Ambrose looked at the trembling Isabel. He'd wanted to offer a word of praise, but he figured opening his mouth would just make her faint.
She hadn't been like this before.
Heh. Humans and their obsession with faces.
With a wave of his hand, he dismissed Isabel, who fled the laboratory as if granted a pardon. Ambrose then solemnly placed the two vials of Living Quicksilver Solution on the experiment table.
A soundproofing ward, an anti-scrying ward, a counter-divination spell... After casting a series of magical barriers, Ambrose completely sealed off the laboratory. Not even air could circulate.
Only a lich could stand it; a living person would suffocate.
Once he felt everything was in place, Ambrose opened one of the vials.
The five-hundred-gold-coin one.
It was a large, head-sized bottle, filled to the brim. Unfortunately, it was diluted with real mercury.
It wasn't that mercury was worthless, but compared to the Living Quicksilver inside, it was practically junk.
Using various tools to separate the mercury, Ambrose was left with a glob of Living Quicksilver barely larger than his fist. Worse, it was completely inert.
"What a rip-off. Not a single drop of the real stuff in the five-hundred-gold vial."
But right now, a corpse was exactly what Ambrose needed.
Ambrose extended a skeletal finger. Mana gathered at its tip, then transformed into a soft glow that fell upon the lifeless ball of quicksilver.
Necromancy: Control Corpse.
A standard casting motion, a perfect mana structure. As a Legendary-tier lich, even a dragon's corpse would have to blink under the effect of this spell.
And yet, the ball of quicksilver showed no reaction.
The Control Corpse spell simply shattered into a spray of light upon contact, the mana dissipating without a trace.
"Fuck! Magic resistance?! Are you kidding me?!"
Ambrose had considered many possibilities for failure, even that the quicksilver wouldn't register as a corpse. But he had never, ever expected magic resistance.
"Are they insane? What in the world were those lunatics in the City of Alchemy trying to create?!"
Creating new life was already a preposterous notion, but the City of Alchemy had been doggedly courting disaster on that front for centuries, so Ambrose could accept it.
But creating a quicksilver slime with powerful magic resistance? Were their brains kissed by the God of Goblins?
Magic resistance was an exceedingly rare trait. Aside from certain innately noble races, like the high elves Ambrose despised so much for their naturally powerful magic resistance, most creatures were susceptible. Standard magic barely scratched them, and they were completely immune to charm spells.
Dragons were the same. Any spell below the Legendary tier could hardly penetrate their scales. The most widely known dragon-slaying spell involved casting an explosion spell on yourself, waiting for a dragon to swallow you, and then blowing its guts out. But after that trick was used too many times, a new piece of wisdom was added to the dragons' ancestral memory: "Humans can't be eaten raw!" Now, dragons always cooked humans thoroughly with dragonfire before taking a bite.
Back to the point, magic resistance was a rare trait. Slimes didn't have it. The lunatics in the City of Alchemy must have found some way to add it.
"They definitely weren't trying to make a low-level creature like a slime at first. They failed, and now they're using false advertising to cover up their true goal. What's wrong with them? Are they trying to blaspheme the gods again? Weren't those seven shit-like towers enough for them?"
Ambrose felt like he'd accidentally stumbled into the messy family drama between the City of Alchemy and the God of Alchemy. Seriously, if you're a god, just smite them. Why humiliate them for centuries instead of killing them? It's like you're trying to breed god-slayers.
Truly, the thoughts of gods were beyond mortal comprehension.
Though he was cursing up a storm, Ambrose wasn't about to give up. He'd spent several thousand gold coins; he couldn't let it go to waste.
He cast several more spells, all of which were nullified by the quicksilver's magic resistance. However, his tests revealed that its resistance wasn't as terrifying as a dragon's. By activating his Legendary Aura, he could successfully control the quicksilver slime's corpse.
He was a Legendary, after all. Even if he was a bit of a fraud, the amplifying effect on his magic was real. By wielding Legendary power, he could break through the quicksilver slime's magic resistance.
But using the Control Corpse spell was clumsy. The thing was just a puddle of mercury. And who knew what the Alchemists' Council had done to it; it lacked any of a normal slime's organs. To Ambrose, it was a completely alien creature. He even struggled to make it squirm.
After a thorough examination, Ambrose came to a conclusion.
The quicksilver slime was a complete and utter failure. They had created a deformed, soulless shell. It was less a living creature and more a corpse that hadn't quite died after its soul had been ripped out.
No, that wasn't quite right.
It was a machine missing most of its parts. It had rolled off the assembly line without an operating system. If you opened it up, you'd find screw holes for a motherboard, but not a trace of the board itself.
That was why these manufactured quicksilver slimes were completely unresponsive, driven only by their biological instinct to consume metal. And due to their missing internal organs, they couldn't live long even with regular feeding. They would just slowly, constantly die.
It was a shame the thing didn't have a soul. If it did, they would be a mass-produced source of "Tormented Souls," something liches absolutely adored. In the world of the undead, Tormented Souls were the real hard currency, better than gold.
"Too bad my Fabricated Soul is also a soulless fake. It doesn't have the spiritual properties to generate resentment after being tormented. Otherwise, that would be a real money-maker."
Ambrose was still trying to figure out how to profit from this. At the very least, he had to restore the Living Quicksilver's metal-devouring ability. Otherwise, how could he face his client, Brother Headless Knight? He'd already taken the deposit; there was no way he was giving a refund.
After studying it for a long time, Ambrose concluded that he knew too little about slimes. Several ideas for modification floated through his mind, but he couldn't fully flesh them out.
He didn't have many materials on hand and couldn't afford to waste them.
"I need to do some research."
Ambrose opened his Codex of the Undead, accessed their lich chat group, and typed a message.
[Tiga Ultraman: Seniors, does anyone here know much about slimes? I have a few questions I'd like to ask.]
[Crown of the Headless Knight: You brat, are you trying to rip me off with a fake?]
Ambrose: ...
How did he know something was up from a single sentence? A Headless Knight, a being without a brain, being this sharp? It was a disgrace to his species!
Underestimating Brother Headless Knight's sensitivity about his secret stash, Ambrose could only reply honestly.
[Tiga Ultraman: Not a fake. I'm trying to find a way to fulfill the order. The City of Alchemy is having major financial problems, and prices are soaring.]
Ambrose explained what he had seen and heard, conveniently leaving out the part about testing the fake merchandise. He only said that he couldn't get the product for now, so he was planning to try and make the quicksilver slime himself.
Unexpectedly, after reading Ambrose's little story, Brother Headless Knight replied with domineering flair: [Isn't it just more money? I'll pay! The most important thing is speed!]
Ambrose was stunned by the sheer bravado of the statement.
Brother Headless, just how much stashed cash do you have as a kept man?!
Ambrose started to seriously consider finding a bone dragon to be his sugar mama.