"Of course not. It's just that many of these creatures couldn't be tamed, even with the full extent of our civilization's technology.
So, the only way was to cultivate their hearts — to extract extraordinary blood to sustain our research.
However, judging from what's left, not much of it has survived the passage of time."
"Indeed."
Hel went through each specimen one by one with Appraisal, but most of the materials had long since succumbed to the erosion of time and lost all value.
Even so, a few of them — the truly powerful ones — had miraculously endured.
"Heart of an Angel, Angel Wings, Heart of a Succubus, Succubus Tail, Heart of a Dragon, Dragon Eyes, Heart of an Elf, Elv—
Wait, the head of the Elven Queen?!
Ugh~ that's… dark."
Hel stared at the severed head floating in its glass container — even after more than a hundred thousand years, its eyes were still open, unblinking in death.
She shuddered and hurried a few steps away, only to find that the next container also contained a head.
A dwarf king's head, still attached to a section of spine.
"…Is this what they call true love?"
The goblins, it seemed, truly loved the dwarves' heads — deeply, passionately.
Though honestly, that love was a bit too heavy to bear.
"Master," Niv said, projecting data onto the display, "based on calculations, if we were to use these materials, merely disassembling them would take eighty-four years and seven months — given B5 Laboratory's current industrial capacity."
"That's not a problem. Come on, let's head back first. I'll have Sebas and the others transport these materials later."
"O-okay…"
Niv looked at Hel's unwavering determination and wanted to object again — but in the end, she stayed silent.
Everything she was belonged to Hel; no matter what Hel decided to do, all she could do was quietly support her.
Before long, the two returned to the floor that housed the Bio-Editing Device and stood once again before the control console.
"Let's see…" Hel murmured. "For the skeletal frame, we'll substitute with auricite. For nerves, we'll use dragon heartstrings.
As for flesh and blood… hmm, maybe dragon blood?"
Niv: ???
Listening to Hel read out the list of materials like she was ordering from a restaurant, Niv felt her circuits freeze.
If Hel actually went through with this plan, would even six hundred years of nonstop work be enough?
Eventually, reason triumphed over emotion, and Niv tried once more to dissuade her.
"Master…"
She called softly, watching Hel's expression — but Hel was lost in thought, completely immersed in her own world.
"This won't do. Ordinary blood can't be used to form functional muscle tissue. We'll need slime blood solution instead.
But where can I find that…
Slime blood solution…
Slime…
Wait — Primordial Matter!"
Her eyes lit up as she recalled the alchemical knowledge now embedded in her mind.
Primordial Matter — a byproduct created during alchemical experiments to replicate the Philosopher's Stone.
Unlike the Philosopher's Stone, which is formed by materializing the soul and serves as an infinite energy source, Primordial Matter contains no energy of its own once it stabilizes.
However, that very emptiness made it invaluable: it could conduct any form of energy, had immense plasticity, and exhibited almost no repulsion with other substances.
Because of that, alchemists dubbed it the universal material.
Its ingredients were simple — ordinary souls and embers.
"Since I'm already using Primordial Matter for the flesh, I might as well take it further," Hel muttered.
"There are plenty of mech components stored in the warehouse. Shrinking and adapting them shouldn't be too hard…"
"Master~"
"Ah— huh?! What is it?"
Hel snapped out of her trance at the sound of Niv's voice.
"According to your plan, to realize it with B5 Laboratory's current equipment would take approximately 625.5 years of continuous operation.
It would also consume sixty cubic meters of Pyrocrite — yet our current reserves are only 0.25 cubic meters."
"…So this is what it feels like to discover a brilliant project only to be crushed by budget constraints.
Turns out I'm poor."
Hel sighed and smacked her forehead in frustration.
Seeing her dejected look, Niv extended one of her tendrils and gently patted Hel's head in comfort.
"Please don't worry, Master. If necessary, Niv can collect garbage to feed you."
Hel couldn't help but laugh, her mood instantly brightened.
"Alright, alright, I was just kidding."
Seeing Niv's earnest concern — even quoting one of Hel's own jokes to cheer her up — Hel felt both touched and amused.
Maybe it was because both of them were anomalies, out of place in this era,
but whenever Hel was with Niv, she felt like she could finally speak freely — about all the things she'd bottled up, all the habits from her past life she could never show anyone else.
With Niv, she didn't have to act like the calculating lord or the ruthless witch.
She could just… be herself.
Though, honestly, Niv could be a little airheaded sometimes.
"Alright then," Hel said at last, "we'll just use cheaper substitutes for now.
Sebas and the others brought me a few low-tier beasts earlier — those should work.
If we use all Tier 1 materials, how much time and energy would that take?"
Niv instantly processed the numbers.
"Estimated time: seven minutes and forty-eight seconds. Energy consumption: 0.3% of one Pyrocrite crystal."
"Perfect. Let's go with that. But before that, I need to run a quick experiment."
Hel separated equal portions of auricite and beast bone, tossing the latter into the Bio-Editing Device's material chamber and pressing the activation button.
A low mechanical hum filled the room.
The bone was broken down completely, then reassembled under the influence of some unseen force — reforming into a new skeletal frame upon the platform.
Hel approached it, touched the surface, and swiftly swapped its basic attributes with those of the auricite.
In moments, a flawless golden skeleton emerged.
The operation was so smooth that Niv barely had time to react.
The beast bone had transformed into pure auricite right before her eyes.
Her processors stuttered.
"According to the law of equivalent exchange…
No, that's not right.
According to the principle of matter conservation…
No, wait…
Based on the Thirteen Fundamental Alchemical Theorems of the Jade Codex…"
And just like that, Niv's system crashed.
She stood there, muttering nonsense beside Hel, completely dazed — insisting that this isn't magic, this isn't alchemy.
Meanwhile, Hel, enlightened by the experiment, began assembling the rest of the body —
using cheap base materials, then swiftly replacing their attributes.
In no time, she had created a powerful, fully enhanced body — one made entirely of top-grade materials,
while saving an enormous amount of time and energy.
"Angel wings for skin, angel feathers for hair, and a succubus tail for balance.
Hmm, can't use it as a plug-in, though.
The internal core will be a miniaturized mech-grade elemental reactor, reinforced with a few mechanical components.
Though it might consume too much power — ordinary Tier 5 elemental crystals won't be enough to drive it.
Alright then, let's add a Philosopher's Stone for dual-core output.
Perfect. Now all that's left is the brain and the elemental crystal."
Hel completed the construction according to her design — but when she finally looked at the result, her expression grew strange.
Before her lay a small girl, no taller than 1.4 meters.
Her silky white hair, soft as flowing silk, came from the angel's wings.
Her milky, jelly-like pink skin was smooth and luminous — another gift from the same source.
Her half-lidded eyes gleamed with mechanical blue light,
though only upon close inspection could one see the faint mechanical structure behind the iris —
a masterpiece born from the fusion of dragon eyes and goblin technology, a pinnacle of alchemical craftsmanship.
Below that, a delicate nose and a pair of soft, glistening lips that shimmered faintly in the light —
like ripe fruit, tender and tempting enough to make one want to take a bite.
Her only "flaw," if one could call it that, was her petite, slender figure — barely filling a handful.
But the more Hel looked, the more familiar this little body seemed.
"Wait… why does this look like a silver-haired version of me?"