Jean·Augustus·Claude opened his eyes and felt dazed. "It's that dream again," he complained, a bottle of Potions appeared in his hand, and he swallowed it. For him, this was something in the past, but he still remembered those years clearly.
The wizards had just disclosed their existence to the world, and before the world could adapt, Dementors invaded. Claude was living in the current Haiti area, struggling to survive in a country whose resources had been plundered by United States a few years ago. When Dementors sucked people's souls, people he knew suddenly began to fall into coma.
The scariest part of the experience was that he couldn't even see his opponent. So when the wizards began recruiting support staff, he signed up. Then, with the help of their magical technology, he laid eyes on these disgusting creatures for the first time. He has harbored an unforgettable hatred for them ever since.
After Queen Hermione completed "Magic Mage Project", Claude was detected to have magic talent. He began his glorious journey as a Arcanist.
His talent is excellent and has grown by leaps and bounds, but since the beginning of his career, he has been having the same dream. This dream has been haunting him. He was even forced to see the designated spiritual system Arcanist, but he still couldn't get rid of it.
Claude looked at his watch and woke him up from his meditation - he was needed in the strategy room. He stood up from the meditation mat and left the room. He could have teleported there, but wanted to clear his head by walking around, which might have been a mistake.
Bang!
Someone bumped into him, spilling food all over him and soiling his gorgeous blue and red robe with palm tree cuffs.
An unknown fire rushed into his Chaos brain, but he restrained himself. As a high-level Arcanist, being able to control emotions is a basic skill. He looked at the young man in front of him and entered his memory palace to find his identity.
"You're Andrew Schwartz, right?"
"Master... Master...Claude Master," a handsome young man stammered. He was just an apprentice; now, he might have offended his boss.
"Don't you know it's against the rules to take food out of the cafeteria?"
"I'm sorry," Andrew said quickly.
"Give me an explanation."
"Too much work," Andrew replied. Although Claude did not release any aura, he still felt instinctive fear. "I was too busy, thinking I could eat while walking on the road. Many people..." Andrew wanted to say that he was not the only one to do this, but he felt that if everyone knew that he was the whistleblower, he might be ostracized.
Claude paused. He remembered that this intern was only Tier 3, so he couldn't survive on energy alone - he still needed food. However, this was not a good enough excuse. "You can use nutrition Potions." The energy and nutrients provided by a bottle of nutritional Potions can keep a first-level Arcanist from feeling hungry for a year - Second Tier can last for half a year, and the first-level Tier 3 can last for three months.
Andrew lowered his head when he heard this.
"What?"
"Sir, what you bought is ordinary Potions." The corner of Claude's mouth twitched because he understood what the latter meant. Unless the Potions chef is asked to modify the formula to improve the taste, the nutritional Potions tastes extremely bad.
The problem is that the flavored Potions is more expensive. Claude has already spent a lot of money on this expedition, so it became very stingy when buying these Potions. After all, there are only a few apprentices in total, and there is a canteen.
"This is not a legitimate reason for you to violate the rules. Your assessment score will be deducted by 3 points," Claude said, and Andrew showed a painful expression. However, the young apprentice soon breathed a sigh of relief. This punishment is considered relatively light.
Claude dismissed the latter, activating the self-cleaning effect of his magic robes. "I really shouldn't have taken on these apprentices," he complained. Unfortunately, he had no choice.
Empire is implementing a pilot project with these apprentices as the first test subjects. The government is offering many benefits to those willing to take them in. And as far as Claude knows, these apprentices are much safer than he is. He may die during this expedition, but he is sure that these apprentices will be fine.
He walked into the main control room, which was full of people, and waved his hand to indicate that they did not need to stand up to salute. "How is the situation?" Several points of light fell from the sky beside him, condensing into his Tower Spirit-his "Morgana".
Different from Ian, this artificial soul is fully adult. Her skin is black, her upper body is naked and exposed, and her lower body is wearing a skirt. She has gold jewelry hanging on her body.
Her headdress and the jewelry around her neck. Anyone with enough knowledge will find that she looks like the witch in the classic children's movie <Kirikou and the Witch>.
This is no coincidence. Claude saw this movie as a child and it left a deep impression. So when he was ready to build his own Tower Spirit, he based her on that witch.
"The negotiation broke down," the witch replied, Jean-Claude frowned. "Is there no room for negotiation?"
"I've lowered my bottom line, but she just won't budge."
This was not Claude's first expedition - it was his third. However, he was cautious and chose a weaker world the first time. This expedition was his first attempt to invade a world that was Tier 8. So, he followed <Imperial Guide to Peaceful Invasion> (an ironic name) in an attempt to negotiate with Planar Will.
"Would you like to try it yourself?" asked the witch.
"No thanks," Claude replied. The guide states that there are many risks associated with communicating with Planar Will, chiefly soul damage and leakage of memories and secrets. This is why it is recommended that Tower Spirit of Arcanist conduct the negotiations.
"Since the peaceful method has failed, let's start descending."
A huge screen appeared in front of Claude, and after he gave the order, everyone began to take action. In an unknown plane in the Astral Realm, a majestic blue tower was standing above the Crystal wall in that plane. Under the order of Claude, the tower began to forcefully enter this plane.
Claude saw countless screens in front of him, showing him progress and data. He didn't care about most of the data, except for one: energy level: 93%.
'There's more resistance than before,' he thought to himself. In his previous expedition, he had conquered a plane called Tier 6, and at that time, his energy level had remained at 99.3%.
"My lord, we are here," the witch said.
"How's it going?"
"Planar Will has begun to suppress us."
"Then, we need to land as soon as possible," Claude said. "Scan the surroundings quickly for signs of life and land as far away from them as possible."
Claude waited for a while until he felt a slight vibration. He nodded and stared at the data. "The shield integrity has dropped to 89%? This Planar Will is really active. Activate the Law Resonance spell."
At his command, the tower released a powerful spell that instantly affected the entire plane. Seventy years have passed since Ian left, and Empire opened its Exploration Era. During this period, many innovations were born, especially those for plane invasion. The Law Resonance spell is the latest research result, released less than 3 years ago.
It has only one purpose - to resonate with the laws of the plane or Authority and disrupt it, forcing Planar Will to divert its attention to solve this problem. What makes this invention extraordinary is that it involves the laws, and more importantly, it was not Ian who created it. Of course, he also made a contribution.
There are several reasons why this project is successful. The first is the advanced Dragon Language and Dragon Artistic Conception brought back from other worlds by Ian. These two have significantly improved Empire's research on the law.
Another hero is Chris·Tu. His Will Meditation Method enables Arcanist to increase their willpower to level 5. This is not enough to access the laws of most universes, but it is enough for weak planes below Tier 4. Therefore, most Arcanist who meet the requirements will conquer these planes to study the laws.
"How is the situation?" Claude asked.
"The repression against us has been significantly reduced."
"But?"
"Our energy level is down to 73 percent."
"What? Casting this spell consumes so much energy? Damn, I knew better than to sign up for this prototype," Claude complained. The Law Resonance spell is new, so Empire will subsidize anyone willing to use it and collect data for them.
Claude exhaled to calm down. "Don't forget to write this in the report. You'd better complain too. Maybe Empire will give us some compensation."
"I doubt it," replied the witch.
"Nothing to lose by trying," Claude replied, then focused on the current situation. Then, the warning signal echoed in the room.
"What happened this time?"
"We detected signs of life about 5 kilometers away from us."
"I remember I ordered a landing far away--"
"That's what we did. The closest sign of life to us would have been at least 120 kilometers away."
"That can only mean that this may be a civilization that has mastered the power of space," Claude said. "Deploy Wizard's Eye. I want to see the enemy's movements."