25: Chapter 25 War, Slavery, and Markets

Accumulating bit by bit, the remaining vacant period was just right for digesting these lotus seeds.

Once the magic plants of the new quarter matured enough, they could replenish Ross's consumption.

Relying on these lotus seeds, Ross could also continuously enhance his mental resilience.

It could also reduce the pressure on his mental power when he cast spells.

The surplus lotus seeds could also be sold to shops to earn magic stones.

However, if Ross relied solely on himself to toss and turn tending to these five mu of magic fields.

Even if he stayed in the magic fields day and night, I'm afraid his strength would fall short.

Although a Wizard Apprentice already had the blessings of magic power and spells, considered detached from mortals, possessing extraordinary means.

But a person's time and energy were limited.

Spread across specific matters—caring for magic plants, weeding, clearing fallen leaves... as well as maintaining meditation and cultivation—every single task required a significant amount of time.

If it were only the amount of one mu of magic fields, Ross could still manage to take care of it himself, but the amount of five mu was not something Ross could complete all by himself.

Otherwise, I'm afraid all of Ross's time would be consumed by cultivating the magic fields.

"It seems I need to buy some slaves to work."

Although there were goblins helping to tend Professor Pulang's plantation, after all, they were not Ross's own subordinates and could not be directly commanded.

Ross was merely an apprentice, and also Old Wizard Pulang's student, not the director here.

Asking the goblins to help with a small favor occasionally might be fine.

But if Ross treated himself as the owner of the plantation, I'm afraid these goblins would not obey as he wished.

Professor Pulang might not say anything if he found out, but inwardly he would probably think of him as an insatiable person, which was not conducive to Ross's interests.

You must know that these goblins were also bought by Professor Pulang spending magic stones.

Ross quietly utilizing these goblins was an irregular behavior.

"It seems I have to take a trip to the Magic Commercial Street; it is said that there is a slave market there that long-term dumps commodity slaves."

"Fortunately, I have accumulated ten days of daily draws; otherwise, I would have to wait until harvesting a batch of magic plants or the arrival of Professor Pulang's three hundred magic stone reward at the end of the month to purchase."

"Just looking at cheaper alien world slaves, I should still be able to afford them."

The ten days of cards, as expected, drew thirty magic stones.

...

The slave market was located in the southern section of the Magic Commercial Street, leaning against a small stream. Compared to the relatively neat and luxurious magic shops there, it appeared dirty and messy.

The Wizard World forbade the enslavement of intelligent races within the world, so these slaves mainly originated from plane wars.

The existence of slaves also proved from the side that the true colors of groups like wizards were not all that upright and bright.

In fact, in the legends of many worlds, the image of a wizard was an existence that could stop children from crying and make alien races shiver with fear.

As for plane wars, they were an even more cruel meat grinder, where even an Official Wizard was merely a slightly larger chess piece.

Not paying attention would inevitably lead to becoming cannon fodder on the battlefield.

However, the resources that could be obtained from plane wars, as well as the commendation from the Wizard World's consciousness, were immeasurable.

Some wizards who found it difficult to delve deeper into the wizard path would choose to participate in plane wars to obtain advancement resources.

Wizards leveraged magic power with knowledge, so almost all Spell Models, potion formulas, and so on in the wizarding world needed to be purchased with magic stones.

If it were not for the fact that the Wizard World now possessed a vast enterprise and needed a continuous stream of fresh blood to consolidate its ruling foundation.

In past eras, methods like the Meditation Method that could enhance mental power and help break through the apprentice realm would not have been easily passed down.

It was simply that Ross had caught up with a good era nowadays.

Even so, the higher-ups of the wizarding world had tried their best to raise the lower limit of wizards.

But there were still a large number of Wizard Apprentices unable to break through to become an Official Wizard.

Or rather, an Official Wizard staying at a certain rank for a long time was still the norm in the Wizard World.

After all, advancement resources would not be easily delivered into anyone's hands.

A Wizard Apprentice, even with extraordinary talent, touching the realm of an Official Wizard by relying solely on talent would reach the end of the line.

If they could not make progress in the research of magic power and knowledge, the means to acquire resources would decrease significantly.

Thus, many wizards would choose the dangerous plane battlefield.

That was the very forefront of the battlefield between alien races and wizards.

That was the meat grinder where wizards fell.

No matter who it was, the next second they could die there without even ashes left.

But also because of the huge profits of plane wars, wizards were continuously attracted to the battlefield.

Wizards who could not steadily earn magic stones within the Wizard World would head there like moths to a flame.

After all, once stepping onto the wizard path, unless one could endure stagnant realms.

Otherwise, once reaching the limit of their lifespan, even if they possessed various taboo methods such as bloodline transplantation and physical modification.

However, correspondingly, some overly radical modifications would also cause them to lose their wizardly sanity and part of their power.

These gradually sanity-losing existences might still be able to live in the Wizard World at the beginning.

But once the wizard's origin was eroded, they would have to wander outside the Wizard World.

Otherwise, what awaited them was expulsion or extermination by enforcement wizards.

At that time, they would no longer be considered a member of the Wizard World.

Or extermination.

Or expulsion.

If they stubbornly stayed, I'm afraid the most miserable outcome would be being captured alive and studied as experimental materials.

For those who still retained consciousness, this was an unacceptable humiliation.

On the path of a wizard, at least before reaching a tier-3 wizard, there was no method to achieve immortal strength.

It was just that Ross had not seen this kind of description in the Hall of Knowledge of the academy.

Therefore, an elderly wizard like Professor Pulang, who did not plan to head to the plane battlefield.

Perhaps when he reached the lifespan limit of a rank-1 wizard, he would truly die.

Insufficient strength.

Bad luck.

Encountering some risks.

Would once again make many wizards stop their impulse to head to the plane battlefield.

After all, dying of old age was much better than truly dying violently.

As such wars continued, it resulted in the Wizard World not treating the slaves appearing in the wars with much kindness.

Slaves with rare bloodlines and powerful strengths would be prioritized for purchase by wizards on the battlefield using military achievements.

The differences in the laws and cultivation systems of different worlds would cause life within those worlds to exhibit many phenomena that wizards had never seen before.

Studying these could illuminate some paths ahead for one's own advancement.

Beneath the thrones of some high-position wizards were the paved remains of lives from countless worlds.

Ross arrived at the entrance of the slave market. This was a market uniformly managed by a commercial firm, and different areas had different slaves being sold.

Most of these slaves were in tattered clothes, ragged, or even stark naked, locked inside cold, gleaming iron cages.

"Esteemed Wizard, we have many healthy, sound-limbed slaves here. I wonder if you are interested in purchasing any?" said a shrewd slave merchant.