I, a cultivator, have ended up in the wizarding world.

Chapter 178 One Year

The torrent of time silently swept across the war-torn Frost Plane.

Since the wizard army landed, a year has passed in the blink of an eye.

Over the course of so many days and nights, the war had long since entered a tense stalemate.

The once-magnificent interdimensional invasion has now transformed into countless bloody trials of varying scales, day after day.

The two sides fought fiercely, and corpses soaked almost every inch of the land.

Jemin let out a long sigh of relief, put down the rune pen in his hand, and the last witchcraft model in front of him, which had undergone complex deduction and simplification, displayed the word "Completed" on his magic network terminal.

After a year of intense research, he finally completed most of his research tasks.

From Master Elwin's "Lava Annihilation" to Master Roland Vannar's "Frost Soul Disintegration," these two highly targeted destructive spells have been successfully reduced in scope and modularized with the assistance of many wizards.

Different versions, ranging from level one to level five, can be constructed based on the battle wizard's level and needs, with progressively increasing power.

This gave the wizard legions unprecedented annihilation efficiency when facing these two native groups.

However, since targeted destructive magic rarely leaves behind any loot, most combat wizards don't like to use it unless it's absolutely necessary.

In response, the camp issued a series of missions to modify these targeted destructive witchcraft.

For example, the project that Jemin is currently working on is to transform the Lava Annihilation spell, which has deteriorated to a level one sorcery, into a non-lethal but powerful area-of-effect sorcery.

"Finally, I can relax a little." Jemin stretched, his bones making a soft cracking sound.

Throughout the year, the situation in the Frostfire Plane remained one of continuous replenishment of troops by the two major races: the Lava Giants and the Yetis.

Their respective territories are like inexhaustible sources of manpower, with new legions emerging daily from the depths of the earth or the ends of the ice veins to launch a new round of routine attacks on the wizard camps.

The wizards had long been accustomed to these routine battles. The camp was like an indestructible nail, firmly fixed at the border between the Flame and Frost Realms, and they would engage in battles of varying scales with the natives every day.

But there is no longer the massive, overwhelming force of millions that once dominated the battlefield. Both sides are now carefully balancing their resources and replenishment to avoid over-stimulating the other.

Overall, although the wizards have only occupied the area of ​​the initial camp so far, they basically have an absolute advantage in battle.

To be honest, even the well-informed Viola was surprised by the fighting spirit of the natives of the Frostfire Plane.

Throughout the year, almost every day, anywhere from a few thousand to tens of thousands of monsters would attack the camp.

If this were an ordinary race, they would have lost their will to fight long ago under such a huge disadvantage, and there should have even been internal conflicts within the race.

Jemin and Viola, along with some other logistics wizards, discussed the matter and concluded that, due to the unique nature of their life forms, the native inhabitants of the Frost Plane likely considered the wizards' cannon fodder units as their own people.

In their eyes, the true main body of the wizard civilization should be those strange cannon fodder, while wizards are the elite units in this group.

Furthermore, neither the Lava Giant nor the Yeti reproduces sexually, but rather by splitting off a core and placing it in a high-energy incubation field with corresponding energy for asexual reproduction.

Given enough energy, larvae can rapidly grow into adults.

Therefore, both races believed that their battle with the wizards should be evenly matched.

Even so, it is still quite remarkable that they can maintain such a strong fighting spirit, which has led to the increasing value of live prisoners of both races.

After all, this kind of life form, with its strong combat power, intense fighting spirit, and simple reproduction, is simply the best base for cannon fodder modification!
"However... the fact that these natives have such a strong desire to attack actually saves us a lot of trouble," Jemin couldn't help but mutter to himself.

Viola, who had just passed by, stopped in her tracks upon hearing this: "That's right. In the past, after playing for several months, we had to find a way to feign a disadvantage to boost the opponent's confidence. Now, we've saved ourselves a lot of trouble."

After a pause, as if remembering something, Viola's tone lowered again: "But because these guys are so good at fighting, our logistics team has had a lot more tasks than ever before..."

Jemin nodded with lingering fear, saying that things had been alright for the past few months.

During the busiest period, if he hadn't strengthened his body with body tempering techniques before coming here, he would have worried that he might die suddenly during these missions.

Just then, the wizards around him suddenly started to stir.

"Huh?! What happened?" Jemin stood up warily.

He's so used to this kind of commotion now that he's even a little overwhelmed.

Every such commotion signifies that a wizard has made a major discovery, and once a major discovery is made, it means a host of tasks will be assigned.

Viola reacted much like Jemin, but both of them breathed a sigh of relief after checking their magic network terminals. According to the information on the terminals, this was because a wizard had discovered the main reason for the mutual hatred between the lava giants and the yetis.

Most of the intelligence about the two races has been extracted from the souls of the indigenous people of the two races who were killed or captured.

However, there are some special questions whose answers exist only in the souls of the higher-ranking members of both races, so the wizards are not yet aware of them.

The most widespread question is about the reasons for the mutual hostility between the two races.

The animosity between lava giants and yetis has a long history, and to wizards who are outsiders, the mutual hatred between these two races is simply incomprehensible.

After all, these two groups are completely different in terms of ecological habits and living environment. Although they are on the same plane, the two groups can be said to live in completely different worlds.

It would be understandable if each of the two groups possessed valuable resources from the other side.

However, according to the intelligence gathered by the wizards, even if the two groups did not interfere with each other, it would not affect the survival of the other.

It's absurd for two groups to communicate with each other when they can neither live in each other's environment nor have any real conflict of interest, let alone be hostile to each other.

In reality, before the arrival of the wizards, the lava giants and the Yetis would have a massive war almost every few years.

The indigenous people at the bottom of society did not know the reason. They only knew that every few years they would leave their comfortable environment and go to the chaotic energy zone at the border of the Fiery Sun Realm and the Frosty Dark Realm to fight each other to the death.

Recently, a logistics wizard skilled in resource surveying discovered a possible reason while investigating the geological environment: the war between the two races was not meaningless, and the territory of the losing side would be compressed and reduced.

"I never expected that the boundary between the Fiery Sun Realm and the Frosty Dark Realm would change depending on the outcome of the battle between the two races?" Jemin looked at the conclusion on the terminal with some surprise.

"But... what is the underlying principle? Isn't the reason why the Frostfire Plane has such a unique climate because of the radiation from the projections of the fire and water elemental planes?"

“It is indeed incomprehensible, but according to the sampling results of geological drilling, the boundary between the Fiery Sun Realm and the Frosty Dark Realm is indeed constantly shifting, and its trend of change is positively correlated with the results of the war between the two races every year…” Viola was also very interested in the data displayed on the terminal.

"It's likely that the leaders of these two groups possess special abilities that allow them to influence the elemental plane projection after a victory in battle..."

Hearing Viola's analysis, Jemin couldn't help but widen his eyes: "This thing can have an effect?!"

“Yes, it is possible, but this is a relatively high-end technique. Even the school of wizards that is most skilled in this technique can only do it after reaching level six…” Viola said, unable to resist licking her lips.

“If an indigenous civilization has such technology, then this Augustine wizard has really struck it rich.”

Hearing this, Jemin nodded in agreement.

Without a doubt, knowledge of this level must be concentrated in the hands of the leaders of the two races, namely the two level-six monster kings.

In other words, the only person most likely to have acquired this knowledge is the initiator of this mission, the level six wizard Augustine.

With the treaty of the Star Orbit Arbitration Tribunal in place, no one dares to defy the pressure of a level nine wizard and forcibly seize the knowledge of other wizards.

The surrounding forces, including Norren Workshop, could only obtain this technology by purchasing it from Augustine.

However, the other party will need a lot of resources to build their own dimension later, so they certainly won't be stingy in trading this thing away.

Perhaps with just this one piece of knowledge, this Augustine wizard could recoup all his investments from the beginning and the end.

As someone who had worked on some kind of plane construction project, Jemin naturally knew how many resources it would take to build an entire "Wizard's Tower".

Thinking about this, Jemin couldn't help but feel a little envious.

“But those are all too far in the future. The most useful information for us at this stage should be here…” Jemin shook his head and looked at the geological survey data below.

Due to a lack of data and time, the wizard's data is rather rudimentary, but it contains some very important information.

Through drilling, he discovered that the changes in the boundary line were actually quite exaggerated, with the deepest parts even penetrating more than 80% of the area on both sides.

Jemin couldn't help but stroke his chin: "Losing eighty percent of our territory and still fighting to the end? This is really..."

“That’s fantastic!” Viola exclaimed, picking up where Jemin left off.

The two exchanged a glance and then smiled knowingly.

Wizards are never worried about the intensity of an enemy's resistance; what they worry about is what the enemy might do in despair.

The stronger the enemy's resilience, the less likely they are to commit suicide together. By the time the enemy truly feels that things are hopeless, they have already lost the right to commit suicide together.

(End of this chapter)