Translator: AnubisTL
The relentless torrent of time silently washed over the Flamefrost Plane, a world engulfed in the flames of war.
A year had passed in the blink of an eye since the wizard legions first landed.
Throughout those countless days and nights, the war had long since devolved into a grinding stalemate.
The once-sweeping invasion of the plane had fragmented into countless battles, large and small, a daily grind of bloodshed.
Both sides fought fiercely, their corpses saturating every inch of the earth.
Jieming exhaled deeply, setting down his rune pen. The final witchcraft model, meticulously derived and simplified, displayed "Completed" on his magic net terminal.
After a year of intense research, he had finally completed most of his research tasks.
From Master Alvin's "Lava Annihilation" to Master Roland Vernal's "Frost Soul Dissolution," these two highly targeted destruction spells had been successfully reduced in dimensionality and modularized with the assistance of numerous wizards.
Now, based on the battle wizard's rank and needs, different versions ranging from first-tier to fifth-tier, with progressively increasing power, could be constructed.
This gave the wizard legion unprecedented efficiency in annihilating these two indigenous species.
However, since targeted destruction spells rarely leave behind any spoils of war, most combat wizards avoided using them unless absolutely necessary.
To address this, the Wizard Camp issued a series of modification assignments for these targeted destruction spells.
For example, Jieming's current project involved transforming the first-tier spell Lava Annihilation into a non-lethal but highly suppressive area-of-effect spell.
"Finally, I can relax a bit," Jieming stretched, his bones cracking softly.
Throughout the year, the Flamefrost Plane's situation remained unchanged: the lava giants and snow monsters continued to replenish their forces endlessly.
Their respective homelands served as inexhaustible sources of manpower. Each day, new legions surged forth from the depths of the earth or the ends of icy veins, launching routine assaults on the Wizard Camp.
The wizards had long grown accustomed to these constant battles. The camp stood like an unbreakable nail, firmly hammered into the border between the Flamefrost Plane's dual realms, engaging in daily skirmishes of varying scales with the indigenous forces.
However, the massive, million-strong army assaults of the past had ceased. Both sides now cautiously balanced attrition and replenishment, avoiding any actions that might provoke the other into escalating the conflict.
Overall, though the wizards still occupied only the initial camp area, they maintained absolute dominance in combat.
To be honest, even the well-traveled Viola was astonished by the Flamefrost Plane's indigenous peoples' unwavering will to fight.
For an entire year, nearly every day, swarms of monsters—ranging from a few thousand to tens of thousands—launched attacks on the camp.
Any ordinary race, facing such overwhelming odds, would have long since lost their will to fight, likely even descending into internal strife.
Jieming, Viola, and other logistics wizards had discussed this, concluding that the Flamefrost Plane's indigenous peoples, due to their unique life forms, likely perceived the wizards' cannon fodder units as fellow members of the wizard civilization.
In their eyes, the true core of wizard civilization was these bizarre cannon fodder units, while the wizards themselves were merely elite members of this collective.
Moreover, neither lava giants nor snow monsters reproduced sexually. Instead, they propagated asexually by splitting off cores, which were then placed in high-energy breeding grounds infused with the corresponding elemental energy.
With sufficient energy, larvae could rapidly mature into adults.
Therefore, both races believed their battles against the wizards should be evenly matched.
Yet even so, maintaining such a fervent combat drive remained astonishingly excessive, causing the value of living prisoners from both races to skyrocket.
After all, these creatures—possessing formidable combat prowess, an insatiable thirst for battle, and simple reproductive methods—were the perfect foundation for creating expendable cannon fodder!
"Still... these indigenous creatures' relentless aggression certainly saves us a lot of trouble," Jieming murmured, unable to suppress his admiration.
Viola, who had just passed by, stopped in her tracks. "Exactly! In the past, we'd have to feign weakness after a few months of fighting to boost their morale. Now we can skip all that."
She paused, as if remembering something, and her tone turned somber. "But because these guys fight so fiercely, our workload in the Logistics Department has increased dramatically..."
Jieming nodded with lingering apprehension. The past few months had been manageable enough.
During his busiest period, Jieming worried he might collapse from exhaustion if he hadn't strengthened his body beforehand using the body tempering method.
As he was thinking this, the wizards nearby suddenly stirred.
"Hmm?! What's happening?" Jieming stood up, his senses on high alert.
He was all too familiar with these disturbances, almost reflexively reacting to them.
Each commotion meant another wizard had made a significant discovery, which in turn meant a new wave of tasks would be assigned.
Viola reacted similarly to Jieming, but after checking their magic net terminals, both let out simultaneous sighs of relief.
According to the terminal's news, the commotion was due to a wizard discovering the primary reason for the lava giants' and snow monsters' mutual hatred.
Most information about the two races had already been extracted from the souls of slain or captured indigenous individuals.
However, some specific questions remained unanswered, as their answers were only found within the souls of the races' higher-ranking members, leaving the wizards temporarily in the dark.
The most widespread mystery concerned the reason for the two races' mutual animosity.
The hatred between the lava giants and snow monsters was ancient. To the wizards, outsiders looking in, this animosity seemed utterly irrational.
After all, the two races differed completely in their ecological habits and living environments. Though they shared the same plane, they might as well have inhabited entirely separate worlds.
It would be understandable if each race possessed resources vital to the other's survival.
However, according to the intelligence gathered by the wizards, even without any interaction, neither race posed any threat to the other's existence.
Unable to survive in each other's environments and lacking any practical conflicts of interest, it was absurd enough that these two races even communicated, let alone harbored such deep-seated animosity.
Yet the reality was that before the wizards' arrival, the lava giants and snow monsters waged massive wars against each other every few years.
The indigenous people of the lower realms were unaware of the true reason for their wars. They only knew that every few years, they would leave their comfortable environments and travel to the chaotic energy zone between the Blazing Sun Realm and the Frostdark Realm, where they would fight to the death.
Recently, a logistics wizard specializing in resource surveying discovered a possible explanation while analyzing the geological environment: the wars between the two races were not meaningless. The territory of the losing side would be compressed and reduced.
"I never imagined the border between the Blazing Sun Realm and the Frostdark Realm could shift based on the outcome of their battles," Jieming said, looking at the conclusions on his magic net terminal with surprise.
"But... what's the underlying mechanism? Isn't the unique climate of the Flamefrost Plane due to the projections from the Fire Elemental Plane and the Water Elemental Plane?"
"It's indeed puzzling. However, according to the geological drilling samples, the border between the Blazing Sun Realm and the Frostdark Realm is constantly shifting, and its movement correlates directly with the results of the annual battles between the two races," Viola said, her interest piqued by the data displayed on her terminal.
"My guess is that the chiefs of both races possess special means to influence the projections from the elemental planes after securing victory in battle..."
Hearing Viola's analysis, Jieming's eyes widened in surprise. "This thing can actually influence the elemental plane?!"
"Yes, but it's a very advanced technique," Viola replied, licking her lips. "Even the most skilled wizards in this area can't do it until they reach the sixth tier..."
"If an indigenous civilization possesses such technology, Wizard Augustine has truly struck gold," Jieming said, nodding in agreement.
Undoubtedly, knowledge of this caliber would be concentrated in the hands of the two tribes' leaders—the sixth-tier monster kings.
This meant the most likely candidate to acquire this knowledge was Augustine, the sixth-tier wizard who initiated the mission.
Protected by the Star Orbit Tribunal's treaties, no one would dare forcibly seize another wizard's knowledge under the threat of defying a ninth-tier wizard.
For surrounding powers like the Noren Workshop to obtain this technology, they would have to purchase it from Augustine.
However, Augustine would need vast resources to construct his own plane later, so he would likely be willing to trade it away.
In fact, this single piece of knowledge might allow Wizard Augustine to recoup all his initial and subsequent investments.
Jieming, having been involved in constructing planes himself, knew firsthand the immense resources required to build an entire wizard tower.
Thinking about this, Jieming couldn't help but feel a twinge of envy.
"But all that's still too far off. The most useful information for us right now is probably this part here..." Jieming shook his head and turned his attention to the geological survey data below.
Due to limited manpower and time, the wizard's data was rather rudimentary, but it contained some crucial insights.
Through drilling, he had discovered that the boundary line's fluctuations were astonishingly extreme, with the deepest intrusions reaching over eighty percent of the territory on both sides.
Jieming stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Losing eighty percent of their territory and still fighting to the bitter end? That's truly..."
"Fantastic!" Viola finished Jieming's sentence.
They exchanged a knowing glance and shared an unspoken laugh.
Wizards never feared enemies with fierce resistance; what they feared were the desperate acts of enemies driven to the brink.
The stronger an enemy's resilience, the less likely they were to resort to suicidal tactics. By the time they truly recognized their defeat, they would have already lost the means to take everyone down with them.
(End of the Chapter)
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