As expected, Brother Sledgehammer defeated Delicious Wind Goose.
Although Jiu Er seemed to be about to clear the level, Annan didn’t plan to continue watching it for the time being.
Because in the final part of the Old Goose’s live broadcast, a big load of information was revealed.
Elle’s biological father is the baker from Freezing Water Port.
He stayed in the Freezing Water Port for many years because Amos inflicted the curse “can’t travel far.”
So, what is the final outcome for Amos?
The newspaper said he was arrested. Is that true?
Or did Buckel kill him?
Does Buckel know what happened to Elle and Angelo in the end? Since he survived, does he know what happened in the incident forty-five years ago?
Many questions lingered in Annan’s mind.
—I have to meet Buckel.
A clear thought emerged in Annan’s mind.
Annan didn’t hesitate nor delay his plan.
I still have to think about it rationally. Would there be any danger on this trip?
Or, will Buckel trouble me because his identity is exposed?
To be more precise, the question was more about—
Would Annan need to call Salvatore out of the basement and accompany him?
“Forget that.” Annan finally gave up this inhumane idea.
After all, Salvatore was working hard to prepare for something more dangerous. Any emergency task might disrupt his tight schedule. This was why he got into the basement and locked himself inside in the first place.
Salvatore had told Annan in advance that Annan would be fully responsible if anything happened these days and if anyone wanted to look for him.
“You do as you see fit,” Salvatore said previously. “Remember to act according to the situation.”
Salvatore didn’t even bother to have food delivered to him. Instead, he would settle everything on his own in the basement.
Annan sort of realized Salvatore was on a big project.
They said that among the wizards of the eight schools, Idol’s wizard was mainly responsible for applying buffs [1], the Energy Falteration School’s wizard was primarily responsible for controlling the enemy, and the Destruction school’s wizard was mainly responsible for damage output. Finally, the Alteration School’s wizard was mainly responsible for the logistics.
Indeed, they could temporarily serve as wide-area map artillery on the battlefield. It was the sideline job they had after being hired by any kingdom.
The Alteration School Wizard’s status was equal to Doraemon’s.
Still, it gave off the vibe of an unreliable alchemist. After all, the alteration wizard could pull out simply anything.
Since the alteration wizard had different curses and different spells, the alteration products made by them would also have their unique characteristics.
Just like the Black Fire made by Salvatore that was not easy to detonate. Their alteration products would inherit part of the characteristics of the owner. This results in the alteration products of each alteration wizard would tend to be distinct. The higher the alteration product’s grade, the more pronounced the distinction.
Since Salvatore intended to seclude himself for a few days to make some kind of alteration product, this product was most likely incomparable to the mass-produced Black Fire.
Although the alteration wizard might not know the ins and outs of his alteration products entirely, Annan still adhered to the best principle of layman management — “no guidance, no urging, no trouble making.”
Based on the understanding of Salvatore, Annan knew Salvatore would put his work on hold and accompany Annan for the trip if Annan were to tell Salvatore that there was an urgent matter that needed his help and protection.
But now, Annan wasn’t a harmless puppy who just came into this world.
He had a good understanding of several wizard schools.
Alteration School was not suitable for combat because of the two characteristics of “alteration inertia” and “alteration warm-up.”
Alteration inertia allowed the curse power to snowball and grow stronger. If one were to be careless of their limit, it might go out of control. The simplest result was an explosion.
On the other hand, the alteration warmup could alterate the spells. It would have relatively minimal power in the initial stage. It also took a period of uninterrupted chanting to show the actual effect gradually.
Salvatore mentioned it when chatting with Annan. The Alteration School’s wizard was once called “alchemist” in ancient times before the “Unification War.”
The reason for saying so was because they did learn alchemy.
The teacher would get every scholarly alteration wizard to learn their first chant spell when advancing to Bronze Rank.
The basic version of this spell required more than three alteration wizards to perform cooperative spell casting by “rotation chanting” or “joint chanting” spell casting method. Firstly in rotation chanting, each user alternated the chanting continuously for more than three hours. Not even a slight mistake was permitted, or everything else had to start over.
Its effect was formidable.
It could alter one kilogram of “lead” into “gold.”
—Yes, it would be pure gold.
The pure gold that could be sacrificed to and accepted by “Mr. Ray.”
This was also the reason why “Silver Sire” was not “Golden Sire.”
Part of the reason was to prevent competition with Mr. Ray for the gold medium.
Another part of the reason was that only silver reserves in this world were fixed and non-renewable. Although gold was scarcer than silver and had a stronger curse performance, it was not a non-renewable resource in nature. Hence, the cost to replenish it was too high.
The purpose of this alchemy in ancient times wasn’t to sell or exchange for wealth.
It was to refine gold with high enough purity for Gold Rank advancement.
The reason was that in ancient times, Transcended lacked sufficient and effective means to extract gold in high purity. The method of refining silver was discovered a long time ago.
That was why the ancient alchemists created this spell. The original purpose was to facilitate advancement.
For Swamp’s Black Tower’s alteration wizard, one of the Silver Rank promotion assessment requirements was to independently and successfully release this spell.
They used this condition to determine the alteration wizard’s capability.
If the wizard in assessment couldn’t shorten this super long spell while allowing it to work normally, or if the wizard accidentally made mistakes when chanting for a long time, that would be judged as insufficient proficiency. They wouldn’t be allowed to bear a higher curse.
In a sense, it was a kind of protection. However, once the Silver Rank spell failed, it was not as simple as starting from scratch.
After there was a stable and non-Transcended means of gold purification method, this spell could only be used to sell gold for profit. In this era, the wizards were no longer short of money.
Especially for the alteration wizard, they could easily do business that was more profitable than alchemy.
The main function of this spell nowadays had become a gauge to test the ability of an alteration wizard.
Unfortunately, most of the alteration wizards hit their limit in attaining Bronze Rank. Those advanced to the Silver Rank alteration wizard from a formal channel were typically wittier with their words.
Salvatore once mentioned to Annan that was why graduated Transcended was usually much stronger than the stray Transcended of the same rank.
Not because they received a more comprehensive and better education.
But because their advancement was strictly supervised and protected. Hence, the erosion rate was much lower than the ordinary Transcended. Therefore, the Transcended who could pass the exam smoothly and advance would be the elites among their peers after completing the advancement.
…Of course, although Mr. “Don Juan Geraint” was a stray type, his situation was unique.
All in all, the slightly advanced Alteration School spells require a long chanting time to activate.
But even if Salvatore wasn’t performing alchemy in the basement, it was likely that he was also under the operation of a long-period Alteration spell that should not be interrupted.
If Annan bothered him, Salvatore would have to allocate his precious rest time to work.
Annan didn’t want this to happen.
It was important to be considerate of each other…
This trip might be dangerous, but Annan still decided to meet this person by himself now even though this person was someone who might have advanced to Silver Rank Wizard forty-five years ago.
“For me, it doesn’t matter.”
Annan took a deep breath, his eyes gleaming with calmness.
[1] Buff is a term used in some video games to describe the amplification effect on game character’s stats.