This Lich Requests More Remuneration

Chapter 70 - 70 70 Modified Wishing Spell

?Chapter 70: Chapter 70 Modified Wishing Spell Chapter 70: Chapter 70 Modified Wishing Spell Withered Rose, although also legendary, specialized in necromancy spells.

The Gaze of Death, this Legendary Grace, allowed her to amass a large undead army in Gloomyland; she had always focused solely on the study of necromancy spells, rarely dabbling in other areas.

Amberser was different, he was the curious type who wanted to try everything, with a restless mind; otherwise, he wouldn’t have casually discarded the powers of the School of Prophecy.

Before ascending to legend, he was interested in everything related to magic.

Thanks to the various methods of extending one’s life in this world, and when the Youth Magic Potion wasn’t too expensive, Amberser had enough time to satisfy his curiosity. Alchemy, Magic Construct Studies, School of Necromancy, School of Prophecy, Shaping Energy School, Divine Arts, and so on, he spent at least a decade studying almost everything. Perhaps he couldn’t reach the pinnacle in a specific magical discipline, but when it came to breadth of knowledge, there were few in the Nine Great Kingdoms who could surpass him.

Therefore, Amberser recognized at a glance that the sewer’s structure was a modified Prayer Magic Circle.

The reason it looked like alchemy was that these lunatics had significantly modified the magic array, turning what was originally an individual’s spell into a massive ritual, attempting to simplify the casting difficulty.

After carefully studying the blueprints, Amberser concluded, “A genius idea, but only a madman would do it.”

Wishing Spell was the strongest spell one could master below the deities, with none other coming close.

The most advanced spells often required the simplest casting methods. Casting a Wishing Spell required only a simple gesture, without the need for any offerings or preparatory rituals, and it didn’t even necessitate magic power.

It might seem as if the cost of casting and the outcome were disproportionately miraculous.

But throughout history, there have been very few who could successfully perform a Wishing Spell because the principle of the Wishing Spell is to make a wish to the entire world, to pose one’s request, and the World Laws would respond with a challenge about understanding these World Laws.

The difficulty was akin to the “Millennium Prize Problems” that Amberser had read about before his transmigration, a century-old challenge that countless geniuses had failed to solve.

Is mathematics hard? With just a paper and a pen, it doesn’t seem difficult.

The challenge of the Wishing Spell is the same, difficult if you consider that you don’t need to give up anything, as long as you can answer the challenge presented by the World Laws. But it’s not hard if you think about it; there’s no way to cheat. You either know it, or you don’t. No matter your wealth, status, or the extent of your power, none will help you with the challenge of the Wishing Spell.

The only assistance available is your own wisdom.

That’s the peculiarity of the Wishing Spell: anyone can cast it, but out of millions, no one can truly understand the essence of the world.

Only a few deities can use the Wishing Spell without restrictions because they are inherently parts of the World Laws.

The consequences of a mortal failing to cast a Wishing Spell are dire, the sort that would merit an age restriction if written in books.

But even if you are lucky enough to answer the challenge posed by the world, it doesn’t mean your Wishing Spell has been successful.

A Wishing Spell and a Perfect Wishful Incantation are two different things.

When your wish is granted, the manner in which it manifests often leaves much to be desired.

The World Laws are rigorous rule enforcers that dislike loopholes, and since the Wishing Spell exploits a loophole, the World Laws will attempt to inflict side effects as a form of punishment.

For instance, if you wish for a deceased loved one to be resurrected, they might be resurrected, but their age and state could vary significantly. If you don’t specify in your wish, they might return at the age and state of a newborn with no memories, or perhaps at an old and frail age close to death.

If you wish for an enemy’s death without clarifying the method, it’s possible you’ll find yourself thrown hundreds of years into the future, where your enemy’s descendants live full lives and die naturally while you’ve skipped over those centuries, completely out of sync with everything.

In short, the Wishing Spell is a trap, and even someone who courts death like Amberser wouldn’t play with it; whether successful or not, it’s highly probable that something will go wrong.

And yet these lunatics from Alchemy City have set their sights on the Wishing Spell, going so far as to boldy transform it into a ritual magic.

Amberser had studied the various structures on the blueprints and roughly guessed the effects of this ritual magic.

The first effect was to prolong the casting time.

Wishing Spells take effect instantaneously, like solving a math problem. If you know it, you know it; if you don’t, you won’t get it instantly.

But this ritual magic extended the solving time. How much longer it could be extended and at what cost, Amberser couldn’t tell yet, but he was sure that this magic required continuous casting.

Could simply extending the time yield a solution? Just like how some people couldn’t solve a math problem even in hundreds of years, the duration was never the critical element of a Wishing Spell. Amberser didn’t understand the thoughts of these madmen, but this function occupied most of the Magic Array and must be the foundation of all other effects.

The second effect was sacrifice.

Flesh, soul, magic power, intense emotions, and more could all serve as offerings for this ritual magic. It was possible for the Magic Array to be this inclusive because of its enormity. Otherwise, achieving this “all-comers welcome” effect would’ve been nearly impossible. The Magic Array’s structure differed depending on the offering, and the way these different parts combined without mutally interfering was nothing short of a stroke of genius.

No wonder the madmen of Alchemy City dared to deceive fate and fabricate a prophecy.

Their plan was to lure ambition-filled adventurers to the sewers of Alchemy City, where everything about them would become offerings to this ritual magic—even if they managed to escape, their emotional fluctuations during the adventure would feed the Magic Array.

It was truly incredible—not only a stroke of genius but the amount of resources these madmen must have expended on researching and improving to achieve such preposterous effects. Decades or centuries? Tens of millions or billions? Only those Alchemists could be so recklessly extravagant.

Amberser hastily took out his notebook to transcribe the content while jotting down a ton of insightful notes—all of them knowledge with extraordinary value.

But after copying everything down, Amberser fell into contemplation. What use were those sacrifices for a Wishing Spell?

According to the principles of magic, only wisdom was required for a Wishing Spell, so what good were the sacrifices of flesh and souls?

Looking at the incomplete blueprints, Amberser felt a tingling in his bones.

If he could perfectly decipher this ritual magic, how much could he sell it for? All Spellcasters across the Nine Great Kingdoms would go mad for it!

Beyond those two most obvious effects, there were others like concealment, stabilization, and illusions, all auxiliary types meant to maintain the ritual magic’s operation. The blueprints were too crude, and Amberser couldn’t figure out all the details.

The group of madmen had turned the entire sewer system into a Prayer Magic Circle, and it seemed the Magic Array was already operational.

So the question was, what wish had they actually made?

Considering the prophecy of Alchemy City’s destruction, could it be that these madmen made a mistake in their wish? Had they been punished for failing the Perfect Wishful Incantation, or was it a case of imprecise wish description that led to the World Laws playing them for fools?

With so little information, Amberser couldn’t come to a conclusion yet.

Smelling danger, Amberser was about to discuss with Withered Rose, hoping the Undead Queen of Gloomyland could provide some insight.

But before he could send another message, a paper phoenix fluttering with colored wings flew before Amberser.

The letter unfolded automatically—it was a formal document from Alchemy City, demanding he hand over Allen and the other Paladins. At the end of the document was this sentence, “The Wishing Machine is ready and can accept your wish at any time.”

Amberser looked at the document, then at the incomplete ritual magic blueprints, and an ominous premonition emerged.

Damn fate, the time when heads could really roll seemed to have arrived.