Chapter 216: Chapter 46 Preparing for the Expedition

“Luck?”

Richard looked at the magic wand, somewhat baffled.

“You mean luck? Let me not even mention whether luck exists or not, but you equip this magic wand with luck, and you expect me to pick up money with it when I’m holding it?”

Ulysses shook his head:

“Ga, your thoughts are too simplistic. Let me ask you, have you ever encountered a situation where the power of your spells fluctuated unexpectedly during casting?”

“Yes,” Richard nodded, “but that’s due to an imbalance of elements, which has nothing to do with luck.”

“Ga, wrong, totally wrong. That is an expression of luck.” Ulysses said somewhat smugly, “You wizards call the distribution of elements within a space a chaos system, where a little variable can cause big changes.

I’m not wrong, am I?”

Richard nodded, “That’s correct, but you’re not going to tell me that the Gods Civilization has conquered the chaos system and found the formula, are you?”

“Ga, formula? That’s of course impossible.” Ulysses shook his head, “But we have taken notice of this situation and have explored it.

We added a variable to the chaos system, which is ‘luck’. Luck can influence the chaos system, making the outcome of the system more favorable to oneself.

On this basis, using the power of faith and certain miracle powers, we successfully created a ‘Luck Blessing.’

Once blessed, when you’re involved with the chaos system, the output of the results will tend to be on the side that’s more favorable to you.”

It must be said, Ulysses’ explanation had given Richard a great shock.

After all, the Gods Civilization is a civilization; it is not simply a coalition of a few native powerhouses but a community of interests formed by a group of powerhouses who mastered the same power system.

During Ulysses’ explanation, Richard keenly picked up on a word.

“Miracle power? What’s that?” Richard asked.

“Ga, miracle power is the most magical force in the Star Realm, which is not bound by rules and can create many phenomena that defy common sense. Based on our research, miracle power should be a remnant left by some lifeforms that reached the Ninth Level and transcended the Star Realm.”

“Ninth Level life!?”

Richard was shocked. According to the classification of lifeforms by wizards, Eighth Level life is the highest apex, with Ninth Level life only theoretically existent.

The terror of such life cannot be described in words. According to the theory, one of the most ordinary characteristics they possess is absolute eternity.

That is, the passage of time will have no effect on them, regardless of whether a thousand years pass or ten thousand years. Even if time were so long that the world collapses and the stars extinguish, they would not undergo the slightest change.

Richard gasped in shock: “You can actually utilize the power left by Ninth Level life!”

Ulysses flapped his wings: “Ga, don’t be so surprised, you can use it too. Your curses are essentially borrowing from miracle power. The higher-ups in your midst would surely have realized this, but since you’re not a Curse Wizard and your status isn’t high enough, you’re not aware of it, that’s all.”

“…Maybe.”

Richard fell silent for a moment, finally sighing.

The Wizard World holds too many secrets, and he was just a few hundred years old Second Ring Wizard; the things he could access were still too few.

“So, this magic wand can make my spells more powerful?”

Ulysses nodded: “Ga, that’s right. However, the effect of Luck Blessing is limited, and the power increase should be minimal unless you actively use the power of faith to influence the spell’s results.”

“I can actively interfere with the outcome of spellcasting?”

Richard was startled again. If he could interfere actively, then wouldn’t it mean that once he had enough power of faith, every one of his spells could ‘critical hit’!

“Ga, don’t think too much. Active intervention requires more power of faith than you think.”

After that, Ulysses flew back to the nest, yawning as he went:

“Ga, this thing has no physical form in essence; just integrate it into the magic wand when you make it.

I need to sleep for a while…”

He didn’t finish his sentence before Ulysses had already drifted into slumber.

…

Making a magic wand was very simple for Richard, and after half a year of crafting, he successfully produced a magic wand with a detachable wand head.

Since he was entering the battlefield as a technical consultant this time, likely not needing to infiltrate behind enemy lines, Richard replaced the original magic wand’s Nomi Crystal Stone head with a Fire Element Gem, which was quite straightforward in function—providing a 10% Fire Element augmentation to spells below a thousand energy levels.

After completing the magic wand, Richard integrated the Faith Armor into it. Following the integration, he tested the effects.

At the Magic Testing Ground, Richard waved the wand and summoned a black fireball. A flick of his wand and the fireball shot out instantly, hitting a target three hundred meters away.

Boom!

The target displayed that Richard’s fireball reached an energy level of five hundred. Four hundred of that was the base energy level of the fireball, eighty was from the Fire Element augmentation array of the wand, and the additional twenty energy levels were from the wand’s Luck Blessing.

“The effects seem good, a twenty energy level increase. This is still the result when the element distribution in the testing ground is nearly balanced. If I enter a world where the Fire Element is imbalanced, the effect should be stronger.”

After the magic wand making was complete, Richard also crafted some small Magic Equipment to deal with certain special situations.

As an Alchemy Wizard, the amount of Magic Equipment directly affected his combat power.

A year blink by, and the time had finally come for the Floating City to set off.

In the Expedition Layer, Richard waited alongside the Clear Frost Legion for the descent of the Floating City.

“Kid, be smart in this war. Plane War is your best chance to make a killing.”

Vladimir stood beside Richard, a pipe clenched in his mouth, speaking somewhat indistinctly.

“Uh? What do you mean by that, Master?” Richard looked at Vladimir puzzled, “I’m not going to have to infiltrate behind enemy lines like a Black Wizard as a technical consultant, am I?”

“Infiltrate behind enemy lines, what are you thinking about?” Vladimir frowned slightly, “Didn’t Jolod tell you before he was promoted?

Although you joined the war as a technical advisor, you’re also part of the accompanying commerce. You’re qualified to submit development applications to the command.”

“Development applications? What’s that?”

Richard was confused. When Jolod was promoted, the news that the Clear Frost Legion was to join the war hadn’t come out yet, and there was a lot Jolod hadn’t told him.

Seeing the bewildered look on Richard’s face, Vladimir tapped his pipe and took a deep draw from it:

“It’s understandable, this war came too suddenly. Normally, the legion wouldn’t participate in war within such a short timeframe. Since he didn’t tell you, I’ll say it for him.

You should know that each interplanar expedition costs a fortune.”

Richard nodded, “I know.”

Vladimir glanced at Richard with a touch of disdain, “Looking at you, you have no idea how much it costs to fight an interplanar expedition.

Take our war this time, for example. We’re attacking a small world, so we’ve mobilized about one million wizards. Among these, White Wizards account for over six hundred thousand, while Black Wizards make up three hundred thousand, and there are about ten to twenty thousand logistic wizards.

Do you know how much it costs just to hire them for the war?”

“… I really don’t know.”

Richard had been part of a student troop during the last war, which didn’t involve any hiring fees.

Vladimir blew out a ring of smoke and slowly explained, “Generally speaking, the more intense the war, the higher the hiring fee. For attacking a small world, a White Wizard’s hiring fee is about seven hundred Magic Essence per war, and Black Wizards are somewhat higher than White Wizards, up to nine hundred Magic Essence.

And that’s the price for a One Ring Wizard. For Second Ring Wizards, it’s double, and for Three Rings Wizards, it’s double again on top of the Second Ring price.

If we count just over six hundred thousand White Wizards as six hundred thousand, and Black Wizards as three hundred thousand, and all of them as One Ring Wizards. The Great Wizard will have spent six billion nine hundred million Magic Essence before the war even starts.

Besides hiring fees, the Great Wizard also needs to rent the Floating City and prepare various logistical supplies. Though these don’t make up the bulk, when you add it all up, it comes to several tens of million Magic Essence.

Seven hundred million Magic Essence for a war, what do you think of that number?”

Listening to Vladimir’s calculation, Richard’s brain momentarily seized up.

Seven hundred million Magic Essence, that number was beyond Richard’s comprehension of how to earn it.

Seven hundred million Magic Essence! His recent collaboration with the Clear Frost Legion had only earned him one hundred and fifty thousand Magic Essence. He would need to undertake more than five thousand three hundred such collaborations to earn such an amount.

And this, was only a conservative estimate of the expenditure for a single Plane War.

Watching Richard’s dazed reaction, Vladimir smiled with satisfaction.

“With such a large expense, even some Great Wizards with abundant family wealth can’t help but feel the pinch. So before every war starts, the Great Wizards will notify many Wizard Commerce groups, inviting them to invest in the war and join the accompanying commerce.

These Wizard Commerce investments are equivalent to buying shares. If the war is won, they can leverage their status as accompanying commerce to apply for the mining rights to certain resources in the new world.”

“What if we lose?” Richard couldn’t help but ask.

Vladimir spread his hands, “If we lose, the investment goes down the drain. War has risks, and investment requires caution. Would they dare to demand a settlement from the Great Wizard?”

Vladimir continued:

“These newly conquered worlds contain many resources that are special products based on the world’s rules. When these are brought to the market, not to say they will sell well, but breaking even shouldn’t be a problem. And that clause about accompanying commerce that your company added, that’s taking advantage of a loophole.

This war, with the dean’s involvement, the legion is equivalent to a Great Wizard. And since you’ve made deals with the legion, that can also be considered an investment.”

“That counts as an investment?” Richard was puzzled.

Clear Frost Legion had formally signed a contract with them, after all.

Vladimir blinked, “The pricing of a new weapon is vague, its value completely decided by the legion. Your commerce made a deal with the legion at a price lower than what the legion had set, that’s also an investment behavior.”

“Ah? You can play it like that?”

Richard was stunned by Vladimir’s explanation. Wasn’t this tantamount to undermining the Academy?

Vladimir smiled, “The dean takes the lion’s share of the profits from interplanar wars. How could it hurt for us small fry to sip a little soup? As long as it doesn’t affect the combat effectiveness of the war, the dean generally doesn’t bother with these trifles.”

As he spoke, the sky rippled like water, and the enormous Floating City gradually entered the Wizard World.

Vladimir patted Richard’s shoulder:

“Get ready to board the Floating City. The twists and turns of Plane War are more than you think.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated on Novlove.com