The Wizard: Starting by Scamming the Demon God

Page 18

So there's nothing wrong with Caesar saying that, after all, he is Isaac's brother and the future lord of the Viscount Solomon's domain, and he needs to be responsible to his people.

However, it was a little too late to say that...

After all, Isaac was already a mad witch...

Of course, not all failed Outer God transaction rituals result in the loss of territory. Most of the time, only the wizard himself is swallowed up when the ritual fails, unless the wizard puts the territory on the gambling table during the transaction!

However, this step requires the wizard to have actual control over the territory. Not just any Tom, Dick, or Harry can gamble with someone else's territory. Isaac does not have this right, nor would he do so.

However, there's no need to explain the differences to them; it would only cause them trouble. In the future, when Isaac makes deals with the Outer Gods, he will leave the territory first.

Caesar gave Isaac a deep look, patted him on the shoulder, and changed the subject. He looked at the carriages covered with black cloth and said with a smile, "I heard you've got a lot of strange things. Tell us about them."

"That suits me perfectly!" Isaac nodded emphatically. "Let's make it clear first, you can't just watch for free; you'll have to pay after you're done!"

"You brat, didn't I only give you a thousand gold coins?" Caesar patted Isaac's head and scolded him with a laugh.

"What can you do with a thousand gold coins? Barbarians are barbarians!" Isaac gave Caesar a look of disdain. "Spell experiments are expensive, aren't they, big sister?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes." Cheryl, who was observing from behind the black cloth, turned around and nodded upon hearing this. After looking Isaac up and down, she said meaningfully, "Your ascension ceremony was at a witch's tea party? The odds of that are pretty low, right? Legend has it that it's not a good thing for wizards to be so gamblers."

"Fortune favors the bold," Isaac shrugged, looking completely unconcerned.

Gambling is not knowing the outcome; investing is knowing the outcome.

"Come, come, let's not talk about that anymore. Let's see my research results! Big sister, you be the judge!" With that, Isaac lifted the black cloth of the first carriage, which contained two iron cages. One cage contained two dragon lizards, and the other contained more than a dozen demon rats. Most of the demon rats were somewhat listless, but a few of them were in good condition and, judging from their aura, were already pregnant.

"This is... a dragon lizard that has awakened its dragon blood?" Cheryl, the most knowledgeable of the three siblings, ignored the demon rat and looked directly at the dragon lizard, her eyes gleaming with admiration. "This one is about to awaken too? Is this the result of your research?"

"Hmph~" Isaac put his hands on his hips, with a smug look on his face. This was one of the reasons he brought the dragon lizard with him. He didn't need to look at anything else; just this dragon lizard was enough to secure funding!

"Dragon lizard? It has awakened dragon blood? Really?" Caesar asked in surprise.

Remington, standing to the side, was also shocked. Although they didn't understand magic, they knew how powerful dragons were!

How expensive!

Chapter 25: Pulling Investment

"What are the costs? What are the profits? Is it complicated?" Caesar's eyes lit up as he quickly asked.

"The cost... should be over a hundred gold coins. There are bloodline essence potions and some other strange things, probably things that Third Brother researched himself. As for the profit... the price will be lower if we ship in large quantities, around thirty gold coins. If we can breed dragon lizard cubs ourselves, the cost will be further reduced. As for whether it's troublesome, you'll have to ask Third Brother."

After saying that, Cheryl turned to look at Isaac.

Isaac looked at his older sister with some emotion. As expected of a big shot who was about to become a high wizard, her eyesight was truly amazing. She could see almost everything with just a glance.

"It's pretty much like what my older sister said. It's not troublesome at all; normal breeding is fine." Isaac shrugged.

Although awakening the dragon blood requires his cheat code, it only requires a trip during feeding time and won't be too troublesome.

Moreover, once his skill level improves further, he can completely integrate the steps to awaken dragon blood into potions, at which point a single potion will suffice.

Caesar did a rough calculation, then nodded excitedly: "Good! Third brother, go and organize the data first, write down all the necessary resources, and we'll take over this project!"

Out of caution, Caesar did not directly state how much money he would receive. After all, he was still only the first in line to the throne, not the real Viscount Solomon, and the specific amount would have to wait for his father to decide.

But we're all family, so it's not like we'll be missing anyone.

Isaac understood this, so he didn't dwell on it. Instead, he lifted the black cloth covering the second carriage, which mainly contained his various experimental subjects.

"Huh? Heart transplant, blood transplant... your arrangement..." Cheryl immediately noticed the four somewhat listless demonic rats and the numerous surgical scars on their bodies. After a moment's thought, she looked at Isaac with some surprise, "You're catalyzing demonic hearts and demonic blood?"

"Yeah, just trying it out." Isaac nodded with a smile, much calmer about this.

Compared to the dragon lizard, the experiment of catalyzing the demon heart and demon blood is child's play. This technology is not actually very technical. The main difficulty lies in the idea and its complexity.

Whether it's a heart transplant or a blood transfusion, surgery is required, and the procedure is very complex and carries a high risk.

This is at least true for other formal wizards in the current era. Limited environment and immature surgical techniques are the biggest risks of surgery. Although these risks can be mitigated with spells, this would only increase the complexity of the surgery.

In the end, all they get are demonic hearts and blood, and naturally no wizard would do something so counterproductive.

But Isaac was different; he was poor!

So he's willing to study any method that can make money!

Besides, it's only complicated now. Once he's skilled enough, he can try to optimize it into witchcraft or ritual, making it much more convenient.

This is not Isaac's fantasy; in fact, modern witchcraft and arcane magic originated in this way, simplifying complex concepts and increasing their practicality.

For example, Arcane Missiles in the three basic arcane spells, in its most original version, required a complex process to cast, including preparing an appropriate amount of arcane energy, a spell to maintain the arcane energy structure, and a spell to lock onto the target. Although it was a combat spell, it could not be used in combat.

Now, however, Arcane Missiles no longer require chanting spells. They can be released directly by using magic and mental power to activate the spell model in the mind, making them many times more convenient!

He firmly believes that sooner or later, he will be able to simplify this technology!

The demonized rat experiment didn't hold Cheryl's attention for long. Its technical sophistication and value were mediocre, with only the idea being somewhat interesting. But it was something only a poor person would make, and she didn't care about such a small amount of money.

Her gaze was quickly drawn to another demon rat quietly sitting in its cage. After looking at it for a while, she said uncertainly, "Is this a divine species?"

"Yes, I learned it from the witchcraft manuscript my older brother gave me."

Cheryl: "..."

Cheryl was silent for a moment, then turned to Isaac and sighed heavily: "Third brother, it's such a pity you don't have arcane talent!"

She had read that witchcraft manuscript. Although she hadn't read it carefully, she could still tell how obscure its contents were. The alchemy recorded in it was extremely complex, and even she might not be able to learn it.

And now, Isaac, who has only recently become a wizard, has actually mastered the wizarding manuscript and transformed the alchemy within into surgical modifications...

Isaac smiled slightly and did not reply; those were all things of the past.

"What is its value?" Caesar couldn't discern the technical sophistication involved. After being provoked by the dragon lizard, all he wanted to know was whether it could make money, and how much!

"From a purely magical knowledge perspective, it's priceless, but from an economic perspective, it won't make much money. Spreading it across a large area might not even be as profitable as planting Silvermoon Grass," Cheryl shrugged and said casually.

"Isn't there some kind of divine species? Why is it so low-class?" Remington asked, somewhat puzzled. Dragon species are so valuable, how could divine species be inferior?

“This is different. Dragons are treasures from head to toe. A divine species is at most a special kind of monster. Its strength is unpredictable and it is extremely difficult to tame, so its value is not high. The value of a divine species lies in the knowledge it contains, but this one cannot be sold.” As she spoke, Cheryl looked at the divine species, the demon rat, again.

"Third brother, why did you think of transforming the demon rat into a god-like species? It's such a waste that it's so weak."

"..." Isaac was speechless. "I'm not as rich as you, big sister. How do I have the right to choose?"

“That makes sense.” Cheryl thought about it and nodded in agreement.

She knew just how difficult it was to be a wild wizard.

"Alright, we've looked enough. Let them keep it for now. Come on, let's go eat." Caesar clapped his hands and said.

The other three siblings nodded, handed the things to Smith, and went with Caesar to the fortress canteen.

……

"From now on, you can conduct your experiments here. Just throw the magical waste you produce into the trash can, and the tower spirit will have the puppets clean it up."

After they had eaten and drunk their fill and finished chatting about everyday matters, Cheryl led Isaac to her mage tower and temporarily gave him the vacant third floor to use.

Looking at the much emptier laboratory, Isaac nodded with a sigh. This was quite a leap forward!

"Thank you, sis."

“Say that.” Cheryl smiled and shook her head, then took a spellbook from her sleeve and handed it to Isaac. “Have you finished reading the spellbook I gave you before? If you have, you can learn from this one.”

"This is... The Truth Wizard's Combat Manual, Volume One? Can I have this?" Isaac looked at Cheryl in surprise after glancing at the title.

Chapter 26: The Truth Wizard's Combat Manual

"This is... The Truth Wizard's Combat Manual, Volume One? Can I have this?" Isaac looked at Cheryl in surprise after glancing at the title.

The "True Wizard Combat Manual" is a magic book that only a few arcane mages in the Truth Association can study. It is said to record a systematic set of extremely practical combat arcane spells. Although its research value is average, it greatly enhances combat power.

If you ask Isaac if he wants it, then he definitely does.

But the rules of the Truth Society are not so easy to follow.

"Take it. The right to inherit this spellbook has already been bought by Dad. It was originally intended to train our own arcanists, but unfortunately there are too few talented ones, so it has never been used much."

"You can do that?" Isaac asked, somewhat surprised, and then took the spellbook.

"Okay, you can start learning. If you don't understand anything, just call on the tower spirit and she will notify me. I'm going up now; I have some things to take care of."

"Okay, take care, big sister!"

After watching his older sister leave, Isaac immediately went to his desk and eagerly began to look through the magic book.

This spellbook doesn't record many spells, only three in total—magic imprint, fire arrow, and fire shaping.

Besides that, it's all about various battle plans, covering all sorts of unexpected situations; it's practically a practical encyclopedia of combat.

Of course, this doesn't mean that the magic mentioned above is unimportant; on the contrary, it is very important and powerful!

Magic Imprint, a type of arcane modification, allows the implantation of a magic imprint into a part of the body to store additional magic power, up to three times the user's own magic power!

Flame Arrow, a noble fire elemental magic, is the fire magic with the longest range, highest accuracy, and strongest power among first-tier magic.

Fire Shaping, a fire elemental auxiliary magic, can alter the shape, trajectory, and power of fire spells.

The three spells are interconnected and can be used to construct a very complex combat system.

Isaac quickly immersed himself in the profound ocean of knowledge. The various real-world scenarios recorded in the magic book greatly broadened his horizons. In addition to learning the coping methods in the book, he would also think of some solutions based on his own experience, verifying them with each other, and gaining a lot.

Time flies when someone is engrossed in studying; in the blink of an eye, three days have passed.

During these three days, Isaac learned a great deal of wizard combat skills. Although most of them remained on paper, he was able to digest most of them in just a few battles. In addition, he also learned two of the three spells: Fire Arrow and Fire Shaping.

The reason I didn't learn the most practical magic imprint is because I didn't have the materials.

Magic imprints are implanted into the body, and any spell involving self-modification cannot be taken lightly, whether it is a legendary wizard or a truth wizard.

“Flame Arrow!”

"boom!"

The laboratory on the third floor of the Mage Tower.

A blazing line of fire shot out from Isaac's chest, leaving a fiery red trail, and struck the target fifty meters away with pinpoint accuracy, exploding into a violent burst of flames!

Looking at the power value given by the tower spirit, Isaac's lips curled up slightly. That's more like it, that's more like a wizard!

In high spirits, Isaac fired a few more fire arrows, thoroughly enjoying himself. Then he tidied up and began to conduct the experiments he hadn't been able to do before coming here, which he hadn't had the money to do.

……