Novels online

Chapter 208: Breakthrough, First Order Liquefaction

Upon hearing the clan leader utter the word "surrender," the three apprentices of the Russell Family secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

They were genuinely terrified.

These two young women, who controlled the puppets, were simply terrifyingly strong!

Forget about defeating them; they couldn't even escape.

Moreover, an army was watching outside.

If they continued to resist, they would all lose their lives here.

The Russell Family was only cooperating with the Allied Forces, not sacrificing themselves; it wasn't worth risking everything.

“A wise choice,” the Red Widow smiled charmingly.

Fakado gave a wry smile, the bitter taste of defeat settling in.

Not long ago, they had thought that by combining their strengths, they could certainly contend with Su Nan.

But reality had slapped them hard in the face, teaching them what it meant to overestimate themselves.

Su Nan hadn’t even appeared, and just by sending these two puppets, they were almost completely annihilated.

Fakado wasn’t foolish enough to believe that someone capable of creating such powerful puppets was weaker than the puppets themselves.

The power of a formal wizard truly exceeded his imagination!

With this thought, Fakado couldn’t help but feel disheartened.

In the past, he had thought his power was already at the pinnacle of the Starlight Continent, and even if it fell short of a formal wizard, it wouldn’t be too far off.

But now, he understood how arrogant and absurd that thinking had been.

Not far away, seeing that the battle had ended in less than ten minutes, with the assassins either dead or surrendering, Brad and the others exchanged glances of disbelief.

To be honest, when they first saw the Red Widow arrive with only two puppets, they didn’t express their concerns on the surface, but they were actually quite worried.

They never expected these two puppets to be so powerful.

They completely crushed the attacking apprentices as if they were mere weeds!

It was truly astonishing!

“Brad, my task is complete. I still need to take my people back to report. I’ll bid you farewell here.”

"Red Widow's voice startled Brad awake, prompting him to quickly bow slightly and reply with genuine sincerity, “Thank you for your assistance. Please extend my regards to Master Sunan.”

Red Widow nodded with a smile before turning to leave with the members of the Secret Puppet and the Russell Family. As they departed, Brad finally pulled his gaze away and focused on the battlefield.

“Deploy the reserves. It’s time to end this war!” he commanded.

Jordon immediately drew his weapon and declared, “I’ll lead the charge. After witnessing the previous battle, I’m eager for a fight. It’s a perfect opportunity to stretch my legs.”

This time, Brad did not stop him, simply waving his hand in permission.

With the reserves joining the fray, the Imperial Army's offensive intensified, while the Allied Forces began to show signs of collapse.

Behind the Allied Forces, Edis observed the scene, understanding that Fakado and the others' operation had most likely failed. He sighed deeply, his face paling. The Allied Forces were finished.

In a certain elemental space within the Lightning Elemental Plane, a thunderous rumble echoed. A dazzling bolt of lightning tore through the void, striking a Steel Golem and instantly melting its massive body into a pile of half-liquefied scrap metal.

However, more Golems charged fearlessly toward the lightning, their iron fists, imbued with the Weak Elemental Damage rune, relentlessly pounding against the Spirit of the Elements. A fierce battle unfolded across the desolate land. Golems were continuously reduced to scrap, while the Spirits of the Elements cried out in anguish before dissipating into the atmosphere.

As the Elemental Crystal Dust left behind began to form, an invisible force collected it, drawing it back to the battlefield and ultimately vanishing into Su Nan's palm.

Gazing at the mountain of Elemental Crystal Dust accumulating in his Space Ring, a faint smile graced Su Nan's face. Ever since discovering the method to synthesize Elemental Crystal Cores using Elemental Crystal Dust and then absorb divine energy from them, he had devoted most of his energy to hunting the Spirits of the Elements."

To increase hunting efficiency, Su Nan directly deployed the Golem Legion while simultaneously emitting his own energy fluctuations to lure the Spirit of the Elements. He left the Spirit to be dealt with by the Golem Legion, focusing solely on acting as a lure for the Spirit of the Elements and collecting Elemental Crystal Dust.

This approach greatly enhanced the efficiency of acquiring Elemental Crystal Dust.

The cost was the consumption of Golems. However, in comparison to utilizing an Inscribed Gem to hunt Elemental Giants, this cost was negligible.

Before long, the lured Spirits of the Elements were completely annihilated by the Golems. Su Nan estimated that most of the Spirits of the Elements within a ten-kilometer radius had been cleared, so he retracted the Golem Legion, opened a Space Channel, and returned to the Dragon Bone Tower.

Sitting cross-legged beside the Elemental Pool, Su Nan took out the Elemental Crystal Dust, synthesized an Elemental Crystal Core, and absorbed it immediately.

After more than half a year of hunting and absorption, his Spiritual Condensation had neared a breakthrough. With over ten standard units of Divine energy assimilated and fused, his Spiritual Power finally surpassed its previous boundaries and underwent a qualitative change.

Deep within his Sea of Consciousness, the gaseous Spiritual Power that had been gently flowing around his Talent Crystal suddenly paused. Then, as if encountering cold, it condensed into droplets of water, scattering like rain.

Before long, the mist had completely vanished, replaced by streams of water that circled the Talent Crystal like ribbons in a galaxy.

The streams were crystal clear, gliding gently around the Talent Crystal, producing a pleasant gurgling sound.

“I succeeded!”

Su Nan opened his eyes, summoned his panel, and saw 【Liquefaction: 0.01%】 displayed. A genuine smile of joy spread across his face.

He had finally broken through!

From the time he advanced to Wizard until now, only twelve years had passed.

To break through from First Level Vaporization to First Order Liquefaction in such a short time was quite remarkable in any Wizard Era, especially when excluding True Spirit Descendants.

After transforming from gas to liquid, his Spiritual Power appeared to decrease in quantity, but its quality increased dramatically, more than doubling from the Vaporization stage.

Being at the Level One Wizard stage, the Level One Liquid Warlock completely crushed the Level One Gaseous Wizard, regardless of hidden trump cards or secret techniques.

After a while, Su Nan managed to calm the joy in his heart. Noticing that he still had five standard units of Divine energy left in the Elemental Crystal Dust, he absorbed them all at once.

His Spiritual Condensation subsequently increased to 0.2%.

"It takes roughly fifty standard units of Divine energy to increase Spiritual Condensation by 1%," he mused.

As he had expected, after breaking through to the Liquefaction Stage, it was indeed much more challenging to increase his Spiritual Condensation.

However, he quickly cheered up again.

With the method for synthesizing the Elemental Crystal Core, he estimated that it would take him at most fifty or sixty years to break through to the First Grade Crystallization.

This speed already far surpassed that of most Level One Wizard cultivators.

Especially in the current Starlight Continent, it was truly remarkable.

"After breaking through to First Grade Crystallization, I'll need to construct my second Talent Crystal."

"I must carefully consider what kind of Talent Crystal Model to create."

Among the Talent Crystal Models obtained from the Tower of Stars, the highest grade was only mid-grade, which Su Nan certainly had no interest in.

His plan was to synthesize a Super Talent Crystal Model, similar to 'Liquid Metal,' on his own.

Before advancing to the Crystallization Stage, it would be best to prepare the corresponding Talent Crystal Model first.

Researching Talent Crystal Models, hunting the Spirits of the Elements, and constructing the Wizard Tower were all on his agenda.

After reviewing this list, Su Nan suddenly realized just how much work lay ahead of him.

Each task would consume a significant amount of time and energy.

Fortunately, he didn't have to worry about the Star Alliance and the surface world at the moment; otherwise, he would likely be overwhelmed with everything.

Stretching, Su Nan glanced at the Elemental Pool nearby.

Since its expansion, the energy absorption speed and capacity of the Elemental Pool had significantly improved, increasing by about 15% compared to before.

Don't underestimate this 15% increase—the consumption of various gemstones and rare metals was worth over two million three hundred thousand gold coins.

However, the results were equally impressive.

The increase in energy capacity was obvious, and in terms of energy usage, Long Lin now had more flexibility.

Most importantly, the efficiency of meditation and the recovery speed of Spiritual Power had improved as well.

"It's a shame it hasn't reached the standard volume of a Small Element Pool; otherwise, its effect could be at least 50% better than before."

Su Nan estimated that Dragon Bone Tower's Elemental Pool could still be expanded to enhance its effects, but the cost-effectiveness was extremely low. It would be better to use Gold Coins to construct a Wizard Tower, striving to establish a new Elemental Pool as soon as possible.

A standard Small Element Pool could significantly increase his cultivation efficiency.

"For now, I can only use the fourth-tier Crystal Soul Potion. A fifth-tier potion would require at least the First Grade Crystallization of Spiritual Power to endure the load."

"Inscribed Gem, Forbidden Zone, and Black Thunder can also be synthesized and upgraded further."

After breaking through to the Liquefaction Stage, Su Nan's Spiritual Power had noticeably increased, as had his load-bearing capacity. Consequently, the synthesis quantities for Inscribed Gems and Wizard Tools could also be increased.

Having decided on his next steps, Su Nan turned his attention to the matter of the Wizard Tower.

He possessed a wealth of knowledge about constructing a Wizard Tower. Over the years, he had collected numerous books on the subject through various channels, in addition to the texts he acquired from the Tower of Stars. In terms of knowledge alone, he was well-prepared for the task of building a Wizard Tower.

Now, all that remained was to put that knowledge into action.

First, there was the matter of levels.

In the classification of Wizard Civilization, Wizard Towers are divided into Small, Medium, and Large, arranged in ascending order of scale.

The larger the scale of the Wizard Tower, the more expensive it is to build.

Even the cost of constructing a basic Small Wizard Tower is calculated in the hundreds of millions of Gold Coins.

As for Medium and Large Wizard Towers, their costs are beyond calculation in simply Gold Coins.

Without the supply of resources from two or more colonial planes, there is no hope of building a Medium Wizard Tower at all.

Su Nan was acutely aware of his own limitations.

A large Medium Wizard Tower was definitely beyond his reach. Even if he dismantled the entire Starlight Continent, he wouldn't be able to construct a single large Medium Wizard Tower.

From the beginning, his goal had only been to build a Small Wizard Tower.

As for War Creation—Floating City—which is even more advanced than a Large Wizard Tower, that realm is only accessible to True Spirit Wizards. He was still far from that point.

"Even a small Wizard Tower wouldn’t be so simple to build."

A Wizard Tower can be roughly divided into three parts: Energy Supply, Space Planning, and Combat Devices.

First, the Energy Supply consists of three major components: the Elemental Pool, the Levitation Ring, and the Central Crystal Energy Transmission System.

Among these, the Elemental Pool is the most fundamental and essential facility of a Wizard Tower, serving as the main energy supply device for the entire structure.

A complete Elemental Pool must simultaneously connect to multiple Elemental Planes, extracting Elemental Energy from them to create a continuous cycle, thus providing a steady stream of Energy for the Wizard Tower.

To put it metaphorically, the Elemental Pool functions like a hydroelectric power station; as long as the Elemental Passage remains intact, it will continuously generate Energy.

A single Small Elemental Pool can meet the basic needs of a Small Wizard Tower, including charging requirements for Golem Puppets, operating various combat devices, and providing lighting and support for experiments and transformations.

Any excess Energy that goes unused can be stored for times of war.

The larger the Elemental Pool, the more Energy it can supply and store, allowing it to handle more intense battles.

Generally speaking, a Small Wizard Tower corresponds to a Small Elemental Pool.

However, if one's construction skills and financial resources are sufficient, it is possible to build a Medium Elemental Pool or even a Large Elemental Pool.

That said, the costs will skyrocket as a result.

It's worth noting that the cost of a Small Elemental Pool is already in the tens of millions of Gold Coins, while a Medium Elemental Pool costs more than ten times that of a Small Elemental Pool and requires many rare materials.

This also includes Element Source Crystals, which are rare materials dropped solely by Elemental Giants.

Su Nan truly wished to build a Medium Elemental Pool, but he simply lacked the capability to do so at this stage.

"I should just construct a Small Elemental Pool; it will suffice for now, and I can upgrade it later if necessary."

The second component of the Energy Supply, the Levitation Ring, is, as the name suggests, the device that enables the entire Wizard Tower to soar into the sky.

This device requires a significant amount of Mithril, which is quite valuable.

Lastly, the Central Crystal Energy Transmission System, though not as prohibitively expensive as the Elemental Pool or the Levitation Ring, is still not cheap.

The principle behind this is to graft the entire Wizard Tower onto Crystal Scar, allowing the Energy of the Elemental Pool to be transmitted to every part of the Wizard Tower. Essentially, it's an upgraded version of the Magic Energy Transmission Pipeline originally laid out by Base Number 1.

The Central Crystal Energy Transmission System is an indispensable component of the Wizard Tower.

Su Nan estimated that, solely for Energy Supply, the combined cost of the Elemental Pool, Levitation Ring, and Central Crystal Energy Transmission System would require at least fifty million Gold Coins worth of materials.

Moreover, many of these materials are difficult to gather in a short time, even with sufficient funds.

Take Mithril, for instance.

Despite the enormous size of the Star Alliance, its annual production of Mithril is less than fifty kilograms.

Building the Levitation Ring alone requires two to three thousand kilograms of Mithril.

Including the consumption of other facilities, this number would likely soar to over five thousand kilograms!

Even with careful conservation of Mithril, it would still take at least a century to accumulate enough.

This is undoubtedly a staggering figure!

"Anyway, it'll take a century or two to complete the construction of the entire Wizard Tower, so we can accumulate it slowly during that time."

Su Nan thought for a moment and decided to postpone the construction of the Levitation Ring until they had gathered enough Mithril, then place it on the agenda.