Chapter 72: Chapter 72: The Wizard Guild Plan
With rationality prevailing, Jolord calmed down. "Richard, what is the principle behind your... machine?"
As a wizard, especially an alchemy wizard, the machine before him was as alluring as a captivating beauty, making Jolord's curiosity insatiable.
"Uh, Teacher, isn't this a bit against the rules?" Richard murmured.
Jolord blushed, realizing his breach of etiquette.
Knowledge requires equivalent exchange—an unchanging rule in the wizarding world. However, Jolord, upon reflecting on his collection, found nothing comparable to the machine before him.
"This..."
Jolord was so anxious that sweat began to form on his forehead. If he didn't uncover the machine's secret, he felt he'd never sleep peacefully again.
"Teacher, I have a proposal. Would you like to hear it?"
"Go ahead," Jolord immediately focused on Richard, his gaze intense enough to pierce through him.
"Here's the deal, Teacher. I plan to use this technology to start a wizard guild. I'll contribute the technology, and you'll invest capital. We'll split the profits seventy-thirty. How does that sound?" Richard suggested tentatively.
In truth, once Richard confirmed the potions could be mass-produced, he had this plan in mind. Only selling potions within the academy seemed like an underutilization of his technology.
"Agreed!" Jolord accepted without hesitation. He vanished from the room briefly and returned with a black scroll in hand.
"This is a Soul Contract from the Tower of Truth. Even Grand Wizards must abide by its terms," Jolord explained as he wrote clauses concerning profit-sharing, confidentiality, and breach penalties on the contract with practiced ease.
"Review the contract, and if everything is satisfactory, sign it."
Richard took the contract and read through it thoroughly. It wasn't that he distrusted Jolord, but he wanted to learn how to draft a formal contract—a form of knowledge in itself.
Satisfied with its terms, Richard signed the contract.
As the contract turned to ash, an invisible force settled over both Richard and Jolord, binding them not just as teacher and student, but also in a firm business partnership.
"Now, can you explain the principle to me?" Jolord asked eagerly.
"No problem."
Richard approached the machine and quickly removed its outer casing, revealing the mechanical innards.
"This is the output port, this is the alchemical cauldron, and this is the magic stabilizer..." Richard explained each component to Jolord. "The reason this machine can consistently produce potions isn't anything magical. I discovered that if the magic levels during potion-making reach a certain standard, the potion can be produced reliably."
"Is it really that simple?"
Jolord looked at Richard incredulously, unable to believe that something bordering on miraculous had such a straightforward principle.
It seemed he could achieve this with a bit more effort once the potion formula was confirmed.
Richard handed Jolord his precise potion formula, which left Jolord feeling dizzy after reviewing it.
"Hahaha... so that's how it is."
Jolord burst into laughter, tears nearly falling from his eyes.
"The principle is so simple! Those old guys spent ages pondering it, concluding that using soul slaves for potion-making was the answer, hahaha..."
Richard sensed something off in Jolord's words.
"What do you mean by that, Teacher?"
Jolord composed himself and explained to Richard:
"Richard, I suspect your creation isn't the first of its kind. At least a few thousand years ago, the potion guild of the Tower of Truth discovered this secret. But they've guarded it too well. Unless you're a genius who discovers it independently, no one knows how they achieve it.
Before this, my friends and I in the alchemy school tried to uncover this secret. After centuries of research, we concluded that the potion guild had a group of clever potion slaves."
Jolord couldn't help but chuckle again.
"Not the first..." Richard mused, as a startling idea emerged in his mind.
"Teacher, I have a question for you."
"Go ahead."
Richard organized his thoughts. "Teacher, is your research extremely advanced? I mean, is it something complex that many wizards struggle to solve?"
Jolord paused. "Certainly not. Many wizards study the same things I do."
"Then..." Richard hesitated, "Is it possible that what you're researching has already been discovered by a wizard you're not aware of?"
"...It's possible. In fact, I'd say it's certain that some wizard has figured it out."
Jolord observed Richard, curious about what groundbreaking idea his student had come up with.
"Then that explains it."
Richard felt as though a puzzle had been solved, invigorating him.
"What are you thinking?" Jolord asked, intrigued.
"Nothing much," Richard replied, shaking his head as he left the room with Jolord.
Just moments ago, Richard confirmed a suspicion.
Most wizards in the wizarding world are repeatedly reinventing the wheel.
By "reinventing the wheel," Richard meant that wizards were conducting the same research over and over. In his previous life, this phenomenon occasionally occurred due to technological competition between nations. However, in the wizarding world, the obsessive protection of knowledge severely limited technological exchange.
If a wizard wanted to study a specific subject, they often had to begin from the very basics.
Yes, begin exploration—not just study.
Wizards have extraordinarily long lifespans. A one-ring wizard can live up to a thousand years, and a three-ring wizard up to ten thousand. Once they become Grand Wizards, their lifespan is measured in epochs, or tens of thousands of years.
With such longevity, the theoretical development in the wizarding world should far exceed its current state.
Yet, the wizarding world remained as it was.
Richard had always found this puzzling, but today he found the answer.
If wizards had to start from scratch to explore any field of knowledge, it was conceivable that the wizarding world ended up in its current state.
Because a field of study isn't something one person can complete; it often requires many people contributing different perspectives.
Moreover, an individual's perspective becomes more rigid with age.
Like Jolord, an alchemy wizard who lived for thousands of years, struggling to grasp the knowledge for mass-producing potions.
Without the exchange of knowledge, many technologies remain confined to a single wizard or academy.
And this problem is nearly unsolvable. In a world where knowledge equates to power, everyone wants others to share knowledge while they reap the benefits.
"However, this is also a good thing," Richard murmured to himself. "My ideas aren't so revolutionary. In a world as vast as this, there will always be clever minds."
"In the future, some things can be pursued more boldly."
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