Wizard: I Can Refine Everything

Chapter 258: Chapter 42: The Fall of the Linksa Empire (3)

“Work with me?”

Richard was somewhat puzzled by Iyad’s words.

A White Wizard like Iyad was accustomed to military operations; how could he collaborate with a Black Wizard like himself?

“Sigh! Yes, collaboration.”

With a sigh, Iyad began to explain the reason to Richard.

After years of war, the number of White Wizards had drastically decreased to half of what it was before the war. The remaining White Wizards had been reorganized by headquarters into several complete combat sequences, and the excess White Wizards had been temporarily reassigned to the Black Wizard sequence.

“Temporarily reassigned to the Black Wizard?” Richard exclaimed in astonishment, “Is that even possible? The difference between Black Wizards and White Wizards isn’t minor.”

“It sure isn’t,” Iyad complained, “But that’s the order from headquarters. In this reorganization, the kids from my team were drafted into the White Wizard Army, and ironically, I, the captain, was reassigned to the Black Wizards. Annoying, isn’t it?”

Richard was speechless and, after a moment of silence, he comforted Iyad with a smile, “Maybe it’s because you, big brother, have such formidable individual strength that the headquarters thought it would be a waste to put you in the White Wizard Army, so they assigned you to the Black Wizards instead.”

The difference between Black and White Wizards was greatest at the One Ring level, but as a Wizard’s strength and age increased, the difference between the two would continually diminish.

Even White Wizards sought to improve their personal strength.

“Sigh, perhaps.”

Iyad’s voice was filled with helplessness, being just a Second Ring Wizard meant he didn’t have the slightest room to resist the orders from headquarters.

He said with some self-deprecation, “I used to envy the high income of you Black Wizards when I was in the army, and now that I’ve become a Black Wizard, it’s like I’ve got what I wished for.”

In no time, the steak was served.

The brown steak the size of a washbasin was slightly charred and the rich aroma of the meat combined with the scent of spices was mouthwatering.

With a slice, the inside of the steak remained succulent and juicy.

Richard took a bite of the steak, and instantly, Fire Element burst forth, powerfully striking his mouth and tongue, and a strange sensation surged into Richard’s brain along his nerves.

Spicy! So spicy!

Richard kept chewing on the steak, streaks of flames seeping through the gaps in his teeth. Soon, he swallowed the chewed-up mince and let out a breath.

“Whew!”

A burst of flame exhaled from his mouth.

Richard said with some delight, “This thing is truly a delight to eat!”

Across from him, Iyad’s face was beet red, and he was sweating profusely. Hearing Richard’s praise, he took in cool breaths and also gave a thumbs-up.

“Sss… indeed not bad… Sss.”

Iyad called for the owl-recommended chilled wine to accompany the meal. As soon as the wine arrived, he opened the bottle and drank deeply.

The steak was indeed a tantalizing concoction.

Seeing Iyad in such a sorry state, Richard burst into hearty laughter, then cut another piece of steak and placed it into his mouth.

Sss… truly enjoyable.

The meal was immensely satisfying for both. Of course, the price was also quite steep, with each piece of steak worth five Magic Essences.

After the meal, they hammered out the details of their cooperation.

Since it was Iyad’s first time acting as a Black Wizard, he would need to follow Richard’s arrangements during their mission. As for the spoils, they agreed on a split of sixty-forty, with Richard getting sixty percent and Iyad forty.

In truth, Richard had proposed an even split of the spoils.

However, Iyad insisted on giving the extra ten percent as compensation for Richard’s guidance, leaving Richard no choice but to accept.

Little did Iyad know that the Master Richard opposite him was a novice Wizard who had just fought a Plane War. One could only wonder what Iyad would think if he knew.

After parting with Iyad, Richard found a house to check the Wizard’s notes he had captured.

This city used to be the Fire Lizards’.

After the war started, the wealthy either fled to other empires or to Luxor, and the remaining commoners were taken by the Wizards to work in mines.

Thus, the city had become abandoned, later used by Wizards as a gathering point.

Richard found an empty house and took out a few of the notes.

Each note began with a name on the first page, “Victor Ruse,” presumably the owner of the Magic Pocket.

Richard briefly flipped through the notes, finding that although most of them were written in Wizard Language, one had many parts written in encrypted script.

Seeing those encrypted notes, Richard couldn’t help but smile.

Wizards wouldn’t bother writing in code for no reason, especially not when the majority of a book was written in Wizard Language.

Richard tore out the pages with the encrypted notes, and soon, the Mysterious Technique Furnace transmitted information.

“Ingredient: Victor Ruse’s Encrypted Notes”

[Extractable Information: Trial Version Dragonification Potion Formula]

[Extraction Cost: 2 Spiritual Power]

“Dragonification Potion?”

Richard looked at the message coming from the Miracle Furnace, somewhat puzzled. The connection between “dragonification” and “potion” was baffling to him.

Dragonification was a domineering and irreversible Bloodline change, one that required no other substances but a single drop of a dragon’s fresh blood.

Richard chose to extract.

Soon, a sphere of white light appeared above the Miracle Furnace, and after merging, the information about the Dragonification Potion instantly flowed into Richard’s mind.

“Hm? This Wizard actually found a substance in Fire Lizards that suppresses the expression of Dragon Blood!”

The moment he obtained the potion formula, Richard exclaimed in astonishment. The effect of the Dragonification Potion was simple: by consuming it, a Wizard could temporarily undergo dragonification, gaining the speed and strength of the Dragon Blood Species and the abilities of certain dragonified organs.

The potion’s effect lasted for three minutes, after which it would lose its effectiveness, the Wizard would return to his original state, and become weakened. Furthermore, Wizards with a Physique below one hundred could not consume it again within a month, and those with a Physique reaching one hundred could not do so within three days.

In the effect of this potion, the most crucial part was the return to the original state.

The most terrifying aspect of dragonification was its irreversibility, yet this potion could reverse it.

This was against the mainstream understanding among most Wizards about Dragon Blood.

Richard immediately picked up those several notebooks and began to read them carefully. The more he read, the more he marveled at the wisdom of a Wizard named Victor Ruse.

Whether Victor Ruse was powerful, Richard did not know. However, from his notes, it was evident that this must have been a Master skilled in the creation of Synthetic Beasts and knowledgeable about Magic Potion.

Some experiments on Fire Lizards, while somewhat inhumane, had impressive results.

In the cells of a gland within a Fire Lizard’s body, he discovered a special substance. This substance could suppress the expression of Dragon Blood, and even induce apoptosis in cells expressing the Dragon Blood.

After the gland was removed, a common Fire Lizard quickly started to show dragonification traits. But following the emergence of these traits, the Fire Lizards quickly began to suffer cellular collapse.

This situation was not just limited to ordinary Fire Lizards; Fire Lizard Warriors and Imperial Guard Dragon Warriors also demonstrated this condition.

Moreover, intriguingly, the more powerful the Fire Lizard, the stronger their gland and the more of this substance that suppressed Dragon Blood expression could be found in their bodies. This was in stark contrast to the phenomenon of Fire Lizards growing stronger with more awakened Dragon Blood within.

This forced one to marvel at the marvels of biology.

After reviewing Victor Ruse’s research notes, Richard was filled with admiration.

This was a Master with profound knowledge at his foundation, yet with remarkably agile thoughts. Had he survived the Plane War, he might have become a Great Wizard.

Unfortunately, he was dead.

His crystallized notes of knowledge had fallen into the hands of Fire Lizards.

If it weren’t for Richard finding this Magic Pocket in that pile of rubbish, not a single person would know of his research, nor would it have influenced the Wizard World in the slightest.

“Alas, the world is so unpredictable,” Richard sighed.

He collected the notebooks. He didn’t have the materials needed for the Dragonification Potion at hand, and could only test the potion after the Teleportation Gate was activated. However, judging from these notes, the effect of the Dragonification Potion was likely to be without issue, except perhaps that the prohibitions when taking it would require several more experiments.

As for this, one of Richard’s clones was just perfect for testing.

Having packed away the notes, Richard then opened the Secret Realm Rift and entered the Secret Realm.

Inside the Secret Realm, Ulysses was still slumbering, but throughout his sleep, Richard could clearly sense the energy fluctuations within him growing stronger, as was the Life Radiation he emitted.

Ulysses’ power was gradually increasing as his Soul’s injuries healed. Even without Richard’s help, in a few thousand years, Ulysses could return to his World Master status.

In the Secret Realm, several Armored Hunting Dogs were playing with Holy Tree Elves.

These Armored Hunting Dogs were Synthetic Beasts given by the Floating City to all Wizards participating in the bandit eradication mission, of course, the Armored Plates were replacements by Richard—the original Synthetic Beasts did not have metal Armored Plates, only bone plates connected to the muscles.

Over the years, via the Nine Star Chamber of Commerce, Richard had refined many Giant Dragon Alchemy Products. These Alchemy Products included Armor, Scimitars, and items both contemporary and ancient relics. In any case, none of these items was ordinary.

By refining these objects, Richard’s Giant Dragon Alchemy skills had greatly improved.

His current proficiency in Giant Dragon Alchemy was even enough to outclass a master in Fire Lizard Alchemy.

After all, these Alchemy Products were the works of the masters from the Fire Lizard Clan. Merging the skills of so many masters, even if Richard were a pig, Giant Dragon Alchemy would have become an instinct.

The Armored Hunting Dogs had several mycelium filaments connected to them. Synthetic Beasts had a very short lifespan and Richard, not wishing to make new ones, requested the World Mushroom to use its mycelium to transmit Life Energy to these Armored Hunting Dogs, extending their lifespan as much as possible.

Richard approached the World Mushroom and the mycelium on the mushroom stem contracted, revealing a passage. Along the passage, Richard came to a window of a room filled with blue luminescence. Inside the room, a blue flame burned continuously, and against the radiation of the flame, a clone of Richard was constantly disintegrating and regenerating against the wall.

“Still no resistance?” Richard said, looking at his clone with some disappointment.

After utilizing the blue flame obtained from the Molten Sea, Ulysses had made a suggestion to Richard to expose a First Level clone to the radiation of the blue flame.

He claimed this blue flame possessed a peculiar property; it inherently countered flesh and blood creatures, but its effect on elemental, undead, and mechanical beings, those without flesh and blood, was minimal. Moreover, the higher the Physique of a creature, the stronger its resistance to the flame’s radiation.

Thus, Ulysses hypothesized that if a creature could develop resistance to the radiation from this flame, then its Physique should undergo enhancement.

This was the origin of the experiment.

But decades had passed and there had been no progress in the experiment.

“World Mushroom, adjust the radiation level again, make it a little lesser.”

“As you command, Master.”