Chapter 976: Present

As brilliant as it sounded to own a creature with the level of a law-defying wizard, signing that spiritual contract was just not feasible. Not just that, an excessive amount of materials were required to boost its level to be that of a law-defying wizard. It would take more than what was required to boost a wizard to become a law-defying wizard, actually. That being said, Abel had two summon creatures that were stronger than was just not normal, Wizard Hal thought. There was something he was wrong about, of course, and that was that Abel was actually stronger than the boat of his summoned creatures. Abel was a law-defying wizard who possessed two types of elements.

Wizard Hal stopped and pointed towards a cavern, “That’s the magic stone mining pit, Master Bennett.”

Abel couldn’t help but ask, “There’s no teleportation circle going towards the pit, Wizard Hal?”

Abel looked towards an empty ground with trees surrounding it. There was a pit that was being dug out. It was about five miles from here to the battle fort. If there was a short-distance teleportation circle, that would make things a lot easier.

Wizard Hal spoke as he teleported himself to the pit’s entrance, “The evil knights often start their assault here. We would’ve set up a teleportation circle if they didn’t keep destroying it. Here, you’ll understand soon enough.”

After leaving Doff and the grey bear at the pit’s entrance, Abel got Frankenstein behind to follow Wizard Hal. He could hear digging noises inside the pit. He could see a puppet was busy digging up some ore. That was all the more surprising because he expected to be at least someone doing the job manually.

Wizard Hal laughed and introduced, “Spirits live inside the battle fort, and there’d be a specialized circle to control them for a range up to ten miles. These puppets are directly controlled by the spirit responsible for taking charge of the operation system.”

Abel nodded. This place was, technically, home to many of the materials required to build puppets. All it would take was for the dwarves to do some work to make as many self-automated puppets on their own. By the way, he could see that there was one mana stone fragment on the ground. It was waste material that was dug up during excavation, and he could tell from it that the store contained some diamond ore. Since diamonds were very treasured by the sacred knights of the second row, he could see how it would be something to be fought over even more now that they were here. It was no wonder that the lightning clan would send their strongest men here.

Wizard Hal pointed towards the fragment on the ground, “You see it as well, don’t you? This might just be the area that the evil knights want the most. Almost all the magic stones excavated here are sent through the teleportation circle inside the fort, then towards the doomsday defense wall. The whole purpose is to have them serve as an energy reserve against a big assault from the nation of evil.”

Abel asked for more information, “But the pit isn’t infinite, right? What happens if the excavation is finished, Wizard Hal? Do they look for another site to base on?”

Wizard Hal shook his head, “That’s the strange thing about this area, Master Bennett. The excavation has been going on for several millennia now, but with the speed in which these 20 puppets are going, there just never seems to be a real decrease in the number of ore here.”

Abel didn’t know what he heard, “That shouldn’t be, Wizard Hal. The central continent would’ve been out of magic stones if that was the case.”

Abel’s been observing a lot here on the central continent. From what he could see, the value of magic stones on the central continent was almost the same as the Holy Continent. The prices remained stable, which indicated that there was never a huge influx of magic stones into the market. That just seemed even stranger, then, given how the excavation work here had been ongoing for so long.

Wizard Hal explained, “Nothing excavated on the frontline will flow into the central continent. Everything found here only goes to supply the doomsday defense wall. This is a mandatory rule enforced by the Wizard Union, and there is absolutely no exception to that.”

The battle for resources had been going on for so long, ever since the Wizard Union had been engaging with the nation of evil here. As the Wizard Union had it, the minerals here existed so they could use them to retaliate against their enemies. The wall existed for the same purpose. Out of the many resources it relied on to function, the magic stones were the ones it required the most. It would drain out many magic stones that were excavated right here, and there just wasn’t any spare to be sold for the practitioners on the central continent.

Abel thought about Johnson and Jason, “Wizard Hal, I’ve heard that the stone giants could dig up mines at an extremely fast pace. If someone was to do their work here, would that improve overall productivity, by any chance?”

Wizard Hal replied, “I’m surprised you’ve heard about the stone giants. Well, yes, Master Bennett, the stone giants are capable of making the mining procedure a lot faster, but the way it’s done here hasn’t been changed for many, many years. It all has to do with the algorithms that’s been calculated. At the current speed in which the 20 puppets are digging up the mines, there is just enough time for the environment to regenerate more for future excavation. Sustainability is very important, otherwise we’re just going to run out of the stone permanently if we take everything away too quickly.”

Abel was confused, “Why don’t we go all-out and end it? We don’t want to keep up the fight with the nation of evil, do we?”

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Wizard Hal laughed bitterly, “But we have to, Master Bennett. If the mine goes empty, a new one will spawn at another location at random. That’s just how it worked. Long ago, the Wizard Union did exactly what you proposed and ended up having a mining pit right next to the nation of evil. Basically, we gave away our own pit to our worst enemy without any cost.”

Abel canceled his ideas of letting Johnson and Jason out, “Oh, right. That, uh, that’s not very much what is in your interest.”

After giving a quick nod, Wizard Hal reached his hand towards the mining puppet. Inside the white light, 20 top-level gemstones appeared in his hands. He was throwing all of them to Abel.

Abel didn’t know what this meant, “Yes?”

Wizard Hal responded with a generous laugh, “Your souvenirs, I suppose. It is a custom here that you can always bring some stones back after the first time in.”

Abel was shocked with the amount he’s given, “20 pieces? Is that replaceable with the amount that’s dug up on a daily basis?”

Wizard Hal didn’t know what that was asked, “What? Of course not! After discovering a new concentrated site over a few days ago, Wizard Davy made a special request to have the puppets made a portion just for you!”

Abel didn’t need all these stones, but he really appreciated how much that lightning clan would go just for him. Yes, this would only happen at the frontline. It was a shame that most of the top-level magic stones would go towards military defense than boost the economy, but that was just how things were.

Abel took the gift gratefully, “Thank you all so much!”

He realized the whole point of coming here was so that Wizard Davy and Wizard Hal could give him the gift. After Abel received it, they all went to visit the mithril site. Abel realized how come the wall could produce so many raw ingredients for spell circles and defensive mechanism tools when they did. There were hundreds and thousands of portions of mithril being supplied non-stop. Perhaps that was just how the frontline worked. It was only here that there were enough resources to fuel into providing a huge load of raw energy supply for powering up extremely costly devices like the doomsday defense wall.

After they finished taking their tour, they went back to have lunch with the wizards waiting inside the dining room.

Wizard Davy said in a bit of a frowny voice, “A bit late now, Hal. If the spirit didn’t tell us that there’s nothing going on, I would’ve been out to look for you.”

Abel bowed and apologized, “I was just too curious. The blame is on me, Wizard Davy. I should’ve come here earlier and not have you all waiting.”

Wizard Davy quickly responded with his own bow, “You’re being too polite, Master Bennett! Don’t worry about it. Just take your seat and we’ll get your food ready.”

So the seat that was reserved for Abel was the one at the right. It was the seat for the host, but Abel didn’t decline because that was where Wizard Davy was inviting him over. He was the guest, so he chose not to argue about where he wanted to be. After he took his seat, he took a good look around. He was surprised to see that there were about 15 rank 20 advanced wizards sitting here apart from some law-defying wizards. It was a good thing that the dining room was big enough to fit the very long wooden table they were sitting at.

Wizard Davy looked around to see Frankenstein, “So Frankenstein isn’t taking his seat?”

Abel explained, “Well, Wizard Davy, Frankenstein doesn’t need to eat.”

Abel wasn’t going into the details, but “Frankenstein” was a robot with a mechanical body. It used energy and not food to fuel itself up. Of course, ration potion would still do as it could be used to supply energy directly to the brain. Not for Frankenstein, of course. Having accepted Wizard Malon as its host body, there was not a need to charge up energy as long as there was a sufficient supply of mana inside the body. Basically, he became the ultimate goal of all the law-defying wizards out there who were trying to extend their lifespan. He was an immortal being in a very shrewd sense if one had to put it.

Frankenstein had used the “full recovery potion” to merge completely with the puppets now. As long as it wasn’t destroyed, he would just not die. Wizard Davy didn’t know about it, but his eyes twitched the moment he saw him. He could tell that whatever technique Frankenstein, it must’ve been something that most wouldn’t know about. Perhaps it had to do with how he became Master Bennett’s servant, but he wasn’t going to meddle with something he thought could be extremely personal. No, he didn’t know that it was actually the dead Wizard Malon that was in front of him. Even the soul essence was transformed to the point that identification was simply not possible. Wizard Malon was gone essentially. Even if Frankenstein was to take off his hoodie now, no one would really know whose body he came from.

Wizard Davy raised a wine glass, “We welcome our new friend, Master Bennett. He’s here to help us with his summon creatures!”

Abel smiled and raised a cup of juice, “Hello, everyone! Wizard Davy, I’m a potion master, if anything else, so please protect me on the battlefield. I’m not trying to be humble, but there’s only so few I can do on the aggressive side.”

Just the cup of juice was enough to show how much recognition the lightning clan was putting into him. They even jotted his daily habits. All the lightning clan wizards were staring at him in a very appreciative manner. They were the ones that benefited from the “light healing potions” he produced. It was not uncommon to get injured as they were fighting the sacred knights, and the fact that the potions could be distributed to them, that alone had prevented so many deaths for so many people.

Well, not everything was good that came out from that, however. Since the lightning clan wizards were already a bunch of fighters, the fact that they could be healed just led them to use more fanatic ways of starting conflict on the frontline, which actually increased the probability of them getting injured.