10 Out-of-body State

Richard walked down to the hall on the first floor. He saw a thin old man in blue clothes standing in the distance, looking with curiosity at the servants who were operating various complicated instruments on the surrounding tables. The servants knew that the old man held a lot of power. Therefore, they lowered their heads and concentrated on their work, not daring to utter a word lest they invited trouble for themselves.

Tap, tap, tap.

Richard moved closer. The old man turned his head upon hearing the sound. When he saw that it was Richard, he hurriedly bowed and saluted, "Your Highness Prince Richard."

"Hmm." Richard nodded and asked directly, "What's the matter, Butler Deron? What does my respected father, King Donners, want?"

"Uh…" the old man said, his voice slightly hoarse and hesitant. "Actually, Your Highness, I did not come following His Majesty's orders."

"It seems that I have the right to refuse then," Richard said lightly.

The old man's expression tensed, and he quickly said, "Of course, Your Highness, you are the prince, second in line to the throne. Apart from His Majesty's orders, you naturally have the right to refuse. It's just…"

"What is it?" Richard asked.

"I will explain…" The old man sighed and said slowly, "Your Highness, His Majesty has been ill for a long time and has not improved. So His Highness, the eldest prince, said that he wanted to cut down on daily expenses, in order to find a better doctor to treat His Majesty.

"Although His Highness merely made a suggestion, he has indeed started working on it. From today, his palace has reduced the expenses by one-third. In that case, if Your Highness does not do so as well, it might make His Highness, the eldest prince, look bad. This is for His Majesty's sake, and His Majesty—"

"Cut the costs to treat the king? So I see Blue Lion Kingdom is already this poor," Richard said, his voice slightly cold.

"Well…" The old man trembled, and he broke out in a cold sweat. "Naturally, this is not the case. His Highness may just want to express his filial piety."

"Butler Deron, needless to say," Richard's cold voice sounded, "I know the thoughts and intentions of my dear brother, William Austin. It's just that… we are two different people. He can just go ahead with what he wants if he feels like expressing his filial piety by reducing the expenses.

"Butler Deron, I know you came over to tell me about this with good intentions. However, I can't reduce the expenses of my palace for the time being. You can also see that the main hall is full of people, and they are all useful to me. I need them to prepare and extract all kinds of chemical materials for me. If I had to do it myself, I would end up exhausted after just one experiment.

"So I will keep it as it is, the expenses will remain the same. In contrast, my dear brother will be able to show his filial piety better. As for whether it makes my dear brother look good, and what the rest as well as my respected father King Donners think, it is up to them."

"This…" The old man looked at Richard. He wanted to speak but hesitated.

Richard made a gesture to dismiss him.

The old man had no choice but to salute again and leave the palace.

He was walking on the square outside the palace, troubled, when he muttered to himself, "Your Highness, in fact, you don't necessarily need to cut costs by one-third like the eldest prince. It's good enough even if you reduce expenses by one-tenth, or one-twentieth. But if you don't even bother to do this…"

The old man disappeared from the square.

In the palace, Edward approached Richard and tried to persuade him. "Your Highness, I think we could actually slightly reduce our expenses. We still have surplus funds in the palace, and the money from the few shops you opened in the city hasn't even been used for the palace. It's a waste to leave it untouched. Why don't we—"

"Don't bring this up anymore." Richard waved his hand to stop Edward from continuing. "I have other purposes for the shops' profits. Also, we have to set aside part of the palace's funds for emergency purposes. So, we don't have a surplus that allows us to cut costs and make the eldest prince look good. I won't reduce our expenses by a single coin."

"Uh."

"Well, I'm going to the laboratory to do some research now. You can keep guarding the palace. Don't disturb me unless there is something urgent," Richard said, walking to his private laboratory on the side.

Edward quickly reminded him, "Your Highness, you haven't eaten your breakfast!"

"No need. I'll eat after I have made some progress on my research."

"But you didn't have dinner yesterday. Today—" Edward had yet to finish speaking, but Richard had already walked into his private laboratory and slammed the door.

Edward swallowed the rest of the words helplessly and sighed. "Oh, Your Highness, as your Chief Bodyguard, you make things difficult for me."

…

Richard entered his private laboratory and found that it had been cleaned.

The python's corpse had been placed in the middle of the table, and the blood stains on the ground from yesterday's dissection had been cleaned up. The air still carried a faint smell of disinfectant and alcohol. It seemed to have been done strictly in accordance with the cleaning regulations he had set.

With a slight nod, Richard walked to a wooden shelf and took out many bottles, canisters and rubber hoses. He began to connect them and finally formed a set of extremely complicated apparatuses.

He put some white plant powder into the first jar, and he then started the heating reaction.

Richard was attempting to create an anesthetic derived from plant alkaloid, since he would have to use a scientific method to achieve the three life reconstructions described in the wizard book.

According to The Writings of Monroe, people with magic talents were born with strong spiritual power. They could wield this power over certain light-weighted objects, intentionally or unintentionally, such as preventing the fall of a paper scroll.

Only such a person could automatically enter a special out-of-body state to connect with the vast universe, absorb its energy while astral projecting, and complete the first life reconstruction.

After that, the apprentice had to use his spiritual powers to keep the body in a highly activated state. The spiritual power connected with the body until it reached a highly solidified state, constructing a special container called the "magic source" to store this energy for later use. This was the second life reconstruction.

Finally, one had to use these spiritual powers to reach a high-energy state, smelting the energy stored in the magic source and turning it into real magical powers, which could then be used to cast real spells and to complete the third life reconstruction.

Simply put, the three life reconstructions were the three steps that a person needed to follow before casting a spell. After completing these three steps, one could then start casting spells. As for how to cast an actual spell, it was another matter. Yet if one could not complete these three steps, casting spells was an impossible goal.