Chapter 54: Wizard
After allocating all the points, Soren began to clean up the battlefield. The goblins had basically nothing of value on them, and after casually rummaging through, he started looking for chests. These creatures liked to hide their collected treasures, mostly near their gathering places, as their small stature, only about one meter tall, meant goblins typically wouldn’t carry much loot. He initially searched the body of a goblin spellcaster and found some scraps, but unfortunately, everything was junk.
Then Soren started to observe the surrounding environment and soon found a stone that looked a bit different.
The nearby land had been disturbed.
He drew his curved blade and began to dig, directly uncovering the stone. Sure enough, he found a wooden box buried beneath, which looked very simple yet felt heavy when he pulled it out. He broke it open with the hilt of his blade and looked inside, finding it filled with gold sand. He hadn’t expected this group of goblins to be so well-off.
Gold sand is an unrefined yellow mineral, essentially low-purity gold.
It can be exchanged for Gind at the Goddess of Wealth’s temple. Most priests of the Goddess of Wealth take on this kind of work, and the overall exchange rate is fairly reasonable. Soren reached into the gold sand and felt around, pulling out an agate, a small piece of obsidian, and three opals, along with a couple of stones he couldn’t identify. Goblins have a talent for mining and like to live in caves. Even goblins in the wild can occasionally find some good items in mountainous caves. If they defeat a creature, their lower dragon lineage nature allows them to automatically collect shiny things.
“The haul isn’t bad.”
Soren carefully poured the gold sand into his dimensional bag and then put the stones inside, muttering to himself, “Looks like it should be worth about a hundred Gind.”
Twenty Gind equals one pound, so the gold sand should be worth around sixty to seventy.
This world has abundant ores, and these stones are roughly worth thirty Gind. However, if he sold them, he would have to find a jeweler, who might undervalue them. Ordinary goblin groups shouldn’t have such a significant accumulation, likely due to that goblin wizard; loot is always higher where there are spellcasters.
It’s only normal to strip the spellcaster bare if you take them out!
The goblin spellcaster was probably only around level two and had nothing of value, just a “Darkwood Staff +1.”
This is the least valuable extraordinary equipment.
It is made from a special kind of wood that is quite sturdy, akin to ironwood. There are no additional effects, but it has high hardness and can be used to block weapons, roughly worth around ten Gind.
Its price is similar to the curved blade in Soren’s hand, yet unfortunately, not many people want to buy it! Low-level druids might like to carry it since this weapon won’t affect their spellcasting; in critical moments, it can also serve as spellcasting material due to its wooden nature.
Soren took the valuable items and quickly left.
The bl**d scent is highly likely to attract nearby beasts, including potential packs of wolves, ogres, werewolves, and other creatures; staying here could lead to an encounter.
He had previously suffered a setback, nearly being caught by a werewolf drawn in by the smell of bl**d!
These corpses would be hard to last more than two days.
By the night, other creatures will likely be attracted, and if strong enough, they could lie in wait for prey; unfortunately, Soren was still injured.
Attracting wolves would be one thing, but bringing in werewolves would be disastrous!
Werewolves have a biological level of 3. If they have an advanced profession, their biological level plus profession level could equate to a level 5 warrior’s strength.
One or two would be manageable, but the problem is that werewolves usually travel in packs of three to five or more.
………………
“If I take on a part-time wizard, then all I need now is a spellbook.”
Soren retraced his steps, hoping to see if he could find a human village nearby to spend the night; sleeping alone in the wild was too dangerous, and being ambushed at midnight would be disastrous.
Moreover, sleeping well was nearly impossible; he basically couldn’t fall asleep in the wild.
At most, he could just doze a little.
Spellbooks aren’t cheap; a full-time wizard would naturally come with one, but for an advanced profession, one would need to buy it.
It’s worth about 150 Gind.
This is the most ordinary spellbook; special spellbooks can be worth thousands or even ten thousand Gind.
“Bang!”
Suddenly, a muffled gunshot echoed far across the wilderness.
When Soren heard this gunshot, he momentarily felt disoriented, then quickly slipped into the shadows and headed toward the direction of the gunfire.
Was it a gnome or a dwarf?
Primitive firearms are rarely found among humans; there are strict controls over alchemical products, and even in black markets, they’re hard to come by. The power of firearms isn’t as significant as people imagine; they work well against ordinary people but are less effective against professionists. Even those crafted using alchemy techniques aren’t as effective against high-level professionals, and even more challenging against spellcasters.
Some have jokingly claimed that without nuclear warheads, legendary spellcasters can’t be threatened.
Of course, this is just an exaggeration.
The Gods Church imposes strict limits on alchemical products, second only to the forbidden studies of living creations, supposedly to prevent the resurgence of the destruction experienced during the Arcane Empire era.
There are documented accounts of floating fortresses during the Arcane Empire period breaking the continental shelf into eight pieces.
Even the most massive nuclear weapons lack such power; washing the Earth with nuclear weapons would only destroy humanity and living creatures, but wouldn’t significantly impact the Earth itself. However, there are some spells and alchemical weapons in this world that can directly obliterate planes, even sinking entire continental shelves to the seabed. Of course, that was back in the days of the Arcane Empire, several epochs ago, when those archmages were incredibly powerful, more so than the wizards today.
The golems now made by wizards are derived from the magely powered constructs from the Arcane Empire period.
Soren had seen such things while exploring underwater ruins, and if he were to mention them, people would believe they were advanced armors studied by humans of the interstellar age, almost leading to their extermination. Initially, he found them fascinating, but later grew used to them. If Soren remembered correctly, the gnome alchemists of Tordrey had already begun researching rocket technology and eventually faced catastrophic disaster due to accidentally injuring a black dragon.
At this moment, the control over alchemical products should be still very strict!
Because the Gods haven’t descended yet, and the Church’s power is unprecedentedly strong, there seemingly aren’t many who dare to recklessly use alchemical weapons?
“Grey Dwarfs?!”
Soren’s pupils shrank sharply, and he slipped into the shadows.
A few hundred meters away.
A group of grey dwarfs was encircling a wizard, with one of them wielding a primitive firearm, which was precisely what had drawn Soren over.
The wizard was surrounded in the center, with all grey dwarf warriors nearby, numbering perhaps over a dozen.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three gunshots rang out in succession, bullets aimed at the wizard, but as they got within about a meter of him, the stones veered off course, flying in another direction or expending all their kinetic energy, landing at the wizard’s feet.
“High-level Mage Armor?!”
Soren quietly approached, his expression solemn; it was his first time witnessing a high-level wizard in combat.
A third-tier wizard.
The profession level should be above level 10, and it seemed he wasn’t a human wizard?
A group of grey dwarf warriors surrounded him, attacking, yet no matter if it was swords, axes, or the bullets from their firearms, they were all blocked within a meter range.
This is the wizard’s protective field!
The protective field of spells consists of armor and deflection; armor blocks directly, while deflection diverts attacks. A first-tier spell “Mage Armor” has a protection strength of 20 points, and it can’t withstand Soren’s strike; however, the strength of protection increases according to the wizard’s level and power. If a high-level wizard casts Mage Armor, it can at least block over three of Soren’s strikes.
Without extraordinary weapons, his attack strength is at most around twenty points.
Many melee professionists jokingly call this an “at-field,” then ridicule how these spellcasters are like characters with cheat codes.
………………
