"Looking for me to collaborate?"
Richard was somewhat puzzled by Iyad's words.
Iyad, a White Wizard, specialized in legion warfare; how could he collaborate with a Black Wizard like him?
"Ah! Yes, it's collaboration."
Iyad sighed and began to explain the reasons to Richard.
After years of war, the number of White Wizards had drastically decreased, now down to half of what it was before the war. The remaining White Wizards were reorganized by the command center into several complete combat units, while the surplus White Wizards were temporarily assigned to the Black Wizard unit.
"Temporarily assigned to the Black Wizards?" Richard exclaimed, "Is that even allowed? The differences between Black Wizards and White Wizards are not trivial."
"Exactly," Iyad complained, "But that's the command center's order. In this reorganization, the few guys from my team were assigned to the White Wizard Legion, while I, as the captain, was assigned to the Black Wizards. Can you believe it?"
Richard was speechless. After a moment of silence, he smiled and comforted him, "Maybe it's because your individual strength is so formidable that the command center thinks it would be a waste to put you in the White Wizard Legion, so they assigned you to the Black Wizards instead."
The difference between Black and White Wizards was most pronounced at the first ring, but as a Wizard's strength and age increased, the gap between the two would gradually diminish.
Even White Wizards pursued individual strength.
"Ah, maybe."
Iyad's tone was filled with helplessness; he was just a second-ring Wizard, with no room to resist the command center's orders.
He self-deprecatingly said, "I used to envy you Black Wizards for your high income, and now that I've become a Black Wizard, I guess I got what I wished for."
Before long, the meat steak arrived.
The brown steak, the size of a basin, was slightly charred, and the rich aroma of meat combined with spices made one's mouth water.
Cutting it open, the inside of the steak remained tender and juicy.
Richard took a bite, and in an instant, a surge of fire elements was released from the steak, violently impacting Richard's mouth and tongue, a wonderful sensation flooding into his brain.
Spicy! So spicy!
Richard chewed on the steak, flames seeping from between his teeth. Soon, he swallowed the chewed meat and let out a sigh.
"Ah!"
A burst of flame escaped from his mouth.
Richard exclaimed in delight, "This is really enjoyable!"
Across from him, Iyad's face turned red, sweat pouring down. Hearing Richard's praise, he gasped for air and gave a thumbs up.
"Wow... it really is good... wow."
He called for the owl and ordered the recommended chilled wine from the restaurant, and when the wine arrived, he opened the bottle and drank deeply.
The taste of the steak was indeed stimulating.
Seeing Iyad's flustered state, Richard laughed heartily and then cut another piece of steak to eat.
Wow... it really is enjoyable.
After the meal, both sides were thoroughly satisfied. Of course, the price was quite steep; each steak cost five Magic Essence.
After finishing their meal, they finalized the details of their collaboration.
Since it was Iyad's first time as a Black Wizard, he needed to follow Richard's arrangements during their actions. As for the spoils, they would split it 60-40, with Richard getting 60 and Iyad 40.
In fact, Richard had proposed a 50-50 split for the spoils.
But Iyad insisted on taking that extra 10% as Richard's reward for bringing him along, and Richard had no choice but to accept.
He couldn't help but wonder how Iyad would feel if he knew that this Richard master he was dealing with was a rookie Wizard who had just fought in a planar war.
After parting ways with Iyad, Richard found a house and prepared to look over the Wizard notes he had acquired.
This city was originally a Fire Lizard city.
After the war began, the wealthy in the city either fled to other empires or escaped to Luxor, while the remaining small citizens were taken by Wizards to mine.
Thus, the city became a ghost town, later used by Wizards as a gathering point.
Finding an empty house, Richard took out the few notebooks.
The first page of these notebooks bore a name: Victor Luce, presumably the name of the owner of the Magic Pocket.
Richard flipped through the notebooks and found that although most of the content was written in Wizard Language, one of them contained a significant portion written in cipher.
Seeing the cipher, Richard couldn't help but smile.
Wizards wouldn't waste time writing notes in cipher unless necessary, especially when the majority of a notebook was written in Wizard Language.
Richard tore out the cipher notes, and soon, the Miracle Furnace transmitted information.
[Material: Victor Luce's cipher notes]
[Extractable Information: Experimental Dragonization Magic Potion formula]
[Extraction Cost: 2 Mental Power]
"Dragonization Magic Potion?"
Richard looked at the information from the Miracle Furnace, somewhat confused. The connection between Dragonization and Magic Potion left him scratching his head.
Dragonization was a domineering and irreversible bloodline transformation that required nothing but a drop of dragon blood.
Richard chose to extract.
Soon, a ball of white light appeared above the Miracle Furnace, and after merging, the information about the Dragonization Magic Potion instantly entered Richard's mind.
"Huh? This Wizard actually found a substance that suppresses Dragon Blood expression in Fire Lizards!"
Richard exclaimed in surprise upon obtaining the Magic Potion formula. The effect of the Dragonization potion was simple: by consuming the Magic Potion, a Wizard could temporarily undergo Dragonization, gaining the speed and strength of Dragonblood, as well as some abilities of Dragonization organs.
The duration of the Magic Potion was three minutes; after that, it would lose its effect, and the Wizard would return to their original state, entering a state of weakness. Moreover, Wizards with a constitution below one hundred could not use it again within a month, and those with a constitution of one hundred could not use it again within three days.
The most crucial aspect of this Magic Potion's effect was that it allowed a return to the original state.
The most terrifying thing about Dragonization was its irreversibility, yet this potion could reverse Dragonization.
This contradicted the common understanding of Dragon Blood among most Wizards. Immediately after obtaining the formula, Richard took the notebooks in hand and began to study them carefully. The more he read, the more he admired the wisdom of the Wizard named Victor Luce.
Richard had no idea how powerful Victor Luce was, but from his notes, it was clear that he was a master well-versed in the synthesis of beasts and Magic Potions. Some of his experiments on Fire Lizards, though somewhat inhumane, yielded outstanding results.
He discovered a special substance in the cells of a gland within the Fire Lizard. This substance could suppress the expression of Dragon Blood and even induce apoptosis in cells expressing Dragon Blood.
After removing the gland, an ordinary Fire Lizard quickly exhibited Dragonization characteristics. However, after showing these characteristics, the Fire Lizard soon experienced cellular collapse.
This situation was not limited to ordinary Fire Lizards; Fire Lizard warriors and Dragon Guard Warriors also exhibited the same phenomenon.
Moreover, intriguingly, the stronger the Fire Lizard, the more powerful this gland became, and the more of this substance that suppressed Dragon Blood expression was present in their bodies. This was in stark contrast to the phenomenon where stronger Fire Lizards had more awakened Dragon Blood.
One couldn't help but marvel at the wonders of biology.
After reading Victor Luce's research notes, Richard was filled with admiration.
He was a master with a profound knowledge base and a very active mind. If he could survive this planar war, he might become a Great Wizard in the future.
But unfortunately, he was dead.
Even the crystallization of his knowledge, his notes, had fallen into the hands of the Fire Lizards.
If Richard hadn't found this Magic Pocket among his pile of junk, no one would have known about his research, and it wouldn't have made a shred of difference in the Wizarding world.
"Ah, the unpredictability of life."
Richard put away the notebooks. He didn't have the materials needed for the Dragonization Magic Potion, and the testing of the Magic Potion could only wait until the portal opened. However, from these notes, it seemed that the effects of the Dragonization Magic Potion would likely be fine; at most, it would require a few more experiments regarding the usage restrictions.
For this, Richard's avatar was just right for testing.
After securing the notebooks, Richard opened the rift to the Secret Realm and entered.
Inside the Secret Realm, Ulysses was still asleep, but during his slumber, Richard could clearly feel the energy fluctuations within him significantly increasing, and his life radiation was also notably improving.
Ulysses' strength was gradually increasing as his soul injuries healed. Even without Richard's help, Ulysses would regain the strength of a World Master in a few thousand years.
In the Secret Realm, a few armored hounds were playing with the Holy Tree Sprite.
These armored hounds were the synthetic beasts provided by Floating City to all Wizards participating in the bandit extermination mission. Of course, Richard had replaced the armor plates; the original synthetic beasts did not have metal armor but only some bone plates connected to their muscles.
Over the years, Richard had refined many dragon alchemical products through the Nine Star Chamber of Commerce. These alchemical products included armor, curved blades, some made by contemporary artisans, and others left over from ancient times. In short, none of these items were ordinary.
By refining these items, Richard's Dragon Alchemy had greatly improved.
His current proficiency in Dragon Alchemy could even rival that of an Alchemy master capable of slaying Fire Lizards.
After all, those alchemical products were the works of masters from the Fire Lizard clan, incorporating the skills of so many masters; even if Richard were a pig, Dragon Alchemy would have become instinctual.
The armored hounds were connected by several mycelium strands. The life span of synthetic beasts was very short, and Richard was too lazy to remake them, so he asked the World Mushroom to use the mycelium to supply life energy to these armored hounds, extending their lifespans as much as possible.
Richard walked over to the World Mushroom, and the mycelium on the stalk contracted, revealing a passage. Following the passage, Richard arrived at a window of a room filled with blue fluorescence. Inside the room, a ball of blue flame was continuously burning, and on the walls of the room, an avatar of Richard was constantly disintegrating and regenerating under the radiation of the flame.
"Still no resistance?" Richard said, somewhat disappointed, looking at the avatar.
After Ulysses used the blue flame obtained from the sea of lava, he suggested that Richard use a first-level avatar to endure the radiation of the blue flame.
He said this blue flame possessed a peculiar property; it naturally restrained flesh-and-blood creatures, but had minimal effect on Elemental Creatures, undead beings, and mechanical beings that lacked flesh. Moreover, the higher the constitution of a creature, the greater its resistance to the flame's radiation.
Ulysses speculated that if a creature could develop resistance to this flame's radiation, its constitution would likely improve.
This was the origin of the experiment.
But now, decades had passed, and there had been no progress in the experiment.
"World Mushroom, adjust the radiation level again, make it a bit lower."
"Yes, Master."
(End of Chapter)