Usually, wizards rely on the 'Misty Cloud' spell to block vision, but in real fights, it doesn't work as well as expected because a simple 'Hurricane Curse' can easily blow it away.
Plus, wizards with decent magic perception can still detect opponents through the cloud, while only those with poor perception might find it a bit troublesome.
But with [Lightless Dust], Alex could finally make a true 'tactical smoke bomb.'
Thinking about this new piece of equipment hitting the market made him genuinely excited.
After calming down, Alex reviewed Phoenix's information again.
In Phoenix's research notes, he discovered that Phoenix's work on soul and death magic was extremely advanced, almost at a master level.
This expertise translated into powerful and unusual spells, along with massive armies of undead.
However, Alex also learned that these ghostly corpses and spectral guards, seemingly summoned endlessly, actually had limits.
Phoenix had been collecting corpses for over a century to create these undead, gathered through battles, tomb raiding, and enemy kills.
Considering Phoenix had lived through both World War I and World War II, with Germany as a central battleground, her notes detailed how easy it was to obtain corpses for experiments.
She simply went to concentration camps in Germany, where she could pick from heaps of bodies almost like choosing items from a pile.
She could even select corpses based on body shape and size.
Still, Phoenix often complained in her notes that German soldiers starved prisoners in those camps so severely that the bodies she collected were very fragile and not ideal for her work.
After Phoenix processed the collected corpses, they transformed into the Yin Corpses and Nether Guardians that Alex had seen.
To manage these, Phoenix specially constructed a large-scale "corpse raising place" to store them.
Whenever needed, these corpses could be summoned and instantly converted into fighting forces.
Whether through the summoning ritual Phoenix used, one that involved self-sacrifice, or through the so-called "inferi summoning bags," it was essentially just a connection, a portal to the stored corpses.
However, the "Corpse Ranch" where the Nether Guardians were kept was located far away, and even though the portal was one-way, summoning required "casting materials" as a form of sacrifice.
Phoenix's intense interest in studying the soul and death came from her desire to find a way to truly live forever.
Unlike many naive members of the club who believed immortality could be achieved simply by drinking an elixir, Phoenix never bought into that idea.
She thought it was foolish to put her life in someone else's hands and doubted that any potion could offer unlimited life.
In her notes, she wrote: "Our adoptive father promised us real eternal life, but if it means becoming his ghost, then the so-called elixir is nothing more than a trap. We took the potion half-willingly, half-forced.
Gerald was so frustrated he nearly rebelled against our father, but in the end, we couldn't refuse. The effects of the elixir were even more incredible than I expected.
I felt like I was 20 years old again, both in appearance and vitality. It was intoxicating, but I kept reminding myself that the elixir was completely untrustworthy.
If we don't want to end up like our father, we have to find another path."
She also questioned why so many historic attempts at eternal life ended up turning people into something neither human nor ghost.
She dismissed horcruxes, the method of splitting and hiding one's soul in objects, as utterly foolish.
"Don't the creators of horcruxes realize that all objects decay over time? Even sacred artifacts only last a few thousand years. What I want is true eternal life."
Centuries ago, it was believed that the only way to achieve immortality without any side effects was through the Philosopher's Stone.
However, the only known Philosopher's Stone in the world was said to be in the possession of Nicolas Flamel, a legendary wizard who lived far beyond a normal lifespan.
But how could anyone get their hands on it?
"My father once traded several pieces of Leymone alloy with Nicolas Flamel, and I'm not even sure if they still keep in touch. Father is convinced that Flamel might be in France, I'm determined to go there myself."
"Yet, after twenty years of searching, I still can't find him. Could this path be truly impossible? The Philosopher's Stone... Even if it's just to catch a glimpse of it, after all these years of study, I feel like I've hit a dead end. Isn't immortality supposed to mean escaping death and the eternal survival of the soul? Or is there some other truth I haven't grasped yet?"
"Recently, a dangerous thought crossed my mind, creating a Horcrux for myself. The side effects of the elixir are starting to show; it's making me dull and slow. Splitting my soul would only leave me fragmented and weaker. I fear that such unnatural magic would only lead to disaster, much like the cursed fate of those who tamper with Horcruxes."
After going through Phoenix's notes, Alex paused to reflect.
The amount of information revealed was staggering.
It was clear that Phoenix had a strong obsession with longevity, having explored numerous methods to achieve immortality, including Horcruxes and the Philosopher's Stone, both well within her realm of consideration.
Her focus on this subject wasn't just because she lacked the formula for the elixir of life; she had also noticed from observing the Horned Basilisk that using the elixir seemed to cause noticeable side effects.
This raised an important question: was there something unusual about the Horned Basilisk's current condition?
Alex also suspected that these side effects might take time to fully manifest, which would explain why Phoenix and Thunderbird appeared perfectly normal for now.
The elixir's effects were more easily observed through the Horned Basilisk.
'Well, it looks like we need to make contact with the Horned Basilisk as soon as possible, at least to uncover the truth behind it,' Alex thought.
'But given the club's current state, Golden Snidget might not be interested in the Horned Basilisk, and it feels a bit off for me to bring it up first...'
He lowered his head, pondering for a moment before nodding resolutely.
'I guess I'll have to shake things up in the club again, push them into a corner. I don't believe the Horned Basilisk can keep up...'
"This act forever."
After planning his next moves, Alex gathered all the phoenix relics.
This operation had been a huge success, both strategically and in terms of tangible results.
Once everything was sorted, he took the materials he'd obtained from Phoenix and found Andre and Moody, who were still tidying up the aftermath.