After holding a military meeting for most of the day, Claude, who did not return to the Covenbelen Manor until late at night, felt exhausted and dizzy. Sheila, who had learned about his return, didn't sleep either and kept sitting in the hall waiting for him. Seeing Claude get off the carriage, Sheila came up to him and kissed him. This time Claude went to the Kingdom of Hicks, but Sheila did not go with him. In total, the two of them had not seen each other for nearly a year and a half. Sheila was very excited to meet again after a long absence.
"My dear, why are you so happy today?" Claude was a little strange and found that Sheila seemed too enthusiastic and excited.
After Claude took a hot bath to regain some energy, and Sheila served him the food that had been prepared for him to enjoy a feast, the happy Sheila finally explained why she was so happy: " Claude, do you know that in the magic books collected by the Hicks royal family that you asked people to send, I found information about the promotion of magicians..."
Claude finally understood why Sheila was so happy. She wanted to find someone to share her discovery with, and this secret could only be told to Claude. Now is the Age of Ending Law, and the once glorious magical civilization in this world has become disappearing history and folklore. Even now you can still learn magic knowledge and become a magician, but no matter whether you are talented or ordinary, there is a ceiling above your head. The fifth-ring magician is the ultimate pinnacle of all magicians.
After Claude just traveled to this world and came into contact with magic, his biggest dream was to become a magician, carefree and at ease. But the wheel of fate is not deflected by human will, and now Claude has embarked on a completely different path from his boyhood dream. Even after reuniting with Sheila all these years, under Sheila's supervision, he practiced slowly and finally became a five-ring mage. But he has become accustomed to his military career, and magic has become dispensable to him. He doesn't need magic in ordinary days...
Among the magicians Claude knows, his younger sister Anna is now concentrating on raising her son and the twins left by her younger brother Blovik, and in her spare time she is resuming her study of pharmacy knowledge. Master Bird and Lady Sonia, father and daughter, are also rune mages, but they use magic in experiments that interest them. Master Bird studies mechanical power, and Lady Sonia develops various weapons and ammunition.
Although his younger brother Blovik's magic talent is not as good as Claude's, he became a fifth-ring mage faster than Claude. It's just that Claude doesn't know how to define his brother Brovik now, because he uses magic in combat and uses spells to assist his special operations. He can be called an alternative modern battle mage. As for Claude, he was in a high position, but he didn't know what applications of the spells he knew. He hadn't done any magic experiments for an unknown amount of time. For him now, it makes no difference whether he has magic or not...
Only Sheila is a pure magician who has been pursuing knowledge and progress in magic. She has always wanted to go one step further, break the shackles of the five-ring mage, and be promoted to an archmage. Back then, her mother, for this purpose, abandoned the young Sheila and teamed up with other magicians to excavate magic relics, hoping to find a way for magicians to be promoted, but unfortunately she died. When Sheila grew up, she also went looking for magic relics and found her mother's body, but there was nothing she wanted in the magic relics.
Although Sheila, who had gone through many hardships, later reunited with Claude in the Dominion, Claude knew exactly what Sheila longed for. Fortunately, even if Claude couldn't help her with magic, he could go out to fight, conquer cities and territories, and be invincible. He could still bring many unexpected surprises to Sheila from the spoils of war.
For example, the Nasseri Kingdom was destroyed by him, the King of Hicks and Saint Hyprian City were captured, the books and materials on magic knowledge collected by the Nasseri and Hicks royal families for hundreds of years, as well as many precious magic items All the classics fell into his hands.
For Sheila, the books and materials brought back by Claude from the expedition greatly increased her knowledge base and knowledge of magic, and broadened her horizons. Especially those precious magic books, many of which are left over from the era of magic civilization. Any one of them can make a magician go crazy. It's a pity that these magic classics were locked in the palace treasury by the two royal families and never saw the light of day, and did not fall into the hands of the magicians who really needed them...
Sheila discovered the detailed information about the promotion of magicians from a magic book collected by the Hicks royal family. After reading the information, she understood that in the late years of magic civilization, knowing how to be promoted to the magic of Archmage There are many masters, but the difficulty is that they cannot collect the huge magic materials and resources needed for advancement.
At that time, magic materials and some magic mineral resources were basically controlled and monopolized by those magic families, and ordinary mages had no place to collect them. Therefore, any unexpected appearance or discovery of magic resources or materials will lead to the emergence of countless competitors, and bloody fights and battles are likely to begin until the final winner emerges...
Sheila marveled at the lack of magic resources and materials and the fierce competition at the end of the magic civilization recorded in the magic books, but she was more concerned about the knowledge, procedures and steps for the advancement of magicians recorded in the magic books. There are also the magic resources and materials needed for the huge promotion ceremony. What makes her happy is that after thousands of years, although many magic resources and materials have been artificially or unknowingly changed their names, this magic book still contains detailed records and verification methods of these magic materials and resources... . ...
While Claude was eating and drinking, while (⊙v⊙) nodded in response to Sheila's words, Sheila took out a list of more than ten chapters recording the magic materials and resources needed for a magician to advance. These dozen pieces of paper are more than two meters long together.
Claude looked at the beaming Sheila in shock, wondering in his heart, is it necessary to be so happy? Even if you know these magic materials and resources, can you collect them? Many things were gone thousands of years ago and became extinct. Magicians at that time couldn't collect them. It's just a luxury to collect them now...
Of course she was happy. Sheila answered Claude's question categorically, because Claude forgot one of the most important premise. At the end of the magical civilization thousands of years ago, countless magicians were collecting the magic resources and materials needed for promotion, and also They often spend their entire lives collecting them, and even before they die they cannot collect enough magic materials to advance.
To give a simple example, if the magic resources and materials at the end of the magic civilization can still satisfy the advancement of a hundred magicians, then there will be a total of 10,000 magicians collecting these things, and the collected magic materials and resources will be Those magicians are hidden deep in secret chambers and are unknown to anyone. As a result, the one hundred magic materials and resources that were enough for the magicians to be promoted were collected by those magicians in various places. They could not collect them all. In the end, no one could hope to advance. This was the fairest... .
However, due to the emergence of muskets more than 600 years ago, countless magical knowledge was destroyed with the rise of muskets. The ordinary people of Farea continent used muskets to drive away the magicians who were aloof and regarded them as ants, and happily welcomed the new oppressors. The fact that the magicians were driven out of the Farea continent did not allow the people on the mainland to obtain the peaceful and tranquil life they yearned for. On the contrary, the next three hundred years of darkness began.
Countless lords, big and small, used muskets to ignite beacon fires all over the continent. They launched wars for revenge, to compete for territory, to expand their power, and for financial gain, and drove the young men in their territories to become cannon fodder on the battlefield. Nearly three hundred years of bloody wars reduced the population of the entire Falea continent by almost two-thirds. This finally determined the distribution pattern of the continent's countries and continues to this day...
For more than six hundred years, magician has become a taboo word in the Farea continent, and no magician can appear publicly in front of the public anymore. Even if the royal families of many countries are secretly connected with magicians, they are basically hidden in the dark. After all, the traditional folk custom for more than 600 years believes that magicians are evil. The so-called harmless spells introduced by the Kingdom of Ovelas are only limited to a very small number of people. Most of the people regard these registered magicians as evil. He's a magician, the kind who does tricks.
Time has passed, and the current Farea continent is no longer a world of magicians. Many of the precious magic materials and resources that triggered countless magicians to fight for and bloody fights thousands of years ago are now ignored. Although there are many wild magicians remaining in the Farea continent, they are all hiding in the wild or living in obscurity in the market.
Many magicians do not know how to advance due to incomplete inheritance. Some lack practical spells, some lack knowledge of magic materials and resources, and more often they are hindered by the monopoly of magic knowledge and the lack of communication. His magic practice has gone astray. Just like almost all magicians knew the knowledge of promotion thousands of years ago, but now it has become the gain of adventure that needs to be explored at the cost of life...
Sheila told Claude seriously and clearly that being promoted to an archmage was not a dream, because she found that many of the magic materials and resources on the list were now easy to collect. For example, when the Dominion Military Region attacked the Kingdom of Hicks this time, many of the things they brought back from the royal family's treasury were magic materials and magic mineral resources needed for advancement. The important thing is that these magic mineral resources have been carefully refined, saving A lot of trouble...
The material warehouse managers of the Dominion Military Region did not understand that these items were extremely precious magic materials. They just transported these things back to the Dominion Military Region because they were part of the Hicks royal family's inner treasury collection. Sheila went to the warehousing department of the Dominion Military Region to inspect these magic materials. She was surprised to find that the ingots extracted from these magic materials and resources were marked by the warehouse management personnel as pharmaceutical test materials and metal forging test additive materials...
So Sheila immediately spent the loan amount of nearly half a million gold crowns in Claude's account to buy all the magic materials and resource refining items from the Dominion Military District Warehousing Department, which were used to test potions and Sonia for her sister Anna. In the name of Madam doing a metal strength test on the barrel. This was a win-win deal for the warehousing department of the Dominion Military Region. It not only gave Marshal Claude a face by selling it, but also vacated several warehouses. This large batch of valuable test materials that were easily unsalable was sold out, providing a good opportunity for the Dominion. The military district increased its financial reserves by half a million gold crowns.
Only Claude knew until now that he already owed a huge personal loan debt of 500,000 gold crowns to Overseas Minsheng Bank. This was really a big surprise for herself by Sheila. But since I bought everything, forget it, especially the ones from Sheila Hua, Claude has no temper at all. Even if he doesn't have any extra money, Claude will be able to pay off the loan in two or three years based on the profits and dividends from the various assets he currently holds.
"My dear, will purchasing these magic materials worth half a million gold crowns be enough for you to advance?" Claude asked.
Sheila shook her head regretfully: "Not enough. These magic materials can only be counted as half at most. In addition, you are wrong. This batch of magic materials and resources is not worth half a million gold crowns as you thought. If it is placed in the underground magic market For sale, if it is discovered by a magician who knows the goods, let alone two or three million gold crowns, even if it is doubled ten times, someone will rob it for five million gold crowns.
You don’t know that many of these magic materials are precious materials that are very difficult to find and collect. For example, fine gold and earth crystals are almost extinct magic mineral resources, which are mineral-based resources like the Kingdom of Hicks. Only countries that focus on development can collect it. These are rare and precious magic items that are usually hard to come by, and cannot be found by just digging in a mine.
Speaking of which, it is mainly because the warehouse management personnel in your military region do not know the goods and regard these as auxiliary materials for pharmaceutical testing and additional materials for metal forging testing. This is why I got a big advantage. Do you know what he marked the fine gold for? A copper alloy with extremely high hardness, the earth spirit called it an earthy yellow crystal block. I bought these two treasures at almost the same price as potatoes..."
Claude suddenly felt chilled. He did not blame the warehouse management personnel of the Dominion Military Region for not knowing the goods and selling the gold as dirt. Those price negotiators and evaluators were not magicians, and it was understandable that they did not know the magic materials. Claude was only very sensitive to the idea that Sheila got a big deal this time, buying precious magic materials and resources worth five million for only five hundred thousand gold crowns.
But the problem is that the materials she purchased this time are only enough for half of her advancement. In other words, if there is no advantage to collect the other half of the magic materials and resources, Claude will have to pay nearly five million gold. Price in krona. Those precious magic materials have always been priceless in the underground market. It not only costs money, but also requires a lot of energy to collect.
Even if Claude now has a lot of assets on hand, he still earns one or two hundred thousand gold crowns every year, but five million gold crowns is still a huge amount of money that he cannot afford. This is already equivalent to the former king of the Kingdom of Ovelas, Ste. The total annual revenue of the kingdom during the heyday of Lin X's reign was less than 1.2 million gold crowns. Last year, I heard that the kingdom's annual tax revenue was less than 1.2 million gold crowns.
You must know that Claude is not His Majesty King Frederic I. He obtained tens of millions of gold crowns from the nobles of the kingdom just by relying on the promotion fee and land selection fee to grant a title. He felt panicked when he thought of the huge sum of five million gold crowns. This time he understood why so many magicians risked their lives for some magic materials and resources thousands of years ago. He couldn't afford it, so he could only He was robbed by violent means.
It’s just that the Dominion Military Region has just conquered the Kingdom of Hicks. Which country can they target next? He wanted to say that it would be better not to work hard and advance, but looking at Sheila who was beaming with excitement, Claude couldn't say it. After a long time, she couldn't help but interrupt Sheila: "Well, um, dear, how much money do you think we need to buy the remaining half of the promotion materials and magic resources?"
"Uh..." Sheila was interrupted by Claude's interruption. She looked at the frowning Claude for a moment, finally understood what he meant, and immediately smiled with joy. : "Claude, didn't you listen to what I said just now?"
Claude nodded with a grimace, thinking that just now he was thinking about how much money he still had left in his family that could withstand the abuse of a woman like you, so he didn't care enough to listen to what you were saying.
"Didn't I just say that the treasures in this batch of magic materials I purchased from the military region's warehousing department are enough for three people to advance. The remaining half of the materials on this list are quantity, not price. Most of them contain magic Materials and mineral resources are common commodities. For example, white root powder is very common, and there are many medicinal materials that are now regarded as pharmaceuticals. These can be purchased in the market.
What is really difficult is to have a suitable magic tower in the place required for promotion. I am going to transform the interior of this cornice observation building in our manor into a magic tower. It will take time and energy to redraw the runes of the entire internal structure of the magic tower and set up the magic talisman array. So in the next three years, I will lead the low-level magicians trained by your family to renovate this cornice observation building. A lot of magic materials need to be purchased here for application...
Don't forget that we are now in the continent of Nubisia, which itself produces a lot of magic materials and resources that are very rare for the continent of Farea. I have calculated that after collecting the magic materials and resources produced in the Nubisia continent, only a small part of what is needed for advancement will be left. When the magic tower is renovated three years later, I will take these family magicians on a trip to the central highlands and western wilderness of Farea continent. The magic books indicate that the remaining magic materials and resources are produced there... ..."
Claude breathed a sigh of relief. It turned out that the other half of the magic materials and resources needed for promotion were mentioned by the prodigal woman in terms of quantity rather than price. He finally felt relieved this time, so he took care of everything and said: "This way Come on, give me the list of magic materials and resources produced in the central highlands and western wastelands of Farea continent, and I will find someone to collect them. I don’t worry about letting you go and search for them by yourself. It’s a wild place and it’s not safe... ..."
Sheila was very enthusiastic and proactive this night, and Claude enjoyed it very much but also very tired...