Wizard Lord:I can Extract Anything

"What exactly do you want?" Richard asked with a serious tone.

"Caw, the power of faith," Ulysses replied. "Doesn't your wizard world have religions? When a group of beings prays to something, it gathers a peculiar power. That's the power of faith."

"Religion?" Richard recalled the cult of the Red Lord he had once eradicated.

"Caw, judging by your customs, I'd guess you don't have religion," Ulysses continued. "You wizards pride yourselves on rationality; religion was probably thrown in the trash long ago."

"That's true," Richard said flatly.

In the wizard world, only ordinary people believe in religion. Wizards, upon seeing a deity, would first think of dissecting it.

"You might easily encounter the power of faith. While conquering other worlds, you'll likely find religions where the world lord is worshiped as a god. Such a world lord's body would contain the power of faith. If you could obtain some, I could perform techniques only deities can use."

After explaining, Ulysses added, "Caw, don't think I'm trying to heal myself. Purifying the power of faith consumes mental strength and would worsen my injuries."

"Oh?" Richard narrowed his eyes, suspicious. "You'd do that out of kindness?"

"Caw, don't look at me like that!" Ulysses protested, bristling. "I see potential in you and want to invest in you. If you're not interested, forget it!"

"Invest in me?"

"Caw, that furnace you have is a treasure even god-kings might not possess. With it, becoming a deity isn't guaranteed, but it's very likely," Ulysses exclaimed. "Who knows, the next god-king of your civilization could be you. Is there a problem with me investing in a future god-king?"

Ulysses's words were cleverly phrased, making Richard feel quite pleased.

"Ahem, the path of truth is fraught with obstacles. It's too early to talk about such things," Richard said, feigning seriousness, before heading to his next lab to upgrade his magical equipment.

...

Richard had many magical items, but after becoming a wizard, most lost their effectiveness.

His guardian pendant, for instance, provided a fifty-energy-level magic shield that was now weaker than his black scales.

The mind protection ring, after his mental strength's qualitative change, couldn't even alert him to attacks on his psyche.

These needed replacing.

After sorting through them, Richard found that aside from his Greatsword of Mana Devourer, all other magical items needed replacement.

But replacements required resources.

Richard was already selling precious materials like Steel of Secrets for magic stones, so he had little left for crafting new wizard-level items.

After some consideration, Richard decided to forgo multiple flashy items and focus his magic stones on two: the Cloak of Concealment and the Greatsword of Mana Devourer.

As a black wizard operating behind enemy lines, a magic item for concealing his presence was essential. As for the Greatsword of Mana Devourer, Richard had already completed two of its stages; only one remained, requiring fewer magic stones.

Creating equipment required designs, and starting from scratch was too late now.

Thus, for the upgraded Cloak of Concealment, Richard opted to "borrow" a design from his teacher, Jolord.

As Jolord's youngest student and a partner in the wizard guild, Richard had some leverage. With an IOU for 100,000 magic stones, Richard obtained the cloak's design.

After resolving the design issue, the rest involved purchasing materials, crafting the base, inscribing spells, and refining the appearance.

Six months later, Richard admired the pitch-black cloak and the ominously-emanating greatsword, satisfied with his work.

The upgraded Cloak of Concealment didn't just hide his presence and magical fluctuations; it also allowed him to use the Shadow Dive spell.

This spell let Richard briefly slip between the material and shadow worlds to evade attacks.

While it couldn't handle attacks over two hundred energy levels—where spatial disturbances would force him out—its stealth capabilities were perfect for infiltration.

Stowing the magical items in his pouch, Richard left the lab to check on the fire giant's fusion.

After six months, the fire giant's elemental core had nearly fully absorbed the Annihilation Flame, becoming part of it.

In the lab, beneath a quartz cover, the elemental core was at the final stage of evolution, its once-fiery red now almost entirely black.

"Looks like it's nearly done; just needs a push," Richard mused, channeling mana into the elemental core.

With the mana infusion, the core turned completely black, the last red fleck transforming into black flame.

Boom!

The core's flames flared, chains of fire coalescing into a meter-tall black flame dwarf.

"I, Filst, am reborn!"

The flame dwarf proclaimed loudly.

"You are indeed reborn."

"Hmm?"

The flame dwarf turned to see the human who had coerced him into the slave contract watching coldly.

"Now, get off the lab table!"

With an anger-laden command, Filst retracted his flames, curled into a ball, and rolled off the table.

Seeing the table turned to magma by Filst, Richard sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"Filst, control your flames. Tell me your status."

Complying, Filst returned to humanoid form, flames subdued.

"Master, I've broken through, becoming a fire warrior."

"Fire warrior? A first-tier creature, is it?" Richard took out a notebook to record the data.

"Anything else? Any new abilities? Can you still use regular fire? Any mental issues?"

Richard's barrage of questions left Filst momentarily bewildered.

But soon, he answered each one.

After the Q&A, Richard nodded. Filst's growth was twofold: firstly, his strength had increased; after fusion and mana supplementation, Filst broke through to become a first-tier elemental being.

Secondly, his power usage changed; now composed of Annihilation Flame, Filst lost his previous fire element body.

This change made Filst more lethal but reduced his size, increased energy consumption, and rendered some fire giant abilities unusable.

"Alright," Richard said, pulling out a crystal ball from his pouch.

This crystal ball was a wizard guild-specialized elemental creature cage, designed for wizards storing elemental cannon fodder.

"Get in."

"...Yes."

...

Filst's successful fusion solved Richard's last pre-war issue.

In the remaining two years, Richard focused on meditation and Body Adaptation training, occasionally visiting the Garon Club to exchange battlefield experiences with the black wizards.

Familiarizing himself with the black wizards, Richard gained a deeper understanding of their community.

Operating behind enemy lines, surrounded by both enemies and treasures, self-preservation was paramount, and restraint was crucial.

A black wizard unable to curb his greed would inevitably die from it.

Two years flew by, and the day of the planar war arrived.

Richard, with his senior brothers, used a portal to reach the expedition layer above the working layer. Located in the World Tree's canopy, this vast space barely seemed occupied by tens of thousands of wizards.

Most wizards were freelancers, joining the war as mercenaries through contracts.

On one side, hundreds of cold-metal war airships rested on the ground, war machines of the white wizards designed specifically for the planar battlefield.

Their main cannons could unleash eight thousand energy levels, nearly matching a third-circle wizard's full power.

Soon, ripples appeared in the void as thousands of Tower of Truth workers flew into the sky, guided by a third-circle wizard to cast a massive spell.

With a wave of the workers' staffs, an enormous magic array appeared in the sky.

In its center, a rift opened, revealing the tip of a colossal entity.

"Is that the Floating City?"

Seeing the giant structure, Richard felt as if he was witnessing the World Tree for the first time.

A metal construct, tens of thousands of meters in diameter, slowly squeezed into the wizard world from the void.

The lower half of the Floating City was a hemisphere, seamlessly joined alloy plates exuding a mechanical beauty.

From above, the Floating City transformed.

Countless spires stood on the metal ground, with the tallest, a black spire, at the center.

This spire was the command center, from which all war orders were issued.

From the command center, shorter spires radiated in waves, extending to the Floating City's edges.

White wizards boarded the war airships, descending through passages opened in the Floating City's lower half, while black wizards like Richard and freelancers entered from above to land on the city.

"The Floating City truly is the pinnacle of alchemical machinery."

Beside Richard, Anna, a wizard studying alchemical machinery, gazed at the Floating City with admiration.

As a researcher, she wanted to dismantle every part of it.

Richard remained silent, his understanding of alchemical machinery still rudimentary, leaving him with only one thought about the Floating City: "It's fucking amazing."

As the wizards settled in, a figure emerged from the central spire.

The figure grew as it flew, becoming a hundred-meter-tall black-robed wizard.

"Welcome, everyone, to this planar expedition to spread the wisdom of wizard civilization. I am Black Tower, the commander of this expedition."

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