Upon opening the black box, Daimon frowned, the contents weren't what he expected, since the liqueur was what allowed him to get the Black Armored Shark lineage, he thought it would be maybe a bone or a blood crystal of some kind, something that should contain the genetic material of that race.
But no, in truth it was a fray sphere with the size of a tennis ball, it was cold to the tact and seemed to be made out of some kind of mineral.
The first thing Daimon tried was of course using his mana sense to inspect it, the people of the Neptune lacked in that aspect after all, it's not as if he thought Vincent's senses were weaker than his, since as a Stellar ranked with the capacity to travel through space and mana sense, he could even notice he was using a camouflage type of treasure, while the other Stellar ranks he met couldn't.
But sometimes perspective is far more important than sharpness or range, which what increases with a higher realm, he as someone with the Black Armored Shark lineage, might be able to notice things others can't.
"Task, of course it can't be that simple…", mumbled Daimon, the result of the first test was of course a failure, just like Vincent stated, the result of inspecting it was useless, this thing is made of, isn't listed in the vast amount of knowledge he has amassed, no it was far worse than that, there wasn't even a coincidence with all the materials he has seen or knows off.
Which is something hard to believe, considering that a molecular level many materials despite their uniqueness or rarity, have some connections with other materials, mithril for example is related to silver, so someone who has inspected silver with mana sense, with enough practice can recognize mithril, that's how it worked.
And here is what things got interesting, supposedly the Drakolevia lineage which he suffered so much to increase just a bit, back at the trial of the lineage temple, is related to the Black Armored Shark lineage, so by correlation if this thing came from a Black Armored Shark or a Drakolevia whatever it is, he should have been able to know it.
In other words, whatever this gray sphere is, it isn't even related to those races, which made Daimon wonder how the hell did he end up getting them in the first place then.
'What the hell is going on, how did the Blackfin family use this to produce the liqueur', thought Daimon before he turned to see the girls, if one doesn't have an answer then what one has to do is simply ask to others, that's something he already learned from his soulmates.
"Can you try looking into this thing, if you discover something then just tell me", he said.
"Mm", the girls nodded and happily cooperated, one by one they all grabbed the gray sphere and inspected it, even Thea and Marlene tried but couldn't reach an answer, fortunately Daimon isn't Erin's disciple for nothing, something like an absolute dead end doesn't exist, it's one of the things Erin taught him, and in this case it came in handy, because even a negative answer is an answer.
"If natives of the Wonder Myriad stellar chart and natives of Neptune can't identify it, then it's safe to assume this thing isn't from either of them… how did the Blackfin Duke get a hold of this?", asked Daimon to Mellie.
"Sis mentioned that is a heirloom passed in their family since the times of the foundation of the kingdom, apparently is something they found in one of the special places that sometimes open for those who do a trial to complete their emblem, the Blackfin ancestor supposedly got it along with an emblem their family has held on since then", said Mellie.
Daimon nodded, he then tried to use infinity eyes to see, maybe there was something they couldn't see with mana sense, it was an incredibly useful way to trick a mage after all, only those with special eyes could get a different approach than with mana sense and even then, not all of the magic eyes had the same abilities.
Luckily for Daimon, he could adjust what he wanted to see, and so he did, he tried with all the layers of the spectrum he knew off, mana, battle aura, temperature, x-ray, ultraviolet… and the only thing he could confirm is that, the thing wasn't hollow, there was nothing else hidden inside or something else mixed in it.
He even took out his Sea Emblem to see if the little thing would swallow it, but there was no reaction.
Daimon frowned, even the system wasn't triggering a notification or something like that, like normally, Daimon's eyes then glowed as he smirked.
'Restrictions huh… I won't depend on you then, the system works for me not the other way around', he thought.
Inside of an unknown space with a sky full of imposing chains, the blurred figure of a woman who was just floating there peacefully sleeping smiled.
'That's it, don't let your way be controlled by anything but you, my precious host', mumbled Evangeline as she returned to sleep, not without looking at the sky where all those chain converged forming a cocoon, one of the big chains whose origin couldn't be seen as it extended through the infinite vastness, cracked a bit more.
"As of right now I can't decipher what is this thing, but that doesn't mean I have no use to it", said Daimon as he took out a large vase, he then used a low level spell to cast water, once the vase was full he threw the gray sphere into it.
Unlike him others couldn't get the Black Armored lineage from the liqueur sold by the Blackfin family, but that didn't mean they got no benefits from it, if they could endure it they would get stronger, it was a resource of some kind, one that didn't make any distinctions between race, gender, status, lineage concentration or anything, only strength and will mattered, if you could endure it then you'll benefit if not then… you'll die.
"Are you going to make something like the liqueur sold by the Blackfin family, this Empress has tasted it before and though it's not horrible it's taste is nothing special, this Empress will offer you a drop of Snake Ocean Wine, it's done with Stellar ranked materials, I guarantee its quality", said Thea, to which Marlene pouted.
"What's up with this difference in treatment, I your first and sole friend never got offered such a delicacy, if I remember correctly, you found that bottle in a one time cave that appeared under the sea", she said.
The Black Empress shrugged in response.
"I can give it to you if you have a death wish, though it's called wine, in truth it's more like a potion, and I can tell whether someone can drink it or not, it's effects are quite nice, unfortunately it doesn't affect me anymore as I have developed resistance to it, and it would be a waste to just drink the leftover drops of it for the taste, it will be an investment in my recently appointed general".
Daimon nodded.
"I'm not really doing liqueur with it, the Blackfin family probably gave up on investigating about this material after they discovered the amazing effect it has at enhancing those from the younger generation who can stand its effect, for them it's just a business which they lost due to me, do they probably think I'll start making my own product to sell it, but that's not it".
Daimon then grinned.
"I want the concentrate created with just water and this ingredient", his instincts told him that it was futile to drink more of the liqueur, even if it was the one of the higher quality, which he got access to thanks to Vincent, it simply won't have any effect on him anymore, so the next thing to do was of course get it right out of the source.
Unfortunately he'll have to wait some time until the thing was finished, but he send the vase into an empty beast pouch, why do you ask, because unlike a storage ring, where things took way too long to age, in the beast pouch that wasn't the case, time flowed normally there.
He then sent it into his inventory, which could contain anything as long as it wasn't "alive", normally the inventory worked as storage ring but enhanced, meaning that they time things to age was even longer, but when another spatial related treasure was involved, then the properties of the latter were kept.
"Well, now that, that is settled, I need you to leave for a moment, the second experiment might get a bit wild, miss Thea, Rita and Horals will stay with me, so please watch over them instead, once I finish and if I succeed, I'll tell you the result", said Daimon.
"Fine, but you owe this Empress a cup of that drink you are making", answered Thea, the girls then left the room to give Daimon some space, Aisha included, her son didn't hid things from her, so if he asked her to leave then there was a really good reason to it, so she didn't ask and just smiled as she followed the sisters and the princesses, it was a good moment to get to know each other, since they'll be fighting together and there was another training room next to the one Daimon was occupying.
"Let's have a friendly spar~", she said to the others.
Daimon waited until they left, to start with his second experiment, his shadow extended and Rita came out of it, as she rose the sides of her dress to greet Daimon.
"Rita greets young master~", she said with a smiling expression.
Then a green portal appeared from which the black armored Horals emerged.
"Horals greets young master, the honorable ladies send their regards", said Horals as he kneeled down, he informed Erin and the others of everything that has happened per Daimon's orders.
Daimon nodded, he waved his hand and a battered corpse appeared on the ground, it was the corpse of the female assassin which tried to kill him.
"Very well, watch over me, if you get any negative vibe, I allow you to interrupt me at any moment".
"Yes!", they both answered.
Daimon then touched the amphora ring which he hasn't used in some time, it's the treasure where the rest of the djinns he captured are being kept, truth to be told unlike Gars whose strength was enough to possess an Arch rank related to the royal branch of the Alfear race, to become a spy for him, the others were too weak and for some reason they couldn't advance in the galaxies of the Wonder Myriad Stellar chart, so they were stuck in the Lord realms, having not too much of a use for him, until now.
Daimon ordered it and one of the djinns was taken out of the amphora ring, all of them had discarded the bodies of the lizardmen they possessed earlier and were now just in their shapeless form, just an accumulation of red light without a form.
"Dalton, can you possess this corpse, I want you to read whatever memories that are still there and give me a full detailed report of them".
This was an idea Daimon got earlier, the djinns possessed the dead lizardmen to move freely and to be able to manifest their power in the Wonder Myriad Stellar chart, since the place from where they came had a different atmosphere, Gars could read Clarens memories after he possessed it, so this should be the same.
The djinn trembled for a moment before saying.
"I'm not a darkness element spirit, this body is too damaged and its element doesn't align with mine, master, if I posses it I'll just be able to keep it for a couple of minutes, my lifespan will be shortened too, do you still want to proceed?".
The djinns were under a terror contract, so Daimon's orders were absolute, even if they would die they had to obey, Daimon has already used one of the djinns to get information that surpassed the regulations of the Wonder Myriad Stellar chart, about the Emperor realm, which ended in the djinn being exterminated by the laws, so he didn't really care about the djinns, they were there to kill him and the others, not to mention they lusted for Liz and Leslie due to they having fire affinities.
But he still ordered them to tell him whether what he asked would kill them or not, because they were useful tools, which had the potential to become a spy if needed, also he had to keep some of them to be his guides, if he goes to their place of origin in the future.
"Go ahead, any information you can get will be rewarded, who know I might get a way to make you guys stronger and that will be awarded depending on contributions", said Daimon.
The djinn had no other choice anyway, so he entered the corpse of the female assassin, which immediately exploded in flames, since it was so damaged it would burn in a few minutes, in which the djinn had to focus on reading the memories.
In part this was one of the reasons Daimon didn't want the others to see the process, it involved the fact that he could enslave others this way, also while it was an enemy, he didn't know Marlene's stand regarding a member of her race being used like this.
Many people hate necromancers, toying with the bodies of dead people is not well seen, by humans and the beast faction as well, demons and undead obviously don't really care, it's a cultural thing.
Daimon couldn't care less about the corpses of his enemies as well, but that didn't mean he found pleasure on it, he was indifferent to the unpleasant spectacle in front of him, but the girls wouldn't have been like that, even if they didn't pity someone who tried to kill him, they would have had some negative reaction to it, as for Aisha who was the same as him he had a theory which he needed to confirm, so unless he was sure it was safe for her to be here, he wouldn't leave her.
'I guess having gotten the vampire's selfishness was a good way to adapt to this merciless world', thought Daimon.
He couldn't imagine him a former human from a modern world not feeling uncomfortable with the current scene, prior to his reincarnation as a vampire, even if he hated his scumbag father, he wasn't coldhearted, heck he didn't even go hunting or something like that, the first time he killed was at that mountain, where Aisha died once.
