Chapter 907: Chapter 905: So What Is the Price?
"What is it?" Rommel asked.
Canon took a deep breath and answered earnestly, "Before, I passed on your warnings to him, and he indeed hasn’t been exchanging points in large amounts, seemingly listening to your advice. However, just yesterday, he suddenly applied to me for the exchange of ’Blood Alchemy.’
"’Blood Alchemy?’" Rommel furrowed his brow, "Isn’t that an incomplete transformation magic, which is even more challenging than ’Taida Glory Radiance,’ as it involves the transformation of matter?"
"That’s right." Canon nodded, "But that’s not all. Also, this spell is only exchangeable by core members. Wizard Richard hasn’t been with our organization for long and hasn’t undergone comprehensive reviews, so he doesn’t qualify as a core member. He surely can’t exchange the spell. Moreover, the points required for exchanging this spell are enormous. After previous expenditures, Wizard Richard doesn’t have many points left, and he suggested the idea of prepayment."
"Prepayment?" Rommel stroked his chin and smiled, "Interesting, he still doesn’t intend to abandon his research and intends to invest even more crazily. I now have a guess as to what he is researching, very likely related to the legendary Eternal Sun and Golden Kingdom."
"Eternal Sun? Golden Kingdom?" Canon’s eyelids twitched.
He understood that the so-called Eternal Sun represents endless energy, and the Golden Kingdom represents endless matter. Simply put, it’s a perpetual motion machine and a matter creation machine. According to some records, these were the two pursuits from the ancient wizard civilization that exist even now, with many wizards indulging in them.
After all, breaking through either one could completely change the world.
However, this research has been proven by many to be absolutely unachievable, yet many people refuse to believe it.
"So, is Wizard Richard really walking into a mistake?" Canon said, "From his previous performance, I thought he would be a bit smarter."
"It’s not surprising." Rommel’s expression was indifferent, "The smarter a person is, the more likely they are to make mistakes in some simple places. After all, he can’t be omniscient and omnipotent like a true god, nor has he listened to the warnings of the true god to know which are absolute truths like us."
"What should be done then?" Canon asked.
"How did you handle it before?" Rommel countered.
"I refused him." Canon said, "For one, Wizard Richard indeed doesn’t have the qualification of a core member, and breaking the rules isn’t permissible, and for another, the risk of overdrafting points is somewhat significant. Although there have been precedents before, I don’t want to do this."
At this point, Canon paused, pursed his lips, and said, "I just see that after I refused Wizard Richard, he didn’t give up. He stayed in Delan and didn’t return to Jialan, likely wanting to try other ways."
"I see." Rommel squinted in thought, stroked the rabbit in his arms, and after a moment made a decision, "Very well, let him meet me tomorrow, and I’ll talk with him."
"Alright, I’ll arrange it." Canon said.
"Hm." Rommel stood up, carrying the demonized rabbit as he walked toward the door.
Canon stood still, slightly stunned, with a somewhat strange and struggling expression. He waited until Rommel was almost out the door, and finally couldn’t help but say, "Supervisor Rommel, wait a moment!"
"What is it?" Rommel stopped, turned back holding the rabbit.
"Well..." Canon hesitated.
Rommel glanced at Canon, expressionless, "If you have something to say, think it over first."
"But..."
"That’s enough."
Rommel turned again, carrying the rabbit out without looking back.
Canon stood in place, falling into silence.
...
The next day.
In a meeting room at the Delan branch, Richard met with Rommel and Canon.
What struck him as strange was that Rommel inexplicably had a white rabbit in his arms, occasionally stroking it with his hand, while Canon beside him twisted his expression to look sideways at it.
Thus arose a bizarre scene: Rommel was looking at him, the rabbit in Rommel’s arms was looking at Rommel, and Canon beside him was looking at the rabbit askance—one ring linking to another.
What exactly is going on?
Where did the rabbit come from?
Richard wondered.
As he was pondering, Rommel spoke without explanation, straightforwardly saying, "Wizard Richard, I heard from Canon Steward that you have been exchanging various spell data from the branch with points lately? Not only did you exchange for ’Taida Glory Radiance,’ but you also wanted to exchange ’Blood Alchemy’ through overdraft."
"Yes." Richard nodded.
He had no need to conceal these matters, as they were all for researching the mechanism of the energy-gathering beam that decomposes matter, aiming to solve the problems encountered in nuclear weapon research and manufacturing plans. In fact, he had indeed achieved some results, successfully reducing energy consumption during the process of purifying Uranium 235, albeit not significantly yet, but he believed that as he continued researching, eventually he would reach an ideal state.
Of course, he wouldn’t explain in such detail outwardly, instead merely summarizing as researching some things out of interest related to energy and matter.
This time Rommel said, "Are you aware, the path you’re taking now is a detour?"
"A detour?" Richard raised his eyebrows and said, "I’m really not aware, since I haven’t walked through it. Only after walking it will I know."
"Out of goodwill, I can tell you that this path you’re on is not feasible."
"Why, Supervisor Rommel, have you walked it?"
"I haven’t walked it either, but the true god has already warned about it." Rommel said earnestly.
"I don’t believe in the true god," Richard almost said, but what eventually came out was, "But I still want to try."
Rommel was unsurprised, "I knew you’d stick to your guns. But you need to understand one thing, even if you now received a large amount of points, without the qualification of a core member, you still can’t exchange ’Blood Alchemy.’
"Then how can I exchange it?" Richard asked.
Rommel did not answer immediately, instead gently pushed forward a document placed on the table before him. The document slid, accelerated, then gradually decelerated, and steadily stopped in front of Richard.
"Take a look at this first." Rommel said.
Richard felt a bit odd but did not ask further. He opened the document and began to read. Soon he had finished browsing and looked up at Rommel saying, "This seems to be a report from another branch saying a forest has become very dangerous, requiring assistance from other branches to resolve."
"Correct." Rommel nodded.
Richard asked, "Is this the condition for me to exchange for ’Blood Alchemy?’"