"That...can't be real," Vanessa muttered, staring at the ashes.
Her husband was a top psychiatrist and wealthy by most standards, but not wealthy enough to draw supernatural attention.
Yet the evidence was undeniable. The talisman had burned on its own.
A chill crept down her spine.
Were ghosts real after all?
At that moment, Ryan's face flashed through her mind. The talisman had been given to her by Ryan. Did he already know about the evil spirit in this house?"
Meanwhile, in the classroom...
Sitting among a group of male students, Ryan exhaled subtly in relief under the weight of the surrounding gazes.
Though many students still stole glances at him, the distance kept them from being fully affected by his aura. The female students weren't as frenzied as before.
As class began, everything seemed to return to normal except for Ryan, who stifled yawns as the professor lectured. He barely understood a quarter of the material.
Asking someone with high school knowledge to follow a university lecture was just cruel. At this rate, graduating early was a pipe dream. Merely graduating would be a miracle.
After class, he gathered a pile of textbooks and notes.
Sacrifice!
Knowledge flooded his mind, and instantly, he felt invincible.
"This ability is pure cheating."
No effort was required—just sacrifice, and mastery was his. If he sacrificed every book in the world, he couldn't imagine how overpowered he'd become.
"Physics, biology, alchemy, potions..."
As the knowledge merged in his mind, Ryan realized that modern science and magical theory shared profound connections.
For example, alchemical transmutation could be replicated through technology, albeit at a far greater cost. Conversely, some feats easily achieved by science required complicated magic.
Combining the two could simplify the impossible.
They were like divergent paths leading to the same destination. Truth.
Whether magic or science, both were ultimately ways to decipher the world's rules.
"Fusing biology with alchemical puppetry might let me create life-like homunculi."
Ryan's eyes gleamed with fascination. Although alchemy was complex, modern biology surpassed it in its understanding of the human body, which was a limitation of their era.
In an era when dissecting corpses was punishable by death, only outlawed necromancers dared to study anatomy.
By merging the two fields, he might harness a power reserved for gods:
The creation of life.
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