Wizards begin by accessing the Inspiration panel.

Chapter 224 The Path to Increase Strength

Just as Nikol completed the sacrificial ceremony, the great battle in the northeast corner of Tug City also came to an end!

"No!! How dare you mortals harm the great Lokauer!"

The once high-spirited third-tier stone elemental lord was now beaten like a stray dog. His hard rock body was riddled with holes, and one of his huge rock arms was completely broken off!

"Boom!!" A dazzling blue beam of light flashed by.

Lokauer's rocky body, already weakened by more than ten types of curses that reduced his defense, could no longer withstand the heavy blow. A circular hole the size of a door was pierced through the center of his body.

Suddenly, the third-tier elemental lord, Lokor, entered his final moments!

"The Great Locoer."

The intense spiritual energy fluctuations that had been emanating from the giant rock soon subsided, and a third-tier stone elemental lord fell at the hands of a group of second-tier archmages.

Of course, this does not mean that the strength of a third-tier stone elemental lord is only that.

The massive suppression magic array covering the entire city of Tug is undoubtedly the most important function, effectively limiting Lokor's strength as a third-tier stone elemental lord.

By completely restricting the power of its force field aura, it effectively countered the most troublesome group combat weapon of lord-level elemental creatures.

Secondly, the concerted efforts of up to ten second-level archmages, with the giant bronze golem acting as a human shield, gave the archmages the opportunity to strike live targets.

The great wizards present were deeply moved as they gazed upon the earth elemental heart, the size of a human head, exposed amidst a pile of massive, shattered rocks, still flickering with an earthy yellow light.

This is a third-tier treasure, with many uses.

Even the most rudimentary method of utilization, by placing it inside a second-tier giant rock golem, can continuously increase its activation level, thus slowly elevating it to the second-tier limit.

Not to mention the alchemy scheme that combines the Heart of Earth with other treasures.

"Hey! Baghdadi, have you noticed that the souls of the fallen city guards seem to have disappeared?" A level two archmage, proficient in shadow magic, asked with a puzzled expression.

Just now, he witnessed the soul of a city guard gray dwarf warrior who had just breathed his last suddenly vanish.

Logically, after a person dies, the soul should slowly dissipate within half an hour, not suddenly disappear all at once, which is contrary to common sense.

"It seems... it was absorbed by the ground."

The second-level archmage thought for a moment, then added hesitantly.

The other party was a second-level archmage proficient in shadow magic. The other party's words naturally attracted Baghdadi's great attention. After all, the city guards could be said to be his elite troops, and he could not allow his elite troops to have their souls disturbed even after death.

Similarly, this matter also attracted the attention of other second-level archmages, who all began to look around.

"Baghdadi, look over here." Soon, one of the second-level archmages spotted him in a nearby bakery.

He lifted the carpet covering the bakery floor and pointed to a faintly visible sorcery rune on the ground, saying:

"This is the mark of a concealing magic array. Judging from the size of the mark, the area of ​​this concealing magic array is extremely wide. Verification is also very convenient; the mark of the other magic array should be over there."

When everyone rushed over, they found the corresponding witchcraft array markings on the floor of a resident's bedroom.

This left everyone looking at each other in bewilderment.

Who on earth set up such a large-scale concealment magic array right under their noses?

but

No one expected that this discovery was just the beginning; soon after, the other great wizards made other significant discoveries.

"Baghdadi, I have discovered runic markings of a soul-binding magic array here," a level-two archmage, an expert in magic arrays, said to Baghdadi with a serious expression.

"Is a soul-binding spell hidden beneath the concealing spell array?" Baghdadi murmured to himself.

Under the full investigation of a group of second-level archmages, it only took a few minutes for them to discover that several large-scale magic arrays had been secretly set up throughout the city of Tug.

After research by two second-level Grand Wizards specializing in witch arrays, it was found that although these large witch arrays had different effects, they were all for one purpose—collecting souls!

To be precise, it's about collecting high-quality souls.

After calculating the core of the witch array, the group quickly arrived at a wealthy merchant's villa, only to find that the person who set up the witch array had already left, and the place that should have been used to place the soul collector was also empty.

This immediately made Baghdadi's face darken!

It seems that the mastermind behind this must be directly related to the shattering of the seal on the Scorched Earth Secret Realm!

The other party's purpose was clear: to deliberately create the seal of the Scorched Earth Secret Realm to break, thereby causing a large number of elemental creatures to surge out and cause slaughter, thus creating conditions for them to collect a large number of high-quality souls.

Baghdadi's clenched fists revealed his immense anger.

These guys who only dare to scheme and plot behind people's backs have desecrated the souls of the brave gray dwarf warriors; their crimes are truly unforgivable!

"Baghdadi, this seems to be the work of the Azure Flame Cult!" said a level two archmage who had cast Shadow Rewind.

"That's right. Judging from the traces, they should have been left by members of the Azure Flame Cult." Another level-two archmage who used the Tracking Technique confirmed the former's statement.

At this moment, Baghdadi's anger was instantly unleashed.

"Gentlemen, it seems we need to rely on your strength once again."

"On behalf of the City Lord's Mansion, I hereby issue a bounty: if anyone can find traces of the Azure Flame Cult or kill members of the Azure Flame Cult, the City Lord's Mansion will provide a generous reward."

"The specific reward terms will be issued later. I hope you can quickly convey them to your respective organizations."

"Especially for those capable of killing bishops of the Azure Flame Cult, I will open their private vaults and allow them to choose any treasure!"

Baghdadi seemed genuinely enraged, even offering a piece from his own private collection as a reward.

However, this immediately attracted the interest of the second-level archmages present.

Baghdadi, as the city's lord over the years, had amassed a considerable collection of valuable items, and almost everyone could find one or two treasures they needed in his private vault.

"Baghdadi, don't worry, everyone has a responsibility to deal with cults!" a second-level archmage immediately responded.

"That's right! I will personally arrange the personnel for this matter."

-

Richard's Villa.

When everyone heard the seemingly strong but actually weak words of the third-tier stone elemental lord, Lokor, they knew that the situation in the northeast corner of the city was probably already settled.

Sure enough, not long after, the city guards sent word that the shattered seal entrance had been temporarily sealed and all elemental creatures had been eliminated.

This relieved Richard and Fana, who really couldn't withstand another major battle.

The burly captain of the city lord's guard, Muriel, also took his leave at this moment:

"Gentlemen, it seems we're safe here for now. I need to report the situation to the city lord, especially the news of Dissol's sacrifice!"

With Muriel and his guards withdrawing, only his own people remained in the villa.

"Fana! This time, thanks to you, otherwise..." Richard looked at Fana's delicate face and said with unusual seriousness.

"Don't say that! You helped me in the Scorched Earth Secret Realm too. Since we're friends, we should help each other."

"By the way, your place has become like this. Why don't you come stay at my place for a while?"

Seemingly worried that Richard might refuse, Fana paused and then added:

"Moreover, the matter of the Azure Flame Cult is probably not over yet. If the two of us are together, we will at least have the ability to protect ourselves."

Fana's words immediately made Richard, who had been hesitant, decide to temporarily move to Fana's villa.

Given his current strength, Richard has no chance of winning in a one-on-one fight against Nicol.

"Okay, Fana, thank you for your help. Please wait a moment while I go to the alchemy room to get a few things, then we'll head over." Richard nodded, agreeing to Fana's suggestion.

There wasn't anything particularly valuable in Richard's villa.

The only things I need to take are some materials left in the alchemy room.

Alchemy equipment?

You don't need to bring it at all.

Don't forget, Fana is also an alchemist, although her alchemy skills are not as good as Richard's.

However, the equipment in her alchemy room was almost complete, and in some aspects, it was even more complete than the alchemy room that Richard had built in a short period of time.

-

One day later.

In the garden of Fana Villa.

Richard strolled alone, his mind constantly wandering.

He decided to further strengthen his own capabilities.

Although, from any perspective, I can be considered very strong among first-level wizards.

But unfortunately, the enemies he faced were stronger and stronger each time!

Especially this time when facing Nicol, whose strength was at the top level and whose body was incredibly powerful after the mutation, Richard would probably have been completely destroyed if he hadn't relied on the self-destruction of the Blood Bone Puppet, a high-level combat puppet.

After yesterday's battle, Richard had been thinking about something.

If I encounter Nicol again, how should I fight him? How can I win?

Considering the current situation, Richard is basically certain that if he is still at the first level, even if he can collect all the materials, create the Blood Bone Golem again, and summon the vengeful spirit, he will still be unable to achieve his goal.

But it seems I still don't have much of a chance of winning!

The only feasible solution is to make full use of the mixed black dragon blood in our hands.

By burning the essence of his bloodline, he stimulated himself to advance to the first-level high-ranking wizard.

If successful, his blood-bone puppet and vengeful spirit will both receive a boost from his increased strength, thus gaining the combat power to directly confront Nicol.

Now the problem is back to square one.

In other words, how do we solve the problem of ignition sources?

Richard brought up the Inspiration Panel to check the hundreds of thousands of energy points and the Tier 1 Crystal Aggregation Magic Array.

He planned to try to deduce the first-order crystal aggregation magic array into a second-order crystal aggregation magic array, or some kind of hybrid crystal aggregation magic array.

The goal is to use a large amount of flame crystals and essence to simulate the effect of a third-tier flame heart, thereby igniting the mixed black dragon blood!

Richard arrived at Fana's alchemy room.

The alchemy room was almost three times the size of Richard's, and it was fully equipped with all the alchemy equipment imaginable. Except for the unique equipment that Richard himself designed, it had everything one could need.

Richard nodded slightly and immediately instructed Fingart to guard the door and not let anyone disturb him.

[Host detected practicing an unknown magic array. Do/Do you want to consume energy to gain inspiration for practicing the unknown magic array?]

Richard didn't hesitate to drag the slider to the far right and select "Yes!"

He used up all the energy points he had obtained from the three gray-robed men in one go.

After a dizzying spin, Richard's soul found its way into the dream space, which was now an alchemy room. It seemed to be a dream space projection of Fana's alchemy room, with the same size and layout.

Inside the room, a blurry figure was continuously extending and drawing new array patterns outwards from the foundation of the first-tier crystal aggregation magic array.

The original witch formation, which was about three meters in diameter, has grown into a huge witch formation with a diameter of more than six meters due to the continuous addition of new formation patterns.

"That's good. The magic array has a total of thirty-six spots where you can place crystals. I wonder if that's enough!" Richard thought to himself.

If all of them were placed with Tier 1 Flame Crystals, energy calculations would show a significant gap compared to the energy fluctuations of a Tier 3 Flame Heart.

In that case, the only option is to upgrade some of the thirty-six locations from placing Flame Crystals to placing Tier 2 Flame Essences!

Let's start by adjusting the six fire crystals.

Since the turbulence effect needed to be recalculated and adjusted after adding the essence of fire, Richard could only rely on the inspiration from the massive amount of energy points to continuously improve it, starting with the essence of fire at six points!

[Beep! Unknown spell array attempt successful. Please name it, host?]

"Mixed Crystal Convergence Magic Array!"

After a dizzying spin, Richard's soul returned to his body.

We finally succeeded!

Richard's clenched fist revealed his inner excitement.

The Mixed Crystal Convergence Witch Array's main effect is to gather energy using multiple first-tier flame crystals and second-tier flame essences, thereby achieving the energy fluctuation effect of a third-tier flame heart.

According to Richard's calculations, as long as eight Flame Essences and twenty-eight Flame Crystals are placed in all thirty-six locations within the Mixed Crystal Convergence Witch Array, the array will operate successfully afterward.

Its core area's energy reaction should be able to achieve the energy fluctuation effect of a third-order Flame Heart.

Of course, just to be on the safe side, Richard decided to increase the number of Flame Essences to nine, which means nine Flame Essences and twenty-seven Flame Crystals.

"Hiss!" Richard couldn't help but gasp. This number, when converted into magic stones, was almost an astronomical figure!

(End of this chapter)