Wizard: This mushroom is too fierce.

Deep Cave Academy Conference Room

A dozen or so wizards dressed in white robes sat in chairs, listening silently to the old wizard at the head of the table speak: "These dark wizards seem to be up to something big lately, trying to connect the Bach Magic Mine with the Redding Camp, and have been sending people to build a magic tower between the two places."

"For the academy, the battle is not progressing well, and the Wizarding Association is very dissatisfied with us."

"Everyone, you are all first-ring wizards who have signed contracts with the academy and enjoy the generous treatment provided by the academy."

"Now, it's time to take action and teach those dark wizards a lesson."

"Old Dean, all we need to do is guard the entrance to the underworld as required by the Wizarding Association. What's the point of wasting so many magic stones and resources sending people down there to fight those desperately poor dark wizards?"

The first to speak was a first-ring wizard who studied meteorology. After he spoke, a large number of rebuttals immediately arose: "Leo, your research project does not require resources from the underground world, so of course you can say that."

"But what about us? The Evoking School, the Botanical School, including the traditional Construction School within the Academy—these wizards are constantly using the resources of the Underworld."

"It's easy for you to say that when you're not in the situation!"

Hearing the murmurs around him, the old dean raised his white eyebrows slightly and said, "Alright... since no one has any objections!"

"Then proceed according to my plan. After this year, all wizards above the third-class apprentice level will need to go to the underworld to participate in the war."

"By the way, regarding the Bloodflame Arena..." The old dean said coldly, his gaze deep, "Roland, Ashius's disciple, has already built this Bloodflame Furnace for you."

"Now it's your turn to shine!"

"Give the order to have all your students join this grand battle and give it their all."

"Consider it a rehearsal for pre-war mobilization..."

......

"Although it's still a puffy thing, it has already reached the standard of mortal combat power."

Inside Roland's laboratory, he carefully observed the modified Loyal Puji.

At this moment, the originally fair-skinned Puji, who could only perform simple actions, has now transformed into a fighting Puji covered in hard keratin.

The cuticle is entirely composed of hyphae, yet it is as hard as armor.

Roland's gaze sharpened slightly as he saw the combat data displayed before him:

【Name: Puji】

[Type: Fungi]

[Abilities: Mycelial Armor (LV1), Regeneration (LV1), Adaptive Enhancement (LV1)]

[Combat Power Level: Mortal Standard in the Wizarding World]

The whiteboard Puji disappeared. After Roland's continuous modifications, all the Puji in Roland's hands were now transformed into combat Puji with three abilities.

The number of modified combat Puji is fifty. According to Roland's calculations, if the Puji are equipped with weapons, they can have the combat power of human soldiers.

Most importantly, they are not afraid of death, only loyalty—loyalty to Roland.

Of course, there are many issues that need improvement. Roland can't keep manually modifying Puji forever; he needs an automated process or to breed and propagate them.

The former is alchemy, which he doesn't plan to delve into for the time being, while the latter is botany, as Roland has recently been reading a lot about plant genetics and targeted breeding.

According to the genetic principles of magical plants, the reason why their innate traits, magical power carrying capacity, and mutation potential are dull is because their superior traits are completely suppressed by their inferior traits.

What Roland needs to do now is to use these battle puji that he has modified to conduct artificial screening, select those with superior traits, and then breed them in multiple groups.

If this happens, Roland will probably no longer need to be manually modified; he can just plant it in the ground, and the battle Puji will grow out of it in batches.

After clarifying his thoughts, Roland left the laboratory, preparing to meditate.

With fifteen days remaining until the start of the Bloodflame Arena competition, Roland needs to continue improving his strength during this time. Thanks to the help of a large number of magic stones, Roland's mental strength has now reached 10 points, and he has also opened up three spell slots through the Destiny Meditation Method: the 0.3-ring support spell "Power Acceleration" from the Power School, the 0.5-ring classic defensive spell "Oak Armor" from the Botany School, and the 0.3-ring spell "Raging Wildness" from the Botany School.

Of course, the consumption was also quite high. Now Roland only has one thousand magic stones left. Roland has already planned most of these magic stones: part of them will be used for experimental funds, part for himself, and part for the Bloodflame Arena competition.

In other words, due to rapid advancements and the expenditure of time on experiments, Roland became penniless again.

He needs a new source of magic stones!

"Lord Roland, someone has come to visit!"

A blonde elf girl named Emilia, dressed in a maid's outfit, came to Roland's side. After spending several days together, she had fully understood her role and no longer made any unnecessary moves, just like a real human maid.

"Who is it?" Roland frowned.

"He claimed to be from the Shell Wizard Exchange Center and said he had a business deal to discuss with you in detail."

"A pimping agency?" Roland muttered to himself. Why were these pimps coming to him?

"Have him wait in the living room for a moment, I'll be there shortly."

Five minutes later, Roland changed into a clean wizard's robe and slowly walked into the living room.

Inside the living room, a middle-aged male wizard dressed in a blue wizard's robe was watching everything in the house with great interest, from the Swordmaster Mushroom practicing swordsmanship in the yard, to the ordinary mushrooms playing and running around inside, and then to the Battle Mushroom squad undergoing intensive training in the yard under Lord Haik the Parrot.

"Hello... May I ask who you are?" Roland slowly approached him and asked softly.

"I am Pierce Hart, a top agent at the Shell Wizarding Brokerage Exchange." The male wizard smiled, bowed, and handed over a blue wizard postcard: "Roland, I've come here to discuss a business deal with you."

"What kind of business?" Roland asked curiously.

"It's the title sponsor of the Bloodflame competition!" Pierce handed over a contract: "Our Beike agency has assessed the event's conditions and believes that this event can provide our platform with a significant amount of influence."

"Therefore, we have decided to sponsor three thousand magic stones!"

"Five thousand magic stones!" Roland raised a hand as usual.

"Deal!" Pierce immediately agreed.

Roland was slightly startled. They agreed to the five thousand magic stones so readily, thinking it was a great deal with a high profit margin.

White wizards are profit-driven and would never do something at a loss; they must have some kind of purpose.

Roland looked at the contract with a strange expression and found a stipulation that at least 70% of the magic stones used to sponsor the event must be used for event promotion. In other words, after Roland paid the money, their organization had the right to send someone to review the specific expenditures.

Roland looked at it carefully again and checked the relevant information through the academy forum. After finding no problems, he signed the agreement directly.

"How did you find me?" Roland asked, puzzled.

"We learned through special channels that your teacher gave this project to you."

"That's why we came to you. We have high hopes for this event that you initiated."

"To be honest, Roland, your indiscriminate attack on everyone who slanders you on the forum was a really wise decision."

"You gained popularity, while we saw a business opportunity."

"Therefore, we've decided to sponsor the competition you initiated and promote it!"