NABC Page 12
Page 12
"Sigh... money..." Isaac sighed, shook his head, and continued studying the Flesh Nest.
His innate magical talent only allows him to perform magic conveniently and quickly, but it doesn't allow him to fully understand the principles of magic. Further research is needed to develop his understanding of it.
Knowledge is the source of all a wizard's power!
……
As dawn broke, a ray of sunlight dispelled the darkness in the laboratory, and Isaac gradually snapped out of his magical research.
However, Isaac's pupils suddenly contracted as he raised his head!
On his desk sat an unfamiliar magic book!
The cover of the magic book reads "The Mad Witch Society"!
Isaac frowned as he looked at the spellbook on his desk. He hadn't slept a wink all night, and although he had been focused on his magical research, he shouldn't have been completely unaware of the extra spellbook.
After much hesitation, Isaac slowly reached for the "Mad Witches' Guild." Although the book's arrival was strange, it shouldn't have any malicious intent towards him. Otherwise, the person behind it could have placed it on the desk silently, and killed Isaac just as quietly...
Although he might become someone else's pawn, he has no choice right now. If it's really a scheme, then rather than passively entering the game, he might as well take the initiative!
Chapter 19 The Hidden Dangers of the Goblin Nest
【…】
The moment Isaac's hand touched the spellbook, a stream of information flashed through his mind, and he knew what "The Mad Witches' Guild" on the spellbook's cover meant...
The Mad Wizards' Guild is a loosely organized wizarding society, or more precisely, a wizarding gathering.
Only wizards who have successfully made a deal with beings from beyond the realm can join!
Whether it's seizing dimensional fragments of the Demon God like Isaac, acquiring magical knowledge through normal trade, or even certain powers, as long as the trade is successful and the individual is still alive and can maintain their independence, they can join the Mad Witch Society.
In other words, this is a gathering of wizards made up of madmen!
Of course, he's also a genius.
The reason why the Mad Wizards' Society is considered a wizarding gathering rather than a wizarding organization is primarily because it lacks mandatory rules; it merely provides a platform for mad wizards like Isaac to communicate.
The Mad Wizards Association holds a small exchange meeting once a month and a large exchange meeting once a year. The small exchange meeting is attended by wizards of the same rank to exchange magic, brainstorm ideas, and also conduct some transactions, whether it is magical knowledge or magical materials.
The large-scale exchange meeting involves all mad witches, regardless of strength, and is extremely large in scale!
Besides large and small gatherings, the mad witches can also communicate in real time through magic books, just like the chat groups in their previous lives. The difference is that this chat group has level restrictions; they can only join groups of their own level.
Aside from that, would the Mad Witch provide anything else to its members, whether it be magical knowledge or magical materials?
That is to say...
"Pure welfare?"
Isaac blinked. This seemed like... a good thing?
After thinking for a moment, Isaac took the spellbook and slowly opened it. No matter what, even if it was a trap, he had no way to resist it now, so he might as well accept it and silently accumulate power.
Even if it is a trap, it can be broken by force!
The magic book looks thick, but it actually only has three pages. One page is a chat box, which is completely blank. The latest message is the one he joined. It's unclear whether the history messages are not visible or if it's just naturally quiet.
The other two pages contain a list and a magic circle.
The list consisted entirely of formal wizards. He glanced at it and saw there were about thirty or forty people in total. It seemed there were more madmen in the world than he had imagined.
The magic circle is a teleportation spell. On the first of each month, one can use this magic circle to teleport to a dimension to participate in an exchange meeting. At other times, one can also use this magic circle to create projections in dimensions for daily communication.
"Names?" Sensing the information emanating from this page of the list, Isaac glanced at the names of the other people, thought for a moment, then abandoned his idea of making a fool of himself and chose a more formal name—Solomon!
This name also represents his small ambition: sooner or later, he wants to become a magician who rules over demons, just like Solomon in the myths and legends of his previous life!
After Isaac carved his name, the purple aura on the spellbook flickered briefly before fading away.
With a week to go before Number One, Isaac only glanced at the spellbook before putting it away. He didn't want to communicate with anyone for the time being; he wanted to peek at the screen and see how things went first.
"Ugh~~~"
Isaac put away the spellbook, stretched lazily, and got up to leave the laboratory.
Eat breakfast first.
"Young Master Isaac, all the goblin lairs in the vicinity have been located. This is the intelligence we've gathered over the past few days." Outside the door, Smith had been waiting for a long time. As soon as Isaac came out, he immediately reported the news and handed Isaac several sheets of paper.
Isaac nodded, glancing at the documents in his hand as he walked toward the restaurant, his brow furrowing slightly.
This is the information about the goblin lair that he had Smith collect. Isaac didn't think he was the only one who thought of using the goblin lair as a resource point for continuously producing demonized flesh.
But he had never heard of anything like it before, so he had guessed that there must be some hidden dangers involved. However, he did need a lot of demonized flesh and blood, so he had been cultivating the goblin nest.
Smith's investigation confirmed his suspicions: goblin lairs did indeed continuously breed goblins, much like monsters spawn in a game.
But even magic must follow the law of conservation of energy!
The magic that nurtures goblins in goblin lairs has three sources. Two of them are local materials: air and earth. The last one is somewhat mysterious and is generally believed to be the dimensional world possessed by the legendary wizard who created the goblins.
The problem lies in these three sources!
Leaving aside the first two, the excessive proliferation of goblins will inevitably lead to a decrease in the concentration of magic in the air in the surrounding area, and the nutrients in the earth will be rapidly lost. Over time, it will definitely turn into a desert!
The third source of magic is also not simple. Although it is unknown what it is linked to, if one draws magic from there for a long time, it will cause some evil monsters to appear!
It is far more powerful than a goblin!
"Tsk~ As expected, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Let's stop harvesting goblins here. Don't leave a single goblin nest, but bring back their corpses anyway."
“Understood, Master Isaac.” Smith nodded slightly, then took out a letter from his pocket and handed it to Isaac. “Young Master, this is a letter from the eldest young master. Along with the letter are a thousand gold coins, a witchcraft manuscript, and a magic book belonging to the eldest young lady.”
"They know I've become a wizard?" Isaac raised an eyebrow, took the letter, and asked casually.
“Yes, the Shadow Guards must have seen us when we were clearing out the goblins,” Smith nodded.
This is, after all, the heartland of Solomon's territory. If not 100%, we have at least 80% control over it. Their actions are impossible to hide, and Isaac and his men never intended to conceal them.
Isaac smiled, opened the letter and began to read it. He frowned slightly and stopped. "Uncle Smith, are you familiar with the Black Orcs?"
"Black Orcs? Yes, judging by the time, the Black Orcs are coming soon." Upon hearing this, Smith frowned and said to Isaac, "I understand. The Black Orcs are a race from the Dark Lands. They do not engage in production but live by hunting. Therefore, in the autumn and winter seasons, they will gather in large numbers to invade our territory and plunder our food. Young Master wants you to go back and avoid them?"
"Well, my brother means I should go to the fortress for a while. Starting next month, the interior won't be a completely safe place either. But since I'm going there, I can't just do nothing."
"Understood, I will compile the information on the Black Orcs for you as soon as possible." Smith bowed slightly, looking at Isaac with a hint of satisfaction in his eyes.
Chapter 20 Witch Tea Party
Breakfast was the same old three things: bread, milk, and eggs. There was nothing else to eat, so after quickly finishing breakfast, Isaac didn't rush to study magic. Instead, he took the thousand gold coins his older brother had given him and headed back to the town in the lake.
Magical research can wait; now that we have the money, let's get the ascension ceremony sorted out first.
Legend has it that after each ascension ceremony, a wizard experiences a period of heightened magical power, and only after this period ends can another ascension ceremony be held.
Therefore, theoretically speaking, as long as there are enough resources, there are no bottlenecks for legendary wizards!
The only limitations on legendary wizards are their active magical periods and the resources available for advancement.
The period of high mana activity can be shortened through magical research, experimentation, and combat.
So although using a special promotion ceremony to advance will grant special effects, or even new talent spells, such ceremonies are quite precious. He had already searched for them beforehand, but they weren't sold in the town and were extremely rare.
Conventional promotion ceremonies are generally divided into three categories: elemental, starry sky, and mystery.
Different ascension rituals have bonus effects on different spells. For example, the fire elemental ascension ritual draws on the power of the fire elemental lords of the elemental planes, and fire spells will receive a slight bonus after ascension.
Don't be fooled by the seemingly small bonus from a single rite of passage. Keep in mind that there are three advancement rituals for the rank of Formal Wizard. If you choose the same type of advancement ritual for all of them, the final bonus will be quite substantial.
Of the three types of rituals, the elemental type is more output-oriented because most elemental spells are offensive spells, while the star type is more versatile because it increases basic stats such as maximum mana, mana regeneration speed, and mental strength. There's not much to say about these two.
The more profound category is the mysterious category. This category is more like other categories than mysterious, with various enhancement directions. However, the most mainstream ones are prophecy and incantation, so they are all classified as mysterious.
It is worth mentioning that although the three rituals have different focuses, they are essentially similar. They all borrow the power of higher-ranking beings through rituals to elevate the wizard's life essence and thus complete the ascension.
The biggest difference between this and the demon ritual that Isaac just finished is safety!
All advancement rituals categorized into these three types communicate with beings of lawful good. They will grant power in strict accordance with the requirements of the ritual and will never take more than necessary, which is completely different from the greedy demon gods.
Of course, there are gains and losses. They won't take more, and they certainly won't give more. They won't even leave you a chance to snatch.
Fortunately, Isaac didn't have any particular thoughts about this; there were so many evil Outer Gods, one less wouldn't make a difference.
Isaac had already decided which ritual to use for his ascension. So when he arrived in town, he went straight to the shop that sold magical knowledge. After spending eight hundred gold coins and signing a confidentiality agreement, he successfully obtained the knowledge of the Ascension Ritual: The Witch's Tea Party and the necessary materials.
However, Isaac did not rush back, but continued his shopping.
After all, the Witch's Tea Party is one of the few rituals with both starry sky and mysterious attributes, so its success rate is relatively low, only 10%. Therefore, he still needs to make some purchases. Although this kind of ritual is relatively safe, it is best to raise the success rate to 200% to be on the safe side.
……
After returning from the lakeside town, Esca told Smith and then went back to the basement to begin preparing for the Ascension Ceremony: The Witch's Tea Party.
As a minor advancement ceremony, the materials for the Witch's Tea Party are not difficult to collect; they can all be purchased in the lakeside town.
A set of black tea utensils that have been refined over a century, fifty milliliters of witch's saliva, one kilogram of refined black tea, 190 pieces of witch's personal clothing, and a bottle of magic ink.
The materials are rather strange, but they are still considered normal in a magical ritual. Although the 190 pieces of witch's undergarments look rather abstract, they were added by Isaac himself. The original ritual only required one piece.
Fortunately, the magic supplies shop in the lakeside town is a long-established and reputable brand; otherwise, it would have been impossible to acquire so many witch's undergarments in such a short time...
Although the process was rather embarrassing, everything went smoothly. All the materials were collected, and there were no difficulties in setting it up. With a 200% success rate, wouldn't that be a piece of cake?
Two hours later, Isaac finished setting up the ritual. Normally, an hour would have been enough, but the cost was too high. The 800 gold coins for ritual knowledge and basic materials, plus the 200-plus gold coins for the witch's clothes, totaled more than a thousand gold coins!
He's invested his entire fortune, so he can't afford to be careless!
"Hi~hoo~"
After taking a deep breath, Isaac's slightly agitated heart calmed down completely. He took off his wizard's hat, put it on his chest, and then bowed his head to chant incantations. A faint magical power resonated out at a special frequency.
Magic swept across the magic circle, and wisps of white mist drifted out from it.
The magic swept over a pile of witches' undergarments, and a huge amount of white mist erupted from them!
It instantly enveloped the entire basement!
"Young man, you... are being rather rude."
Hearing the alluring voice coming from the mist, Isaac slowly opened his eyes, put the wizard's hat on his head, and smiled slightly. No mistake, it worked!
That sound was definitely ominous!