Ukrie, a level-4 water mage and level-5 mercenary, was 40 years old. Due to his limited talent, he would never rise beyond a level-4 mage. Without connections in the Mage Guild, he had turned to mercenary work and was now the chief mage in a small mercenary group. While water magic wasn't particularly strong in terms of offensive power, it wasn't much different from other low-level mages when it came to attack. That morning, Ukrie accompanied the guild leader to the Mercenary Guild. The Mercenary Guild in Chaos City was the second largest branch after the Mercenary Headquarters. It was usually bustling with activity, but today, Ukrie was shocked. The entire street was packed with people, most of them mages. And Chaos City had the largest population of mages—though this only referred to their numbers.
"Hey? Why is the Mage Guild so busy today?" Ukrie looked around and noticed that most of the mages were heading toward the Mage Guild. Curious, he grabbed a fellow level-4 mage and asked, "What's going on?"
The man looked at Ukrie and, seeing that he was a mage too, answered, "I'm here to buy a patent. Didn't you hear about it?"
Ukrie frowned, frustrated that the man hadn't finished his sentence. But, knowing better than to ask too bluntly, he smiled and asked, "What patent? With all these people, is it expensive?"
"Expensive? It's 1000 gold coins!" the man replied curtly.
Ukrie gasped when he heard the price. "1000 gold coins? Forget it! If I had 1000 gold coins, I'd be sleeping on the street!"
"You'll need to queue up if you want to buy it! You know, this is an S-Class skill! Do you know what that means?" The man sneered at Ukrie, who seemed like a low-level mage. For someone like Ukrie, 1000 gold coins was a hefty sum. Plus, Ukrie had two women to take care of, so he was ready to walk away.
Ukrie's disbelief showed as he weakly asked, "Are you sure you're talking about an S-Class skill?"
"Yes! What else would I be doing here at this hour? Waiting in line all morning to get it?" The man looked at the long line ahead of them, nearly a hundred mages, and answered confidently.
Ukrie's eyes widened. S-Class patents from the Mage Guild hadn't been seen for thousands of years. No one knew what the last invention was, but it had been something so advanced that only an 8th-level mage could use it. S-Class skills were legendary, typically reserved for high-level spells like Forbidden Spells, which only 9th-level mages could learn at the Mage Guild Headquarters. When had low-level mages been able to learn S-Class patents?
"Don't look at me like that! According to the announcement, this S-Class skill is about magic compression. It's true that it consumes ten times the mana, but the mental energy required is only a third of the usual amount. And the shape and size of the magic remain the same. The most important part is that even a first-level mage can master it, and the power of the spell increases by at least one level. Wouldn't you say that's worth it? Forget about 1000 gold coins, even if it were double, I'd pay. After all, this means we can start killing mid-level magical beasts," the man said, detailing the S-Class patent as Ukrie still looked doubtful.
"Damn, who came up with this? Forget 1000 gold coins, I'd pay 10,000 for it! A 4th-level magical beast is only worth a few hundred gold, while a 5th-level beast could go for thousands. My income would double," Ukrie was now fully intrigued by the S-Class patent.
The man nodded. "Exactly. Sure, the mana consumption is high, but the mental energy is still manageable. Mana potions are easy to buy, but mental energy—well, that's something you can only replenish with rest. And with the magic level increase, the power increases exponentially. And the best part is, the success rate for this method is 100%. With my current mana, if others hold off a 5th-level beast, I can cast the compressed spell three times. There's no way the 5th-level beast would survive."
"From now on, we won't need to cast ten spells to kill a 4th-level beast. One compressed spell will do. Plus, my water healing spells will be much stronger now. Whoever invented this is going to make a fortune!" Ukrie looked enviously at the long line ahead.
"Ha, ha, ha! With the compressed magic, the power of my level-4 spells can match level-6 spells! What a win!" Just as Ukrie was chatting with the man, a middle-aged mage rushed out of the Mage Guild, sweat on his forehead. What he said shocked the crowd, as reaching level-6 power from level-4 was no small feat. The difference was as vast as a mountain.
Seeing the mage's state, Ukrie hurried forward, eager to get inside the Mage Guild. His excitement was palpable.
"Boom!"
Ryan sat in the ship's cabin, and this was the sixteenth explosion. His first priority now was to figure out a way to create a potion that could generate a powerful shockwave. The first choice was water-type and fire-type magic crystal powders. However, Ryan was frustrated because many of his attempts to mix them had failed. At first, he had thought about using his mana to create something like a magic cannon or energy gun, but he soon realized that the magic circle required to trigger a magic cannon could only be inscribed by a 7th-level mage. His mana and mental power weren't sufficient for that. So, Ryan decided to turn back to his original plan of using explosive shockwaves to generate energy. But there was still a problem—whenever the fire-type and water-type magic crystal powders came close to each other, they reacted prematurely.
"It looks like this is the only way," Ryan muttered to himself. After organizing his thoughts, he realized that while the fire-type and water-type magic crystal powders could be used to create grenades, they weren't suitable for making guns—too unstable. Ryan had thought of using magic core powder, but the conditions aboard the ship weren't good enough to crush magic cores. The magic crystal powders, however, were ready-made alchemical materials.
Ryan picked up a nearby furnace. This furnace was specifically designed for melting refined iron. It used charcoal as fuel and added fire-type magic crystal powder along with the iron to melt it quickly. Ryan had already prepared the molds.
Ryan's plan was simple. He was trying to create something akin to a landmine. The landmine would have a cylindrical shape, with a casing made entirely of refined iron. The bottom of the cylinder would be filled with water-type magic crystal powder, and the top would be filled with fire-type magic crystal powder. A layer of tree sap would separate them. The tree sap would also contain some obsidian powder, which had strong anti-magic properties and would help separate the magical energy of the water-type and fire-type powders. A small hole the size of a thumb was carved into the top of the cylinder, where a thin piece of refined iron was inserted. At the top of the piece of iron was a large cap, the same size as the bottom of the cylinder. This cap was firmly secured in place, sealing the water-type magic crystal powder in the lower third of the cylinder, with the separating layer in the middle, and the fire-type magic crystal powder occupying the upper third. The outside of the iron casing was coated with a layer of obsidian powder mixed with tree sap to effectively insulate the magical energy.
The middle layer was thick for safety reasons. Ryan was concerned that if it was too thin, there might be accidents during transport. As he looked at the roughly 15 cm tall, 5 cm diameter landmine, Ryan felt discouraged.
The cost was significant: about 5 silver coins for the refined iron, 150 gold coins for the magic crystal powder, and an additional 20 gold coins for miscellaneous materials. That was about the average income of a 6th-level swordsman, so promoting this device was out of the question. It was unlikely that ordinary countries could afford it, but it could be effective against silent thieves and assassins.
Now, Ryan had to see the results of two days' work. While he wasn't sure about its effectiveness, he was hoping it would work as planned. If it did, he would consider optimizing it further, perhaps replacing the magic crystal powder with magic core powder to reduce size and adding iron shards or using a combination of fire-type magic crystal powder and magical beast fat to make more potent versions. But for now, he needed to test the mine's power.
"Crazy! Crazy! This S-Class patent has already sold to thousands of mages in just two days! The millions of gold coins have come in too easily!" The Archmage's Guild Headquarters. The same old man and the middle-aged man stood there. The middle-aged man held a form in his hand, showing the sales results of the S-Class patent from the Mage Guild that day.
"Master, this is just the morning's results. We won't have the afternoon's figures until tomorrow, but this is a huge improvement for our Mage Guild's overall strength." The old man seemed very excited. After all, think about it—the Mage Guild had so many members. If everyone leveled up by just one rank, the impact would be unimaginable. For lower-level mages, it was easy to see the benefits, but for 8th and 9th-level mages, while it might take some time and more mana, it was still a form of deterrence. The profits involved couldn't be calculated by numbers.
"The Church of Light and the Church of Darkness both sent official letters today, saying they want to learn this S-Class patent too. You handle that. Just sell it to them directly, but don't lower the price." The middle-aged man looked at his disciple and gave an order.
"Heh, leave it to me, Master. We'll just calculate the price based on their number of mages. Our Mage Guild isn't short of money." The old man grinned, his eyes filled with excitement. The churches on the continent were notoriously stingy. In the past, the churches ignored the Mage Guild and had even made agreements not to build guilds in each other's territories. But secretly, whenever the churches found anyone with magical talent, they would recruit them to train privately. The Mage Guild, in turn, secretly trained those with light or dark magic potential. Even the Dark Empire would exchange light magic users for dark magic users from the Church of Light. This was all part of political maneuvering. The Alliance Empire, however, was much stronger. It had a vast population and strong warriors, knights, and mages, along with dozens of temples dedicated to gods like the Goddess of Nature, the God of War, and the God of Contracts. This made the royal family a relatively small force, akin to a finance department—small but crucial for distributing benefits and maintaining balance. The royal family's role was just to collect and distribute money, though its power was not insignificant.
"Ryan, does this thing even work? It looks like a lump of iron," Quillin said, looking at the black lump of iron in Ryan's hands. From a distance, it resembled a simple ingot. The group had just docked the ship and found a farm to test the mine's power. Quillin didn't seem to believe in its effectiveness.
"I'm not sure either. It cost me 200 gold coins just for the materials, but I wanted to give it a try." Ryan smiled bitterly, not wanting to explain further.
Ryan tied a Sauripod beast to a wooden post, dressing it in leather armor. Then, he buried the mine within the beast's range of movement. After quickly retreating, he hid in a drainage ditch 50 meters away. Quillin and his two bodyguards watched Ryan's movements with varying expressions, while Alice, Delis, and the maid Lucy were watching from 200 meters away.
"Boom!" A loud explosion rang out. With two huge moons in the sky, Ryan could clearly see the 100+ kg Sauripod being launched 5 or 6 meters into the air by the shockwave, before crashing back down onto the ground. Ryan was somewhat protected, having covered his ears, but Quillin's two bodyguards were not so lucky. Although they quickly released their fighting aura to protect themselves, they were still struck by small iron shards. Quillin was better off, as the bodyguards shielded him, but Ryan was still sent tumbling by the golden fighting aura that exploded from them.
"Level 9..." The thought flashed through Ryan's mind before he lost consciousness. And that was with a Level 9 warrior not even targeting him. He couldn't imagine what would have happened if they had.