Besides sub-dragons, the dragon breeding grounds also housed large flocks of cattle, sheep, and horses. Plus over a dozen wargs and orcs who'd unfortunately fallen into Kael's hands.
The cattle, sheep, and horses served as food for the sub-dragons.
The wargs and orcs were controlled by Kael using the Imperius Curse. They were specifically responsible for raising livestock and caring for the sub-dragons.
As for sometimes inevitably becoming food for the sub-dragons themselves? Well, capitalist Kael didn't mind. After all, the Misty Mountains had plenty of wargs and orcs. When needed, he could just capture another batch.
Kael came to the dragon grounds and found the first-born sub-dragon.
This creature was created by crossbreeding Smaug's blood with giant lizards. It had black scales throughout, yellow eyes, bronze-colored horns, and a tail covered in spikes. It looked like a giant winged lizard.
Sub-dragons grew extremely fast. Within a week of birth, they could grow to over three times their original size. They'd reach house-size within a month. By one year old, they could fly with bodies over ten meters long.
Right now, this sub-dragon Kael had named "Number One" had just caught a bull. Its sharp teeth bit the bull's neck for an instant kill.
The other cattle fled in terror.
After catching its prey, Number One didn't eat immediately. It breathed dragon flame onto the bull's corpse until the meat's aroma filled the air before beginning to feast.
Kael watched this sub-dragon with interest and approached.
The sub-dragon was eating. Seeing someone approach, it immediately let out a warning roar, protective over its food.
Kael paid no attention. He hadn't bound these sub-dragons with magical contracts but left them all under Smaug's suppression.
He bred these sub-dragons to use materials from their bodies for various magical needs. Dragon liver for advanced potions. Dragon scales for defensive magical items. Dragon blood for many uses. Dragon hide for protective clothing.
He feared that spending too much time with them would create emotional bonds, making him reluctant to act. So he didn't make magical contracts like with Cerberus and the griffins.
Seeing Kael ignore its warning and continue approaching, Number One considered this provocation. It immediately opened its mouth to breathe fire at him.
"Imperio!" Kael didn't hold back, directly casting the Imperius Curse.
These sub-dragons had strong magical resistance. Inheriting part of dragon Smaug's genes, they were far stronger than fire dragons from the magical world.
Magical world fire dragons required over a dozen adult wizards casting together to defeat one.
Here, ordinary spells like Stunning and Petrification had little effect on sub-dragons.
These sub-dragons' only weakness was relatively weak mental magical resistance. So the Imperius Curse worked best on them.
Hit by the curse, Number One stopped attacking and stood quietly in place.
Kael immediately approached. He took out a sharp needle and a huge syringe made of mithril, then ruthlessly stabbed between scale gaps into flesh and began drawing blood.
After extracting about a bucket of dragon blood, Kael spared this sub-dragon and turned his attention to others.
Next, sub-dragons fell victim to Kael's methods one by one, having buckets of blood extracted without mercy.
Finally, looking at these somewhat anemic sub-dragons, Kael's conscience stirred slightly. He had the orcs send more cattle and sheep to help them replenish blood.
Having collected sufficient dragon blood, Kael left the breeding grounds and returned to Weathertop.
In Hogwarts Castle's alchemy room, Kael had before him Mercury of the Spirit, Sulfur of the Soul, and Salt of the Body. These three prime materials, along with freshly collected dragon blood.
These were all necessary materials for creating the Philosopher's Stone, also known as the Sorcerer's Stone.
Also prepared was a mithril furnace and a double-necked sealed glass flask inscribed with runic symbols to prevent energy leakage.
Creating the Philosopher's Stone required not only the three primes but also four elements: earth, air, water, and fire.
For air, fire, and water elements, Kael could ask Elrond, Galadriel, and Gandalf—the three Elven Ring bearers—for help.
For the earth element, Kael took out another box containing the gleaming Arkenstone.
The Arkenstone, also called the Heart of the Mountain, was earth's essence containing earth elements. It perfectly completed all four elements.
After preparing these materials, Kael also took out an astronomical star chart scroll.
This scroll recording Middle-earth's astronomical phenomena was found when inheriting Saruman's library. It could calculate various future star positions to coordinate with Philosopher's Stone creation.
Creating the Philosopher's Stone was extremely complex. It required not only basic materials but also star alignments, special incantations, and magical circles. The whole process took considerable time.
Nicolas Flamel spent exactly 21 years creating his Philosopher's Stone.
Of course, those 21 years included time Flamel spent collecting data, interpreting the Book of Abraham, and gathering various materials.
Kael's acquired Book of Abraham already contained Flamel's interpretations. This eliminated the need for further research or symbol decoding, saving most preparation time.
He was also fortunate to have wise Elrond's help, directly pointing him toward the Mercury of the Spirit, Sulfur of the Soul, and Salt of the Body locations. Plus the Three Elven Rings could directly gather elements.
He didn't need to laboriously collect the three primes and four elements like Flamel.
After all, when Flamel collected the three primes, he lacked magical places like Grey Havens' Lune Bay, Paths of the Dead, or Hildórien, where Mercury of the Spirit, Sulfur of the Soul, and Salt of the Body could be directly gathered.
In the Book of Abraham, Kael saw Flamel's recorded collection methods. Flamel lived during Europe's Black Death plague when nearly every household was empty. He spent seven years among Muggles, using special methods to collect mental power, soul force, and life force from hundreds of thousands of plague victims. Extracting Mercury of the Spirit, Sulfur of the Soul, and Salt of the Body through a repetitive, time-consuming process that made Kael gasp.
Therefore, Flamel's Philosopher's Stone emerged during the specific Black Death period and wasn't reproducible.
This was why, in magical history, only Flamel successfully created a Philosopher's Stone. Even he himself couldn't realistically make another.
The conditions were too harsh. One couldn't wait for another Black Death.
Though Kael fortunately avoided most pre-creation time, the actual creation process remained long and complex. Any mistake meant complete failure.
Then all the painstakingly collected Mercury of the Spirit, Sulfur of the Soul, and Salt of the Body would be wasted. All previous efforts for nothing.
So Kael carefully calculated the next year's star positions, considering weather factors too.
Otherwise, when creating the Philosopher's Stone required stellar power assistance, encountering cloudy, rainy, or foggy weather preventing star observation would be devastating.
To ensure no errors, Kael even visited Rivendell and Lothlórien. He used Elrond's wisdom and knowledge to confirm his star position calculations and Galadriel's mirror to foresee future weather.
After thorough preparation, Kael officially began creating the Philosopher's Stone.
He sealed Mercury of the Spirit, Sulfur of the Soul, and Salt of the Body in 1:1:1 ratio in the flask, placed in the mithril furnace.
Silver Mercury of the Spirit, yellow Sulfur of the Soul, and white Salt of the Body mixed in the double-necked flask. Three became one, forming a "trinity," flashing three-colored light in the flask as they mysteriously reacted.
Kael used dragon blood as fuel, creating blood-red blazing flames to burn the flask's three primes, accelerating their reaction.
Dragon blood fuel needed continuous burning for exactly forty-nine days without any interruption.
Fortunately, Kael had prepared over a dozen buckets of dragon blood, or it wouldn't have been enough.
According to Flamel's notes in the Book of Abraham, Flamel had personally hunted an adult fire dragon in Romania, collecting an entire dragon's fresh blood to supply the initial burning reaction for Philosopher's Stone creation.
As days passed, Kael remained by the furnace. He regularly added dragon blood fuel while maintaining proper flame intensity. Not too strong, not too weak.
When hungry, he ate fruit from the Hildórien valley. When thirsty, he drank from the golden cup.
Simultaneously, he meditated continuously, using mental power to sense changes in the flask's substances. As the flask's contents gradually reacted daily, Kael's spirit also underwent changes.
In Kael's mental perception, the flask seemed like a miniature cosmic evolution. Mercury of the Spirit, Sulfur of the Soul, and Salt of the Body were merging, gradually becoming one to form a complete triangular cycle containing spirit, soul, and matter.
During this process, Kael watched like an alchemist witnessing the fundamental forces of creation at work.
His mental power unconsciously grew at tremendous speed.
The mental castle constructed in his mind became increasingly large and solid, evolving toward a complete Hogwarts castle.
Finally, after twenty-one days passed, the three primes in the flask completely merged into a black viscous substance. The bottle emitted putrid odors as matter completely carbonized and released black smoke. It appeared to have failed.
But Kael didn't panic.
The Book of Abraham recorded this phenomenon, called the "Raven's Head" stage, also known as the blackening phase.
The flask's substance reaching this state meant Kael's first step in creating the Philosopher's Stone had succeeded.
The next second stage was the "White Rose" phase, also called the whitening stage. It required purification and sublimation of the flask's substance to obtain the "Primary White Stone."