Synthesis Wizard

Chapter 130: Life is Short, Time is Precious

Starlight Calendar 1255, Winter Music Month (January).

The grand celebration of the new year kicked off, its scale exceeding all previous years. The reason for this unprecedented grandeur was well known: the celebration of the new Grand Duke’s enthronement.

To the surprise of the general public, the new Grand Duke ultimately decided to establish his capital in Shining Light City instead of Starlight City. He even went so far as to expend immense resources to construct a new palace.

Only those of a certain standing were privy to the reasons behind the Grand Duke’s decision. The reason was simply that the base of “that one” was located near Shining Light City.

From any perspective, the new Grand Duke’s residence could not be too far from “that one’s” base. This was a matter of common sense.

In fact, from the moment the proposal to relocate the capital was raised to the start of the palace’s construction, not a single noble dared to voice any objections. Everyone unhesitatingly supported the proposal.

Winter Music Month passed in a whirlwind of festivities and activity, giving way to Rejuvenation Month (February).

Small snowflakes still drifted through the air. Normally, the snow would begin to melt by this time of year, but the weather remained frigid. However, Su Nan, residing in the Deep Lake City, didn’t feel this cold.

The temperature fluctuations in the underground world were far less pronounced than on the surface. The environment was perpetually damp and chilly.

After more than half a month, Su Nan finally finished crafting his first higher-grade stone golem. The higher-grade stone golem was composed of a total of four hundred and sixty stone golems.

Like the elite double-bladed spider, Su Nan permanently inscribed the spells “Levitation,” “Agility,” “Brute Force,” and “Resilience” onto the higher-grade stone golem, a total of four second-ring spells.

Moreover, Su Nan used the enchanted weapon technology to imbue the stone golem’s body with the “Black Steel” attribute. He then enchanted both fists with “Weak Thunder Element Damage” and “Weak Ice Element Damage” to primarily slow down the enemy’s movement (paralysis and freezing).

The stone golem’s massive size, combined with Su Nan’s current enhanced “Magical Item Crafting” skill, allowed him to simultaneously add three attributes.

Ultimately, the cost of a single higher-grade stone golem amounted to over 22,000 gold coins! This was only about 1,000 gold coins less than the elite double-bladed spider.

Even with the Deep Lake City’s current control over seven mine veins, the monthly profit income could only be used to manufacture one higher-grade stone golem or one elite double-bladed spider.

“It’s expensive, but it’s worth the price.”

It’s worth mentioning that Su Nan had tried to use elite double-bladed spiders to synthesize a three-ring, legendary-level higher double-bladed spider.

However, after investing five elite double-bladed spiders into the Magic Cube, he still couldn’t synthesize the higher double-bladed spider.

This meant that the cost of a single three-ring, legendary-level higher double-bladed spider would exceed 100,000 gold coins, far exceeding the Mithril golem.

Under these circumstances, crafting a Mithril golem would undoubtedly be more cost-effective for obtaining a three-ring, legendary-level puppet.

“With a design blueprint, crafting higher-level puppets will be more economical.”

“Unless a blueprint or key materials are unavailable, we can only obtain higher-level puppets through synthesis.”

This has already been proven in the past.

For example, the Iron Golem’s crafting cost is only 1,500 gold coins. In contrast, synthesizing an elite stone golem costs over 7,000 gold coins.

Both are one-ring legendary puppets, even if the Iron Golem is slightly stronger than the Elite Stone Golem. This difference in strength is far from justifying the drastic cost disparity. ṙÀŊȫBÈS

The reason lies in the scarcity of miniature soul crystals, hindering the mass production of Iron Golems.

To obtain a sufficient number of one-ring legendary forces, Su Nan could only achieve his goals by consuming more resources.

This also applies to potions and magical items.

For example, a third-grade transcendent potion consumes resources that could be used to make four to five third-grade potions if converted into equivalent materials.

However, the current Starlight Continent simply lacks the corresponding materials, forcing the production of third-grade potions through synthesis.

“For three-ring legendary puppets, it’s best to craft Mithril Golems.”

Su Nan had made up his mind.

Unfortunately, the Mithril Golem he encountered last time was destroyed too badly by the magic emblem core, and its decomposition yielded only a small amount of magical mithril, far from enough to craft a new one.

He had to post a task and let the apprentices at the base craft magical mithril.

Regarding cultivation, Su Nan now mastered all the second-ring spells in his possession, exceeding twenty in number.

Before acquiring new second-ring spells, he returned to a state where he had no spells to cultivate.

In terms of super magic techniques, the progress in spell casting was quite rapid. The training was already halfway completed.

Su Nan estimated that he would master spell casting within a year or so.

Unfortunately, training super magic techniques required casting spells and consuming spiritual power. When his spiritual power ran out, he had to meditate to recover, significantly hindering his cultivation speed.

Otherwise, he could have increased his training time or cultivated multiple super magic techniques simultaneously.

“Unfortunately, there’s no potion to restore spiritual power.”

Time flew by, and it was already mid-Rejuvenation Month.

Su Nan took the opportunity to conduct an assessment in Base 1, evaluating the progress of all apprentices.

After four years of development, the number of students at the base had increased to forty-two.

Furthermore, the new round of aptitude testing had already been conducted throughout the entire Starlight Duchy.

This round of testing was unprecedented in its scale, encompassing six grand duchies except for the Golden Rock Province.

It was estimated that the number of eligible participants in the test would exceed 100,000.

Predictably, after this round of aptitude testing, the number of students at the base would definitely experience a surge and could very likely break through the triple digits.

Besides, Su Nan had already discussed with Kei, planning to establish a knight academy in every grand duchy to establish a more comprehensive and robust talent reserve system for the future knight guard.

Given this, the opening of a new magical plant garden became a necessity.

After all, more dragon blood fruits and silver moon flowers were needed.

The knight academy was a relatively simple matter. It didn’t require Su Nan’s personal involvement. He could simply hand it over to Kei to arrange personnel, only needing to occasionally check up on its progress.

Only the opening of the magical plant garden required his personal involvement.

“But I guess I’ll only be busy for another two years.”

“Sheman and Corey’s meditations are going well. They’ll probably be promoted to second-rank sorcerer apprentices soon.”

“By then, we can leave the task of opening the magical plant garden to them.”

Second-rank sorcerer apprentices could basically handle things independently. Su Nan could let them take care of many matters and no longer have to be personally involved in everything.

At that time, he would be free to do more.

For example, exploring the underground world and searching for descendants of ancient mythical beasts.

For example, researching more powerful puppets.

“Alright, that’s all for today.”

After concluding the final spell assessment, Su Nan announced the end of the evaluation. He glanced over the forty-plus students in front of him, saying little, only offering a word of encouragement before turning to leave.

He wouldn’t scold students for their lack of effort.

After all, it was their choice.

He provided a platform for equivalent exchange, allowing students’ efforts to be rewarded. Whether or not they chose to exert themselves was entirely up to them.

As long as they followed the rules of the base and didn’t do anything detrimental to the base’s interests, Su Nan generally wouldn’t interfere with the students’ actions.

This was also a common characteristic among many wizard academies.

Even the Dark Wizard Academy, which adhered to the principle of ruthless competition, also respected the students’ autonomy in certain aspects.

Of course, in the Dark Wizard Academy, the consequences of not putting in effort were often a bit more severe.

After Su Nan disappeared from the doorway of the spell practice room, the students, as if shedding a heavy burden, let out a collective sigh of relief.

Immediately, some showed joy, while others were filled with dejection, looking like they had lost their parents.

“It’s over. I failed to cast the spell three times in a row. The teacher must think I’m a moron.”

“Me too. Twice, I made mistakes in the very first step of potion making. It’s so embarrassing.”

“Still, Ethan is awesome. He made the Brute Force Potion on the first try!”

“I was just lucky.”

Ethan smiled modestly, turning to look at Sheman and Corey, a hint of envy flashing in his eyes.

“They’re still not as good as Senior Sheman and Senior Corey. The teacher said personally that the two seniors will soon be able to construct their third Star Rings.”

When this was mentioned, everyone’s eyes toward Sheman and Corey were filled with envy and admiration.

Once they successfully constructed their third Star Ring, they would be promoted to second-rank sorcerer apprentices.

At that level, they would truly be considered qualified apprentices.

Unfortunately, the majority of them had only recently constructed their first Star Ring. They were still a long way from becoming second-rank sorcerer apprentices.

As the crowd was buzzing, a ball of smoke, about half the height of a person, suddenly floated in from outside. It paused briefly before flying towards Sheman in the crowd.

“It’s a fog monster!” A student said.

Fog monsters were a type of semi-corporeal creature, their entire bodies resembling smoke.

They were the messengers of the base. As long as they paid a small amount of spiritual power, they could ask the fog monsters to help convey messages or transport light-weight items, which was very convenient.

This was naturally another alien “helper” summoned by Su Nan.

The fog monster floated lightly to Sheman’s side, extending a wisp of gray mist that wrapped around his ear, emitting a soft “woo-woo” sound.

This was the unique language of the fog monster clan. After being translated by the magical item with the “Comprehend Languages” effect permanently inscribed onto it, which Sheman carried with him, the language quickly transformed into comprehensible words that entered his ears.

The next moment, Sheman’s face suddenly changed color. He turned around and quickly ran out of the spell practice room.

He left everyone behind, looking at each other in bewilderment and confusion.

Old Roger couldn’t endure this winter after all.

He was sixty-five years old.

In this era, this was already considered a rare and advanced age.

In fact, Old Roger’s health had never been very good.

The ailments he contracted in his youth caused his body to weaken significantly after he turned fifty.

It was only after Sheman entered the base and sent back a significant amount of gold coins every month that Old Roger was able to retire from work and focus on his health at home.

Later, Sheman even exchanged a bottle of lower-grade dragon blood potion, diluted it, and gave it to Old Roger to take regularly, slightly strengthening his body.

Otherwise, with all of Old Roger’s ailments, he probably wouldn’t have lived to be sixty years old.

Even so, Old Roger couldn’t withstand the winter of his sixty-fifth year.

Fortunately, he passed away peacefully.

He fell asleep one night and never woke up the next day.

It wasn’t until the servants noticed something amiss, went into his room to check, and discovered that Old Roger had passed away that they hurriedly went to inform Sheman.

Knowing that Old Roger disliked extravagance, Sheman didn’t make a big fuss. He simply held a small funeral and then buried Old Roger.

Standing before Old Roger’s tombstone, Sheman was lost in thought, silent and motionless.

In the past, he would have already been sobbing uncontrollably at this moment.

But after spending five years in the base, he was no longer the crybaby who would burst into tears at the slightest mishap.

But just because he didn’t cry didn’t mean the sorrow welling up in his chest had diminished.

“Sheman…”

Athel, standing behind him, hesitated, her eyes gazing sorrowfully at Sheman.

She had never seen Sheman like this.

Sheman usually had a smile on his face, even when encountering difficulties. He would just sarcastically chuckle a few times and then redouble his efforts, never exhibiting the profound melancholy that enveloped him now.

“Offer your condolences.” Corey, appearing out of nowhere, stood behind Sheman.

Sheman let out a long sigh, turning to face the two, his expression calm and unreadable, revealing no hint of his emotions.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine.”

He glanced at the somewhat gloomy sky, his voice low and subdued.

“I just suddenly realized that human lifespans are very short. Decades of time pass in the blink of an eye.”

“Will we eventually die too, lying quietly in our tombs like Old Roger?”

“All people die, right?” Athel questioned.

“What about the teacher?”

Athel’s expression faltered. She couldn’t speak.

In their eyes, Su Nan was the most formidable individual in the world.

Powerful, knowledgeable, possessing immense influence and countless resources.

If it were the teacher, perhaps he could truly live forever.

Corey said calmly, “People will eventually die, but powerful wizards won’t.”

“Didn’t the teacher say that official wizards have lifespans of thousands of years, and True Spirit Wizards can even live for tens of thousands of years without dying? That’s basically no different from immortality.”

Athel chuckled bitterly, “Do you think we can become official wizards?”

“Just set your sights on the goal and strive towards it. Why worry so much?”

Corey’s gaze was fixed firmly ahead.

“No matter how long it takes, I must become an official wizard!”

Corey walked to Sheman’s side, his voice calm. “It’s understandable to grieve for the deceased, but you need to recover quickly. If you want to continue down the path of a wizard, these kinds of things will only happen more and more often. You need to learn to get used to it.”

Sheman looked at Corey with surprise, “Are you trying to comfort me?”

“You can think of it that way if you like.”

“I thought you always hated me.”

“I just don’t like you. It’s still the same now. But I respect your hard work and strength. Having you as a competitor is more beneficial for me to motivate myself. I don’t want you to become so downcast.”

After saying this, Corey gave Sheman a deep look and turned to leave.

It wasn’t until Corey’s figure disappeared from sight that Athel reacted. She said with amazement, “This is the first time I’ve seen Corey like this. So he can actually say comforting words.”

Sheman chuckled, his gaze complex as he looked in the direction where Corey had left.

“You’re right. Although that guy has a bit of a stubborn personality, his nature isn’t bad.”

“Before, I always thought we didn’t need to rush to improve our strength. We could just learn steadily and step by step. But now I think what Corey said makes sense.”

“Life is short. Even a third-rank sorcerer apprentice only has a lifespan of a couple of hundred years. In such a short amount of time, if you want to become an official wizard, you really have to fight tooth and nail to make the most of every second.”

Sheman sighed.

At that moment, he felt a sense of urgency like never before.

He wanted to become stronger, and he wanted to become stronger quickly!

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