Wizard: Scamming a Demon God

Chapter 184: Chapter 148: The Mad Witch Gives Money, the Witch Pledges Loyalty (2)

After all, at their Level, spreading stories was the easiest condition to fulfill. They could just find a few members of the Nobility, give them some money—or not even give them any money—and the story would be spread.

The truly difficult part was the Self-Legend. Of course, compared to making a deal with a Mad Witch, that was nothing. At this thought, the crowd glanced at Isaac before looking away. ’Never mind,’ they seemed to think, ’no need for a normal person to compare themselves to a madman.’

"Hm?" Isaac noticed everyone’s gazes and looked up in surprise, scanning the room. Seeing that no one was speaking, and not being familiar enough with them to feel comfortable asking, he lowered his head again to organize the notes he had just taken.

"Next. Continue."

Seeing that no one was moving, Bahamut couldn’t help but shake his head and urge them on.

In truth, this was one of the reasons he had to be present in person. It wasn’t that the others were jealously guarding their own secrets, unwilling to share their ideas for discussion, nor was it that they didn’t have any optimization plans. They were all High-level Mages, after all.

It’s just that... even for a Legendary Mage, the thirst for Knowledge is incredibly strong. When suddenly exposed to interesting Knowledge, they would involuntarily get lost in it. At a time like this, without a leader outstanding in both strength and status, it would be impossible to forcibly snap them out of it.

It might even create some friction.

It was troublesome, but this was the price of running an organization. In this world, everything followed the principle of equivalent exchange: to gain something, one must lose something else.

Take him, for example. Although he possessed a power as mighty as the Giant Dragon Transformation, which was a full tier above his own Level, he had in turn lost the fun of a back-and-forth fight with opponents of the same rank.

This was the law of equivalent exchange!

Although all sorts of thoughts were swirling in his mind, it didn’t affect his ability to listen to the others’ optimization plans for the Dragon Blood Secret Medicine and offer some of his own shallow insights.

Yes, shallow.

Although Bahamut’s Level was the highest among the Wizards present, that didn’t mean he was better than everyone else at everything.

In research, the deeper one delved, the more pronounced a Wizard’s specialization became. After all, with one’s energy and personal interests being what they were, it was no longer possible to develop into a jack-of-all-trades just to save a few coins, as one might have at a lower Level.

Therefore, even Bahamut couldn’t necessarily provide overly effective suggestions for the optimization plans everyone proposed. In fact, for proposals like Lilith’s three plans, he couldn’t offer any practical advice at all.

Soon, as one High-level Mage after another presented their optimization plans, even the three Grand Wizards eventually stood up to offer their own ideas. Although their plans were much cruder compared to those of the other High-level Mages—so crude that for Isaac, they only served as a source of inspiration—still... the benefits from this seminar were still immense!

However, unlike Isaac’s prior expectation of a lengthy discussion, the entire seminar officially concluded after everyone had stated their own optimization plans and their opinions on others’ plans—in other words, after less than two rounds of presentations.

As mentioned before, the path of a Wizard is not like Cultivation. There is no so-called "Dao." You either understand something or you don’t. Many things simply need to be learned slowly; enlightenment plays a small role.

The moment it ended, there was no socializing. Everyone left the conference hall with a shared understanding, heading straight for the Floating City’s warehouse. After each claimed some materials, they immediately left the Church’s Dimension World. The entire process was clean and efficient, without a single wasted motion.

Isaac followed suit, collecting materials for two servings of the Enhanced Dragon Transformation Secret Medicine. He planned to find an opportunity to give Smith an upgrade after returning, and also give a gift to Lorna.

Although he hadn’t asked for specifics yet, judging by the Dragon Flame that had appeared on her hand when she woke up yesterday morning, her Magic was likely related to Giant Dragons. In that case, giving her the Dragon Transformation Secret Medicine as a gift should be a pretty good idea.

After all, they were companions now. And while Isaac intended to study her Magic Ability, he wouldn’t treat her like a mere test subject. Besides... ’

’...those lunatics from the Witch Country are really not to be trifled with...’

...

"Er... what are you all... doing?"

Back in the Real World, Isaac put away the materials he had collected and walked out of his laboratory, planning to say hello before going back to brew the Magic Potion.

’After all, things are different now. There’s an outsider here, so I should observe some basic courtesies.’

However, when he stepped out of the lab and arrived in front of the castle, he saw Lorna dressed in a suit of simple, gray Leather Armor. A Longsword hung at her waist, a dagger was strapped to her rounded thigh, and she looked the very picture of a standard, broke Adventurer.

At that moment, this broke Adventurer was standing in front of more than forty burly men in cotton clothes, solemnly issuing commands and directing them to perform some strange-looking movements.

"Uh... you’re back? So soon?" Startled by Isaac’s voice, Lorna, who had been looking rather imposing just a moment ago, instantly deflated. She shrank back, timidly lowering her head. "I was just helping you train them a bit, to make them more obedient. Don’t worry, this is just a training method I learned from a minor noble. It’s for building teamwork."

At the end, as if to make her words more believable, she added, "I learned it when I joined the militia because I was starving."

"Joined the militia..." Isaac looked at Lorna, speechless. ’This girl’s life has been surprisingly miserable...’

’I originally thought Lorna bought Ordinary Leather Armor out of a habit of hiding her strength. Now it seems it might be because her life has been genuinely awful!’

’Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been so starved that she had to join the militia just to get a meal...’

’After all, the militia has age and height requirements, no matter what. This couldn’t have been something she did when she was very young. It must have been in recent years. And a Witch’s power mostly grows with age, so her strength back then must have been greater than most Adventurers’. And yet...’

’...she ended up joining the militia... because she was starving!’

As he thought about it, Isaac couldn’t help but look suspiciously at Lorna’s small head. ’Is there something wrong with this kid’s brain?’

"Please believe me! I really just wanted to instill some discipline in them! I wasn’t trying to fight you for ownership!"

While Isaac was still sizing Lorna up, she, on the other hand, grew anxious when he didn’t respond right away.

In her ten-plus years of life, aside from her Dragon Mother, Isaac was the first person to treat her so well. He might have his motives, but even so, he would still ask for her opinion first!

’That’s even better than my Dragon Mother!’

So, even though they hadn’t spent much time together, Lorna had already made up her mind: she had to stay by Isaac’s side!

That was why she had thought of training these slaves, to try and make herself useful in a way that didn’t involve being studied.

And that was why she was so worried Isaac would misunderstand her intentions!

"Oh, it’s fine. Don’t be so nervous. I was just thinking about something else," Isaac said with a smile and a shake of his head. He waved his hand to dismiss the slaves, then beckoned Lorna to follow him into the castle.

Isaac knew of Lorna’s training method. After all, how High Level could a technique for training militia be?

The specific movements were different, but the purpose was more or less the same. It was similar to the "at ease" and "attention" drills from the military training in Isaac’s past life, used for instilling discipline.

The reason he knew about this sort of thing was that when he was six, he had worked up the courage to propose the Concept while observing his family’s Knight Order training.

It was at that moment that Isaac realized he had been living too cautiously and had underestimated this world. Methods for training discipline had long existed here. And not just for discipline; this world also had methods for physical conditioning that were even better and more efficient than those of his past life!

After all, physical conditioning wasn’t a particularly difficult thing. The crudest method was simply to train to the point of death. The limiting factor for such training was usually just the food supply.

Moreover, this was an Extraordinary World where the upper limit of personal strength was far higher than in his past life. Naturally, the methods for physical conditioning were also far superior.