Wizard: I Can Refine Everything

A decade of practice, and Richard had done more than just refine his combat skills. Over these ten years, he had also completely finished observing the Mountain Heart within the Changshan Temple.

The complete Mountain Rune was thus born.

This rune was the most complex rune Richard had ever seen, its intricate structure similar to a biological meridian chart.

"Anna, you saw it right, this is the complete Mountain Heart Rune," Richard said with a smile, "I wonder if you still remember what I asked you to do back then."

Before setting out for the Red Sun World, Richard had given the incomplete Mountain Heart Rune to Anna, asking her to research self-repairing Elemental Puppets.

Now, centuries had passed, and he did not know whether Anna still remembered this task.

"Of course, I remember!" Anna said somewhat angrily, "Do I look like the kind of wizard who would forget about a promise?"

Richard nodded slightly, then asked further, "Since you remember, Anna, how is your progress?"

"Progress..." Anna suddenly became silent. After struggling for a while, she finally spoke up timidly, "There has been no progress. I've tried for a long time to meet your requirements, but I have never found a suitable research direction."

"Hmm?" Richard's brow furrowed slightly, "What went wrong?"

Anna sighed and led Richard to the study on the third floor.

The study had a huge bookshelf filled with magic books collected by Anna and her research notes.

She searched through them for a while and handed a thick, black leather notebook to Richard.

"Take a look, these are my experimental records from that time. Your idea seemed feasible, but in practice, it had significant problems."

Richard took the notebook, found a chair, and began to read it seriously.

Anna's records were very detailed; she not only documented her experimental process but also her thoughts at the time and the origins of these ideas.

This allowed Richard to easily understand Anna's thinking while reading.

Soon, Richard had read through the entire notebook.

After finishing, Richard sighed softly, "I didn't expect that there would be so many intricacies in a single Earth Element Core, it seems I was too naive."

His initial idea was to divide a Magic Statue into multiple components, and then use the properties of the Mountain Rune to give all these components the ability to heal themselves automatically.

But in practice, this approach was completely unworkable.

Magic Statues do not have high material requirements, but they cannot just be made of ordinary rocks and soil.

If the Puppet components were to undergo Elementalization, they would need to be subject to complex enchantments which would cause the Magic Statue to consume a terrifying amount of energy.

Moreover, even with enchantment, the strength of these Earth Element components would not match that of proper metal parts or special material components.

In summary, this idea was wrong.

Richard rubbed his temples, this had been his first failed innovation in years.

Indeed, a creative idea without a knowledge base was like a blind draw from a black box; success depended entirely on luck.

Richard returned the notebook to Anna, "Since this approach has failed, there is no need for you to keep dwelling on it, Anna.

You don't need to worry about the rune. Investing comes with risks, and I was prepared for failure.

As for the Mountain Heart Rune, if you want to study it, I can lend it to you temporarily. But you must not share this rune with anyone else, except for your own students."

Anna waved her hands repeatedly at Richard's offer, "No need, no need at all. Although the rune is excellent, it has nothing to do with my research. Wizards from the Shape-shifting School might be interested in it; you can let Ali study it."

"Is that so?" Richard looked at Anna, unsurely asking, "Once this opportunity is missed, there might not be another. Are you sure, Anna?"

"I am sure," Anna said emphatically, "I know you mean well for me, brother, but this rune really doesn't fit with my research. If I took it for study, it would only distract me."

Seeing Anna's resolve, Richard did not insist any further. He stood up, bid her farewell, and said, "If that's the case, then I shall take my leave, sister."

...

Upon leaving the Tower of Truth, Richard took a detour to Bliss City and purchased a large batch of alchemy materials from the Nine Star Chamber of Commerce.

It couldn't be helped; the Extreme North barely had any AAirship fleets, and the materials stored by Wizard Commerce were mostly related to Physique Evolution.

The materials Richard needed for his Alchemy Machine research were ones they likely could not provide.

So Richard decided to buy them while he was en route.

With the materials in tow, he returned to the Wizard Tower and plunged into the laboratory, beginning the construction of the first Black Crystal Power Furnace.

A month later.

On the experimental platform, a fist-sized metal sphere floated in the air.

The metal sphere was engraved with dense runes that were connected to each other, forming a cage, trapping whatever was inside the sphere.

This was the Black Crystal Power Furnace, which could provide energy exceeding ten pieces of Magic Essence with just a segment of the Yuris Black Crystal.

This number might not seem impressive, but if you convert it, that is the equivalent of ten thousand Magic Stones. And for a One Ring Wizard, even if their spiritual power reaches the pinnacle of One Ring, their Magic Rebound reserve would only amount to thirty-four Magic Stones.

"The energy provided by a Black Crystal Power Furnace," Richard marveled, "actually compared to the magic rebound storage of nearly three hundred One Ring Wizards."

Moreover, a Wizard's magic rebound is a biologically efficient way of energy storage. The energy circulation and storage capability within the bodies of ordinary native creatures are far less than this value.

However, Richard regretted that when he was making the power furnace, he roughly estimated the cost of using this type of power furnace as the energy source for his small Floating City.

The result made Richard immediately reject the idea.

No way around it, it was too expensive.

The power furnace for this small Floating City still depended on the Star Vengeful Ghost Power Furnace from the Monster World.

Speaking of which, his Power of Nightmare should have accumulated enough by now. It wouldn't be long before he could unravel the secrets of that power furnace.

Putting the Black Crystal Power Furnace into his pocket, Richard then opened a Secret Realm Rift and entered the Secret Realm.

Inside the Secret Realm, birds chirped and flowers fragranced the air, only the corner of a stone wasteland vibrated with the roar of machinery.

This stone wasteland wasn't formed naturally but was the result of Richard choosing it as the location for the alchemy workshop, with the Fire Lizard hardening the ground.

The land of nearly a quarter of a square kilometer in area was all hardened into sturdy stone by the Fire Lizard.

In the alchemy workshop, groups of Fire Lizard Craftsmen gathered, discussing over the design blueprints.

Although they had experience in designing the Mechanic Type One Single Soldier Armor, they were equally perplexed by Richard's unreasonable demand to "increase the armor's performance as much as possible while keeping production costs and difficulties low."

This demand was truly excessive; those three aspects usually required trade-offs; one couldn't have it all.

But given Richard was their boss, and also the financier and savior of their race, even with such an excessive request, they had to find a way to fulfill it.

"How's your research coming along?"

Hearing the voice from behind, all the Fire Lizard Craftsmen stood up and turned to bow slightly to Richard.

As one of the leaders among the Fire Lizard Craftsmen, Calion was the first to speak. "Lord, you've come at the right time. What do you think of this design blueprint?"

With that, Calion approached Richard and handed him a stack of draft papers.

"After several discussions, we've come to a conclusion. We made some trade-offs regarding the armor's performance, and on that basis, we've managed to reduce the production cost and difficulty as much as possible."

Richard browsed through the draft papers. Indeed, these Fire Lizard Craftsmen had managed to reduce the cost and production difficulty of the Single Soldier Armor to a very low degree.

The armor still used an exoskeleton, and its outer armored plates could defend against 300 Energy Level elemental attacks as well as 400 Energy Level physical attacks. In terms of auxiliary functions, the armor could make the wearer more agile, faster, and stronger. Its material cost was also compressed to ten Magic Essences per set.

Apart from high energy consumption, the armor could be considered a perfect mass product.

"Not bad, let's go with this one," Richard decided. "But this is just the main structure, I still need some weapons.

I'm not very clear on your weapons requirements, so you'll have to design them."

Seeing Richard agree, Calion sighed in relief and respectfully said, "Lord, we have already prepared the weapon designs."

Upon saying this, Sulina approached Richard with a stack of draft papers.

Richard took the drafts and read through them. The papers depicted many types of weapons including, but not limited to, scimitars, spears, bows, javelins, and other cold weapons.

These cold weapons all needed to be created using Giant Dragon Alchemy, and their production costs had also been kept very low.

"Good," Richard nodded. "You've worked hard during this time."

Saying this, Richard took out the Black Crystal Power Furnace.

"This is the power furnace I made; adapt it and try to make a suit of armor first. If there are no issues, then the design blueprint for the armor is confirmed."

"Yes, Lord."

Handing the materials over to the Fire Lizard Craftsmen, Richard turned and left the Secret Realm.

Half a month later, the first set of armor was successfully produced.

Overall, the armor appeared to be a scaled-down version of the Mechanic Type One Single Soldier Armor. The external armored plates of the armor were still made using Giant Dragon Alchemy. However, the interior structure incorporated many aspects of Wizard Alchemy.

There was no way around it; in terms of material application, Wizard Alchemy was much more advanced than Giant Dragon Alchemy.

A Fire Lizard Worker was the one to test the armor's performance. He was a first-level Fire Lizard, and his body looked particularly robust.

Soon, the testing began.

The first round of testing for the armor involved movement. The Fire Lizard Worker completed various actions such as running, jumping, and rolling as required.

Except for some limited movements, most of his actions were unimpeded. Moreover, thanks to the armor, his movements became more effortless.

Besides movement tests, the armor also underwent resistance tests, offensive tests, energy consumption tests, and destructive tests.

The final results were also very satisfying to Richard.

These Fire Lizards, once trained and wearing the armor, had a great chance of victory even against an average One Ring Wizard.

After the test concluded, the Fire Lizard Craftsmen stripped the armor off the test subject, and, with Richard's nod of approval, the Fire Lizard earned a three-month vacation.

"Not bad, the design of this armor is very good," Richard said to the Fire Lizard Craftsmen. "Have you named it yet?"

"Yes, Lord," one Fire Lizard Craftsman said with a smile. "We call it 'Craftsman.'"