Lazek visibly winced, looking at the amount of money remaining; just a few weeks before, he had a few million credits on his account.

The Fleshcrafter moved to another chamber labeled as Asset Management and Exchange Hall.

He told an old man sitting in the reception, "Please check my current assets and their best-selling value at the moment...."

The older man at the reception recognized him immediately, and there was no need for Lazek to show his token. The man promptly looked at the assets designated under the name of Lazek Oberon and stated...

"130 living Alpha rank Chimera."

"988 Feral rank Chimera corpses."

"456 Master rank Pill." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

These were the things which Lazek produced for the Association, the contributions of which he had not yet claimed.

The receptionist then revealed the amount for which all of this could be exchanged: "3,788,765 Accredit."

The man added, "With a 10% bonus for being a Grandmaster and another 10% bonus for being the Association leader’s disciple. It would be 4,546,518 Accredit."

Lazek then asked, "Check for the stock of alive Alpha-rank female Dark Octagons."

The reception man sucked in a sharp breath as he heard those words. Dark Octagon was one of the most precious assets within the Association’s asset storage; even corpses of it were too highly valued, let alone alive ones and females at that.

The man said with some hesitation, "Sir, we have only 15 of them in stock, currently, and for you, only due to your status, you could have about 10 of them at most."

"The price would be 5,455,821 Accredit, and with the 20% discount, it is 4,364,656 Accredit."

Lazek winced; that meant he would have only 227,480 Accredit left after the purchase.

He nodded to the receptionist as his heart bled.

The worst part was that he would still have to ask his Pillcrafter Senior Brother to help him get the other five Dark Octagons before the stock runs out, and he would have to pay Oram for it later, as he did not have enough money left on him.

So, he went to the Pillcraft Tower right to Oram’s work chamber. Lazek knocked on the door a few times. Thankfully, Oram did not seem to be currently busy in Pill creation.

A voice came from inside, "Come in, Lazek."

As Lazek entered, Oram asked anxiously, "How is Kale...?"

Lazek said after some hesitation, "I think he might be close to succeeding;

He added after a pause, "Maybe Kale has lowered the potential requirements to Overlord rank, but I can’t be sure; he hasn’t said anything to me."

Oram was deeply shocked by the prospect; even if Kale managed to create a Chimera with the potential to reach Overlord rank, it would be a grand achievement worth recording in the history books. Even Oram was visibly excited just at the thought of it.

Lazek promptly stated his request. Knowing that the stock of Beasts could run out at any given moment.

Oram readily agreed without issue, "That’s a small matter, just pay me later. Though you have to let me see Kale’s chimera if he does succeed and let me talk with him."

Lazek shrugged, "That’s his choice; I cannot do anything about it."

Unfortunately, as the Fleshcraft Grandmaster and Oram reached the Asset Management and Exchange Hall.

When they asked for the remaining five Dark Octagons.

The old man in the reception said in an apologetic tone, "I’m sorry, Sirs, but just a minute ago the Dark Octagons were already purchased."

Lazek scowled at the man, "Purchased by whom?"

The man winced under Lazek’s threatening glare. Oram raised his hand and silenced his Junior brother, but Oram was also displeased by the situation.

Despite the fear visible in his eyes, he mustered some courage and said, "I apologize, Grandmaster Lazek, but I am not allowed to reveal that information."

Lazek calmed down, and seeing that Oram asked, "The person who purchased the Beasts should be a Grandmaster, right? In that case, according to the policies, you can indeed reveal that information, and we can negotiate with that person."

The receptionist looked through the guidebooks to see whether what Oram said was true. As he discovered the words to be true, he revealed with some hesitation, "It is Pillcraft Grandmaster Ginrow."

The instant these words were revealed, Lazek’s expression turned dark; it was the very man who attempted to humiliate Kale in the gathering of all the Grandmaster’s disciples.

But his disciple ended up showing off his incredible memory and comprehension, humiliating Ginrow instead.

Then Lazek entered the chamber, showing his power as a newly advanced Grandmaster and threatening the man.

Oram sighed, "Junior brother, you can go back; I will see to it. If you try and do anything, that fool will only make things difficult."

And sure enough, Oram was able to get the last five of Female Dark Octagons from Grandmaster Ginrow after paying a hefty price for it.

Since Grandmaster Oram was a disciple of the Association leader and was always friendly to almost everyone, everyone was inclined to help him in times of need.

Oram was a man of broad connections, even amongst the Pillcraft Grandmasters.

Lazek swiftly delivered all 15 of the Dark Octagons to Kale in his experiment room. Just like the last time, he left it in a spatial pouch in front of the door.

Because if he stayed in front of that door for too long, he would have the urge to barge inside that room and see what was going on. As a genius Artificer himself, he was extremely ambitious and could barely contain his curiosity.

Suddenly, a thought popped into his head; now that he thought about it, he had at least given 5-6 extremely valuable spatial pouches to the brat, and his smartass disciple did not even give them all back to him.

***

Kale saw the spatial bag in front of the experiment room, left there for him to pick up.

His face lit up seeing it, and as he examined the bag, he saw exactly 15 Alpha-rank female Dark Octagons, alive but unconscious, inside.

He was ecstatic beyond reason.

Without a moment of wait, he brought out all 15 of the Alpha-rank Beasts; each of them looked like monstrous octopuses.

Kale manifested the Gene Lab, a small syringe in hand; he pushed the needle into one of the dozen Crystal Slimes’ cores, each containing the chromosomes of his desired Beast.

The system had sent chemical signals to initiate meiosis in the Slimes, a type of cell division that only occurs during reproduction.

Kale extracted the haploid cells from it, which could be called the ’seed’ or ’artificial sperm’ for his desired Beast.

Kale bent down in front of a Dark Octagon; the Gene Lab’s light indicated the spot closest to the ovary or womb of the Octagon. With the needle, he pushed the seed directly inside the egg sac of the Dark Octagon.

He repeated the process and planted seeds onto all 15 of the Beasts.

Due to the Dark Octagon’s immense adaptability and regenerative capacity, the Artificial Sperm would still be able to grow within the Octagon’s womb, even though the sperm cell differs greatly from the Dark Octagon’s species.

And since his Sample DNA already contains a trace of the Dark Octagon’s gene, the artificial sperm should not simply die out even in the worst-case scenario.