Chapter 262: Exceeding Expectations, the Bio-Nest

Chapter 262: Exceeding Expectations, the Bio-Nest

2024-10-29

"An extremely powerful innate ability."

A hint of amazement flashed in Maisa's eyes.

She recognized the alchemical runes Su Nan had activated, which were the specialized innate abilities known as Talent Specialization.

Even without the enhancement from Talent Specialization, the innate ability Su Nan had displayed was incredibly powerful, far surpassing any superior innate abilities she had seen before.

"Did you develop it yourself, or did you obtain it from a certain wizard's legacy?"

Two thousand years ago, the Starlight Continent was home to many powerful wizard factions. It was not impossible that a special innate ability crystal model might have been left behind during one of their expeditions. Even Maisa herself did not dare claim to know everything.

Regardless, Su Nan had far exceeded her expectations.

Initially, her best hope was that the Star Alliance could repel Yuxi's attack.

But Su Nan not only repelled the attack, he also launched a counteroffensive into the Wolf Tide Plane and killed Yuxi, far exceeding her expectations!

It was clear that Su Nan and the Star Alliance had even greater potential than she had imagined.

During the battle between Su Nan and Yuxi, the Dark Throne's wizards were already being defeated by the puppet and automaton forces. The self-destruct abilities of these puppets caused heavy casualties among the Dark Throne's forces.

When even Yuxi was killed by Su Nan, the remaining forces immediately lost their will to fight and fled in panic.

But Su Nan quickly caught up to them and massacred them all, leaving no survivors.

With the main force of wizards defeated, the Wolf Tide Plane's wolf packs stood no chance against the Star Alliance's offensive. Capturing the Wolf Tide Plane was now just a matter of time.

With a faint smile, Su Nan flew over to Maisa and Cyril.

He had already noticed their arrival.

"Lord Maisa, and this is?" Su Nan looked at Cyril.

Before Maisa could introduce him, Cyril hurriedly said, "Pleased to meet you, Lord Su Nan. My name is Cyril Stewart, a Senior Scholar of the Codex of Wisdom."

Before meeting Su Nan, Cyril had harbored a sense of superiority due to his background in a large wizard faction. However, that sense of superiority vanished after witnessing Su Nan's power.

In the world of wizards, strength was paramount. Facing someone stronger than himself, Cyril showed the appropriate respect.

A Senior Scholar?

That meant a Level 3 wizard.

Su Nan smiled and nodded at Cyril, then turned to Maisa.

Maisa understood and nodded, smiling. "The Star Alliance has demonstrated sufficient strength. Upon my return, I will submit a proposal to the Codex of Wisdom to welcome the Star Alliance into its ranks."

"Thank you." Su Nan's smile was genuine.

Knowing that Su Nan had many things to handle, Maisa did not stay long and quickly left with Cyril.

Not long after, the sound of intense battle cries echoed from the planar gate.

The Star Alliance's army had arrived! Leading the charge were over a dozen dragons, with Yilong at the forefront.

Yilong, whose power could rival that of a Level 2 wizard, charged through the wolf packs like a tank, leaving a trail of blood and carnage in his wake, unstoppable.

Su Nan watched with a wry smile.

Yilong had lived a peaceful life in the Dragon Forest for several hundred years and had not participated in battles for a long time. Now on the battlefield, he seemed to have unleashed his natural instincts.

Seeing him immersed in the battle, Su Nan did not stop him and returned to the Starlight Continent through the planar gate.

Lize was still inside the Starlight Wizard Tower. Seeing Su Nan return unharmed, she let out a sigh of relief.

"How did it go?"

"It's all taken care of. Not a single one escaped."

Despite having expected as much, Lize's face still lit up with joy when she heard Su Nan's words.

With the wizards dead, the Wolf Tide Plane was effectively under the control of the Star Alliance.

The Star Alliance becoming an affiliate of the Codex of Wisdom was now a natural progression.

With the support of the Codex of Wisdom, they would have ample time to conquer the Wolf Tide Plane.

"We have a lot of work ahead of us," Su Nan said.

Lize smiled. "I hope we have more of this kind of busy work."

Su Nan chuckled and nodded in agreement.

"You're right."

The threat from the Dark Throne was temporarily neutralized, but there was still much to be done.

Conquering the Wolf Tide Plane was one task, and another was the restoration of the Star Alliance.

Despite their victory in this unprecedented planar war, the Star Alliance had suffered significant losses.

Two days later, a casualty report was placed before Su Nan.

"In this war, the flying fleet suffered the heaviest losses. Four fleets were almost entirely annihilated, and the remaining ten fleets also sustained varying degrees of damage. After reorganizing the surviving fleets, we managed to form five complete fleets, with nearly 60% losses."

As Su Nan reviewed the report, Lize explained softly.

Su Nan was not surprised by this.

The flying fleet had faced the wizard towers head-on, initially intended to deplete the energy and protective force fields of the Dark Throne's five wizard towers. Heavy losses were expected.

Su Nan had been mentally prepared for this.

In fact, if the flying fleet had not weakened the enemy beforehand, he would not have been able to so smoothly control the Starlight Wizard Tower and destroy the enemy's five wizard towers.

He had even prepared for the possibility of the flying fleet being completely annihilated.

However, with nearly 60% losses, the outcome was much better than he had anticipated.

"Next, the Golem Corps. After reorganizing, we managed to form four complete large golem corps and two central golem corps, with about 50% losses."

"The Magic Pattern Knights lost over ten thousand in the main force and over fifty thousand in the reserve force. The Wyvern Knights, who joined the battle later, suffered minimal losses, which can be considered negligible."

"The wizards also had no casualties."

"The wizard apprentices of the Starlight Academy, who were responsible for logistics, also had minimal casualties."

"However, the Witch-Hunter Corps and the wizard-level puppets of the Starlight Wizard Tower suffered significant losses. Three hundred and sixty-two were completely destroyed and beyond repair, and over a hundred more were severely damaged. Repairing them will require a considerable amount of resources."

Su Nan nodded, closed the file, and felt a sense of clarity.

To be honest, the losses from this war were substantial, almost destroying at least a third of the Star Alliance's hard-earned military strength.

Especially the wizard-level puppets, which took hundreds of years to accumulate—over 800 Touchlord puppets and automata—were now more than two-fifths destroyed, amounting to a loss of nearly 200 million gold coins!

However, Su Nan was not disheartened.

After all, the enormous losses were accompanied by extremely rich rewards.

The greatest reward, of course, was the Wolf Tide Plane.

This would be the second plane under the control of the Star Alliance.

"Tell me about the situation in the Wolf Tide Plane."

Lize nodded and said, "According to our investigations, the Wolf Tide Plane is a plane of exotic beasts. It is slightly smaller than the Starlight Continent, with a total area of about two-thirds of the Starlight Continent, mostly land."

"The Wolf Tide Plane does not have humans, demihumans, or bipedal humanoid races. Almost all the races are exotic beasts, with the dominant species being the Black Wolves."

"This species is somewhat special. They do not expand their population through reproduction but are born from nests."

Su Nan's expression changed. "Nest creatures?"

"That's right," Lize nodded.

Su Nan's eyes immediately lit up.

Exotic beast planes are not uncommon in the multiverse, but exotic beast planes with nests are extremely rare.

In a very few exotic beast planes, there is a very small chance that some special locations will be born, which can absorb the free-floating energy particles in the plane and create life out of thin air, bypassing the processes of gestation and growth.

These locations are called nests.

The creatures born from these nests are called nest creatures.

Nest creatures are often fully developed individuals from birth, possessing considerable strength. They can maintain long-term life activities with minimal food intake, naturally placing them at the top of the plane's food chain.

Therefore, if a nest is fortuitously born in an exotic beast plane, it won't be long before the creatures hatched from the nest quickly become the dominant species of the entire plane.

Unless there is a species in the plane with far greater strength than the nest creatures, any species that is even slightly weaker will be dragged down by the virtually endless and highly combat-enduring nest creatures, ultimately leading to their demise.

One could say that for other species in the plane, nest creatures are a deeply detested scourge.

However, for the wizards controlling the plane, nest creatures are undoubtedly a formidable fighting force.

"No wonder those wizards could control such a large number of Black Wolves."

Su Nan had actually suspected that the Black Wolves were nest creatures before.

After all, controlling so many exotic beasts would require an astronomical number of mental runes.

And if they were alchemical creatures from a wizard's laboratory, the number would be even more exaggerated.

Only nest creatures provided a reasonable explanation.

By controlling the nest that hatched the Black Wolves, one could naturally command the Black Wolves as easily as directing one's own limbs.

The Dusk Wolves were likely also hatched from nests.

"Yuxi, the wizard, had good luck to conquer an exotic beast plane," Lize said.

Su Nan remained neutral.

While exotic beast planes have high war potential, their downside is their weak resource development capabilities.

After all, nest creatures do not develop resources.

The Star Alliance conducted a rough exploration of the Wolf Tide Plane and discovered many unexploited metal veins and magic stone veins.

This showed how slow Yuxi's development of the Wolf Tide Plane had been.

Unlike the Star Alliance, Yuxi did not have many wizard apprentices to serve as labor. To develop the veins, he had to buy slaves or golems from other places.

Developing the resources of an entire plane is undoubtedly a lengthy and resource-intensive process.

Yuxi, who had controlled a plane for thousands of years, had only built five wizard towers, perhaps due to this reason.

However, it didn't matter to Su Nan. He could leave resource development to the Star Alliance and use the Black Wolves as an exotic beast army.

"If they are nest creatures, we don't need to engage in direct combat."

The best way to quickly control the Wolf Tide Plane was to find the Black Wolves' nest and then alchemize it. This way, he could naturally control the wolf packs without having to deploy a large army to fight them.

"The focus should be on searching for the nest. Once its location is determined, inform me immediately, and I'll take care of it personally."

"I understand."

Lize nodded and then changed the subject.

"What do you plan to do with those five wizard towers?"

Su Nan had already made up his mind and said without hesitation, "Issue a task to repair the wizard towers."

Now that the Star Alliance had gained internal trading rights with the Codex of Wisdom, they could trade resources from the Codex to continue upgrading the wizard towers, without having to dismantle the captured wizard towers for materials.

Moreover, the five wizard towers left by the Dark Throne were not severely damaged. After repair and modification, they could be put back into use.

Apart from the medium-sized wizard tower, which required his personal effort to repair, the other four wizard towers could be entrusted to other wizards for repair.

They could then be placed in the exchange list for other wizards to redeem.

This would serve as an incentive for them.

After all, the contribution points required to redeem a wizard tower would be a huge number. Without completing more tasks, one couldn't even dream of redeeming one.

"Once repaired, place the four small wizard towers in the exchange list."

"As for the medium-sized wizard tower," Su Nan glanced at Lize, "I'll give it to you as a gift to celebrate your new body."

Lize was taken aback and said with a complex expression, "You're giving me a medium-sized wizard tower? That's a huge gift."

Su Nan said calmly, "You deserve this gift."

For the past few hundred years, Lize had been handling all the specific affairs of the Star Alliance.

The Star Alliance's development to its current state is largely due to Lize's efforts.

For those who have contributed, Su Nan would not be stingy.

Lize fully deserved a medium-sized wizard tower.

Lize felt a warm feeling in her heart and said softly, "Thank you."

"No need to be formal with family," Su Nan waved his hand.

In summary, the rewards from the Wolf Tide Plane and the wizard towers were more than enough to make up for the Star Alliance's losses and even more!

Especially the Wolf Tide Plane. Once it was under control, the Star Alliance would not only gain a new exotic beast army but also a super-large resource point waiting to be developed.

Collecting herself, Lize returned to the main topic.

"Although the Codex of Wisdom's protection should prevent the Dark Throne from launching a large-scale invasion, we should still quickly expand the golem corps and the flying fleets as a precaution."

"Additionally, the development of the Wolf Tide Plane will require a large number of clay golems and mining equipment, which will require a significant amount of resources."

Although the Wolf Tide Plane has many resources, they are currently not usable.

The resources needed to expand military forces and prepare labor for mining can only be obtained from other sources.

Su Nan smiled slightly. "Don't worry. As soon as the Codex of Wisdom approves, we can immediately trade resources with them."

"Next, we just need to wait for Maisa's good news."

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end