Chapter 191: Assigning Tasks Amid the bows of the wizards assembled below.
A flash of crimson flame erupted upon the grand stage at the front of the hall.
A wizard wearing a white robe and a green headband, looking every bit brimming with vigor, leapt straight out of the flames like a fire elemental.
"My lord!" Leilin and the other wizards bowed in unison.
"Mm." Tigette gave a reserved nod, then flicked his long robe and settled into his seat.
"Everyone!" Tigette's voice was remarkably gentle, though his intonation was peculiar. Leilin, who had absorbed a vast store of knowledge, recognized it at once—it was an archaic speech cadence once used exclusively by wizard nobility. Beyond putting on airs, it held no practical effect whatsoever. In the modern era, only the most rigidly traditional families still bothered to learn it.
"I trust each of your section leaders has already briefed you on the current situation. If you haven't been informed, you may go back and ask them afterward. I will only make one point clear here!"
"This time, our
As he spoke, Tigette's gleaming eyes swept across the entire room.
Every wizard present felt a chill run through their hearts.
*Is this the kind of power a wizard on the verge of a breakthrough can exert?* Leilin could withstand this pressure, but he was well aware he was no match for Tigette in his current state.
He instinctively glanced at his own status.
"Leilin Farell. Warlock, Rank One Bloodline: Comoin Giant Serpent. Strength: 7.1. Agility: 6.7. Constitution: 8.5. Spirit: 58.9. Mana: 58 (Mana is synchronously determined by Spiritual Power). Spiritual Elementization Progress: 70%. Status: Healthy."
As a peak Rank One wizard on the cusp of a breakthrough, Tigette's Spiritual Power had surely surpassed the threshold of 70 and was likely pushing toward 80. Moreover, his spiritual elementization must have reached an advanced level far beyond the mere 80 percent gateway.
Leilin even suspected that this Lord Tigette could have promoted long ago but had deliberately been holding himself back, wanting to achieve a far greater breakthrough in spiritual elementization before attempting to advance to Rank Two.
Leilin calculated that even at full capacity, with every trick at his disposal, he could only catch Tigette off guard for a brief moment. After that, the seasoned Tigette would inevitably dominate the fight.
"All right, now let me assign tasks. Galen, your section's Giant Tree Secretion potion course is to be suspended effective immediately. From now on, all your effort goes into brewing Putrid Swarm!"
Tigette began assigning tasks once more.
A Wizard wearing a golden helmet that concealed most of his face stood up and saluted.
Leilin recognized this Galen. He was the top expert in the Apothecary division, and the small team he led was also very capable, having successfully completed several difficult assignments in succession. His potion-brewing skills were exceptionally superb — by Leilin's own estimation, if he didn't deploy the Chip as his trump card, he might not even be able to match the man.
As for the Giant Tree Secretion potion assignment Galen had just been given, Leilin had heard something about it before. This formula had been refined to the final step, just a hair's breadth away from achieving real results.
But for the sake of the war, this experiment could only be reluctantly pushed to the back.
"Very well. Your losses — I will compensate you for them later!" Seeing Galen's cooperation, a smile bloomed across Tigette's face.
"So then, next up is..."
After that, Tigette modified the assignments for each small team from the previous round.
The earlier tasks had been research and breakthrough-oriented, but all of those were scrapped and replaced with assignments to brew various high-lethality combat potions.
The
This potion, known as the Heart of Magma, was a large-scale offensive Wizardry potion.
Although its power was relatively low — only around twenty degrees — its area of effect was enormous, making it one of the essential supplies for large-scale warfare.
It wasn't just Martin's team. Several other teams within the Apothecary division also received this assignment.
The compounding difficulty of this potion was extremely high, but Tigette paid no heed to the bitter expressions on his subordinates' faces. He distributed a massive quota of assignments and stated bluntly that if the fixed monthly quota wasn't met, not only would the Wizards' benefits and rations be docked, but they might even have some of their other privileges revoked.
Watching Martin's grim expression and the hopeful gaze directed at himself, Leilin's mind stirred.
Did Tigette's attitude suggest that the Four Seasons Garden was currently at a disadvantage in the struggle over the Ganges Secret Realm? And precisely because of that, a huge volume of combat potions was needed.
If that was the case, then in order to bolster their strength, it wasn't entirely impossible that they would eventually send the rear-echelon personnel — the Apothecaries, the Alchemists, and the like — to the front lines as well.
In that case, he needed to prepare some contingencies of his own.
After all, he wasn't about to foolishly throw his life away for the Four Seasons Garden or anything like that.
"Leilin, this time we're really counting on you!"
Martin looked at
"Alright! But this mission is very demanding, I can't guarantee anything..."
Leylin said with a bitter smile...
Under normal circumstances, Leylin certainly wouldn't reveal his true potion-making abilities.
Whenever he prepared potions, he would deliberately fail several times to cover up his ridiculously high success rate.
However, what was fortunate was that potion preparation was an extremely precise discipline with high environmental requirements, so apothecaries usually worked alone when preparing potions.
Leylin had his own private laboratory, and even his teammates couldn't disturb him rashly when he was preparing potions.
This gave him room to manipulate things.
Leylin had already prepared enough potions for the month at an astonishing speed beforehand, and then spent the remaining time researching the Branding Swordsmen and several materials and disciplinary knowledge he had previously obtained in the Ancient Soul-Slaughtering Sect's secret realm.
Inside Leylin's private laboratory.
On the pure white experiment table, there were now many messy reagents, droppers, beakers and similar items. In some of the beakers, colorful dissolved potions were constantly emitting bubbles outward.
Next to the experiment table, Leylin's eyes were closed tight, and the muscles on his face twitched in waves.
At the same time, rings of energy and spiritual power ripples were continuously compressing inward, causing the air to ripple with fine waves, as if contracting toward the interior.
The massive spiritual power on Leylin's body also decreased under the spiritual power fluctuations, finally even reaching a state of complete void.
After a long time, Leylin opened his eyes.
At this moment, his gaze was clear and pure, with none of the previous darkness remaining.
All the energy fluctuations on his body had also converged, making him seem like an ordinary person, only occasionally flashing with a profound light in his pupils, revealing a hint of unfathomable dark shadow.
"The spiritual power compression technique obtained from that old witch actually works this well!"
Leylin used the Chip to scan himself, but even the Chip could only provide some vague data, unable to thoroughly analyze Leylin's current specific situation.
Even though it wasn't the Chip running at full computational capacity, and he hadn't granted it access to tools like the atomic microscope, these results were still enough to fill Leylin with delight.
From the test just now and the Chip's earlier projections, the so-called Spiritual Power compression technique worked by using intense computation to overlap or compress one's own Spiritual Power fluctuations, thereby adjusting them and concealing one's true strength.
The first half of the technique that the old witch had given him was already enough for Leylin to hide his presence among a crowd of Rank 1 Wizards without leaving any flaws.
Combined with the second half he had obtained from the old witch during his infiltration of the Soul Devouring Sect's secret realm, the effect was greatly enhanced.
Leylin was now confident that even a Rank 2 Wizard would be unable to detect his concealment.
Possessing such an ability right as turbulent times were about to arrive made it all the more precious!
"This technique could become one of my signature concealment methods. Combined with Shadow Concealment, it might produce an even better effect..."
Leylin fell into deep thought as the Chip whirred rapidly in the background.
After about half an hour, Leylin finally rose to his feet and shook a bell with a golden handle on the experiment table.
Ding-a-ling!!! Ding-a-ling!!!
The crisp, pleasant sound of the bell spread rapidly outward.
Creak!
Moments later, a hidden door on one side of the laboratory swung open, and two Great Knights clad in iron armor walked in.
"Number Two! Number Three! How are you feeling now?"
Leylin looked at the two whose height and build had both surged dramatically, a flash of anticipation passing through his eyes.
"There's a bloated, aching sensation all over my body, as if something is constantly boring holes into me..."
"Master! My feelings are the same as Number Two's, and on top of that, my body fluctuates between hot and cold. From time to time my strength suddenly surges, and I inadvertently destroy everything I'm holding..." Number Three knelt on one knee and reported.
"Is that so? Lie down on the experiment table and let me take a look!"
Leylin ordered.
Number Three quickly stripped off all his armor and lay down on the cold experiment table.
At this moment, the marks on his body had become noticeably clearer. What stood out even more were several breakpoints in the inscriptions, now secured with red devices that gave off a rather peculiar appearance.
"The techniques of the ancient Inscription Knights—I truly cannot replicate them at present. But settling for second best, I can still manage to forcibly reconnect the inscriptions and allow the Great Knight to briefly draw upon the power of nature!"
Leylin thought calmly.
Fully replicating those powerful ancient Inscription Knights would still require an immense amount of time.
For now, Leylin would settle for second best—he would first create some substitutes to use in the meantime.