The mage sealed within the Life Casket was named Philia Soderland.
She was not entirely a commoner, but the granddaughter of a border noble.
She was 124 years old.
As a fifth-rank mage at the pinnacle of humanity, her status was already extremely noble based on her magical prowess alone, even without her noble lineage.
At the peak of human potential, she naturally sought even greater power to transcend human limits.
Sixth-rank beings were known as angels, and a sixth-rank human could live up to five hundred years.
With such a long lifespan and immense power, calling them angels was fitting.
Philia learned much hidden knowledge during her quest to transcend limits.
This knowledge could typically only be found within dungeons or obtained from major factions.
Most of Philia's hidden knowledge was gathered from dungeons or traded for with adventurers.
She had even kidnapped nobles from the Grey family to obtain relevant secret intelligence.
After all, with the formidable power of a fifth-rank mage, accomplishing such a feat was hardly impossible.
Because of this, she offended the Grey family and was eventually captured and placed in the Life Casket, her soul forever imprisoned and sealed within.
Most importantly, she had seen and even possessed a ring seal stone.
It was because of the ring seal stone that she was ultimately killed by the Grey family.
The ring seal stone was a unique material.
It was the essential material that allowed humans to break their limits and reach the sixth rank.
The ring seal stone Philia obtained looked like an ordinary metal ore.
It was purple overall, with concentric circular patterns on its surface.
The appearance of a ring seal stone was not fixed; it could take various forms and colors, though it generally looked like an ore.
Ring seal stones only appeared in medium-scale dungeons and were among the most precious treasures within.
Humans had always searched for materials that could substitute for the ring seal stone to break their limits and gain great power.
However, they never succeeded, as ring seal stones could not be created artificially, even with alchemy or foundry techniques.
Philia had also studied the ring seal stone, searching for a way to break human limits without it.
Combining the hidden knowledge she had acquired, she possessed a deep understanding of ring seal stones and sixth-rank beings, despite not being one herself.
As a mage, her grasp of wisdom and knowledge far surpassed that of a warrior.
According to her research,
Human vitality and souls have limits, much like a vessel. If humanity were compared to a vessel, it would be like a cup.
The limit of this cup was only enough to hold fifth-rank power; any excess power would exceed the limit and overflow, unable to be stored.
For a species like humans to transcend the limit of the power they could hold, they had to expand their capacity.
In the cup analogy, this meant increasing the height of the cup's walls to hold more power.
The ring seal stone had this exact function.
It could artificially increase the cup's walls, allowing a human to contain more power, thereby breaking the limit to become an angel.
That was the purpose of the ring seal stone.
However, the ring seal stone was merely an external vessel and could not be fully integrated by a human.
Yet, this was actually an advantage for humanity.
Because when a sixth-rank being died, the ring seal stone would re-emerge from the corpse, allowing it to be reused and passed down.
Did possessing a ring seal stone mean humans could break their limits and hold infinite power, growing stronger without end?
That was not the case.
According to Philia's research, the ring seal stone was only the starting point, the foundation.
The ring seal stone itself could only add a certain height to the walls of the human cup.
This artificially increased volume could only withstand sixth-rank power.
To climb higher, one had to continue expanding the vessel.
This part was entirely forbidden hidden knowledge, a top secret even among major factions.
Philia had synthesized this forbidden knowledge on how to exist beyond the sixth rank through dungeon exploration, gathering info from adventurers, personal deduction, and research.
These were the forbidden secrets of containing power beyond the limit broken by the ring seal stone.
Philia called these two hidden paths: forbidden alchemy, and forbidden foundry.
This did not refer to the literal skills of alchemy and forging.
Nor did it mean one had to learn alchemy or forging to grow stronger.
After all, one required talent and the other required a specific background.
Rather, the names were chosen based on the characteristics of how forbidden power was increased.
Collecting materials and following specific blueprints or recipes to alchemically forge one's own capacity represented the channel for continuing to increase rank and power.
The sixth rank was a new starting point; to go from sixth to seventh rank, one had to collect various materials and, following a blueprint, treat oneself like an alchemical object to be forged, thereby increasing the vessel's volume.
This represented one of the forbidden elements: forbidden blueprints.
Philia had half of a forbidden blueprint in her mind.
It was a blueprint she had gathered from the fragmented ruins of the Gray City dungeon.
The forbidden blueprint was named "Undying Wardrobe," which Philia classified as a seventh-rank blueprint for the swordsman path.
A sixth-rank swordsman who had integrated a ring seal stone could collect materials and synthesize the "Undying Wardrobe" according to this seventh-rank blueprint.
The "Undying Wardrobe" was the name of the vessel that could contain seventh-rank power, allowing a sixth-rank swordsman to break through to the seventh rank.
Synthesizing the "Undying Wardrobe" required materials like the ageless fruit, dragon-scale vine, black dragon ore, and two other unknown materials.
These three materials were extremely rare and could basically only be found within dungeons.
Black dragon ore had an incredibly low chance of dropping from the boss on the 35th floor of the Gray City dungeon.
When Philia first obtained this blueprint, she thought it was just an alchemy recipe for some magical artifact.
It struck her as miraculous and incomprehensible.
She couldn't understand why such a blueprint existed in alchemy.
Only after accumulating more hidden knowledge did she realize it wasn't a blueprint for a magical artifact.
Rather, it was a path to becoming a seventh-rank being, one of the most precious treasures in the dungeon.
After all, anyone who found a blueprint named "Undying Wardrobe" would never associate it with a rank breakthrough.
Once the Undying Wardrobe was synthesized, life would be contained within this vessel and would not easily dissipate, extending the lifespan by another two hundred years beyond the initial five hundred.
The "Undying Wardrobe" also granted special power.
A single resurrection.
After death, all states would be refreshed from within the "Undying Wardrobe," allowing for a full-status resurrection once per month.
According to Philia's deductions, every such vessel would contain powerful special effects.
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