Chapter 828: You Don’t Need to Pay Me. I’m Already Hunting Them!

The next day, in the buildings of the Meri Ruins in the Golden Dynasty, Alaric stood before Throne Wizard Russell in a rather embarrassed state.

Throne Wizard Russell took out a handwritten letter and frowned.

"So this is the question you want to ask me?"

Alaric said through gritted teeth, "This Second Circle wizard from Golden Crown Mountain in the Cloud Marsh Wetlands admires your scholarship, so he entrusted me to seek your guidance on his behalf. Teacher, he truly holds your scholarship in the highest esteem."

"Perhaps in your view this question might seem a bit basic. But you might be willing to give him a chance."

Throne Wizard Russell glanced at Alaric.

"No, this is a very good question."

"Alaric. Not bad. I like people who are able to ask this kind of question, and I also appreciate wizards who have broad social abilities."

Throne Wizard Russell himself wore a suit of golden armor that looked somewhat like a tropical beach shirt, and he wore a cowboy hat adorned with golden ornaments.

Wizard Alaric unexpectedly saw approval in the eyes of the normally rather stern Throne Wizard Russell.

Wizard Alaric was inwardly astonished.

'Teacher actually appreciates what I did? Why? Does teacher actually like outgoing, socially capable wizards?'

'How did I never notice this before? I cannot believe I missed this.'

Wizard Russell said, "I believe good ideas must be exchanged with other talented people. Alaric, you did very well in this matter."

"What is more, I have been following this Second Circle wizard's competition. He carries the bloodline of a golden dragon. I had plans to take him as a student at one point. But when I saw he went to the Red Dragon Throne's side, I dropped that idea. Other Thrones are one thing, but the Red Dragon Throne is not someone I can afford to offend."

Wizard Russell looked at the questions Locke had posed in the letter.

"His thinking is very good. Who would have expected him to have researched the foxtail grass family to this extent."

"Hmm? This thinking seems to contain the thinking of another person."

Wizard Russell, as a Throne Wizard, immediately detected that Locke's research was based on the thinking of a very talented wizard, and had continued from there.

"That wizard's magical level should not be very high, because their vision is not broad enough, their vantage point not high enough, and their view is somewhat narrow. But their thinking is far too brilliant. They possess the kind of breakthrough insight that goes from zero to one. It has been a long time since I have seen this kind of talent in the Twilight Border."

"From this letter I can see two gifted people. The two of them each have their own strengths. No wonder they have been able to push the research on the foxtail grass family's magical plants this far."

"In the letter, he has even vaguely worked out the key to the continuous degeneration of the foxtail grass family. And yes, it is indeed a special form of undead magic. The young truly surpass the old."

Curiosity flickered in Wizard Russell's eyes.

"I spent a very long time researching the foxtail grass family magical plants before I worked this out, and yet this junior has already come to understand this. I wonder how he came to know it."

Wizard Russell suddenly let out a sigh.

Wizard Alaric asked him nervously, "Teacher, why do you sigh?"

Wizard Russell seemed somewhat lacking in spirit.

"Our Twilight Border has long been in decline. The talents of the eastern region used to gather toward our Twilight Border. Back then our Twilight Border was full of gifted people, not lacking in genius. Later we declined, and students and formal wizards alike went elsewhere."

"And so, the once glorious Twilight Border now lives only on the fading honor of past greatness. For so many years, I have never encountered two such gifted people within the Twilight Border. And yet now, in a single letter, I have seen both of them."

"Are they both from the Cloud Marsh Wetlands?"

Wizard Alaric felt somewhat awkward.

"On that, teacher, I do not know."

Wizard Russell said to him, "Then find a way to find out. Ask who the second wizard is, the one whose thinking is embedded behind the thinking in this letter. If she is not a student of the Red Dragon Throne, then I have a way to bring her in."

Wizard Alaric immediately said, "Yes, teacher."

Throne Wizard Russell looked at the letter in his hand, thought for a moment, and then from his golden star realm ring took out a Golden Foxtail Grass specimen. He placed the Golden Foxtail Grass specimen together with Locke's letter into an envelope and sealed it with a magical wax seal.

Throne Wizard Russell handed the letter to Wizard Alaric and said, "Send this letter back to your friend. If he has other letters to send in the future, bring them to me directly. No need to trouble your senior anymore."

"Also, those two witches you gave to your senior, I have already ordered him to return them to you. I hold him to high expectations, and witches will only interfere with his research. Do not cause problems for me."

"As for the witches around you, I would advise you to let them go as well."

Alaric's body gave a shudder, and his heart bled inwardly.

He had not expected that by delivering a letter for Locke and asking a question, he would end up losing his most beloved witches.

Throne Wizard Russell had only given him advice, but did he dare not follow it?

Alaric's heart bled.

At the same time he looked puzzled at the envelope, because Throne Wizard Russell had written no reply at all, only placing a piece of a foxtail grass magical plant specimen to send back.

Throne Wizard Russell gave him a glance and said, "Do not worry. Locke Augustine is different from you. He is a true breeding genius. The moment he sees this specimen, he will understand what I am saying."

Throne Wizard Russell had absolute confidence in Locke, since this wizard had actually managed to work out the key to the foxtail grass family's degeneration at the ordinary Second Circle stage. That was impressive.

Wizard Alaric said, "Yes, teacher."

...

Golden Crown Mountain. Locke contacted the old pirate Henry through the water hyacinth system. Almost instantly, Old Pirate Henry replied.

"Here, I am here. I have been waiting for Mister Augustine for a very long time."

"One bottle of wizard wine after another has been finished, and Mister Augustine still had not contacted me. I was beginning to think you would not."

Locke asked, 'No recent raids? No work to do?'

Old Pirate Henry replied, 'After the failure last time, we have not had a single raid application approved. The higher-ups must be questioning our ability. Mister Augustine, I am in very much need of an opportunity to prove my qualifications right now.'

'I have been waiting for your contact for a very long time.'

Locke was a little exasperated.

The pirate wizard side had copied the grant system wholesale, causing the pirate side to also be extremely competitive.

When all was said and done, the most pitiable participants in the five great wars had to be the pirate wizards. These human-type magical artifacts were practically raising themselves.

And on top of that, they had to compete.

Some might not even be able to sustain themselves.

That grand pirate captain, the former truth-seeker wizard, truly lived up to his white wizard university origins.

This approach of his defied description even with the expression of stripping flesh from bone.

Old Pirate Henry sent him a message.

'By the way, Mister Augustine. We recently tried to apply for a number of projects but none were approved. Only one project caught my attention. It was a task for us to raid a specific shipment of goods belonging to Arthas's High Elf Great World.'

'I cannot see the specific contents, but I can see the name of the posting party. It is Solas Light Foot.'

Locke's eyes narrowed immediately.

He had been careless.

Because his production line was essentially contracted out to Arthas, and Arthas's actual backing interests consisted of large numbers of Fourth Circle wizards, he had always assumed that Arthas's transport route would be extremely safe.

But he had not considered that Solas Light Foot might issue a raiding order to the pirate mothership's pirates.

At this moment, a large portion of his funds were all tied up in that shipment. If anything happened to that shipment, he would go bankrupt.

Locke understood that the old pirate was warning him. Otherwise there would have been no reason to suddenly mention it.

"Has anyone accepted it?"

Henry sent back a message.

'Not yet. No one has been able to come up with a plan for raiding Arthas's transport station and write a decent proposal. So it has not been claimed by anyone yet. Though even if someone did claim it, the probability of success would not be high.'

'Arthas's transport stations are among the most difficult to raid.'

'I think the probability of someone accepting it is not great.'

Locke immediately gave a slight nod.

However, he immediately thought of a problem. The difficulty Old Henry was describing was that of raiding an entire transport station, not the difficulty of raiding one specific shipment.

Moreover, the Cloud Marsh Wetlands had the five great wars.

Solas Light Foot could hire pirates. Could they not hire anyone else?

Upon realizing this, Locke immediately made up his mind. When Arthas was transporting that shipment back from the High Elf Great World, he could have his clone board that transport station flight to personally protect his goods.

'Although Arthas's security should be quite solid, from a logical standpoint, striking this shipment of mine is indeed a method to deal with my Augustus Wizard Shoe Store Alliance. It could strangle the store alliance in its cradle.'

Locke said to Old Pirate Henry, 'Thanks for the warning. I will be heading to the target plane in the near future. You can enter the Cloud Marsh Wetlands in the near future.'

'I will arrange someone to give you an identity that allows you to move around near Golden Crown Mountain. Do not do anything out of line. Golden Crown Mountain's monitoring capability is very strong. Whatever you do will be known.'

Every blade of grass and every tree on Golden Crown Mountain was an informant.

This was something he had only recently discovered, since Golden Crown Mountain had large numbers of tree people, small goblins, and small faeries.

Old Pirate Henry seemed extremely excited about this, sending back an image of a ship and a pirate hat.

Locke also sent Hussein a message, informing him that the void exploration was soon to depart and contacting him.

At the same time, Locke saw through the free library on the water hyacinth system that those two store alliances, Solas Light Foot and Melechi Magic Step, had been clashing even more fiercely recently.

After the mass pirate cancellations that Solas Light Foot had suffered, Melechi Magic Step had seized the opportunity to deal Solas Light Foot a blow, maneuvering against their stock price. So Solas Light Foot had recently been focusing on targeting certain of Melechi Magic Step's problematic shoe models.

And quite effectively. Solas Light Foot appeared to know Melechi very well and had identified many serious design defects in Melechi's wizard shoe models, proving a connection between those defects and the deaths of certain wizards.

This had drawn Melechi Magic Step into some litigation disputes.

This also led to Melechi Magic Step recently announcing that within half a year they would hold a void exploration themed event, inviting famous void explorers to endorse their wizard shoes.

Locke thought, "In this way, both Melechi and Solas Light Foot will be holding themed events within the next half year, inviting well-known explorers to endorse their products. Of course, the two seem to have turned this into a head-to-head showdown as well."

"It seems old grievances between the two have piled up too much. It should have nothing to do with me."

"Nothing to do with me."

Locke thought that his design ideas for the second Second Circle wizard shoe had also been taking shape recently.

He was simply waiting for the first batch of Second Circle wizard shoes to sell and give him some money back, then he could begin the second Second Circle wizard shoe design and the void exploration.

"Developing the Three-Hole World will require considerable funds. I either take out a bank loan or obtain this large sum through the wizard shoe store alliance."

Locke thought, "And I also need enough funds to complete the Golden Cup's flying magical plant research and to accumulate preliminary experimental data for the special-grade grant application."

At this moment, Locke was standing on Golden Crown Mountain waiting for Hussein's reply.

Hussein sent Locke three messages through the water hyacinth system.

'Here, I am in the Golden Crown Mountain region.'

'Locke, I am being hunted by the Pale Pilgrimage. Three Second Circle wizards have cut off my escape. Their magic pressure is roughly around fifteen thousand each.'

'I need some time to shake their pursuit.'

Locke frowned and sent Hussein a message.

'Coordinates?'

Hussein sent back a startled expression.

'I am out of money lately. I do not have money to hire someone as expensive as you, a senior researcher.'

Locke said, 'Can a wealthy attorney like you really run out of money?'

Hussein sent back a message.

'The original version of the blood race conversion curse and the permanent defensive force field shell is very expensive. It requires using the blood of various high-grade magical creatures to elevate its grade, otherwise it is just an ordinary permanent defensive force field shell. And I am still being continuously hunted. For some reason, the Pale Pilgrimage is absolutely convinced I am a traitor, and their attitude toward traitors is that they must die.'

Locke sent him a message.

'Send the coordinates. You do not need to pay me.'

'I have been hunting them recently too.'

The enemy was visible while he remained hidden, and he already knew the basic information about the opponents. This was the ideal hunting environment.

Locke curved the corner of his mouth. For a moment his pupils turned golden and vertical.

His Moon of Evolution needed as much Zero Potion as possible.

And right now, Hussein had three necromancers with a magic pressure of fifteen thousand following behind him. This was truly wonderful.

It was practically good potion materials coming to deliver themselves to his door.