Chapter 182: The Limitations of Wizards, Future Plans

Chapter 182: The Limitations of Wizards, Future Plans

Even a newly ascended wizard could kill a third-level wizard apprentice as easily as squashing an ant.

Slaying over a dozen third-level wizard apprentices didn't give Su Nan the slightest sense of accomplishment.

After all, wizards and apprentices were fundamentally different beings, existing on entirely different levels of life.

This outcome was entirely expected.

However, some discoveries during the battle made Su Nan frown slightly.

Shaking his head, Su Nan temporarily set aside his doubts. He extended his hand and gathered the spatial rings of the fallen members of the Truth Council. Then, he turned to Koi and the others.

"Are you all right?" Su Nan asked.

Scepter, Traveler, and Rose subconsciously shook their heads, then suddenly snapped back to reality. Their faces showed a mix of shock, confusion, and disbelief.

"Su Nan, did you... did you ascend to wizard?" Rose asked, despite already having a suspicion.

The answer, of course, was no surprise.

"Yes," Su Nan admitted candidly.

Scepter glanced at the shattered top of the Starlight Tower and hesitated. "What about inside the Starlight Tower?"

Su Nan replied coolly, "I've already taken everything valuable. The Starlight Tower is now just an empty shell."

With his ascension to wizard, there was no longer anyone on the Starlight Continent that Su Nan feared.

The power of a wizard was enough to dominate the Starlight Continent. With such might, he had no need to hide.

As expected, Scepter, Rose, and Traveler hesitated, but ultimately said nothing.

Faced with a fully ascended wizard like Su Nan, they no longer had the confidence to speak as equals.

"Let's go back."

With a wave of his hand, Su Nan summoned a small army of golems that surrounded the Starlight Tower.

Although he had stripped the tower of its resources, the tower itself was still a valuable material.

Su Nan planned to dismantle it later and use the materials to build his own wizard tower, so he couldn't allow others to interfere.

While he was away, the golem army would guard the Starlight Tower.

To ensure no one could bypass his defenses, Su Nan left behind a secret puppet and destroyed the elemental pool inside the tower.

Without an energy source, the Starlight Tower could no longer retreat into the dimensional space and would have to remain in the material world.

As Su Nan and the others flew away, the onlookers gradually emerged from their hiding places. They looked at the golem army surrounding the Starlight Tower and exchanged helpless glances.

"What should we do?"

"What can we do? Leave, of course. Do you think you can fight all those golems? I'm warning you, there are even Adamantine Golems in there!"

"Even if you could fight them, do you want to be hunted down by that wizard? Didn't you see how those third-level wizard apprentices were crushed like ants?"

"Never thought someone would actually ascend to wizard."

"From now on, the Starlight Continent will change."

The crowd's expressions were complex, reflecting a sense of witnessing history.

After flying for a short distance, Scepter, Rose, and Traveler bid farewell and left.

Faced with Su Nan, the three felt immense pressure and dared not stay any longer.

Su Nan didn't mind. He controlled a liquid metal to envelop himself and Koi, forming a streamlined shape, and shot toward Flash City.

The journey that took four days on the way there was completed in just half a day with Su Nan's full power.

After parting ways with Koi in Flash City, Su Nan returned to Base 1 and crossed the spatial passage back to Dragon Forest.

Reaching the control center at the top of the Dragon Skeleton Tower, he immediately summoned Butler 1 to check the operational logs of Dragon Forest over the past two years.

Before leaving, Su Nan had considered the possibility of being away for a long time and made some arrangements, so there were no issues with Dragon Forest. Everything was running smoothly.

However, there were a lot of miscellaneous tasks that needed his attention.

Additionally, there were likely many decisions required from him regarding the Star Alliance that had piled up over the past two years.

But those weren't urgent.

Su Nan had other matters that needed immediate verification.

Standing by the elemental pool, Su Nan cast several spells and manipulated energy particles for a while. Finally, he confirmed his suspicions.

"Indeed, the concentration of energy particles is the greatest constraint for wizards."

Su Nan's expression was somewhat complex.

When he had killed the members of the Truth Council, he had noticed that the strength of the energy particles he could control was far below his maximum capacity.

If his maximum control was 100, he could only mobilize up to 20.

This means that the spells he casts and the manipulation of energy particles are at most only about 20% of their normal power!

While the reduction in power is concerning, the most critical issue is the gradual weakening of the physical body due to the lack of energy particle immersion, as well as the significant impact on the growth and recovery of mental energy.

Su Nan now truly understands the detrimental effects of energy scarcity.

When he was still a wizard apprentice, his power hadn't yet reached the upper limit of energy particle concentration on the Starlight Continent, so the impact wasn't as noticeable.

However, after advancing to the rank of a full wizard, his power levels surpassed the energy particle concentration limit, and he truly felt the effects of energy scarcity.

In this environment, not only is a wizard's power significantly weakened, but their cultivation is also severely impacted.

Moreover, the sensory discomfort is quite significant.

When he first became a wizard, the presence of the elemental pool nearby made the effects less noticeable. But after leaving the Tower of the Myriad Stars, it felt as if he had suddenly been transported to a place with thin air.

"No wonder the wizards of a thousand years ago left the Starlight Continent. This place is truly not suitable for wizards."

Su Nan sighed.

He currently lacks the ability to travel between planes, so he has no choice but to stay on the Starlight Continent for now.

"The auxiliary intelligent life of the Tower of the Myriad Stars mentioned the restoration of the plane barrier. There might be hidden secrets from a thousand years ago that I'm not aware of."

In his previous life, when Su Nan entered the game, it was already in version 2.0 of "The Return of the Wizards." He had limited knowledge of the earlier 1.0 version and the transition period, only having vague recollections and bits of information.

He initially thought the Starlight Continent was just a desolate elemental wasteland, but now it seems more complex than that.

"Some of the books in the Tower of the Myriad Stars mentioned this. I should find time to read them."

Su Nan took a deep breath and began to consider his next steps.

First, there's the matter of cultivation.

The growth and refinement of gaseous mental energy are already very slow, with each percentage point of improvement taking years.

Now, with the energy scarcity on the Starlight Continent, without external assistance, just maintaining his current level would be a challenge, let alone improving.

"Divine Blood Amber has almost no effect on me now."

"The Transcendent Elixir is the same; I need to synthesize a higher-tier potion."

The combination of the elemental pool, potions, and divine energy should roughly offset the impact of energy scarcity.

Next, he needs to find other methods to accelerate the growth of his mental energy.

Second, there are wizard tools.

This isn't a significant challenge for Su Nan.

If not for the limitation of his mental energy, he would have synthesized wizard tools long ago as an apprentice.

However, Su Nan doesn't plan to randomly synthesize a few tools.

Other wizards don't have a choice, but with his Synthesis Cube, he has many options.

The best approach is to synthesize a tool that best suits his combat style and system.

This way, he can achieve a synergistic effect greater than the sum of its parts.

This is something he needs to carefully consider.

Third, there are experiments.

Now that he has advanced to the rank of a wizard, many experiments previously limited by his mental energy can be initiated.

For example, improving secret puppets and bloodline imprints, as well as more advanced rune carvings beyond magical tattoos.

Lastly, there's the wizard tower.

As one of the greatest alchemical creations in wizard civilization, the wizard tower is renowned throughout the multiverse.

Countless plane civilizations have fallen to the artillery of wizard towers.

Their fame has spread across innumerable planes.

There's a saying in the multiverse: "More terrifying than a wizard is a wizard with a wizard tower!"

Every wizard dreams of owning their own wizard tower.

However, building a wizard tower is no simple task.

A proper wizard tower must have a stable supply of magical energy, a protective energy field, long-range strike capabilities, an internal golem army, and a tower spirit construct commander.

The resources required to build even the most basic wizard tower are valued in the tens of millions of gold coins.

Even formal wizards rarely have that much gold.

As a result, many first-tier wizards don't have their own towers.

Even among second-tier wizards, those who can afford to build a wizard tower are few and far between.

Broadly speaking, wizard towers can be divided into two types:

Those that can fly, and those that cannot.

The non-flying wizard towers are primarily those built on ley line nodes.

These wizard towers are often bound to ley line nodes, making them immobile and unable to fly.

In the eyes of many wizards, such towers do not even deserve to be called wizard towers.

Unless a wizard is strapped for cash and has no choice but to build a tower, very few would choose to construct one on a ley line node.

The vast majority of wizards opt to build towers that can fly.

In the classification of wizard civilization, wizard towers are divided by size into small, medium, and large.

The larger the tower, the more expensive it is to build.

Su Nan doesn’t dare to dream about medium or large towers right now.

Even if he dismantled the entire Starlight Continent, he wouldn’t be able to gather enough resources to build a medium-sized tower.

His goal is to build a small tower.

Don’t underestimate the small size; it still far exceeds the capacity of the Starlight Tower.

"Building a wizard tower requires an enormous amount of resources. Given the current state of the Starlight Continent, it’s quite difficult to construct one."

"Even dismantling the Starlight Tower would only provide a fraction of the necessary resources, leaving a significant gap."

"To gather the remaining resources, relying solely on the Star Alliance is impossible."

Su Nan’s eyes glinted with determination. He had already made his decision.

Before building the wizard tower, the first step is to unify the Starlight Continent!

Only by doing so can he consolidate the manpower and resources of the entire continent to focus on building the tower.

Unifying the surface world isn’t too difficult; most of the work can be delegated to the Starlight Principality, while he focuses on eliminating the wizard apprentices.

As for the underground world, that will be the responsibility of the Star Alliance.

Additionally, he needs to find the Black Forest and the Fallen Star City.

These two places are likely to have a wealth of resources left by the wizard legacies, which could significantly alleviate the resource pressure.

The clues to the Black Forest are currently in the hands of the Spider City, so he might as well start there, marking the first step in the Star Alliance’s unification of the underground world.

After a moment of contemplation, Su Nan had a clear plan for the future.

Next, he began to consider the matter of the Dark Throne.

After taking over the Starlight Tower, he has undoubtedly made an enemy of the Dark Throne.

The Dark Throne is not a forgiving or benevolent organization. Once they return to the Starlight Continent, they will certainly seek revenge.

He needs to prepare for this in advance.

"The official start of Version 2.0 is around the year 2000 of the Starlight Calendar."

"However, in the decade leading up to that, major wizard factions had already sent scouts to the Starlight Continent to gather intelligence and establish outposts, preparing for the main forces to follow."

Su Nan vaguely remembered that among the first wizard factions to send scouts to the Starlight Continent was the Dark Throne.

He remembered this because the wizards of the Dark Throne caused a lot of bloodshed, making life difficult for players for over a decade.

It wasn’t until the major wizard factions established themselves on the Starlight Continent that the Dark Throne’s influence was curbed, and the players’ situation improved.

As the players grew in strength, they immediately joined forces to counter the Dark Throne.

"It’s currently the year 1269 of the Starlight Calendar, and it will be over seven hundred years before the first wizards enter the Starlight Continent."

Su Nan pondered.

This long period is more than enough for him to transform the Starlight Continent into his own domain and build a wizard tower.

By the time the Dark Throne’s people arrive, he might even be able to give them a ‘surprise.’

Although he has already offended a notorious wizard faction from the multiverse before the elemental awakening, Su Nan isn’t too worried.

The multiverse has more than just the Dark Throne.

If things get desperate, he can always seek refuge with an opposing wizard faction.

In just a short while, Su Nan’s mind had already generated several options.

The Deep Blue Alliance, the Star Spirit Bell Tower, the Wisdom Codex.

While there aren’t many factions that can rival or even surpass the Dark Throne, there are still a handful.

No wizard faction would turn down a genius who can advance to wizard status in just thirty years in the resource-scarce elemental wasteland.

As for longevity, that’s even less of a concern.

Wizards who have transcended the mortal realm have lifespans far exceeding those of ordinary humans.

A first-level Aetheric Wizard can live for seven to eight hundred years, and with the integration of long-lived bloodlines or physical enhancements, living for a thousand years is not out of the question.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end