Chapter 248: The Originals

Chapter 248: The Originals

It really worked? Deya quickly posted a new comment and made an extra note: the Sanctuary Church would not only provide a substantial reward, but also guarantee the safety of the person sharing the information! Such messages should include a private prefix. She had already set up the post with a special filter. Comments with this specific keyword were only visible to the poster, so no one needed to worry about their discovery being leaked.

Anyway, this was still a way out, right? Although the Sanctuary Church was large and power ful, compared to the eyes of the general public, there were always some overlooked areas. Perhaps among these people, someone just happened to stumble upon traces of the Undying Witch. A big thumbs up to this “visible only to the poster” function!

Without this function, Deya could imagine that even if someone discovered the Undying Witch’s traces, they would definitely have concerns and wouldn’t dare to speak up directly in a public post. On one hand, they were afraid that it would become common knowledge, and they would get nothing out of it. The Undying Witch might even be watching. What if she saw it? She might think they were just talking nonsense, and they certainly couldn’t afford to offend the Sanctuary Church!

On the other hand, they were worried about being targeted by the Undying Witch through some method. If that happened, they wouldn’t be able to live or die in peace.

“Hey, Loli. When you have free time later, feel free to browse this. If you see anyone you don’t like, just ban them.” After returning to the Underground Base, Zheng Yichen found Loris holding the Magic Weapon Summoning Book.

“Mhm.” Loris nodded gently. As someone who had co-created the Magic Weapon Summoning Book with Zheng Yichen back then, she also had significant usage rights over it, second only to Zheng Yichen. Most of what Zheng Yichen could do, she could do as well. And to be honest, this forum was quite interesting.

As a Witch, with her own dangerous traits, Loris didn’t like interacting with outsiders much. She could also control her temper and stay in one place all day without feeling bored. But that didn’t mean she truly enjoyed being alone and spacing out. Occasionally, she would also go out for a walk when she had nothing to do.

Her last outing… was when she met Zheng Yichen earlier. That was also close to the time when her power was about to run berserk. She had thought it would be her last outing, but she ‘found’ a treasure instead.

The forum of the Magic Weapon Summoning Book allowed her to browse various topics without worrying about being discovered. As for identity issues, while others needed to spend a lot of mana to change their names, she, like Zheng Yichen, could easily switch through dozens of alternate accounts. Perhaps while some ordinary Magic Weapon Summoners were chatting in a certain post, a deputy administrator big shot was secretly watching.

Moreover, this forum wasn’t without additional benefits. For example, the bounty post about finding traces of the Undying Witch, posted by the Saintess of the Sanctuary Church. Even though the main part of the comments was only visible to the poster, for her and Zheng Yichen, the blocked “” symbols were completely meaningless.

Zheng Yichen stretched his body, shook his head, and lay down on the carpet on the floor. This room was big enough—after all, it was his bedroom. The bed was so large that Loris could roll over a dozen times without worrying about falling off. As for the floor, he could roll over a few times with no issue either. Yawning, Zheng Yichen rubbed his eyes. “Hmm, let’s rest well for a day.”

Before this, he had almost packed his schedule completely full, with very little free time. Now that he had nothing much to do recently, he planned to spend more time on the forum inside the Magic Weapon Summoning Book. Although it was just a forum and not a Computer, it still gave Zheng Yichen a bit of the feeling of surfing the internet back on Earth. It might not be as exciting as Earth’s internet, but it wasn’t bad, right? At least on Earth, there were thousands of forums, while in this Otherworld, there was only this one. All the Magic Weapon Summoners gathered here, so of course it was very lively, with all kinds of people posting.

Zheng Yichen even saw several posts asking for help. Some XXX Mercenary Squad accidentally got themselves trapped in a certain place, with ferocious Magical Beasts guarding the entrance. They requested support and promised a substantial reward!

Then they added extra thanks to the Creator of the Magic Weapon Summoning Book. Without this function appearing just in time, they would have had no way out except to wait desperately for death. At least now there was hope. Their posts had replies. The reason was that when some people inquired about their situation, this group directly said they had discovered something very strange in the place they were trapped… Because of this, a powerful Spellcaster nearby expressed willingness to help, with the condition being the thing they found.

With no life left, what use were good things? These people readily agreed.

“Hmm, this should really add some merit to me, shouldn’t it?” Zheng Yichen muttered while looking at this post. He switched away from the forum page and looked at the magic weapon page. There were also many comments in the magic weapon page, mostly concentrated in the Intermediate Magic Weapon and High-Level Magic Soldier sections. The comments on Intermediate Magic Weapons were the most numerous. There were only three High-Level Magic Soldiers, and the comments seemed dense but were not as many as those for Intermediate Magic Weapons.

“Tsk, tsk, they actually want me to update more Mage-type magic weapons… Hmm, indeed, magic weapons like staffs are too few.” Zheng Yichen thought about it. It was time to make the Intermediate Magic Weapons more comprehensive. It seemed there were no bows. Hammers, bows, daggers, and Magic Wands… plus a Heavenly Halberd would do.

Zheng Yichen considered. After all, even the Basic Magic Weapons had these types. For the higher-level magic weapons, they should have corresponding ones no matter what. Even if High-Level Magic Soldiers couldn’t be that comprehensive, Intermediate ones were no problem. Speaking of which, his attention on the Magic Weapon Summoning Book had been a bit slack recently. After making the Intermediate Magic Weapons more comprehensive, High-Level Magic Soldiers could be done slowly.

He would find some time to improve it in the next few days. Zheng Yichen thought about the structures of some magic weapons and quickly came up with corresponding ones. He left some comments for those people, the gist being that he had seen it, and there would soon be a relatively comprehensive improvement for Intermediate Magic Weapons…

Actually, it didn’t matter much whether he did this or not. The mainstream weapons in the Otherworld were swords, staffs, bows, axes, etc. As for something like the Heavenly Halberd that had never existed before, Zheng Yichen knew very well that not many people would probably use it. But he planned to ask Irene to design some corresponding Magic. Incompatible? No problem. His Assimilation Ability was right there. Just pile them together. Even if they were incompatible, he could forcefully smash them together. As long as they could be used, it was fine.

Later on, as more people used them, there would always be some special individuals who could fully break them in. Then they would become compatible. In the end, he himself would benefit. As for weapons like hammers and bows, Zheng Yichen already had designs. For parts that needed improvement, he would benefit in the end anyway. As for weapons like hammers and bows, Zheng Yichen had designs for them too. For parts needing improvement, he could consult professionals. He had already spoken with Irene not long ago. It had only been a few days. If he went to her now, she would probably be very happy?

In any case, he would relax for a while first.

The stay-at-home Zheng Yichen hadn’t realized the impact the forum function of the Magic Weapon Summoning Book had on the outside world. The Magic Weapon Summoning Book, which had originally been widely noticed but whose popularity had started to decline, was now experiencing a new wave of popularity because of this function. Zheng Yichen couldn’t see all of this, but it didn’t affect its development.

In the past, only combat personnel were interested in the Magic Weapon Summoning Book. Now, not only they were interested, but some merchants also took an interest in this thing. Magic weapons? They wouldn’t use them, but they could use the forum function. The Otherworld had no telephones. Besides Magic, long-distance information exchange basically relied on shouting or human couriers. But now it was different. Using the Magic Weapon Summoning Book for communication was incredibly convenient. The long-term cost was much lower than the consumption of some long-distance Communication Magic.

As for the communication issue? Merchants’ minds weren’t just focused on making money. They had many strategies for dealing with certain situations. Direct communication was definitely not okay, even if encrypted. But besides encryption, they had other methods. Open language wouldn’t work, so they used code words, code words they had developed privately among themselves. Only by grasping the core elements could you understand them. Under such conditions, no matter how capable the Creator of the Magic Weapon Summoning Book was, he couldn’t figure out what these code words meant.

So besides combat personnel, some merchants also tried every way to obtain a Magic Weapon Contract. Their combat abilities weren’t strong, but many were very wealthy. Spending some resources could forcibly accumulate some Mana. It was worth noting that having Mana was beneficial to the body.

Therefore, many merchants had some special power to varying degrees, especially the famous ones. Their combat power wasn’t high, but some had more Mana than some Spellcasters. It didn’t need to be used directly in combat; Mana could activate Magic Artifacts. Compared to arduously practicing Magic themselves, they were more pressed for time. Using Magic? They could just use Magic Artifacts or Magic Scrolls to overwhelm opponents. After all, spending money to hire powerful Spellcasters to make Magic Scrolls resulted in scrolls that were almost as good as if the Spellcasters cast the spells themselves.

At most, they just needed to consume their own Mana to activate them.

“The Magic Weapon Contract. Back when people were casually discarding them, no one paid attention. Now, they’re actually posting commissions for them here.” In the hall of the Mercenary Guild, Oss’s companions, while he went to turn in the quest, ordered some drinks and chatted while looking at the quests posted in the hall.

The development trend of the Magic Weapon Summoning Book was too fast. No one expected that something so inconspicuous back then could rise to this level in such a short time… To the point where they somewhat regretted not putting in more effort to get a Magic Weapon Contract back then.

Although there was a craze for selling Magic Weapon Contracts at that time, most were concentrated in one city, with few spread elsewhere. Even if they had the idea, they didn’t act on it because the distance was too far. So they all felt some regret. Nowadays, not to mention a Magic Weapon Contract being hard to obtain even with a huge sum of money, wanting to get one wasn’t that easy.

If Magic Weapon Contracts were something elusive, many low-level Magic Weapon Summoners would probably become targets for being attacked.

“Don’t mention it. I had a good chance to get a Magic Weapon Contract back then, but I gave it up.” Another of Oss’s companions said gloomily. Seeing the others looking at him like he was an idiot, he gulped down the drink in his cup in dissatisfaction and waved his arms. “Who knew back then that the Magic Weapon Summoning Book would be so amazing? Signing a Magic Weapon Contract required daily consumption of one’s own Mana. It might have been something some evil Spellcaster made to scam people. Of course I had to consider it.”

“And then?” Seeing his depressed look, another companion couldn’t help but ask further.

“And then… And then the Magic Weapon Summoner who was going to sell me the contract was called away by another reckless guy to make a deal.” He knocked on his head. Really, sometimes being simple-minded was a good thing. Thinking too much made you miss some rare things now. That reckless guy definitely got a great deal!

You must know that Magic Weapon Summoner was an original generation Magic Weapon Summoner, not the so-called second, third, or even fourth generation now. Among Magic Weapon Summoners, there was also a rule: except for fifth-generation Magic Weapon Summoners, which had no limit on numbers, other generations had specific quantities.

If these Magic Weapon Summoners died, they would be replaced by those below. Of course, this replacement wasn’t absolutely in order. Besides the factor of order, a Magic Weapon Summoner’s ‘proficiency’ in using the Magic Weapon Summoning Book also had an impact. It wasn’t that if you were a high-ranking second-generation Magic Weapon Summoner and killed a few original generation ones, you could become an original generation Magic Weapon Summoner.

Also, unless for profit, no one would just go around targeting those original and second-generation Magic Weapon Summoners for no reason. After all, the number of Magic Weapon Summoners in these groups was the smallest. The generation didn’t affect a Magic Weapon Summoner’s use of the Magic Weapon Summoning Book, nor did it provide any extra bonuses. The only difference was the time when the Magic Weapon Contract was generated.

Well, for powerful people, it indeed wasn’t a big influence. But for Adventurers like them who wanted to earn money and explore treasures, the closer to the original generation a Magic Weapon Summoner was, the greater the benefits. If a fifth-generation Magic Weapon Contract was worth dozens of gold coins, then a fourth-generation one could be several times that, and a third-generation one was even more valuable!

However, second and third-generation Magic Weapon Contracts were generally fought over by certain factions. Ordinary Professionals could only choose between fourth and fifth generation.

So the more he thought about it, the more frustrated he became. Honestly, how many gold coins did he miss out on back then? If he really had that Contract now, would he still need to be an Adventurer exploring dangerous places? He could just stay at home and count money.

“What are you guys talking about here? You look so glum. Lost money?” After turning in the quest, Oss came back and saw one of his companions lying on the table like a dried fish, so he couldn’t help but ask. This quest was the earlier exploration quest. Although nothing was found in the later stage, the information contained in that stone satisfied the employer quite a bit, and they even paid an extra bonus.

“Lost money? If I lost money, I could bear it. I practically threw money away!” The companion who felt he had become a dried fish said with a grimace. Suddenly, he saw a familiar small book in Dan Marina’s hand.

If he wasn’t mistaken, that thing should be the legendary Magic Weapon Summoning Book!?

“Ahem! Lena, what’s that thing in your hand?” His spirits suddenly lifted. He jumped up and asked quietly.

“Hmm? The Magic Weapon Summoning Book. It cost me dozens of gold coins when I bought it back then.” Dan Marina said with a smile. After the forum function appeared, she didn’t plan to hide this thing anymore. After all, without any accidents, she would likely need to take it out quite frequently in the future.

“Ori… original generation?”

“Seems like it.”