Chapter 349 - 255: To Wear Out Iron Shoes in a Futile Search, Only to Find It by Chance

Chapter 349: Chapter 255: To Wear Out Iron Shoes in a Futile Search, Only to Find It by Chance

Both the Flesh Sect and the Mechanical God Sect were organizations of Legendary Mages. If the Flesh Sect had Mad Witches, then it was only natural for the Mechanical God Sect to have them as well.

After all, while Mad Witches were dangerous, one thing was undeniable: they were all geniuses!

Geniuses among geniuses, at that!

After all, you couldn’t survive a clash with an Outer God without some serious skill.

Most importantly, in a war between Wizard Organizations, Mad Witches were the most unique assets!

As a highly intelligent group, Wizards didn’t wage war like Knights, who simply clashed head-on. Of course, direct confrontation happened, but not often. Their battles were more about countering each move as it came. It was a constant back-and-forth, a game of one-upmanship to see whose side was better at deciphering and counteracting the other’s schemes.

In this style of warfare, the Mad Witches—possessing vast amounts of Outer God Power and Knowledge—became the wild cards.

Because their "weapons" were covered in shit!

No one wanted to touch that stuff. And if you couldn’t touch it, you certainly couldn’t figure out how to counter it.

This was also why the mission had ended up on Isaac’s desk.

Even Tier Five Mages, powerful as Demigods, were unwilling to touch the Knowledge of the Outer Gods. It wasn’t that they feared the Outer Gods, but it was just... disgusting!

’Isaac didn’t quite understand what was so disgusting about Outer God Power. Other than its inherent danger, he felt it wasn’t that different from normal Magic.’

’But as a mere Tier Three, Isaac naturally couldn’t fathom the minds of Tier Five powerhouses, nor did he want to try. In any case, this was a good thing for him. The Contribution Points for this kind of mission were extremely high.’

’After all, only Mad Witches could do it, and as for Mad Witches...’

’To be honest, while the Flesh Sect had quite a few—even one or two at Tier Four or Five, it seemed—those top dogs wouldn’t necessarily bother with something like this. The reward might be generous for an ordinary Wizard, but for a Mad Witch...’

’...it was just so-so. They’d be better off taking a gamble with an Outer God.’

Of course, Isaac was once again overlooking one thing...

Not all Mad Witches could obtain Outer God Power as easily as he could, even through a normal transaction!

Thus, when Isaac opened his Magic Book, he was surprised to find that several Mad Witches had already posted their insights in the specially created communication channel...

One of them was even a Tier Four Miracle Mage!

Staring at the Miracle Mage’s profile picture, Isaac scratched his head in bewilderment. ’Seems I... still don’t understand Mad Witches well enough... A Tier Four, and they’re still this hard up for work?’

’Frankly, if I were Tier Four, I would never take this kind of mission. I’d just charge onto the battlefield, slaughter that guy, and be done with it!’

’After all, the Mad Witch currently active on the battlefield was only a Tier Three High-level Mage. He used Outer God Power to intimidate other Wizards, but to fellow Mad Witches, he was nothing special.’

’You’re covered in shit?’

’Too bad, buddy. I’m covered in even more shit than you are!’

Shaking his head, Isaac glanced at the others’ posts before turning his attention to the data sent over by the Sect.

As a High-level Mage, Isaac had his pride. He wouldn’t let others’ opinions taint his own ideas before he began his work.

As Isaac focused on the data, a faint light flickered in his eyes. He quickly entered his work mode, and his previously casual expression slowly grew serious.

The enemy’s Magic itself wasn’t anything special; it just created a unique Mechanical Body. Inside this Mechanical Body was a Melting Furnace that could instantly incinerate any substance into a violent, twisted Alien Divine Power.

This power was then fired out like a Magic Cannon!

The trickiest part was this Alien Divine Power. The energy possessed powerful erosive and corrupting abilities, capable of dismantling many Techniques, which made it extremely difficult to deal with in a siege.

Worst of all, the enemy had clearly taken the Flesh Sect’s Dimension World into account. Unlike Isaac’s Dimension World, which was treated as a dumping ground, this one was different. Setting aside the thoughts of the Blood and Bone God, the simple fact that it was the Flesh Sect’s main headquarters meant it couldn’t be treated like a garbage dump.

Furthermore, no one knew what kind of nasty things might be lurking within this Alien Divine Power. If they absorbed too much of it, they risked being usurped from within. The gains wouldn’t be worth the losses.

But...

For Isaac, however, solving this problem wasn’t difficult. He wouldn’t even have to risk using his own Dimension World to absorb the Alien Divine Power.

From the data available, Isaac had already found two solutions. The first was simple: find the source of this Alien Divine Power and obtain a higher level of power from It.

As a certain Magical Girl who lost her bear once said, "The Mysterious will yield to a greater Mysterious!"

’For Isaac, the greatest difficulty with this method wasn’t the ritual, but finding that specific Outer God. After all, with so many Outer Gods out there, he couldn’t be sure which one it was.’

However, he didn’t need to worry about that. The other Wizards in the Sect had already identified the being in question: Ganmithras, the Alien Star God.

A rare Star God of the Mechanical System.

But Isaac, who had grown picky about which Outer God Powers he used, preferred the second option over acquiring power from this entity: fighting poison with poison!

’So their Alien Divine Power is highly erosive and difficult to cleanse?’

’Then I’ll just create an energy that’s even more erosive and even harder to cleanse!’

Isaac already had the perfect foundation for this method: his Dimension World.

The Magic Power of a Dimension World was already extremely difficult to deal with. After he integrated the Authority of Deep Sea Corrosion, it became even more tenacious. More importantly, he had a large number of fearless Dimension Apostles to do his bidding. Therefore, choosing this method meant...

...he could handle the entire mission by himself!

’Why do freelance work when you can be the sole contractor? The money’s much faster that way.’

’Plus, the Dimension Apostles would be doing all the heavy lifting. He just needed to handle the initial preparations. He could literally get paid for lying around at home!’

This prep work wasn’t difficult; it was just a matter of acquiring a bit more Outer God Power. What truly made Isaac’s expression turn grave was something else he found in the data from the Sect: the tracks of another Mad Witch!

The tracks of the very Mad Witch he had been hunting!

The Prank Master!

The very culprit who had cursed Isaac’s mother, causing her to die from complications during his birth!

For years, Isaac had been searching for his trail. He had even set aside a portion of Outer God Power specifically for this purpose, just waiting for a free moment to acquire the necessary power from the right entity to locate him.

But he had been too busy lately, and the matter kept getting postponed.

There was another reason, of course. He had previously heard that this person had appeared on the battlefield between the Flesh Sect and the Mechanical God Sect, so he’d planned to deal with it all at once.

But for the longest time, there hadn’t been a single trace. Isaac had been on the verge of giving up and reverting to his original plan to find him. He never expected to pick up the trail now...

Unbelievable...

A sharp glint flashed in Isaac’s eyes. As he activated his [Analysis] Authority at full power, he began multitasking, issuing orders to his legion of Servant Demons and subordinate Wizards. They were to halt all current tasks and carry out his new commands immediately!

The Dimension Apostles flooded every battlefield between the Flesh Sect and the Mechanical God Sect, gathering more data and intelligence for Isaac. The Magic Eye Mage, Soron, dropped his current research project to restart the Dimensional Magic Power Enhancement protocol. The Saint Master ceased his cultivation of a new Demon Secret Technique. He partnered with Shushu, who also halted his own research, and together they scoured various regions to collect the materials Isaac needed for his transactions with the Outer Gods.

Meanwhile, Smith and Lorna led the members of Mad Heart on a frantic shopping spree through the trade markets in Lake Town, the Truth Association, the Flesh Sect, and other organizations, snatching up every ritual material they could possibly use!

This time, Isaac was preparing to go big!

This was a rare opportunity, and he wanted to make it count with a single, decisive strike!

In an instant, all the forces under Isaac’s command sprang into motion, operating like a colossal machine to supply him with a continuous stream of materials and data.

Immersed completely in his work, time flew by.

「Three days later.」

During those three days, Isaac sifted through an ocean of data and successfully found more traces of the Prank Master. He roughly pinpointed his location: the Star Sea!

It was an ocean formed from the corpses of several Star Gods. It contained an unusually complex energy field that severely interfered with detection Magic. It was no exaggeration to say that even a Tier Five Mage would be as good as blind inside without special detection methods.

Besides the environment, which was like a silent, dark night, there was an even greater problem. The Star Sea was home to numerous Star Beasts born from the Divine Corpses. It was even said that there were Divine Abominations comparable to Deities themselves lurking within!

One could only imagine how high the risks of operating there were!

But as the saying goes: the rougher the seas, the more valuable the fish!

Despite the Star Sea’s immense danger, it remained a focal point of contention for various powers, all because it contained—

Divinity!

And not just one!

"The Star Sea..."

Staring at the dense network of charts in his hand, Isaac’s eyes narrowed. Even he would find a place like the Star Sea somewhat troublesome, but...

’...only somewhat.’

Isaac’s gaze shifted, landing on a thick little stack of Parchment to the side. These contained the details of the rituals his Servant Demons and Wizards had collected over the past three days—rituals that could be used for trades with the Outer Gods.

Among them were five Outer God Ceremonies for enhancing detection abilities. Four of them could harvest power from the Prophetic System, while one could harvest power to enhance the perceptive abilities of his Dimension World. The ceremonies for enhancing the erosive capabilities of his Dimensional Magic Power were the most numerous, totaling twelve!

However, to maximize their effect, he couldn’t just perform all twelve at once. He would need to carefully select and combine a few of them. This would push their potency to the limit while ensuring they didn’t interfere with the perceptive abilities granted by his Dimension World...

After all, that perception was his greatest asset for navigating the Star Sea!

CRACK~

Isaac cracked his neck, a sinister smile spreading across his face. For him, this sort of thing was child’s play!

’Soon...’

Just as Isaac was engrossed in the ritual data, a visitor arrived in his domain—someone both unexpected and yet, in a way, anticipated...

Caesar Solomon!