Wizard: I Can Refine Everything

Chapter 126: Chapter 26 Underground World (Part 1)

The Floating City Fortress, after about a month of construction, was now preliminarily perfected, and various alchemy weapons had been preliminarily set up. If another war broke out on the Black Bone Plain now, ten thousand White Wizards could easily win the war with these alchemy weapons.

When Richard approached within five hundred meters of the Floating City, a warning sound suddenly emitted from his crystal ball.

“Warning, warning, unauthorized flight within the airspace of the Floating City without clearance is not allowed.”

As soon as the voice ended, Richard saw several White Wizards flying over from the ground, each holding a magic wand.

“Who goes there? Where is your flight permit?”

Seeing this, Richard quickly explained,

...

“Sorry, I’ve been out for the past month and was unaware of this rule.”

The White Wizards scanned Richard’s body with their spiritual power and, upon confirming that he was a Wizard, said,

“There’s flying control over the airspace of the Floating City, no Wizard may fly without a cleared flight plan, please cooperate with us.”

Richard didn’t say much more and immediately landed.

Walking from the ground into the Floating City Fortress, Richard encountered many Black Wizards like himself; unlike White Wizards, they preferred to study alone, which also resulted in them being somewhat out of the loop on news.

Inside the Floating City Fortress, there had already gathered quite a few Black Wizards, and Richard immediately spotted Ali among them.

“Ali.” Richard walked over to her and asked softly, “What’s the situation with this assembly? Are they distributing infiltration tasks?”

Ali’s mentor Susanna was also participating in this war, and she was even a member of the command staff; her information was much more up-to-date than Richard’s.

“Sort of an infiltration,” Ali replied. “Our frontal battlefield is progressing smoothly, and according to the territorial divisions of this world, we have already captured two Insect Countries.

But these insects have nests not only on the surface, there is also a very complex structure of earth caves underground, and some insects have hidden inside and keep harassing us relentlessly.

The terrain of the earth caves is not well-suited for the White Wizard Army, so the task of clearing these insects has been handed over to us Black Wizards.”

Richard nodded, having roughly understood the nature of this mission.

The Black Wizards were individually powerful and more agile in combat, and this mission was indeed suitable for them.

Ali glanced at the magic wand in Richard’s hand and touched it with some curiosity.

“Where’s your Great Sword? Why switch to a wand that doesn’t even have a wand head?”

The head of a wand is generally the core of the wand, and a good wand head can significantly enhance the power of spells even without engraving runes. The Molten Lava Gem magic wand Ali used as an Apprentice is a classic example.

“The Great Sword is not quite suitable for dealing with these insects, so I transformed it into a wand and added some runes. As for the wand head…” Richard scratched his head with resignation, “I didn’t have many materials on hand, so I had to make do.”

“Transforming a Great Sword into a wand!?” Ali exclaimed, “You Alchemy Wizards are too casual, changing your Magic Equipment as soon as it doesn’t suit the battlefield.”

As she spoke, Ali took out her own magic wand somewhat sourly. The body of the wand had many signs of repair, but due to the lackluster skills of the repairing wizard, there were still many marks left by Warrior Worms visible on it.

“Do you think you could enhance this wand a bit?”

“Enhance?” Richard looked over the wand. This wand was a gift from her mentor Susanna after Ali became a Wizard. Its wand head, a Flame Crystal coupled with a Rune Array, could enhance the power of Fire Element Spells by a hundred Energy Levels.

With this wand, combined with Ali’s already remarkable proficiency in Shaping Magic, even her most basic Fireball Technique reached seven hundred Energy Levels. And if she used Spell Fire, her spell power could even soar to fifteen hundred Energy Levels, dealing area damage.

Unlike Richard’s Heart of Annihilation, which could only be used for single-target spells.

Therefore, during the previous battles, Ali had always been used as an artillery piece, protected by a few Black Wizards.

“With my skill level, enhancement can only be done by changing materials now.”

“Alright then,” Ali took her wand back with some disappointment.

As Black Wizards from all directions of the Black Bone Plain converged, the command finally issued their orders.

From the Communication Crystal Ball, the command’s cold voice continuously assigned tasks to the Black Wizards present. The Wizards who received their missions collected various corresponding items from logistical Wizards according to the mission’s needs.

In the past month, the logistical Wizards of the Floating City had conducted a lot of research on the Black Crystal Insects and designed quite a few items targeting the Black Crystal Worm Clan.

The purpose of the Black Wizards’ mission this time was not only to eliminate the insects in the Underground Insect Nests but also to test these items.

Richard’s task was to eradicate the insects in the Underground Insect Nests and explore the terrain of the nests as thoroughly as possible.

Ali’s mission was the same as his, and the location was also Insect Nest Number One.

Following the instructions of the mission, they received a set of alchemy items from the logistical Wizards, including a Concealing Potion that would mask their own scent, an Imaging Crystal Ball that could emit reconnaissance sound waves, a reusable Slave Seal, and a Magic Pocket for holding slaves.

According to the command’s information, there were many non-combatant insects in the Underground Insect Nests, which the Black Tower Great Wizard was temporarily buying in unlimited quantities. Depending on the type, the price ranged from one Magic Stone to one hundred Magic Stones each.

While collecting the items, Richard and Ali unexpectedly ran into a familiar Wizard.

“Lawrence, which Insect Nest are you cleaning up?” Richard greeted familiarly.

As teammates who had fought together, Richard was very clear about Lawrence’s strength—in the narrow spaces of the underground insect nest, the power of his shadow magic would definitely increase significantly.

Lawrence looked towards Richard, his expressionless face revealing a stiff smile.

As an undead wizard who had transformed himself into something resembling a living dead, it was already quite a happy matter for him to be able to smile at all.

“Number One Insect Nest, what about you guys?”

“Number One as well.””

“Team up for now?””

“Agreed.”

…

Number One Insect Nest was located one hundred kilometers south of the Black Bone Plain. Before arriving at this nest, Richard had always thought it was a mountain range.

Approaching the nest, he saw the majestic insect nest towering like a mountain, thickly dotted with holes that were usually the entry and exit points for the Black Crystal Worm Clan. Many of them had now been collapsed by the spells of the White Wizards.

“Is this the Number One Insect Nest?” Richard couldn’t help but exclaim with astonishment as he looked at the huge structure before him.

“It’s so big, it’s incredible that these bugs could create such an enormous nest,” Ali, standing beside him, likewise marveled.

For a wizard rookie participating in a plane war for the first time, everything was so intriguing.

“Indeed, it’s magnificent,” the veteran wizard Lawrence said indifferently.

He had experienced two plane wars and had seen many wonders of otherworlds. Although the insect nest before him was spectacular, he was more concerned about the situation inside. @@novelbin@@

Such a colossal nest would surely have a complex network of underground tunnels. To the Black Crystal Worm Clan, these intricate networks were just their backyard, but to the wizards, these same structures were potential traps waiting to devour them at any moment.

“Let’s go.”

Richard captured the spectacular scene before him with an Image Capturing Crystal Ball, then found an entrance to enter the nest.

The building material of the nest was strange, a kind of red soil mixed with plant roots and stems. This material possessed considerable strength; Richard tested it and found that it would need at least an impact of fifty energy levels to be destroyed.

“This building material is quite good; the White Wizard Army will probably like it,” Richard said lightly as he collected a piece of the soil.

This thing also had a certain research value, and he could study it when he had free time to enhance his breadth of knowledge.

A mature wizard must possess an immense store of knowledge.

Following the passages down, the deeper they went into the nest, the more humid the environment became. Even the earthen walls of the nest started to display moss-like plants.

This was starkly different from the relatively dry environment of the insect nest world’s surface.

According to the current observations of the wizards, the surface of the insect nest world was extremely dry and cold with vast wastelands and deserts. Only around a few major rivers were there relatively dense vegetation.

But if they were to estimate based on the insects that appeared during this war, this world should have nearly a billion low-level insects as its base.

If it only relied on the plant density on the surface, the world could not possibly sustain such a vast Black Crystal Worm Clan.

Therefore, the command center believed that the majority of the Black Crystal Worm Clan’s food source was located in the underground insect nests, or to say, the underground insect nests were actually the main part of this world. If their operation to exterminate the insects went smoothly, the Black Wizards would be the next to be sent to the unoccupied parts of the nests for a sabotage mission behind enemy lines.

The layout of the tunnels inside the nest was very complicated. The various pathways that looked identical were confusing, and it was easy to start going in circles if one wasn’t careful. Moreover, due to the particular structure of the nest, Richard and his group dared not clear their way with magic too hastily, fearing it might trigger a chain reaction and entomb them as well.

Fortunately, the command center had issued them with Imaging Crystal Balls that used microwave detection. This crystal ball could use a kind of ultrasonic wave, inaudible to human ears, to detect the surrounding terrain and was crucial in the complicated system of the underground insect nest.

Otherwise, without special means, the wizards could only wait to get lost in the caves.

As they entered the underground insect nest, the scene before them immediately stunned them.

They were now in a relatively spacious underground cavern. The walls of the cavern were covered in pale blue glowing moss. Among this moss, even brighter glowing mushrooms were densely scattered, like a sky full of stars.

Richard took a deep breath; the temperature in the cavern was noticeably higher than on the surface, and the air contained a slight moist sweetness, as though they were walking in a forest after the rain.

“The concentration of spores in the air is significantly higher than on the surface; prepare for poison prevention,” Richard warned.

“Hmm, the concentration of Water Element in the space is higher; there should be underground water veins nearby,” Ali added.

The Elemental Creature Bloodline she had fused with was Fire Element. In this environment where the Water Element was denser, she felt very uncomfortable.

Lawrence took out the Imaging Crystal Ball distributed by the logistics wizards, activated it, and a sound wave inaudible to human ears emanated from the crystal ball. After a moment, the crystal ball projected an image showing the nearby network of tunnels.

“Ali, you were wrong; there’s no underground water vein around here,” Lawrence looked at the projected image. “If there were an underground water vein nearby, this image would be affected. This concentration of Water Element is probably due to the special rules of this world. We definitely need to be wary of this.

These special rules of otherworlds often lead to many phenomena that do not conform to the common sense of our Wizard World.”

Having said that, he pointed to a larger hollow space in the image with a small dot inside it.

“There’s a cavern here, I suspect there should be an insect inside it.”