Clive's eyes snap open the moment consciousness returns.
His body reacts instantly.
He pushes himself up and rises to his feet with sudden alertness, ready for danger.
Then he pauses.
A look of surprise crosses his face.
He expected pain.
After the brutal battle outside the mine, every movement should have sent agony through his body.
But there is almost none.
Clive quickly looks down at himself.
Most of his wounds have completely healed.
Only a few injuries remain, and those are the ones where faint traces of black energy still linger beneath the skin.
"How did my injuries heal?" he murmurs quietly.
His spiritual sense cannot extend outside his body because the spiritual energy in the town is still frozen.
But he can still inspect himself internally.
He focuses inward.
His vitality feels strong.
Fully restored.
Even his Spirit Life inside the Spirit Space appears stable and energetic.
His confusion deepens.
"How is this possible?"
He stands there for several minutes, silently thinking.
Slowly, only one logical explanation forms in his mind.
The Disaster Wolf bloodline.
The realisation causes his expression to darken.
Instead of relief, disappointment settles in his chest.
He does not want anything to do with the Disaster Wolf bloodline.
Yet it is the very thing that keeps saving his life.
He exhales slowly.
"There's nothing I can do about it now."
He certainly cannot injure himself just to reject the bloodline.
That would be foolish.
Clive may dislike the bloodline, but he is not an idiot who would harm himself out of stubborn pride.
He quietly peeks outside from his hiding place near the mine wall.
The area outside the mine entrance remains silent.
No rabid figures wander nearby.
The streets remain empty.
Clive looks back toward the dark tunnel of the mine.
Then glances again at his remaining wounds.
"Let's heal first."
He sits down again and finds a comfortable position against the rock wall.
Closing his eyes, he begins guiding his energy toward the injuries.
His focus turns to the traces of black energy lingering within the wounds.
The moment his energy touches them, resistance appears.
The black energy refuses to leave easily.
Clive concentrates harder.
But he quickly realises something troubling.
The energy has already entered the cells around the wounds.
It has fused with them.
Trying to spread further into his body.
Fortunately, the Disaster Wolf bloodline suppresses it, preventing the corruption from spreading.
Clive suddenly opens his eyes.
He recognises the energy.
"Isn't this the same energy from that woman?"
A memory surfaces.
A few days ago, when he treated the sick woman in the town.
Her body had contained the same black energy.
The energy had begun transforming her cells into Death Cells.
Understanding dawns on him.
Now he knows why the townspeople became rabid.
And how the infection spreads.
Clive closes his eyes again and attempts to remove the black energy directly.
But after several attempts, he stops.
It is impossible.
The energy has merged too deeply with the corrupted cells.
The only way to remove it is to remove the cells themselves.
Fortunately, he understands Life Alchemy well enough to perform such a delicate operation.
Carefully, he begins cutting the corrupted cells away from the healthy tissue.
The process is slow and painful.
But precise.
Piece by piece, the infected cells are removed.
Gradually, the foreign energy disappears from his body.
Clive exhales as a strange weight lifts from him.
Once the corrupted tissue is gone, he uses Life Alchemy again.
He closes the wounds carefully.
He does not fully regenerate the flesh.
Instead, he forms protective scabs over them.
Enough to prevent infection and reduce discomfort.
Clive leans back against the rock wall.
He does not stand up immediately.
"If more monsters like that two-headed creature are inside the mine…"
"My life will be in danger."
The narrow tunnels could easily trap him.
If he reaches a dead end while one of those monsters approaches, escape would be impossible.
He barely defeated one.
If two attacks at the same time, he will certainly die.
Clive closes his eyes again.
His mind shifts toward another possibility.
It may be time to advance.
Through Life Alchemy, he has already reached Tier Five of the Apprentice stage.
But his Blood Alchemy remains at Stage Two.
His Spirit Life itself was originally formed through Blood Alchemy.
If he refines another bloodline, his strength could increase significantly.
Yet a problem appears immediately.
He has no third bloodline available for refinement.
Except one.
The Disaster Wolf bloodline.
His jaw tightens.
That is the one bloodline he refuses to accept.
Clive stands up suddenly.
He steps out of his hiding place and begins walking slowly near the mine entrance.
He needs to calm his thoughts.
As he walks, he weighs the advantages and risks of refining the Disaster Wolf bloodline.
Minutes pass.
Finally, he stops.
Clive exhales deeply and looks up at the sky.
The darkness above immediately catches his attention.
The sky is completely black.
No moon.
No stars.
That alone would not be unusual.
Clouds could explain it.
But too much time has passed.
The sun should already be rising.
Clive frowns.
Something is wrong.
The array surrounding the town must be affecting the sky as well.
The barrier has likely sealed the entire area.
He lowers his gaze slowly.
His eyes fall upon the severed remains of the two-headed monster lying across the ground.
Clive stares at the grotesque corpse silently.
The two halves of the creature lie twisted across the dirt, its black blood soaking into the earth around the mine entrance.
"Should I do it… or not?"
The thought lingers in his mind.
Because if he does it, the attempt could kill him.
"I shouldn't do it," he mutters quietly.
"I already have the Disaster Wolf bloodline."
But that answer does not satisfy him.
Clive looks again at the remains of the monster.
What he wants to do is simple in theory.
He wants to refine the strange black energy inside the transformed corpses into a bloodline.
Elemental energy, beast energy, and other strange energies can all be refined into bloodlines through Blood Alchemy.
But the process requires a special alchemical medium.
A Bloodstone.
And Bloodstone itself requires blood to form.
Clive stands there for several moments, thinking carefully.
Refining the energy of the transformed corpses carries a serious risk.
The energy is clearly dangerous to living bodies.
If something goes wrong, the corruption could spread through him.
It could destroy him from within.
Yet another thought pushes against that fear.
He truly does not want to refine the Disaster Wolf bloodline as his third bloodline.
He has already rejected that path once.
Clive closes his eyes briefly.
Then opens them again.
Resolve appears in his gaze.
"I don't want to refine the Disaster Wolf bloodline."
"Then I won't."
His decision settles firmly.
"First… I need to refine a Bloodstone."
Clive looks around.
"I don't have any materials with me."
So he chooses the only option available.
"My blood will be the material."
He raises his sword.
With the tip of the blade, he slices across his thumb.
Blood immediately wells from the cut.
Clive kneels and begins drawing an alchemy array on the ground using his own blood.
The crimson lines form intricate patterns across the soil.
After finishing the formation, he places one hand over the array and channels energy into it.
The array activates slowly.
A faint red glow spreads through the bloodlines.
Clive extends his other hand above the centre of the formation.
Blood begins flowing from his thumb like water.
But instead of falling to the ground, the blood stops in midair above the array.
The liquid begins spinning slowly.
Refining.
Compressing.
Turning denser and darker.
The process begins.
Bloodstone refinement.
Clive's blood continues flowing steadily.
But he knows ordinary blood will not be enough.
Through Life Alchemy, he begins converting his own vitality into fresh blood.
Vitality becomes blood.
Blood feeds the array.
Normally, an elemental-grade Bloodstone would require the complete blood supply of five alchemist apprentices.
If refined by one person alone, the process would take months.
Clive does not have months.
He needs it now.
So he forces the process forward.
His vitality burns away as Life Alchemy continues producing more blood.
The array absorbs everything.
Time passes slowly.
Hours slip by.
Clive's face grows pale as more than half his vitality drains away.
Finally,
The spinning blood condenses into solid form.
A small crimson stone appears in his palm.
Bloodstone.
Clive exhales slowly.
His body trembles from exhaustion.
But the first step is complete.
He uses his foot to erase the blood array from the ground.
Then he begins drawing a second formation.
This one is far larger.
An Energy Refining Array.
Once again, he cuts his thumb.
Blood flows across the dirt as he carefully forms the complex structure.
Even though most of his vitality has already been consumed, he forces himself to continue drawing.
Eventually, the final line connects.
The array is complete.
Clive activates it.
The formation glows faintly.
He places the Bloodstone into the centre.
The crimson stone floats above the array.
Then he begins dragging the monster remains and nearby corpses into the formation.
One by one, the bodies enter the array's boundary.
Immediately, the formation reacts.
The black energy begins separating from the flesh.
The corpses collapse into dust.
All of the strange black energy flows toward the centre.
The energy pours into the floating Bloodstone.