Spellcasting Gods

"Believe me, this is the most terrible punishment for a money-grubbing goblin."

After saying that, Zhang Cheng walked over to Rivigaz, who looked as if his father had died, bent down and whispered in his ear, "If I were you, I would shut up and keep quiet right now, unless you don't want the secret safe deposit box at the Third Branch of the Hot Sands Consortium Bank..."

Chapter 0606 The Goblin's Faith

"What?! I don't understand what you mean!"

Rivergaz immediately stopped crying, his small eyes revealing undisguised shock and fear. He couldn't understand how this secret, which only he knew, had been discovered by a complete stranger.

To protect the most valuable items, he hadn't even told his "first mate," Cape Carla.

"Don't play dumb! You know what I mean by the huge statues standing on the rocks outside the harbor, don't you?" Zhang Cheng threatened meaningfully.

The natives of Azeroth may not understand why a "rich man" would go to the trouble of building a life-size stone statue of himself, but for many players who enjoy exploring the map, it's no secret at all.

Once you crawl through the entrance on the right side of the statue, you'll immediately see mountains of gold coins and several treasure chests containing valuables.

Of course, in the game these are just decorations, ornaments and texture models; players have no way of stealing the huge wealth inside.

But in reality...

Judging from Rivigaz's tense expression, one can tell just how amazing the treasure is hidden inside, to the point that he doesn't even care about the Bloodsail pirates who are constantly moving the bank's vault.

As the saying goes, there's no harm without comparison.

The wealth stored in the vaults of the Treasure Bay Bank might be equivalent to several years' worth of Stormwind Kingdom's revenue, but it's less than a tenth of the wealth in the Secret Safe.

Old Phil clearly hadn't noticed this. After roughly estimating that he had taken almost two-thirds of the gold coins, he smiled and nodded at his partner, then headed straight for the dilapidated inn.

It goes without saying that he planned to buy the best wine in the cellar and return to sea to celebrate this easy victory with the sailors.

The menacing cannibals roaming the streets instilled in him a strong sense of crisis.

The old pirate knew that if a fight broke out on land, his men would be no better than the goblins who maintained order in Booty Bay, and would be routed in a matter of minutes at most.

Although the distribution of spoils went exceptionally smoothly, without any disputes or conflicts arising from conflicting interests, he felt a strong sense of unease and longed to return to the familiar sea as soon as possible.

Watching the Bloodsail Pirates depart contentedly with their gold and wine, Zhang Cheng sat down and smiled at the goblin before him, saying, "Rivigaz, my dear friend, I think we should have a good talk. You see, having lost your city and bank, you're practically bankrupt."

"No! I'm not bankrupt! You damned robber!"

Upon hearing the word "bankruptcy," Rivigaz immediately jumped up like an angry chick.

"Heh, alright, you're not bankrupt. At least you still have the secret vault inside the statue. But tell me, how are you going to stop me from taking it for myself?" Zhang Cheng continued to provoke the other party's already extremely sensitive nerves with a half-smile.

Rivigaz, panting heavily with rage, gritted his teeth and asked, "Demon! You demon! Tell me! What do you want?"

Zhang Cheng shrugged: "You might not believe it, but I'm not interested in your pitiful little business, nor do I intend to plunder your wealth. As long as you're willing to sign a cooperation agreement with me, I guarantee you can retain your remaining assets and continue to be the ruler of Booty Bay."

"You're not with those Bloodsail Pirates?" Rivera seemed to regain some of his senses, a sinister glint in his eyes.

"A group? No, no, no, don't think of me as so lowly." Zhang Cheng chuckled and shook his head. "I was merely using the Bloodsail Pirates' ships to cross the Endless Sea. After all, finding a stable teleportation point isn't easy; in the Eastern Continent, only Dalaran, Stormwind, Ironforge, and Undercity have such places. But the problem is, I'm with a large group of ogres, so traveling by ship is less likely to cause chaos and a commotion."

"Damn it! You colluded with the Bloodsail Pirates to plunder my city and wealth just to avoid chaos and commotion?" Rivigaz demanded through gritted teeth.

“That’s right! You know, you should feel fortunate, because I only promised the Bloodsail Pirates two-thirds of their wealth and made them promise not to damage the main structure of this city, so they still have a portion of their fortune left. But whether they can keep it depends on whether you are willing to cooperate with me,” Zhang Cheng replied meaningfully.

What do you want from me?

As the mastermind behind the Blackwater Pirates, Rivigaz was clearly no idiot. He knew very well that since this young human hadn't taken the remaining wealth, there must be a reason for him to be useful.

However, he would rather sell his soul to the devil than become a penniless beggar.

"It's simple! I need the Steamwheedle Consortium's extensive business and transportation network across Azeroth to help gather some interesting things and conduct some small experiments. In return, I'll pay you enough gold, like this..."

As the last word fell!

Zhang Cheng raised his hand and snapped his fingers lightly.

moment!

A huge mass of seawater suddenly surged in from outside, and within a few seconds it was quickly transformed into an endless rain of gold coins, which engulfed the green-skinned dwarf.

The vault, which was originally more than half empty, was suddenly filled to the brim.

Rivigaz struggled to climb out of the pile of gold coins, picked one up, took a big bite, and after confirming that the gold content was about the same as that of the coins minted by the Hot Sands Consortium, he immediately shouted with ecstasy, "My God! This must be a gift from the God of Wealth! Come on! Give me more! Bury me with gold coins!"

Seeing the little goblin lying on the mountain of gold coins, looking extremely excited, Zhang Cheng immediately smiled and suggested, "How about it? I'm very sincere, aren't I? How about we sign a cooperation agreement? I guarantee you'll become the richest trade prince in all of Azeroth in no time."

“Of course! Of course, my friend! Don’t even mention one agreement! I’d sign ten thousand agreements! From today onwards, you are my closest partner. No, not a partner, you are a god, you are my god, my faith, my everything!” Rivigaz knelt on the ground like a madman, frantically kissing Zhang Cheng’s boots, looking every bit like a fanatic.

As a goblin, he was completely unable to resist the magic of gold, especially the ability to turn the ubiquitous seawater into gold coins at no cost—a power that only the god of wealth could possess.

Through the power of divinity, Zhang Cheng could clearly sense the green-skinned little figure before him, filled with utter devotion and worship…

Chapter 607 Evolution Potion 5.0 (Part 1)

Number of believers + Depth of faith ≈ Influence on the world = Source of divine power.

Of course, this formula is not absolute.

Many gods can gain influence through other means even without faith. For example, the storm god Talos gains influence by exploiting mortals' fear of him, the goddess of magic gains influence by using the number of mortals in the magic network, the god of death gains power from the underworld's control over souls, and the god of justice gains power from every righteous act performed by mortals.

However, it is undeniable that, generally speaking, the more believers a god has and the more devout their faith, the stronger their divine power tends to be; at least this is the case in Forgotten Realms and the universe it connects to.

In fact, from the moment he absorbed divinity, Zhang Cheng already possessed the most basic conditions for accepting faith.

The problem is that splitting himself into a series of relatively independent individuals, or being confined to a specific universe and unable to leave, is not the kind of god he wants to become.

The god he longed to become was like the Titans of Azeroth, able to roam freely and without restriction throughout the multiverse, doing whatever he pleased.

Therefore, he never tried to spread his faith, nor did he get thousands of people to prostrate themselves and shout his name.

But now, a goblin has actually offered up his faith, and with such devotion and fanaticism.

Sensing that faint yet powerful "line of faith" that could transcend any distance, Zhang Cheng couldn't help but curl the corners of his lips, muttering to himself in a voice only he could hear: "Interesting... Is this the foundation for building gods and a system of faith? Perhaps I should find an opportunity to try it out. But for now, it's better to stick to the plan and upgrade the evolution potion from 3.0 to 5.0 as soon as possible. With the entire Stranglethorn Vale troll population as test subjects, I believe we can collect perfect feedback data in a month or two at most."

……

With Booty Bay back under Rivigaz's control, the previously chaotic city quickly returned to order. Thanks to the Gadgetzan Consortium's trade network spanning neutral cities throughout Azeroth, a large quantity of precious raw materials necessary for research arrived within a few weeks, especially exotic crystals of various colors from Un'Goro Crater.

Some audacious individuals even risked their lives to retrieve a small amount of Devilsaur eggs and blood.

It must be said that these small, green-skinned men are never stingy when it comes to risking their lives for a reward of enough gold coins.

To reward this "goblin warrior," Zhang Cheng directly awarded him a full five thousand gold coins, and announced that he would buy the blood, offspring, and eggs of any valuable creature at high prices, ranging from several hundred to tens of thousands of gold coins.

In an instant, both the greedy goblin conglomerates and the adventurers who would do anything for money went mad, and some fearless ones even set their sights on the guardian dragon.

In just one month, more than two hundred bottles of blue dragon blood have been transported from Everlook in Winterspring, although the vast majority of them are from dragonkin and young dragons.

In addition, there are red baby dragons captured in the wetlands and green baby dragons and faerie dragons captured in Feralas.

Unsurprisingly, this heinous act quickly provoked retaliation from the dragon legions and night elf druids.

It is said that Everlook was struck by a powerful magic spell, causing about half of the buildings in the city to collapse and resulting in more than a hundred deaths and injuries.

The hunting party that entered Feralas was completely wiped out; not a single one managed to escape alive.

In response, the Hot Sands Consortium issued a compensation list amounting to hundreds of thousands of gold coins.

Zhang Cheng, who possessed the ability to transform any substance into gold, didn't even haggle over the price. He showered these greedy goblins with massive amounts of gold coins, directly creating several more devout believers.

However, he didn't focus too much on dealing with the goblins. Instead, he spent almost 24 hours a day in the makeshift laboratory, repeatedly improving the potion formula based on the feedback data.

Meanwhile, drastic changes are also taking place among the troll tribes in Stranglethorn Vale.

Often, tribes of hundreds of people would vanish overnight, replaced by gigantic mutated berserkers who felt no pain and would kill any life they encountered in a frenzy until they exhausted themselves to death.

Sometimes, certain tribes would suddenly be wiped out, and judging from the remaining corpses, it would look as if they had exploded from the inside, with blood and bits of flesh scattered everywhere.

In short, the horrific experiments have caused panic among many troll tribes, who have flocked to the ancient city of Zul'Gurub, deep in the jungle, seeking refuge.

However, Zhang Cheng did not react to this. He neither stopped the trolls from migrating nor paid attention to the unusual commotion in Zul'Gurub, and devoted himself to the final improvement of the potion.

To be precise, through extensive experimentation, he has incorporated the powerful regeneration and berserk abilities of trolls into the new version of the potion, as well as the innate magical constitution of blue dragons and the powerful vitality of red dragons.

Gazing at the shimmering purple liquid inside the potion bottle, which resembled a jewel, he suddenly turned to the minotaur guarding the door and asked, "Tell me, do you crave power?"

"Um...you wouldn't be thinking of using me for that dangerous experiment, would you?" Kara Cape took two steps back, looking wary.

After all, he had personally witnessed the "horrific" reactions of many poor trolls after drinking this purple potion in recent days.

"No, of course not. The reason the previous ones were dangerous was because the formulas weren't perfect, so they needed constant experimentation. But this bottle, this one is a stable, mass-produced version. It can grant you a stronger physique, troll-like ferocity and regenerative abilities, and enhanced magical control and perception. Anyway, as long as you drink it, your combat power will be greatly enhanced. How about it, interested in giving it a try?" Zhang Cheng coaxed enticingly.

"Really?" Kara Cape blinked, clearly somewhat tempted.

Without hesitation, Zhang Cheng replied, "Yes! I guarantee that drinking it will not be in any danger to my life."

"Okay! I'll give it a try!"

After receiving assurances that no one would die, Kara Cape mustered her courage, took the potion bottle which was not even as thick as her finger, tilted her head back, and drank it all in one gulp.

Just as he was savoring the strange taste lingering on his tongue, he suddenly felt his heart skip a beat.

Pfft!

Pfft!

Pfft!

Jump faster and faster!

In less than three to five seconds, his strong heart was like a steam train running at full speed, surging with fiery blood!

With this surge of blood, every cell in the body begins to become active, like the final bloom of the flower of life before it withers...

Chapter 608 Evolution Potion 5.0 (Part 2)

“Save me! You…you promised…” Kara Cape struggled to raise her arm, trying to grab the hem of the young human’s clothes in front of her.

As a qualified Tauren warrior, he was well aware of the serious consequences that would result if this almost frantic heartbeat continued; within minutes, all the blood vessels in his body would burst, causing terrible internal bleeding.

"Relax, your body is undergoing a series of interesting changes, or rather, a metamorphosis. The pain is only temporary. Don't worry, you won't die, at least not as quickly as you might imagine."

Zhang Cheng completely ignored the other party's pleas and stood there carefully observing.

It's important to understand that in his plan, Evolution Potion 5.0 is not a half-finished product or experimental product like 1.0, 2.0, or 3.0, which are full of uncertainties and dangers. Instead, it is a stability enhancer with a wide range of applications. Even ordinary people can quickly gain a powerful physique or spellcasting talent after drinking it. It is a mass-produced magic potion that can create a terrifying army in a short period of time.

Of course, in addition, the mortality rate must be strictly controlled below five percent, otherwise it will lead to excessive waste of resources.

"help me……"