Fingart? Richard shook his head.
The strength of the third-level wizard apprentice is still a little too weak, so let him guard the house.
As for Stephanie, although her strength is just at the limit of an apprentice, she should be brought in to take care of her daily life. After all, even if we explore the outskirts of the Scorched Earth Secret Realm, it will probably take at least seven or eight days to find anything good.
However, before going, some preparations need to be done.
This time, Richard did not plan to go deep into the Scorched Earth Secret Realm, but only planned to explore the periphery of the Scorched Earth Secret Realm.
The flame crystal he needed came from a first-level fire element, an elemental creature that should exist on the outskirts of the Scorched Earth Secret Realm.
According to ancient books, the same situation applies to fire flowers. Although there are more fire flowers the deeper you go, there are also a small number of fire flowers distributed on the outskirts of the Scorched Earth Secret Realm, and many people have collected them.
The number of fire flowers Richard needed was not large. With his inspiration panel, he did not need too many raw materials to make the Fenrir potion.
Because if you take too much Fenrir potion, it will also make the body resistant to it. The first bottle has the best effect, and then the efficacy will gradually decrease until it has almost no effect.
So, with this in mind, Richard thought about it and realized that he now had the Blood Bone Puppet and the Wraith Abomination, plus Gorkan who was proficient in water witchcraft.
In terms of combat power, it should be relatively certain to kill a lone first-level fire element.
Richard doesn't consider forming a team!
Because if they form a team, not only is it possible to expose the extraordinary combat power of the puppets made by Richard, but also when they kill a first-level fire element, the flame crystals must be distributed among everyone according to their contributions.
In this case, if Richard did not reveal his true strength, it would seem that he was just there to work.
Maybe other high-level wizards of the first level have collected two or three pieces before he can get one.
After all, those wizards who dare to operate in the Scorched Earth Secret Realm for a long time are rarely heard of as having only the initial strength of level one.
As for inviting Desor and others to join us? Richard had considered it.
But Dessor is currently immersed in brewing a new style of rye beer and plans to apply hops to the brewing process of other beers, and from the perspective of the Chamber of Commerce.
Someone must also be responsible for the brewing, sales and promotion of beer.
If both he and Disol went to the Scorched Earth Secret Realm, the entire series of operations of the new beer would be greatly affected.
At present, it is the starting stage of new beer, and Desol is still indispensable.
In addition, although Disol cannot be called a puppet master, he at least has the strength of a high-level puppeteer and can easily see the strengths of the blood bone puppet.
Because the Blood Bone Puppet is a high-level puppet, it is impossible to make it without a puppet master.
Moreover, no one has successfully made a blood-bone puppet for hundreds of years. You know, I came to Tug City at the invitation of Disor. Before arriving in Tug City, I knew almost nothing about puppetry, but now, in less than a month, I have become a master of puppetry? Obviously, I will not be able to explain all this at that time.
Even though he and Disol have always had a good relationship, Richard believes that he cannot rely on the conscience of others for his own safety.
Especially for a race like the gray dwarves who are extremely interested in puppetry, if the news that he can make blood and bone puppets were to leak out, he would probably be dragged away by a group of old gray dwarves to do slice experiments.
However, now we can further improve the Blood Bone Puppet.
Richard thought about it and then whispered a spell. In an instant, a huge inverted pentagram wizard formation appeared on the ground.
As a dazzling green light flashed, a bone demon that was three meters tall and had an abnormally thick skeleton was summoned. It was the blood bone puppet.
Letting the blood-bone puppet lie on the ground, Richard began to redraw the energy channels on the inside of the blood-bone puppet's ribs, inside of the spine and other locations.
That’s right!
Richard planned to apply the dual energy channel technology he had just mastered to the blood-bone puppet.
One hour later The Blood Bone Puppet, which originally had only one energy core, has now been transformed into two.
After Richard inserted two high-level magic stones, he ordered the blood-bone puppet to launch a simulated attack.
The blood-bone puppet struck the extremely solid wall of the alchemy room twice.
I only felt two strong winds passing by, and two long scratches as deep as a finger appeared on the hard quartz wall, forming a big X shape.
This immediately shocked Richard. Needless to say, the attack power was so great that it could destroy the quartz wall like this. It definitely reached the witchcraft attack level of a high-level wizard.
But what amazed Richard even more was its speed. The Blood-Bone Puppet, which already had an extremely fast movement speed among undead creatures, had its movement speed significantly increased again after being transformed into a dual-channel energy core.
Quantitative change leads to qualitative change!
Now, the movement speed of the blood bone puppet almost exceeds that of the high-level spider woman of the night elves who is known for her agility.
However, the size of the blood-bone puppet is much larger than that of the high-level spider woman before her transformation, especially the arm span of the ogre skeleton has reached three and a half meters. Combined with the bone knife that grows out of the mutated elbow, it can exert a more terrifying killing power than the spider woman's knife arm.
Moreover, Richard also calculated and found that the duration of the Blood Bone Puppet's burst was also effectively extended.
If the increased movement speed and attack speed are taken into account, he estimates that the overall combat effectiveness of the blood-bone puppet after the dual-channel energy source transformation will be improved by more than 15%.
This made Richard feel quite relieved.
A large amount of magic stones have been spent, and it is time to harvest. ——The next morning, after Richard finished his daily production tasks, he came to the task hall on the first floor of the Gray Dwarf Brotherhood.
After showing the mithril emblem, Richard said to the gray dwarf girl at the counter: "I want to hire a few third-level wizard apprentices. Do you have a list of relevant personnel?"
"Yes, Master Levi, do you have any requirements for the gender, age, specialization, etc. of wizard apprentices?"
Richard thought for a moment and said, "The best area of specialization would be plant cultivation. If that's not available, then choose the natural sciences area."
"Please wait a moment." The gray dwarf girl said with a smile, and began to quickly look through the information.
In the past few days, Richard had broken down the mass cultivation process of hops step by step and found that it only required at least two third-level wizard apprentices who could use zero-level natural witchcraft for super-fast growth, and another third-level wizard apprentice who could use zero-level water witchcraft for nourishment.
You know, the hiring cost of a third-level wizard apprentice is at least ten times cheaper than that of a formal wizard.
If he could recruit a suitable wizard apprentice this time, not only would he be able to greatly reduce his labor costs, but he would also lay a good foundation for the next step of expanding his production capacity.
After a while, the little gray dwarf girl said apologetically: "Master Levi, I'm very sorry, the last third-level wizard apprentice specializing in plant cultivation was hired the day before yesterday."
"Then, I checked for you the third-level wizard apprentices in the natural department. Currently, there are only these five left."
After saying that, the little gray dwarf girl respectfully handed over a parchment scroll.
This parchment scroll is obviously different from the parchments generally used for recording. Judging from the faint energy fluctuations revealed, it seems to be the fluctuation of the plastic energy system.
Richard took it and looked at it, and found it quite interesting.
There were two columns of resumes on the parchment, one column with three people and the other with two people, a total of five people's resumes, which included their names, genders, ages, specialties, and the families, organizations or colleges they belonged to.
These portraits were like living people, smiling and nodding at Richard.
Among the five people, except for a lizardman and a fishman, the other three are gray dwarves, but race is not Richard's focus.
Since there was not much content, Richard finished reading it quickly, but his brows were furrowed after reading it.
Because Richard discovered that no matter whether it was the Lizardmen, the Murlocs or the Gray Dwarves, in the column of their affiliated organizations, it was basically clear that they had wizard families or wizard-level forces behind them.
This immediately made Richard quite worried.
The purpose of recruiting third-level wizard apprentices is to cultivate large quantities of hops. If the entire cultivation method is leaked, it will undoubtedly impact the profits of the Beer Chamber of Commerce.
It’s not that Richard thinks that no one can successfully imitate the new beer he sells.
Even if it is kept secret, the alchemist master among the gray dwarves will inevitably discover that hops are added to the new beer after a period of time.
But the other party also needs a lot of time to adjust the proportion of this ingredient, test the production process, etc.
By the time the other party imitated the taste of a similar new beer, Richard had already made a fortune.
But at this stage, the news of large-scale cultivation of hops cannot be leaked.
"Thank you! However, none of these five people are suitable. By the way, did anyone take the repair task I posted last time?" Richard asked.
Before asking, Richard knew that there was a high probability that no one would take the offer.
Otherwise, the Gray Dwarf Brotherhood would have sent someone to contact him long ago. After all, the Mutated Summoning Staff was still with him and had not been deposited in the mission hall.
"Master Levi, I'm very sorry. The inscription masters are all very busy, so no one has taken on your task so far." The gray dwarf girl said very apologetically.
Richard nodded to the gray dwarf girl and left the mission hall.
It seems that I have to go to Disol.
Disol has been busy with new beer recently, so it should be relatively easy to find, as it should be in his own home.
After a while, Richard arrived at Desol's villa.
"Hey, Levi, my brother, why did you think of coming to see me today?" Disol walked up and gave Richard a warm hug.
"I heard that you have been immersed in the secret drawings given to you by Lord Hawkins these days! How is your research going? Given our relationship, won't you reveal some inside information to me?" Disol said with a wink.
"Disol, although I also want to tell you, when Lord Hawkins handed the drawings to me, he specifically reminded me to keep it confidential. Most importantly, I signed a confidentiality agreement!" Richard spread his hands to show that he was also helpless, and said with a smile.
Of course, Richard knew that Desor was joking.
"Well, that's such a pity! By the way, you came at the right time today. You can try my newly brewed oatmeal beer mixed with hops." Disol enthusiastically pulled Richard to the living room.
Richard had also heard of oatmeal beer, which was another type of beer comparable to rye beer with a softer taste, and its audience was mostly rich people and nobles.
"Thank you, Disol, but I came here today to consult some information about the Scorched Earth Secret Realm. I plan to try my luck in the Scorched Earth Secret Realm in a few days."
"Haha, Levi, are you kidding? Although your talent in alchemy is far beyond my reach, your own strength is only at the beginning of the first level. The Scorched Earth Secret Realm is not suitable for you now."
As soon as Richard finished speaking, Disol jumped up in shock and shook his head repeatedly.
"Disol, my brother, is the Scorched Earth Secret Realm really that dangerous?" Richard looked at Disol suspiciously.
The situation of the Scorched Earth Secret Realm was not top secret. Not only had Disor briefly introduced it last time, but Richard himself had also checked the relevant ancient books and materials in the archives of the Gray Dwarf Brotherhood.
Richard thought that with the blood-bone puppets and evil spirit abominations he had on hand, killing a first-level fire element should be a piece of cake.
Of course, Richard could understand Disol's attitude, after all, he didn't know his hidden means.
"Levi, if you go to the Scorched Earth Secret Realm, you are either going for the Flame Crystal or for those rare herbs that love to grow in a scorching environment. Of course, it is also possible that you are going to look for special minerals."
"But no matter what kind of resources, after so many years of exploration, the possibility of encountering the above materials in the outermost part of the Scorched Earth Secret Realm is already very small."
"If you want to gain something, you must move towards the center of the Scorched Earth Secret Realm, but the number of various fire or lava elemental creatures you will encounter will suddenly increase. Therefore, there is an unwritten rule in the Scorched Earth Secret Realm. Generally speaking, only high-level wizards of the first level will enter to explore."
"Disor, don't we have a positioning device? Although the strength of a Level 1 beginner wizard is a little bit lacking, if we team up with a few people, even if we are teleported randomly, we should be able to gather together, right?"
Richard pondered for a moment, still asking in confusion.
Disol shook his head and said, "No, the terrain in the Scorched Earth Secret Realm is complex. Not only are there complicated lava channels, but there are also underground lava rivers running through it. Even if two wizards find that they are not far apart through the positioning device, they may not be able to gather together."
Richard suddenly understood what was going on. The terrain of this scorched earth secret realm was just like Chongqing in his previous life. The location in the navigation might be only five meters apart, but in reality one person might be on the eighteenth floor, while the other was on the first floor.
"Moreover, on your way to meet your teammates, you may encounter attacks from multiple elemental creatures that you cannot resist. At this time, you will have no choice but to leave the secret realm forcibly." Disol looked at Richard and continued.
However, Disol seemed to see that Richard wanted to go very strongly.
"Levi, if you don't care about the rewards, you can go and see it as long as you are well prepared. After all, you can buy a teleportation stone. If you encounter danger, you can immediately crush the teleportation stone and teleport out of the Scorched Earth Secret Realm."
"Teleportation stone?" Richard asked doubtfully.
It seems that I have not seen any introduction to teleportation stones in ancient books.
"I forgot to tell you that the Scorched Earth Secret Realm was sealed by an ancient gray dwarf wizard. After so many years of research, the gray dwarf master of the wizard formation developed a unique technique for making teleportation stones based on the records of the sages."
"When explorers encounter force majeure, they can crush the teleportation stone and return directly to the teleportation array at the entrance of the secret realm."
Richard nodded. It turned out that this technology had only been discovered in the last few hundred years.
"It's just that the price is a little expensive, costing 20,000 magic stones each. But for a rich man like you, this shouldn't be a problem at all." Disol patted Richard on the shoulder and laughed.
Richard smiled bitterly in his heart. Disol obviously didn't know that most of the magic stones he had obtained from the sale of shares had been spent by him.
If he spent another 20,000 magic stones to buy the teleportation stone, he would basically have emptied the last magic stone in his pocket.
wrong!
Gorkan and I alone will get 40,000 magic stones! It seems that we are not emptying our money, but we are still in debt. However, this time he came to see Disol, in addition to asking about the situation of the Scorched Earth Secret Realm, he also had another matter.
It's about the issue of mass cultivation of hops.
"By the way, Disol, I've encountered some troubles regarding the mass cultivation of hops." Richard solemnly told Disol about the troubles he encountered in recruiting third-level wizard apprentices in the mission hall of the Gray Dwarf Brotherhood.
(End of this chapter)