Chapter 805: The Pirates’ Grant Application System

Silver Ring Seedlings?

Locke's clone on the wizard floating vessel quickly looked up the relevant information. It was a special apprentice-level magical plant that could be cultivated on the surface of the ocean, a type of food crop.

Silver Ring Seedlings were a grain variety, though their taste was poor, they were difficult to digest, and they had little nutritional value. Their one advantage was that they could grow in open seawater and produced an extremely high yield.

This was one of Golden Crown Mountain's research achievements.

A strange light flickered in Locke's eyes. The two buds of the Magical Dragon Rose clamped down on Old Pirate Henry's shoulders as he said, "Why do you want to destroy the Silver Ring Seedlings?"

Old Pirate Henry winced in pain.

"That is a question for yourselves. You hypocritical white wizards. The Mediterranean Great World is an enormous-scale world."

"But its surface has fallen into eternal winter, and its underground is an ocean. There are only scattered islands. The people there face a long-term shortage of food and can only purchase grain from the Rose Council."

"Has the grain market of the Mediterranean Great World not always been in the hands of the Rose Council? And now your Golden Crown Mountain wants to sell those grain seeds to the people of the Mediterranean Great World along with a first-class wizard apprentice gifted as part of the package, dispatching them to carry out a technology transfer."

"In this way, the native people of the Mediterranean Great World gain the ability to cultivate food crops on the sea's surface, and that represents a loss for the Rose Council."

Old Pirate Henry wore a look of contempt.

"Every coin in a white wizard's hand is tainted. We rob with a clear conscience."

Locke immediately understood. This was a matter of commercial competition.

Locke looked it up and found that the Silver Ring Seedling, an apprentice-level magical plant, was a research achievement from a youth cadre fund that his teacher had once applied for, a Second Circle funding project.

And this line of research was being followed up on by his second senior, Heidegger.

Evidently this was not a conflict between the Rose Council and Golden Crown Mountain, but rather a continuation of the struggle between the Red Dragon Throne and the Rose Throne.

On the other side, one of the keelboat pirate ships restarted its engines and began to withdraw.

Clearly the pirates had sensed that the operation had failed, and the captain had given the order to retreat.

Old Pirate Henry looked at Locke with a provocative gleam and said, "White wizard, you can kill me now."

"I am no man who fears death. I..."

Locke looked at him wordlessly. Who exactly had just spilled their entire plan the moment Locke applied a little pressure?

Was that someone else just now?

This was an extraordinarily stubborn mouth on an extraordinarily yielding man.

Old Pirate Henry clearly did not reflect on himself or fret internally in the slightest. He said angrily, "If not for these worthless shoes on my feet, how could I ever have lost to you."

"I lost to you, a junior, only because of these terrible shoes."

"If I make it out alive, I am absolutely going to file a complaint. I want a refund."

Old Pirate Henry's face flushed red. "Damned Solas Light Foot! I am going to tell every void pirate that is a trash brand."

Locke frowned.

He had just attempted to trigger a Grand Magic clash with his opponent, but this man was a human artifact belonging to that big captain on the pirate mothership side, and Locke had no way to form a world war with him the way he had with the Pale Pilgrimage black wizards.

Moreover, Locke had made a new discovery.

Inside this pirate's soul, Locke had found a spell model rune, and after his mental force entered the man's body, it was examined by this spell model rune.

If Locke could pass the examination, he would be able to use this pirate's body as a magical artifact.

'In the great void, are the mothership pirates truly pirates by trade?'

Once Locke realized this, he was inwardly startled and felt the situation increasingly murky and baffling.

'These people are practically shared-use communal magical artifacts. As long as I can pass that spell model examination, I can leave a mental imprint on them.'

'And then these people would become my magical artifacts. These pirates are practically magical artifacts that cultivate and forge themselves naturally.'

Locke's pupils suddenly contracted.

'That truth-seeker wizard of the Chaos Mothership, where did he come from, at which wizard university did he teach, in what capacity as an academy director? If my guess is correct, then this is too dark a scheme. The so-called human artifact enchantment system is not at all about treating the human body as a composite magical artifact.'

'What he is likely pursuing is magical artifacts that invest resources into themselves, cultivate themselves, and then allow him to share those magical artifacts publicly for use, earning another stream of rental income on top. For an ordinary magical artifact, renting it out requires the enchanter to spend their own money on maintenance and upkeep. But this kind of human artifact maintains itself, upgrades itself technically on its own.'

'That truth-seeker wizard has laid out a very grand scheme.'

Locke felt a chill at his own conjecture. 'If that is the case, then what exactly is the purpose for which that truth-seeker wizard sends these pirates out to plunder the void, and is there some other special objective among all of this.'

'And furthermore, since this spell model exists, does that not imply that for those at a higher level, there are methods by which they can make use of these shared-use communal magical artifacts?'

This was practically getting magical artifacts to forge themselves.

This could be an extraordinarily brilliant understanding of the artifact path on the part of an enchanter.

But it was obvious that even the White Wizard Association could not tolerate this.

Locke swept a glance over the old pirate. His original plan had been to kill him and extract the energy to convert into the Zero Potion.

There was nothing cruel about that.

Because in Locke's view, if this man had the chance, he would certainly kill Locke.

As an enemy who had made a move against him, Locke could only fight back and kill him.

But Locke suddenly realized that this old pirate's burning fury toward Solas Light Foot gave him pause for thought.

'Killing him would just give me one more portion of Second Circle-level spiritual energy.'

'Senior Trajan has already killed enough Second Circle wizards this time. One more or one less will not make a difference. But letting him go might bring quite a bit of trouble to Solas Light Foot.'

Locke looked coldly at the old pirate, then looked at the keelboat that was already preparing to withdraw.

"You lost to me, and yes, it was because those shoes of yours were not up to the task. They were substandard goods. But enough with the excuses."

"I will give you one chance. Persuade me not to kill you."

Old Henry blinked, and the arrogant, defiant look in his eyes immediately vanished entirely. He said at once, "I am a pirate with nothing to my name but myself. I am very experienced in void exploration, and sometimes we pirates can serve as sailors. If you have use for me, you can take me on as a sailor."

Locke gave him a strange look.

He had not expected this man to propose such a deal.

Locke said, "Though I have not directly killed any of you, I have picked up this many of your bodies and refined them into potions. Do you think I can still cooperate with you, and still expect you not to call up your friends to surround and kill me?"

The old black wizard immediately shook his head and said, "That is different. Everyone in the pirating trade knows this is a life lived at the edge of a blade. Even if your hands are soaked in pirate blood, that has nothing to do with me."

"Because for all I know, the pirates you killed might have been planning to kill me anyway."

"You cannot assume we are all on the same side just because we are all pirates. If we were that amicable, we would have gotten together and gone into business a long time ago instead of pirating."

"Do not kill me. I am very useful, especially for void navigation and finding positions."

Old Pirate Henry said.

"Many of you white wizards are afraid to hire us pirates, but as long as you can keep that lot in line, those of us void pirates are actually the best sailors there are."

Locke fell into thought.

Old Henry's eyes kept flicking to the pirate ship, which could take off and leave at any moment, and the anxiety in his heart was rising.

"Give me a direct answer. Yes or no?"

Locke looked at him.

"Were you not one who faces death with resolve, a tough bone to crack?"

Provoked by that, Old Henry immediately shot back, "Of course. I, Henry Mok, Storm Blade, have never been afraid of anyone. Kill me if you must."

"Give me a clean death."

Locke was at a loss for words. What a tough-talking softie.

Old Henry saw the contemplative look in Locke's eyes and felt a bit of panic creeping back.

"I have a special skill. I can quickly determine our longitude and latitude while in the void."

"I can determine our relative position using only the starlight of the star realm, and I am exceptionally accurate at finding routes. You carry the bloodline of a multi-headed magical dragon, and I have heard rumors of the magical dragon race from some positions in the void. You will certainly be seeking more mid-scale positions to build your Grand Magic."

"I can guide you there."

Locke said simply, "How do I contact you?"

Old Henry said, "I also have the water hyacinth system from your Cloud Marsh Wetlands. We can add each other as contacts. When you set out, give me a call."

"If you do not trust me, we can sign a contract."

Locke let out a cold laugh and simply tossed him away.

"You may go."

Old Henry clutched his throat and looked at Locke in astonishment.

"You are just letting me go like that? You white wizards are so fond of signing contracts and making agreements."

"I have not even signed a contract yet, and you are already letting me go? Ha ha ha..."

Locke looked at him coldly.

"Yes."

"If black wizards were the type to honor contracts, they would not have become black wizards in the first place. Since they are already black wizards, what contract would be worth signing with them."

"If I need you later, I will contact you through the water hyacinth system. If you do not come when called, the next time we meet, I will kill you, and every person on your ship with you."

For an instant, a flash of fear crossed Old Henry's eyes. He had even wondered for a moment if he was talking to some great pirate lord.

Old Henry glanced at Locke, then quickly found a way back onto the pirate ship and threw the Archangel Battleboots off the pirate ship's deck.

"What worthless shoes. I want nothing to do with them."

His booming voice was loud enough for everyone on the entire transport station to hear.

"Every shoe from Solas Light Foot is absolute trash!"

The wizards on the transport station looked at one another in bewilderment.

The pirate ship, under Trajan's assault, fled in a panic, broke through the void ahead, and disappeared into the distance.

Trajan, for his part, made no rash attempt to pursue.

Wizard Trajan tidied himself up, then pointed at Locke and said, "Junior, in the void, never rashly pursue certain individuals. The void is vast beyond measure, and it is very easy to follow a chase only to lose your own way."

"To become lost in the void. Furthermore, those pirates know the void routes far better than we do. Pursuing them risks falling into a desperate situation."

Wizard Trajan said, "This time we killed nineteen formally ranked wizards from that pirate group, including three ordinary Second Circle wizards."

"And one star ring wizard."

A flash of madness crossed Wizard Trajan's eyes, quickly suppressed.

"That was satisfying."

"Junior, the bodies of those black wizards are all yours. The badges go to me. I need to redeem them for rewards. Valerie Quinn wants to break through to the Second Circle, and from now on she needs to start accumulating resources."

Locke had no objections.

After all, it had been Wizard Trajan who brought him on this trip to gain void navigation experience. He was already the one coming out ahead.

And those black wizards had all been killed by Trajan alone. The fact that he could freely receive those bodies was already a tremendous windfall.

He had nothing to complain about.

Locke glanced at Witch Valerie Quinn. Though Wizard Trajan was strict with Valerie, when it came to actual, practical interests, the warmth behind his actions was unmistakable.

Trajan was only his senior, so he had merely brought him along for one void mission, while the pirate badges from the wizards Trajan had killed appeared to include a portion that would go directly to Witch Valerie as her own merit.

This would be of great benefit to her future development, in applying for a faculty position in a specialized field, especially an internal faculty position within the demon hunter corps.

Wizard Trajan turned and looked at Locke, saying, "Oh, and junior, this star ring wizard's body is a gift for you. I noticed you seem able to extract energy and convert it in reverse into some kind of special potion."

"I hope this is of use to you."

A light brightened in Locke's eyes as he said, "Thank you, senior."

He loaded the star ring pirate's corpse into the Bronze Cauldron. The star ring wizard's rank was one tier above his own at present, so he was interested in this star ring wizard.

Wizard Trajan looked at Locke, then seemed to think of something and said, "By the way, I noticed that when you use that special potion refinement method, you seem able to manifest the spirituality within the other person's body and see certain pathways along which their spirituality runs. That is indeed quite good, but I advise you not to learn anything from this star ring pirate wizard."

"That is the wrong path."

"The entire human artifact enchantment system is nothing but a great web."

Locke was taken aback.

"A great web?"

Wizard Trajan seemed to be deliberately cryptic.

"There is a great deal involved, so I will not elaborate. In any case, just make use of those corpses for their raw materials. Never study the human artifact enchantment system. I worry you might learn from it and go crooked, and then our teacher would scold me."

"Our teacher is very strict."

Wizard Trajan seemed to still have a lingering wariness of Witch Yekaterina.

Witch Valerie looked at Wizard Trajan curiously, barely able to imagine the sight of their teacher's teacher reprimanding their teacher while he stood in silent submission.

That was... truly fascinating.

Wizard Trajan clapped his hands together. At this point, the director of the Treks Transport Station Academy had come out onto the surface of the transport station and expressed his gratitude to the three of them, Locke, Trajan, and Witch Valerie.

Wizard Trajan, as a sun ring wizard, exchanged a few words with the director. The two had a brief conversation, and then they returned to the Peach Boat.

On the Peach Boat, Wizard Trajan said, "This near-void mission can be considered a complete success, and one could even say it produced returns beyond what was expected. Who would have thought we would run into an operation by the mothership pirates specifically targeting our Golden Crown Mountain's Silver Ring Seedlings."

It had been Locke who told Wizard Trajan about the matter.

Wizard Trajan expressed his view, saying, "The Silver Ring Seedling project has always been followed up on by Second Senior's side. It seems the competition between the two major teacher lineages is growing increasingly fierce."

"The ideology of the Rose Throne side differs from ours. They have always maintained a practice of selling grain directly to the various colonial territories."

"Whereas our teacher Yekaterina has had us transfer the foundational technology and seeds to those colonial worlds, then earn money in the future through technology upgrades and maintenance."

"In other words, we prefer to teach people to fish. Teacher Yekaterina believes that teaching people to fish earns us more money in the long run. But the Rose Throne side only knows how to give people fish."

Locke nodded slightly.

"Selling grain directly puts the least pressure on cash flow and faces the least competition. But relying on technology transfer and technology upgrades to generate revenue is high risk, highly competitive, and requires us to maintain the momentum to continuously develop new technologies at all times."

"However, the upside is that the ceiling is high."

Locke fell into thought.

'My Augustus Wizard Shoe Store Alliance does not actually need to follow the old path of Solas Light Foot and Melechi Magic Step. I am a breeder, not a magic weaver. There is no need for me to walk within so many predefined boundaries.'

'If I succeed in developing mass production of wizard shoes, I could even transfer the wizard shoe seeds through licensing, allowing others to become franchisees. As long as I control the magical plant seeds, I can have large numbers of breeders, even magic weavers, operate products on my behalf at no cost, building my sales volume for me.'

Locke felt strongly that he must never walk the same path of heavy-asset operation as Solas Light Foot.

First, walking someone else's track would only trap him within someone else's framework.

Second, he could not muster that much capital in any reasonable time.

'That is it. In essence, our teacher and the Rose Witch represent the difference between a heavy-asset model and a light-asset model.'

Locke realized it.

The Rose Throne's grain selling system was clearly similar to the wizard shoe store alliance model, both following the direct product sales route.

That would certainly require large numbers of magical farms and large numbers of people to sustain.

Of course, the Rose Council had people in abundance.

Whereas teacher's system, from what Locke had seen so far, if the primary approach was generating income through technology transfer, was essentially a light-asset model.

Light-asset and heavy-asset each have their advantages and disadvantages.

The two had very similar academic paths and similar industries, yet their business models were completely different.

That was likely the reason the two were at each other's throats.

Locke had not expected to be drawn into this kind of teacher lineage war, but the key was that moving upward meant inevitably joining a team.

And once one joined a team, conflicts would come readily.

At its core, this was a competition between the Rose Throne and the Red Dragon Throne over the resources needed to become a Fourth Circle wizard.

And if his cooperating mentor at the Origin Academy became a Fourth Circle wizard, the benefit to him would be enormous.

It meant his teacher lineage would formally become the lineage of a Fourth Circle wizard.

It meant he would be able to enjoy a better platform and more resources.

In any case, regardless of all this, he only needed to focus on his own work, take on more projects, earn better awards, and publish higher-quality papers.

Therefore, Locke had no strong feelings about this teacher lineage struggle.

Because whether or not this conflict existed, he was going to compete with the magic weaver wizard shoe store side regardless. Now that this lineage struggle provided a tailwind, it would actually make things somewhat easier.

Locke sank into thought.

Wizard shoes alone would not earn him enough. The resources a Second Circle wizard required were simply too great.

He might need to look at other markets as well and think of other approaches.

Since this lineage struggle was already in full blaze, he could look at what he might be able to gain from it.

This grain seed market also looked quite promising.

In any case, moving upward would require joining a team and, through his own efforts, gradually working his way into the core of that circle.

And in that process, being drawn into this kind of academic conflict would come quite naturally.

Wizard Trajan patted Locke on the shoulder.

"All right, let us head back to the Ghost Gate. I will inform Second Senior of this matter. He will figure out a response."

"If he cannot compete with the Rose Council's grain market, ha, then he can just come along with me to do plant hunting. Locke, if you ever want to do plant hunting too, you are welcome to it. The three of us can team up and go deep into the Dark Great World."

Wizard Trajan seemed to think of something unpleasant.

"Come to think of it, I have crossed blades with the Dark King of the Dark Great World three times, and each time I ended up at an absolute disadvantage, barely managing to escape. And the Dark King is just a minor ruler of the Dark Great World."

"The Dark Great World is a recently discovered world with many secrets still lurking within it, along with many unknown magical plants yet to be found."

Locke said, "I hope Second Senior's grain market does not close down."

"I was still counting on going to the grain market for a discount."

...

In the void, aboard the escaping keelboat pirate ship, the moon ring wizard captain Farrell looked at Old Pirate Henry and demanded, "Henry, an unknown junior was able to defeat you, a pirate wizard of long-established reputation?"

"I sent you to destroy the Zone C warehouse. Could you not manage even that?"

Old Pirate Henry immediately deflected with a pivot.

"And yet Rick did not burn the warehouse either. He had already approached the warehouse through the enchantment Invisibility spell model."

At once, Captain Farrell looked toward a relatively young Second Circle black wizard named Rick.

Pirate Rick had a knife scar across his face and said, "That young wizard's perceptive ability was simply too powerful. I nearly let him notice me several times, and if I had gone near Zone C, he would certainly have seen me. My magic pressure is only ten thousand."

"Both of your magic pressures are higher than mine."

"Neither of the two of you could deal with those white wizards."

Captain Farrell said quietly, "Enough. Stop shifting the blame. I know what you are thinking."

"You just feel a pang in your conscience about burning that warehouse, do you not."

Pirate Rick suddenly spoke up, "Exactly, I just feel like something is wrong. Why did we become pirates? Because we were driven to it with nowhere left to turn by those wicked white wizards. So why should we be working for those white wizards, burning the magical plant seeds that could serve as grain for an entire great world?"

"Is the Chaos Mothership not a righteous army?"

Captain Farrell and Old Pirate Henry looked at him in surprise.

Then the two suddenly broke into wide grins, bursting into loud laughter.

Old Pirate Henry said, "Ha ha ha, that is hilarious. To think you are already a Second Circle wizard and still this naive."

Captain Farrell laughed and then his expression turned serious.

"That young Second Circle wizard we encountered this time was no ordinary figure. In the future he may well become another executioner wizard."

"All right, let us go drink. We lost far too much this time. This raiding project has failed. We lost two ships and all those people on top of it. I do not even know how we are going to apply for another raiding project after this."

The pirate mothership's system followed the white wizard society's grant system.

These pirates also had to write proposals and apply for projects. The only difference was that what the pirate mothership funded was not money but void navigation charts of raiding targets.

And having suffered such heavy losses this time around, getting their next proposal approved would be very difficult.

Captain Farrell said, "So let us go drink."

Old Pirate Henry immediately agreed.

"That is right. When there is no direction forward, drink some wizard wine. Drink enough, and the problems will be forgotten."

"We pirates, that is just how we live."

"And this time I also made an agreement with that young white wizard. He is probably going to take me along on a void exploration trip. Captain, you will have to approve my leave."

Captain Farrell was mildly taken aback.

"He had that kind of magnanimity?"

"Then go. That is your freedom. The Chaos Mothership is all about freedom."

"Though when we are carrying out missions, you are not to go."

Captain Farrell thought it over and said, "Actually, just prioritize going. The raiding targets for my proposals will likely be hard to get approved for a while."

"We probably will not have any targets for some time."