Wizard: I can refine all things.

Chapter 91 Academy War (Part 9)

"Ore!?"

Bartos looked at the most central figure in the White Wizard Legion and uttered an incredulous sound.

"it's me."

The White Wizard Legion split in two, making way for their commander, Orei.

"Using better equipment and more men than us, we ended up barely able to defend ourselves..."

Orei walked up to Bartos, the sunlight shining down from behind him, his face obscured, giving Bartos a suffocating pressure.

"Is this how your general staff fights?"

Bartos opened his mouth, as if to offer some explanation. But faced with the irrefutable facts, anything he said would be futile.

Ore ended his newly established staff with a single battle and regained power.

"Let's tally the casualties," O'Reilly said casually.

"...Yes," Bartos replied bitterly.

The statistics came out quickly: the black wizards lost 100 men in the battle, while the white wizards lost nearly 400.

Including the four hundred who died in the previous battle, in just one day, the Guardian Wizard Academy lost more than half of its apprentices.

But on the same day, the apprentices of the Guardian Wizard Academy were tempered by blood and fire, and they no longer felt fear when facing battle.

"Perhaps this is why the academy is waging an apprentice war."

In the conference room, O'Lee looked at the statistics and muttered to himself.

He had heard his mentor say that the White Wizard Legion's initial casualty rate reached an astonishing 50%, and even after mixing new and old members and adding war machines, the casualty rate only dropped to 30%.

Besides the extreme danger of the battlefields during the plane conquest, another reason for such a high mortality rate is the White Wizard's own problems.

Some white wizards performed poorly on the battlefield; in large-scale wars, some white wizards even showed a level of competence that was worse than that of the natives.

Through the efforts of the dark wizard apprentices, the mediocre white wizard apprentices were wiped out, and the remaining trainees were greatly improved in quality.

At least they won't wet their pants on the battlefield.

"Let them rest. Hand over the wounded to the apprentices of the Necromancer School for treatment. The uninjured apprentices should repair the defenses of the resource points," Ore ordered.

"Yes."

After a while, the senior apprentices from the Guardian Wizard Academy returned to the conference room.

This time, O'Lee sat in the main seat at the very back of the room.

"Through these two battles, our apprentices have grown. I plan to take a break for a while and let the apprentices below digest what they have learned from these two battles."

After saying that, O'Lee tapped the table with his knuckles.

"Does anyone have any objections?"

The senior apprentices looked at each other, but didn't say a word.

"Since everyone has no objections, then it's settled."

Boom boom boom!

No sooner had O'Lee finished speaking than there was a knock on the conference room door.

Upon opening the door, a white wizard apprentice whispered a few words to the person who opened it.

"The remaining two colleges have arrived," said the white wizard who opened the door.

O'Rey stood up.

"Then let's go see him."

……

Above the White Wizard resource point, Wuni circled continuously, and thanks to the distortion of light and its altitude, this death raven remained unnoticed.

"The White Wizards have begun their legionary warfare; that's not good news," Richard muttered.

The tempering of war allowed the white wizards to grow rapidly, while the chaotic attacks of the black wizards accelerated this process.

During the two academies' attacks, Richard could clearly see that the dark wizard apprentices were fighting individually, while the white wizard apprentices tended to band together.

Although individual black wizard apprentices are formidable, they are equally helpless when facing several apprentices whose theoretical combat strength is similar to their own.

If Richard were to give orders, he would have the dark wizards carry out a cutting and encirclement maneuver, commonly known as "making dumplings."

Concentrate superior forces to quickly break through the White Wizard Apprentice's defenses, then surround and annihilate them.

Unfortunately, the leading apprentices of the other two colleges did not have Richard's mindset. All they could do was break through the defenses and then let the apprentices fight for their own victory.

This aligns with the dark wizard's philosophy, but it's unsuitable for war.

"Two new academies. According to the rules, these two academies should be Frost Wizard Academy and Aurora Wizard Academy," Richard muttered to himself as he looked at the two new groups of white wizard apprentices that had appeared on the ground.

From the sky, two groups of white wizard apprentices gathered outside the resource point, and there seemed to be some minor friction between them and the apprentices from the Guardian Wizard Academy.

"We're all white wizard apprentices, why won't we be allowed in!" one apprentice shouted at the apprentice guarding the entrance and exit of the resource point.

Judging from the badge on his chest, he is an apprentice at the Aurora Academy.

"That's right. According to the rules, we're allies. Can't we even enter our own allies' resource points?" an apprentice from the Frost Wizard Academy chimed in.

Just now, these two academies arrived at the resource point late, at a very opportune time—almost exactly as the dark wizard apprentices left.

The Guardians of the Secrets Wizarding Academy was in a state of grief and indignation due to the killings by the dark wizards, and they naturally felt that the arrival of these two families was intentional.

They just left and came right after; what a coincidence!

But things just happened to be so coincidental.

Unlike the Guardian Wizarding Academy, both academies lacked a leader with sufficient prestige among their students. As a result, the two academies began their struggle for leadership the moment they entered the secret realm.

After vying for leadership, both sides coincidentally began constructing defensive measures at resource points in accordance with the White Wizard's Manual, which delayed them for quite some time.

After completing these tasks, the two sides bickered amongst themselves for a while before finally deciding to send someone to the resource point where the Guardians of the Secrets Academy was located to exchange information and build an alliance.

And this was just as the battle between the Guardians of the Secret Academy and the Dark Wizard had ended.

"Rules are rules. Without the leader's order, none of you are allowed to enter."

The white wizard guarding the gate spoke coldly to the white wizard apprentices outside, completely disregarding their protests.

Having experienced war, the apprentices of the Keeper of Secrets Wizarding Academy looked at these apprentices who had not experienced war with a mixture of pride and pity.

These people have no idea what awaits them.

The guard's words drew another round of discontent, but this time the discontent did not last long.

Because O'Rey's orders came down.

"Let them in."

Ole and the two colleges' leading apprentices, or rather, their representatives, exchanged some information.

I shared some of the experiences from the Keepers of the Secrets Academy with them.

"Are you saying that we white wizards can't possibly win when facing black wizards for the first time? Unless we set a trap and lay an ambush?" said the representative apprentice from Frost Academy.

This representative, named Greg, is over two meters tall, and with his red beard, he looks quite like a berserker.

"More or less," Ore said casually. "Without the tempering of war, the quality of our apprentices is far inferior to that of black wizard apprentices."

"It sounds a bit unbelievable, but judging from the rules this time, this is probably what the academy is planning."

On the other side, a representative of the Aurora Academy's apprentices chimed in.

The representative was a necromancer named Menasi, and as he spoke, two eerie blue flames flickered in his eye sockets.

"Get rid of the low-quality apprentices among us and make the wizards more elite."

O'Rei neither confirmed nor denied what was said.

"Are you two going to train the troops next?" O'Reilly asked.

As he asked the question, O'Lee led two apprentice representatives toward the street.

The continuous weeping echoed throughout the resource point. Many apprentices had lost their lives in this war; they were both men and women, and their relationships with the surviving apprentices varied.

But there is no doubt that those who died and the surviving apprentices all had feelings for each other.

The weight of death weighed heavily on the hearts of these living apprentices; separation by death is an inevitable part of a wizard's journey.

The ultimate goal of the wizarding academy is to provide manpower for the dimensional battlefield.

"us……"

Greg was overwhelmed by the sadness of the resource point and could hardly breathe.

The brutality of war left this ivory tower student somewhat bewildered.

"Do you remember the rules for winning a war?" O'Reilly suddenly asked.

"We have less than two resource points left, or the number of apprentices has dropped to half," Menasi said in a deep voice. "The academy is prepared for death; they've drawn a line for us."

"So you two should go back and think about it," O'Leary said softly. "Death is inevitable."

……

In the sky, Richard observed that the white wizards from the other two houses were beginning to leave.

But the direction they left in was a bit off.

Why are they heading in our direction?

Fortunately, it soon got dark, and the white wizard apprentices did not choose to march at night, but instead chose to camp in place.

"Are they planning to attack a public resource point?"

Richard shifted his focus to himself and nervously pinched his brow.

Boom boom boom!

There was a knock on Richard's door.

After arranging the city's defenses, Richard stayed in this room, using the fog to observe the White Wizard's movements.

"Who?"

"Boss, my name is Doug. I caught a magical beast, would you like to try some?"

"Doug? Warcraft?"

Richard realized that this guy had come to flatter him.

"Okay, I understand."

Richard moved his body and left the room.

Outside the room, the entire resource point had changed drastically.

Thick city walls have been built, with apprentices standing guard on them, and various wooden houses have been erected inside the resource point.

The apprentices walked the streets, and those who knew each other gathered together, lit a bonfire, ate dry rations, and chatted.

The daytime battles might be a painful memory for white wizard apprentices, but for black wizard apprentices, battles were just a normal occurrence.

The apprentice named Doug approached Richard and presented him with a roasted monster leg as if it were a treasure.

The thighs were sizzling and dripping with oil from the grilling, and were brushed with spices, making them smell incredibly appetizing.

"Boss, this monster's meat is very chewy, I guarantee you'll like it."

Richard wasn't bothered by Doug's flattery; he took the thigh, tasted it, and nodded.

"It's really good."

"That's good, that's good." Doug nodded obsequiously. "If you want more, I have some more."

"No need," Richard waved his hand. "Your name is Doug, right? What school of thought do you belong to?"

"Reporting to the boss, it's the Alchemy School."

"The alchemy school... what's their level? In which areas?"

Doug smiled obsequiously: "I study alchemical machinery, and my skill level is passable, but it's far inferior to yours, boss."

"Alchemy machinery, not bad."

Richard nodded, then took a contract out of his pocket and wrote a few clauses on it.

"Sign this, and you can stay in the rear."

Doug's strength is quite average. Judging from the fluctuations of magic power around him, Doug's strength should be at the level of an intermediate apprentice. It is estimated that he has not changed his meditation method and has been using the beginner meditation method.

An apprentice like that would probably just be a sitting duck on the battlefield.

Doug took the contract and read the terms. The terms required him to help Richard make some alchemical parts and alchemical potions, and he could not reveal any information to the outside world. Furthermore, after the war, he would have to undergo memory erasure by a soul wizard.

"This..." Doug looked at the contract, gritted his teeth, and signed his name on it.

Although the terms of the contract were somewhat excessive, they were nothing compared to dying on the battlefield.

"Okay." Richard yawned, took a parchment from his magic pocket, and handed it to Doug.

"Do it according to this instructions, and be careful."

Then Richard handed Doug a magic pouch filled with alchemical materials.

Richard made the decision to have Doug make the alchemical parts on short notice. Doug was an apprentice wizard in the alchemy school, and Richard had a batch of alchemical materials that needed to be processed.

Since he would only be sent to his death if he went to the battlefield, he might as well stay in the rear and work for Richard.

Upon hearing this, Doug thanked him profusely and withdrew.

After finishing the monster leg, Richard returned to his room and began monitoring the white wizard apprentice's actions.

In the dense forest, these white wizard apprentices, despite having the example of the Keepers of the Secrets, still did not understand the cruelty of war.

Richard even saw several male and female wizard apprentices having sex, and they even left the camp because of it.

"Well, if this group hadn't been so close to the Guardian Academy's resource point, they would have all perished in the forest tonight."

Through Wuni's night vision, Richard could clearly see several dark wizard apprentices scouting the camp.

The sentries of these white wizard apprentices acted as if they were dead, not noticing anything at all.

"Are those apprentices from the Void Academy?" Richard maneuvered Wuni through the forest and finally found the Void Academy and the Annihilation Academy hiding in the woods.

After their defeat, neither of the two colleges chose to return to the resource points to build fortifications, but instead chose to lie low in the forest.

"Boss, these white wizard apprentices and the resource point apprentices aren't the same group," the scouting black wizard apprentice reported. "How about we launch a night raid tonight?"

Anderson and Aldo huddled together and exchanged a glance.

"A night raid is indeed a good idea. Do you want to come?" Anderson asked.

The fire of soul in Aldo's eyes suddenly flared.

"Hehehe, of course I'll come."

Today's chapters are all 4,000 words long (～￣▽￣)～

(End of this chapter)