Wizard: Become stronger by drawing cards from the potions variety show

Chapter 703 Listening to the Music
There are four enemy tiers in this round of battle.

Under normal circumstances, the four waves of enemies attack in staggered shifts, giving the people inside the stronghold almost no time to rest, making it difficult for them to keep up with the replenishment of magic power.

The objective of this training was to hold out for one hour while awaiting reinforcements.

In reality, this task is a false proposition.

After several attempts, Harry thought it was completely impossible.

An hour is more than enough time to break through the stronghold, no matter what. Even if the three brothers were deliberately distracted, the time they could hold out would still be far from an hour.

But this time it's different.

Relying on the composite magic array, no enemy that enters ever returns.

Forget about holding out for an hour while waiting for reinforcements; in just one hour, they've almost wiped out all the enemies.

In the end, Harry even rushed outside and dealt with the enemies who were holding back one by one.

As he eliminated the last person, the system notification sounded in his ear, confirming the successful completion of the operation.

Harry felt a moment of disorientation.

I actually managed to complete the difficult teamwork challenge.

This time, there was no follow-up plot; instead, the reward was simply and decisively issued—a war leader.

War leader? What is that?
Harry chose to claim the reward, and a crystal appeared before his eyes, with a description displayed above it.

[War Leader: During battle, you will be more likely to discover the talents of your subordinates. Properly utilizing their talents will slightly boost morale. Morale translates into increased combat effectiveness.]

"This is……"

This time, the reward is actually a special trait.

Traits themselves are also a kind of rule, and in order to form a corresponding trait, many conditions need to be met.

And now, after only a few training sessions, I'm actually able to develop a special trait? The reward for this stage is essentially that the training process accelerated the development of the trait, thus catalyzing its emergence?
If that's really the case, then the training was more rewarding than I expected.

As expected of a competition founded by the Wizard of Rules, the rewards for each stage are unexpectedly generous.

It seems that saying we wanted to cultivate them into future leaders was not just empty talk.

Just as Harry was thinking, a new system notification suddenly sounded in his ear.

[Nightmare difficulty, teamwork training qualification obtained. Currently Nightmare difficulty 2/4 unlocked.]

The new clue caught Harry's attention.

He discovered that the progress to unlock Nightmare difficulty was already halfway done. He knew very well that he had not completed the combat training on Hard difficulty, so the original combat training qualification here should have been obtained by someone else.

Although it was obtained by others, since it can be accumulated, does it mean that the final nightmare difficulty level requires teamwork, or even that those who obtained the qualification will form a team?

Anyway.

I need to speed things up. Of the four training components, if I have the opportunity to qualify for the scores in the latter two, I might be able to gain even more.

Just as Harry was thinking this, a new notification sounded in his ear.

[Nightmare difficulty, intelligence analysis and strategic thinking training qualification obtained. Currently Nightmare difficulty 3/4 unlocked.]

Harry was stunned.

He was surprised to receive so many system notifications in such a short time. What surprised him even more was that he had just passed the difficult level of the team collaboration challenge when someone had already passed the difficult level of the third round of training.

Who took it down?

……

We got it.

A smile appeared on Lucy's face.
The first two rounds weren't very favorable for her. Combat wasn't her forte to begin with, and teamwork was even less so.

Letting her protect herself might be possible, but expecting her to demonstrate absolute strength and overwhelmingly suppress the enemy is wishful thinking.

However, the first two rounds were not without gains. At least Lucy's own Chaos spells became more and more proficient. Although the effects fluctuated greatly, at least the game time was fast enough.

A random positive effect can instantly eliminate enemies.

Random negative effects were immediately eliminated by the enemy.

When the difficulty level increases, the Chaos Spell can no longer kill in one hit. The opponent's defensive and regeneration magic can survive Lucy's Chaos Spell, and Lucy knows that she has no hope of winning.

So Lucy decisively skipped over it.

That's why, although the initial progress was a bit bumpy, once they decided to give up on the difficult difficulty of combat training, they actually got ahead of everyone else.

While others were struggling with the difficult challenges, Lucy was the first to move on to the third round of training, which focused on intelligence analysis and strategic thinking.

One of the main battlefields of war is the battle of intelligence.

During the confrontation, a large amount of information is generated every moment. Some of this information is obtained by our own people through various means, while some is deliberately released by the other side.

Information obtained by our own people may not be entirely accurate.

Not all information deliberately released by the other party needs to be rejected.

How can one, amidst the fog of war, discern the enemy's operational intentions based on existing clues, analyze the enemy commander's style, objectives, and exploitable weaknesses, anticipate their attacks, and plan countermeasures?

All of the above are intelligence analysis.

Based on intelligence, long-term campaign objectives, resource allocation, main attack direction, feint attack strategy, retreat route, and contingency plans for various unexpected magical events are planned.

Through policy pressure, diplomatic coercion, and infiltration tactics, the enemy's stability is disrupted.

These are all strategic thinking.

War is not just about fighting; the political, social, and economic impacts are equally indispensable. The key factor in this round is the conversion of information advantage gained through intelligence into strategic advantage.

Therefore, in intelligence analysis and strategic thinking training, the challenge is to navigate a complex mix of true and false information, using known intelligence to determine the veracity of the information and extract key data for reporting.

When faced with this type of question, the general approach is to categorize the intelligence based on the reliability of the source and the importance of the intelligence itself. This involves first summarizing and classifying the intelligence, then cross-referencing it with known information, and finally filtering out the valuable intelligence from the confirmed information.

But Lucy is different.

To Lucy, the mixed information presented itself as an interesting nursery rhyme. The climax and key parts of the rhyme naturally drew her attention. She subconsciously pointed out the turning point in the variation of the rhyme and mentioned that the verses of the song were somewhat sad.

These pointed-out parts were then selected by the wizards around her.

Such rapid progress raised doubts among the other Libra wizards, especially the Libra Lord, who had deduced many of the clues based on them and found no problems.

Each piece of information pointed out by Lucy is crucial; its veracity or inaccuracy could potentially turn the tide of events.

The most crucial contradiction in the intelligence was that it contained only half of the enemy's troop deployment map.

The intelligence department initially believed that this intelligence was reliable.

Because the messenger was a war wizard from Gemini Palace who had infiltrated the enemy ranks, the intelligence was transmitted in cipher and through mind mapping, so there were no problems with the channel. They used this reliable and crucial intelligence as the core of their plan for Operation Thunder.

But in Lucy's view, the sad notes that made the song so sad started right here.

That's what she said, which also means she believes the information is false.

Despite the apparent conflict, the verification personnel found nothing unusual after careful inspection.

Normally, everything is ready, the arrow is on the bowstring, and it has to be released. How could preparations be stopped just because of the opposition of an intelligence officer?

Some people believe that it is better to be cautious, because according to their calculations, if this intelligence is false, their swift action could very well become a key moment for the enemy's counterattack.

During this period, they have no need to take any risks.

Every matter has two camps: radical and conservative, and this action is no exception.

However, Lucy didn't care, because this was a training simulation scenario, and everything was centered around the assessment.

Her mission was to find crucial intelligence, not to win the war.

Lucy is not responsible for the victory in the war; she only needs to point out the truth or falsehood of the intelligence. Even if the war is ultimately lost, it will not affect her passing the training.

More than the result, she was concerned with how this information transformed as she read it. These pieces of information, whether true or false, formed a long epic in her ears, and the ups and downs of the melody were so moving and magnificent.

Compared to the expression of the music, the quarrel between these wizards is utterly insignificant.

Perhaps seeing Lucy's calm demeanor, the commander-in-chief of the operation hesitated for a moment before choosing to trust her.

He canceled Operation Thunder, but to test the waters, he used his reserves of mimicry and illusions to replace the original combat squad.

The original combat squads, on the other hand, remained stationed on the perimeter.

The infiltrated mimicry squad successfully entered the enemy's high command camp after bypassing the troop deployment.

Normally, if things went so smoothly, they wouldn't think much of it and would simply attribute it to thorough intelligence.

But this time, the unusually smooth progress, given the controversy surrounding the operation itself, is somewhat unsettling.

The infiltrated mimicry team waited quietly. Once they saw the high-ranking officer who needed to be beheaded emerge from the command post and return to the rest camp, the mimicry team immediately launched a surprise attack, forcibly tearing open the camp's defenses.

However, instead of seeing the target inside, mind controllers who had been lying in ambush appeared all around.

"As expected, there was an ambush. Fortunately, it was a mimicry."

The wizards controlling the mimicry immediately abandoned their control and triggered the mimicry's self-destruct mechanism.

The explosion, which occurred close by, caused a massive shockwave, shattering the barriers of the mind controllers nearby, resulting in death and injury.

Even the shockwave from the explosion faintly reached the wizard camp.

The commander's heart sank; there was indeed an ambush.

If it weren't for the screening of these new intelligence personnel, their people would probably never have returned, and even if they did, they would likely not be trustworthy.

It's good that it was discovered, but if it wasn't discovered afterward, it could be really dangerous.

The commander looked at Lucy, who was lost in thought, and asked, "Lucy, can you tell me how you knew this intelligence was problematic?"

Lucy was listening to an exciting piece of music, which had just been slightly modified and adjusted to suit her taste even better, when she was interrupted. Lucy had no time for small talk: "Believe it or not, just leave me alone."

Those around were startled.

They admitted that Lucy might have some abilities, but this was just too arrogant...

War wizards are clearly ranked. When Lucy first arrived, she was just an ordinary private. She dared to speak rudely to an officer who was four ranks below her. She really wanted to die.

However, unexpectedly, the commander not only did not mind, but also had people revise the tactical plan according to the information provided by Lucy.

New orders were issued one after another, the army's center was adjusted, and the action formations changed accordingly, and the operation began quickly.

In just one day, thirteen secret operations were carried out, with the Aries, Taurus, and Cancer combat units deploying all their forces.

Using a counter-strategy, the two-pronged attack, combining a strong offensive with infiltration, leveraged intelligence advantages and preparedness to instantly dismantle the enemy's resistance and shatter the impregnable fortress they had built on the front lines.

The change of control of several key strategic nodes directly affected the course of the entire war.

The information Lucy provided played a crucial role in this process.

The information Lucy provided was like highlighting key points; they only needed to analyze the potential impact based on Lucy's judgment of the information.

Moreover, since some of this intelligence has already been confirmed to be true, the corroboration of other information is faster and easier to verify.

Lucy, who defied the commander-in-chief, was not only not punished, but was also promoted to vice-chair of Libra Palace. It is foreseeable that she will become the head of the household in a more formal position, which is only a matter of time.

Amidst all the positive developments, Lucy completed the training on the simple mode.

In fact, Lucy could have retired much earlier, but because of the song and melody formed by her talent, she stayed a little longer to experiment with how the musical structure of the song would change as the war situation evolved.

As it turns out, Lucy's Chaos Technique, the so-called "Duet of the Mute and Chaos," is not a single piece of music, but a movement that naturally formed based on Lucy's understanding.

She can sing praises to her own understanding, and she can also listen to the ebb and flow of the chaotic tides.

This is precisely the meaning of a duet.

Her talent manifests as chaos, which is not just the three abilities described on the panel, but a comprehensive enhancement. The abilities on the panel are more like a general description than a definition.

Without pausing, Lucy immediately began the usual mode of intelligence analysis and strategic thinking.

She has nothing to reflect on; what she needs most is to listen to more war songs.

(End of this chapter)