Chapter 563 - 399: Mad Witch Wholesale

Chapter 563: Chapter 399: Mad Witch Wholesale

The moment he finished reading the document, Avin’s first instinct was to refuse. But just a moment later, he hesitated...

He remembered the promise Isaac had made to him.

Of course, it wasn’t the promise itself that Avin was dwelling on. He was thinking of the Flame that had ignited within him when he heard Isaac’s promise...

As an Arcanist, Avin had once been a genius who had clawed his way up from the ranks of Arcane Apprentices.

He too once had his own ambitions!

But reality was cruel. The path of an Arcanist was far more brutal than that of a Legendary Mage. Although there was hope of being promoted to Grand Arcanist, and hope of becoming Undying...

The price was being trapped at Tier Three for the rest of one’s life!

...unless the age of Wizards saw another major breakthrough.

When he had no other options, Avin could accept this fate. He knew his limits, he had done his best, and there was nothing more he could do.

But...

’What if I could take a gamble?’

After a moment of silence, Avin raised his head and looked at Moens with determination. "Lord Moens, I’m in!"

"Excellent. Go home and await further instructions. And relax. We won’t let you take any unnecessary risks. This experiment involves a True God, so a Demigod Mage will be supervising the entire process. It will be perfectly safe." Moens was very pleased with the look in Avin’s eyes and offered a reassuring smile.

Soon, all the interviews were concluded, and the results were excellent. Of the twelve people they had approached, all twelve had agreed to participate.

In that moment, Moens felt he understood the choices of the Mad Witches a little better. Even a terrible option was still an option, and that was always better than having no choice at all.

Isaac, of course, was the exception.

With the kind of talent that man had displayed, he would have been incredibly powerful just by following the path of a Legendary Mage. He wasn’t lacking for choices in the slightest.

...

Meanwhile, Isaac was completely unaware of Moens’s private criticisms. He was busy designing a transaction ritual. Thanks to the substantial support from the Truth Association, Isaac’s original plan had been modest: simply try to modify the existing ritual to strengthen its binding power, while reducing or even completely removing its transactional capabilities to turn it into a negotiation ritual.

But now, he felt he could shift his focus back to the transaction ritual itself and restart the experiments related to the Mad Witches.

Soon, Isaac had designed the new transaction rituals. In the interest of efficiency, he didn’t design them to be high-Level; they were all Tier One transaction rituals.

He divided this batch into three main categories based on the target of the transaction. The first category targeted the Virtual Deity Isaac himself had created. The second targeted a standard Evil God, using a completely normal transaction process. Isaac made no "modifications" to these; they were the authentic, original transaction rituals.

The third category was for transaction rituals with a True God, but this section was currently empty as negotiations had yet to be finalized.

True Gods, unlike Outer Gods, don’t have anything like transaction rituals. They only have standard prayer and sacrificial rituals. In truth, the two aren’t that different. The essence of a prayer ritual is to offer one’s own Faith to a Deity as a sacrifice. It’s just that sacrificial rituals are more frequently used by Cultists and Mad Witches for nefarious purposes, lending them an aura of the Mysterious and bloody.

Isaac had once been curious about this. Why was it that True Gods, who were also Deities blocked by the World Wall, had no transaction rituals? Based on the underlying logic of how these rituals functioned, it should have been possible to transact with True Gods as well.

But there simply weren’t any, which was strange. For a time, Isaac had even considered whether he should try to pull a True God into the Outer Gods’ camp and then manipulate the situation for his own benefit.

In the end, however, Isaac had squashed this bold and delusional idea. He couldn’t afford to offend a True God. The restrictions on them in the Main World were not as severe as those on the Outer Gods. Besides their own power, they also had legions of Believers in the Main World. Offending them was simply not an option.

But this time, he would finally find out why!

With a hint of anticipation, Isaac handed over the two types of rituals to the Arcanists who had come to learn from him.

It was worth noting that because they were only using Tier One transaction rituals, Isaac hadn’t used any Arcanist Knowledge in their design. For one, rituals at this stage were generic and not yet specialized. In fact, many could be performed by an Ordinary person with no Magic Power at all, as long as they followed the correct procedure.

Secondly, he was currently in the data-gathering phase. He needed them to use these basic rituals first to collect enough data to study transaction rituals exclusive to Arcanists. Otherwise, he would be starting from scratch with no idea where to even begin his research.

The instruction went very smoothly. After all, anyone who could become an Arcanist was a genius—or at least, had been considered one. Such a basic ritual posed no difficulty for them whatsoever.

They completed the ritual preparations with little effort.

But...

While they learned quickly, the actual execution of the rituals did not go smoothly at all.

Their failures were different from those of the few Legendary Mages Isaac had recruited. With the mages, the rituals would activate, but the success rate was always zero. The Arcanists were another story. Even with these incredibly simple rituals—ones an Ordinary person could perform just by reading the instructions—there was no reaction at all when they tried.

But this wasn’t a problem inherent to the Legendary Mage path. The Arcanists could use other Legendary Mage rituals, and with decent results. It was only from Tier Two onward that...