown, just the [Demeter's Craft] ability gained after advancing to Diamond level had enhanced all his planting-related abilities by one tier.
If he could successfully plant the Divine Joy Flower, Demeter's ritual magic would advance directly from Diamond to Epic level. All the above abilities would be significantly strengthened.
Though Demeter's silver chalice's damage limited some abilities' effectiveness, if [Demeter's Craft] could advance again, it meant his other planting abilities could instantly improve further, reaching Epic level—saving him tremendous time. Many herbology operations previously impossible would become feasible.
Moreover, he harboured an even bolder idea: "What if I don't rely on the Divine Joy Flower immediately, but first advance Demeter's ritual magic to Epic level myself? Could the Divine Joy Flower's reward then push Demeter's ritual magic straight to Legendary?!"
This thought made him clench his fists, eyes burning with intensity. Advancing from Diamond to Epic was indeed difficult, but compared to Epic advancing to Legendary, that was nothing. As for Legendary ascending to Mythical—he wasn't delusional enough to think he could bridge that chasm through the Divine Joy Flower alone.
Saving the trouble of Epic to Legendary advancement this way already seemed like tremendous profit. After all, it meant his planting-related magic could likely be driven to Legendary level through Demeter's ritual magic—making his herbology abilities rival or even surpass most herbology masters!
Though uncertain if the Divine Joy Flower could accomplish this, or even if he could successfully cultivate it, the enticing prospect alone made the gamble worthwhile. Even if he failed, he'd only lose Borgin's accumulated contribution points—no great loss.
But if successful—"tremendous profit" wouldn't adequately describe it. He might advance his herbology mastery to master level years ahead of schedule. Just this advancement would let him begin planting previously unimaginable plants—even ancient plants like Whomping Willows might be successfully cultivated ahead of time through his advantageous conditions.
That meant continuous Epic or even Legendary rewards!
Therefore, even though this Divine Joy Flower seed would exhaust Borgin's remaining contribution points, he didn't hesitate—decisively choosing to exchange for it.
After making this choice, more detailed information about the Divine Joy Flower appeared on the crystal ball:
"Divine Joy Flower's cultivation conditions remain unclear, but one thing is certain—it requires divine participation to bloom to its most beautiful state. After the mythical age ended, the legendary gods vanished without trace, and no one has heard of Divine Joy Flowers blooming since. This plant that mythical-age heroes once competed for to please the gods has been completely forgotten. This Divine Joy Flower seed should be the magical world's last remaining one."
Seeing this information, he showed a thoughtful expression. "Requires divine participation to bloom? This plant is truly connected to gods in every aspect."
However, this didn't discourage him—quite the opposite. After all, he could now receive Demeter's oracles. Though incomprehensible, he could definitely confirm the fertility goddess Demeter still lived, just "imprisoned" on that death-filled land.
Once he was less "illiterate" and could communicate simply with Demeter during the next oracle, perhaps he could ask Demeter for guidance on planting Divine Joy Flowers. For the former fertility goddess, this should be child's play.
Additionally, even if everyone else proved unreliable, he himself bore the imprint left by the God-King authority. Regardless of usability, at least it connected him somewhat to the God-King. Maybe he could satisfy the special conditions for planting Divine Joy Flowers himself.
He exhaled softly, finally having Borgin put away the crystal ball. "Fastest tomorrow, latest the day after—these items will arrive via owl package."
He showed some regret: "Unfortunately, Borgin's contribution points were too few. After exchanging for the Divine Joy Flower seed plus an ancient herbology book and alchemy tool set, only scraps remained—basically can't exchange for anything else. Plus his status was too low—merely an outer member. This item list's truly good things almost all require formal membership."
As for becoming a formal member, he had heard from Borgin about the methods: either accumulate sufficient contribution points, complete a high-difficulty Moser Club mission, or win the duelling championship to receive a direct invitation for formal membership.
Every method was extremely difficult. Borgin had once attempted the mission route but nearly lost his life, completely shattering his courage—never daring to try again.
His eyes flickered strangely. "Forget it. Before possessing sufficient strength, it is better to stay far from such unfathomable ancient forces. This harvest is enough to digest for quite a while—no need to be rash."
He then had Borgin remain at Borgin and Burkes, acting as if nothing had happened. He didn't want people knowing Borgin had died. Though the Moser Club seemed unconcerned as long as goods were delivered on time, rarely caring about outer members' survival, better safe than sorry—he didn't want unnecessary trouble.
As for Borgin's current abnormal appearance and speech, the shop's dim environment made detection difficult. Plus wizards coming here were usually hurried—with slight concealment, no one should care what happened to Borgin. Even if someone discovered something, Borgin could claim he'd undergone a dark magical transformation. Such things causing any condition were normal—in Knockturn Alley, no wizard would investigate thoroughly.
After arranging these details and cleaning up battle traces, he left Knockturn Alley, sinking into shadows and silently reappearing in Malfoy Manor's room. Throughout the entire process, he never triggered Malfoy family protective magic—no one in the vast manor noticed he had ever left.
This made him increasingly satisfied with ancient shadow magic. Compared to ancient weather magic purely for combat, this ancient magic balanced all aspects—truly more practical.
However, his brow furrowed slightly. No perfect magic existed. Ancient shadow magic was indeed practical, but the more lives fell into his shadow magic, the more numerous the Shadow Legion became, and the greater the mental burden.
Especially when releasing Shadow Legion members for remote control, the mental burden multiplied several or even tenfold. At his current distance from Borgin, he could clearly feel this. Though a single Borgin's mental burden meant nothing to him, if Shadow Legion numbers kept increasing, this burden would become unignorable.
If mental capacity proved insufficient, Shadow Legion coordination could become chaotic, forming no combat effectiveness—worst case, he might lose control over ancient shadow magic entirely, causing magical backlash.
"So during the process of obtaining more shadow will and increasing Shadow Legion numbers, I can't be too blind or immersed in magical growth's joy. Must constantly monitor mental burden. To master shadow magic capable of drowning the world like that Titan giant I saw would require horrifyingly powerful mental strength."
But for him, this wasn't too troublesome. He'd planted a batch of Bronze-level Alihotsy on Sprout Island. Besides being precious luxury goods similar to cigars beloved by nobility and upper-class wizards, the cultivation reward it provided was precisely mental enhancement.
This Alihotsy batch was approaching maturity. The mental enhancement rewards obtained then would significantly boost his mental strength—not only handling ancient shadow magic's mental burden for a long time but also eliminating previous repeated mental overexertion situations.
Additionally, since this Alihotsy batch came from carefully selected Malfoy family varieties, compared to ordinary Alihotsy providing only Iron-level mental enhancement, besides higher reward tiers, it also included an Alihotsy purification process reward.
This made his eyes flicker strangely. Alihotsy was already an upper-class favourite luxury—casually smoking it cost nearly one Galleon. Without family wealth, truly unaffordable.
But after purification processing, the value became truly exaggerated—increasing tenfold or hundredfold easily. Supposedly at pure-blood noble gatherings, without purified Alihotsy, it couldn't be considered a truly high-class banquet.
Therefore, purified Alihotsy was priceless. Every estate possessing Alihotsy purification processes had unimaginably high value—calling them money-printing machines wasn't excessive.
Consider that in the original story, Harry Potter's vault contained piles of gold coins accumulated by the Potter family through speciality hair products. But hair product accumulation speed couldn't compare to Alihotsy. The Potter family's generations of savings might not even match a purification-process Alihotsy estate's monthly cash flow!
Through this dark magical item acquisition, he realised that while Galleons were useless to him personally, the resources they could exchange for weren't necessarily so. If he needed massive resources later, he couldn't always have the Malfoy family help for free.
Even ignoring the original story, just from previous life experience, he knew that successful people willingly giving effective advice was an incredibly rare opportunity. Without exaggeration, even ordinary people grasping such advice could change their life trajectory.
He may not need the advice but must accept this sentiment.
Then Lucius brought him to a magnificently luxurious room: "This is our Malfoy family's collection room. However, it doesn't contain dark magical items—mostly ancient treasures. To commemorate our cooperation advancing further today, I have a gift for you."
Before he could decline, Lucius said mysteriously, "Don't rush to refuse. I guarantee this item should be useful to you."
Hearing this, he showed a curious expression. He recognised Malfoy family collections, but what could make Lucius so mysterious?
Then Lucius again dripped blood on the door handle, opening this magnificent door. What greeted them was ancient, mysterious magic filling the room.
Lucius led him through various dazzling ancient collections, finally stopping before one wall-mounted treasure.
Seeing this, he couldn't help but widen his eyes. Before him was an absurdly large greatsword—nearly three metres long. Silver light flashed alongside cold radiance—sharpness and magnificence simultaneously gathered in one weapon. Typical goblin weapon characteristics.
He paused: "This is—"
Lucius said proudly, "From the First Goblin War, wizards seized the Goblin King's treasure. Once hung on the Goblin King's palace walls to display royal authority. Legend says it embodies goblin weapons' highest craftsmanship, easily severing dragon bodies—surpassing Gryffindor's sword. Its name is "Grønir".