Chapter 239: Frost Shadow Stone, Netherworld
"My Lord, these are the exploration results from the last six months of the Sub Magic Stone Mine."
Inside the study, Artier used her Mage Hand to place the documents on the desk.
Lize hummed in acknowledgment, first finishing the documents she had in hand and then picking up the exploration reports to review them carefully.
Artier stood quietly to the side, waiting.
The Magic Stone Lamp hanging on the wall cast a bright yellow glow, giving her figure an ethereal, semi-transparent quality.
Artier considered herself to be quite lucky.
Although she had not succeeded in advancing to Wizard, she had survived the highly risky transformation into a Ghost and was able to continue living in this world in her current form.
Furthermore, her teacher had promised to assist her in reshaping her body in the future.
At that time, she could attempt to reach the rank of Wizard once more, still holding a chance of success.
She was able to receive this treatment largely due to the support of her Teacher and the Starfall Lord.
For this, she felt immensely grateful to both of them and worked even harder to repay their kindness.
Before long, Lize finished reading the documents and nodded slightly.
"Not bad. The cultivation progress is going smoothly. It looks like it should be ready for mining in just over a decade."
Lize looked up at Artier and instructed, "Begin preparations now. The mining equipment and Clay Golem must be ready ahead of time. Once the mine is formed, put everything into mining operations without delay."
The preliminary promotion of Sub-mana technology was complete, and the results were exceptionally positive.
Whether in the civilian or military sector, Sub-mana technology, represented by the Mana Engine, received outstanding feedback.
Currently, the entire Starlight Continent felt like a volcano on the verge of eruption; as long as enough Sub Magestone was invested, it would explode into action, allowing Sub-mana technology to experience explosive growth.
Within a hundred years, Sub-mana technology would undoubtedly sweep across the entire Starlight Continent, completely transforming its productivity.
After that, the development of the Starlight Continent would surely reach unprecedented heights.
"And the Star Alliance will also have a broader development space."
Artier diligently noted Lize's instructions, preparing to implement them immediately after leaving the study. Meanwhile, mining more than thirty large deposits would require a considerable amount of mining equipment and clay golems, necessitating advance preparations.
When it came to the development of sub-mana technology, no detail could be overlooked.
"There is one more thing," Lize abruptly changed the subject. "The Star Alliance is preparing to form a new puppet legion, which will require a substantial sum of materials."
A new puppet legion? Artier was puzzled.
Currently, the Star Alliance had two puppet legions. One consisted of the regular Golem Legion, including three large golem legions and four medium golem legions. This number continued to grow year by year, with expectations of forming a fourth large golem legion within the next decade. The other was the internal golem legion of the Starlight Wizard Tower, which was only equivalent in scale to a small golem legion but boasted combat power even stronger than a large golem legion. This golem legion typically remained stationed within the wizard tower and was rarely mobilized.
Honestly, it seemed almost impossible for the Star Alliance to engage in large-scale battles at the moment; having two puppet legions was already sufficient. Artier struggled to understand why there was a need for an additional puppet legion.
When she received the organizational list for the puppet legion, her shock only deepened. Three hundred tentacle puppets and fifty secret puppets? This number was far too exaggerated!
Artier knew that both the tentacle puppets and secret puppets possessed the combat capabilities to face a Level 1 gaseous wizard one-on-one. Why were they suddenly creating so many wizard-level puppets? The cost of assembling a puppet legion with this lineup would be astronomical.
Seeing Artier's confusion, Lize chose not to elaborate further. When Su Nan proposed forming this puppet legion, she immediately grasped his intention. This was a preparation for dealing with the Gloomy Throne! Only when confronting the Gloomy Throne would they require such a vast number of wizard-level puppets.
"My Lord, gathering such materials will take a significant amount of time," Artier said with a frown.
"Setting aside everything else, the cost of fifty Secret Puppets alone exceeds twenty million Gold Coins due to the expense of materials.
While the cost of the Tentacle Puppet is relatively lower, acquiring three hundred of them would still amount to over one hundred million Gold Coins.
If it were only monetary, it wouldn't be a significant issue. With the current income of the Star Alliance, even if they only claimed a quarter of the revenue each year, they could gather enough funds to establish a Puppet Legion in just over twenty years.
The real challenge lies in the fact that many of the materials required to refine the Tentacle Puppet and Secret Puppet are rare, with extremely low yields and high demand.
For instance, gathering enough Mithril to refine fifty Secret Puppets would take at least forty to fifty years.
Lize understood this well and waved her hand dismissively, saying, “It doesn't matter; this is a long-term plan that just needs to be completed within three hundred years."
Artier sighed in relief upon hearing this.
With that, the timeframe had suddenly become much more accommodating.
“Is there anything else?” Lize asked.
Artier snapped back to attention and quickly nodded. “Among the high-level Subdragon Clan of the Dragon Forest Sector 2, we recently discovered a Demonic Tyrant Dragon showing signs of evolution. How should we handle it?”
Lize raised an eyebrow, surprise flashing in her eyes.
She had learned about the Star Alliance's plan to increase the concentration of the Sub-Dragon Bloodline.
To be honest, she had never been optimistic about this plan from the start.
The strength of the Dragon clan was well-known throughout the Multiverse.
Even a Level 3 Wizard wouldn’t dare to consider raising Dragons on a large scale.
The Long Lin was originally founded because its creator was a True Spirit Descendant with connections and resources, enabling the establishment of Long Lin.
Su Nan's ambition to recreate the glory of Long Lin with his status as a Second Level Wizard seemed somewhat presumptuous.
Additionally, another reason Lize was not optimistic was the difficulty involved in increasing the Sub-Dragon Bloodline concentration.
While individually increasing the Bloodline concentration of a Sub-Dragon to allow it to evolve into a Dragon might be feasible with effort, raising the Bloodline concentration of an entire Subdragon Clan would be ten times more challenging.
If it were so easy, those major Wizard factions would already have cultivated a group of Dragons."
"Long Lin, back then, the Dragon Clan was also captured from outside to breed and multiply; they weren’t cultivated by us.
However, Lize's perspective was quickly shattered.
To her astonishment, she discovered that the Subdragon Clan's Bloodline concentration was increasing at an extraordinarily rapid pace. Upon closer investigation, she realized that the Star Alliance was actually using Dragon Blood to enhance the Subdragon Clan's Bloodline concentration!
This was beyond extravagant!
The critical point was that not a single Dragon could be found on the Starlight Continent. The remaining Dragon Blood mostly came from various Wizard Inheritances, left behind by Wizards from a thousand years ago, and its quantity was extremely limited. How on earth did Su Nan manage to procure so much Dragon Blood?
No matter how hard Lize tried, she couldn't figure it out.
However, learning this information changed her outlook on the Subdragon Bloodline enhancement plan.
Perhaps this plan genuinely held a chance of success.
What Artier said at that moment undoubtedly confirmed this possibility.
In less than four hundred years, individuals on the verge of evolution had started to emerge among the Subdragon Clan. In another two or three hundred years, they might actually be able to cultivate a group of Dragons.
After pondering for a moment, Lize instructed, "Temporarily isolate that Demonic Tyrant Dragon from the rest of the group, place it in a secluded location, and transfer 100 standard units of Dragon Blood from storage to transform and strengthen it, accelerating its evolution process."
After a pause, she added, "The transformation experiment will be the responsibility of the Wizard and will be issued as a task."
"Yes," Artier promptly recorded her instructions.
Then, as if a thought occurred to her, she frowned and asked, "My Lady, if that Demonic Tyrant Dragon evolves into a Dragon, will it become difficult to control?"
Upon hearing this, Lize's expression turned thoughtful.
Unlike the Subdragon Clan, the arrogance of Dragons was innate, ingrained in their very essence. They were hard to tame and often unwilling to be tamed.
Once the Demonic Tyrant Dragon evolved into a Dragon, there was indeed a high probability it would resist Long Lin's attempts to tame it and subsequently rebel.
Though the Star Alliance possessed enough power to suppress such resistance, doing so would address only the symptoms, not the root cause, and would conflict with the original intent of the plan."
Star Alliance hoped to cultivate a group that could follow the Dragon's orders.
Lize did possess some methods to control Exotic Beasts, but these would likely be ineffective against Dragons.
She wondered how the founders of Long Lin had resolved this issue in the first place.
“Let’s set this problem aside for now,” Lize said after some thought. “I’ll discuss it with Su Nan once he emerges from seclusion.”
“Is Teacher about to break through again?” Artier asked, surprise evident on her face.
From her memories, Teacher would only enter seclusion when close to a breakthrough or when performing a long and arduous experiment.
“Yes,” Lize replied, admiration tinging her voice.
Even after witnessing it many times, Su Nan’s astonishing rate of power increase was still difficult for her to comprehend.
It had only been a little over two hundred years since he advanced to Second Level Wizard, and now he was on the verge of another breakthrough.
In contrast, she had taken over fifteen hundred years to progress from Second Level Gasification to Second Level Liquefaction, and that was already considered quite exceptional.
Su Nan, however, was expected to break through to Second Level Liquefaction within three hundred years at most.
His ability to break through so quickly in the harsh environment of Starlight Continent could only be described as a miracle.
"This is something I found by chance: the Frost Shadow Stone. I remember you saying this item was very useful to you, so I thought I’d bring it over."
Tagana held out an egg-sized, light gray stone.
"Frost Shadow Stone!" Artier exclaimed in surprise.
She had seen this type of item in books. It was a stone from the Netherworld Frostshadow River, an extremely precious Negative Energy material.
More importantly, it was one of the key materials for reshaping the body!
"Gana, where did you find this Frost Shadow Stone?" Artier asked, her eyes shining.
Seeing Artier's seriousness, Tagana didn’t keep her in suspense and told her the truth:
"I found it in a cave near Underworld Bank City. Afterwards, I consulted with Teacher Rose and found out it was a Frost Shadow Stone."
Artier thought for a moment, vaguely remembering that Bank City seemed to be on the edge of the Southeast Region, not far from Spider City.
"Thank you for the information, Gana. You've helped me a lot."
Coming back to her senses, Artier smiled and gave Tagana a light hug.
"I'm glad I could help," Tagana smiled, returning her friend's embrace.
After the sacrifice incident, the Dark Elf Clan was basically ruined, and she had severed ties with her clan.
Later, although she enrolled in Starlight Academy, her Alien Race identity made it difficult for her to truly integrate into the surrounding circles.
In the entire Star Alliance, the only person she genuinely got along with and could call a friend was Artier.
Because of this, she cherished Artier as a friend even more.
After parting with Tagana, Artier immediately returned to her studies and reported the matter to Lize.
"Frost Shadow Stone?"
Upon hearing Artier’s report, Lize's expression immediately grew serious.
Since it concerned reshaping the body, she took it very seriously.
After a moment of thought, Lize quickly made up her mind.
"Send teams to search the surroundings of Bank City, focusing on investigating the cave where the Frost Shadow Stone was found. Report any findings to me immediately."
After Artier left to carry out the order, Lize stared at the Frost Shadow Stone on the table, her face reflecting deep contemplation.
Did it originate from a Wizard inheritance or from the Netherworld?
"If it was the former, then Tagana's discovery of the Frost Shadow Stone would simply be a coincidence.
But if it was the latter, the implications would be different.
Although Starlight Continent was still under lockdown and Netherworld was not a realm like the Elemental Plane, one should not logically connect it to Starlight Continent.
However, it’s crucial to always be prepared for the unexpected. If this bottle of Frost Shadow Stone truly originated from Netherworld, it would mean that some entity had managed to bring it out.
If that were the case, it would indicate that another being had already invaded Starlight Continent.
This was undoubtedly a matter to be taken seriously.
"If it is indeed connected to Netherworld, perhaps we can take this opportunity to collect the materials in advance.”
Lize's eyes flickered slightly.
Among the materials for Reshaping the Body, several—many of which were Negative Energy Materials—could be found.
As everyone knows, Netherworld is rich in Negative Energy Resources, and many Negative Energy Materials can be sourced from there.
However, whether this was truly the case would be confirmed only after further investigation."
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