Nick maintained his indifferent expression in response to hearing Tracy Capitol's question and soon replied:
"Are you drunk? Go home or to your dorm or wherever, Tracy."
Nick was a rank 3 Magician, who had goals to work on, and Tracy was nothing to him really. He entertained her in the past because of his still existing sympathies, nothing more. Tracy became saddened by Nick's response but then Jacob Argant stepped forward and spoke boldly:
"Besides what Tracy asked, I personally wanted to ask some advice, sir. I don't come from much and I have hit a certain limit in my cultivation because I lack resources and information. How do I overcome my limits?"
Nick replied:
"You lack information? How is that possible in the age of information? You don't lack information, you lack the discipline and guts to seek it out yourself. As for cultivation resources, look, if you want those, you have to earn them by becoming a worthy person. That means studying your craft and creating or doing things of value. There are no shortcuts that I can give you. If you really want to identify your problems, there are some questions that you should ask yourself. How many books have I read? How many realms have I really explored? How many spells have I studied? How many days have I spent time alone just doing the damn work?"
Nick's words hit Jacob like a truck and he recoiled from the frankness of them. He realized that if he were to ask himself those questions, the answers may not be that great. Nick shook his head and said:
"Stop coming here. I will be leaving the academy campus in a few days so there will be no point in coming here, anyway."
Tracy's ears twitched when she heard that and she asked immediately:
"What will you be doing once you leave the academy? What will happen to this building?"
Nick replied to Tracy coldly:
"None of those are your business to know. Do you understand?"
Tracy opened her mouth as if to reply but then she closed it and remained silent. Nick looked at her and sympathy welled up in him again, so he said a few more words:
"Listen, if either of you really want to become a successful Magician, then learn more, take life more seriously and develop yourselves earnestly. Don't avoid pain, don't avoid failure and sure as shit don't waste your time trying to be friends with people who avoid the latter two displeasures."
Nick said those words and then closed the glass door, going back to what he was going to do before the interruption. Jacob and Tracy stood in their spots, having taken Nick's words to heart and Jacob muttered under his breath before he and Tracy left:
"Thank you, Nick, for everything."
Nick did not hear Jacob and even if he did, he would not care what the latter had said. Nick called Dewy on his smartphone and had him prepare a meal of fried chicken, French fries and red peas soup. When Dewy carried the meal out to the waiting area an hour later, Nick summoned a bag of butter bread and ate the bread along with the rest of the food. Dewy left the waiting area after giving Nick his food.
Nick finished his meal in twenty minutes and went to the second floor to take a short nap. After he had taken his nap, he went back to meditating and did not stop until three days later. At that time, Dewy called him on his smartphone, saying:
"Sir, the new building is ready and has been equipped with the basics. I have hired a security firm to provide twenty-four-hour security services; I have also secured the services of a sanitation company. I think that we will need to get someone on our own team to manage the security issues. I also think that we need someone to do procurement apart from Kurt because dealing with suppliers for what we need is not simple and if you are going to run a mining company, someone who specializes in managing our supplies is probably a necessity."
Nick thought silently for a while before agreeing with Dewy and so instructed him:
"Okay, hire someone to manage security and someone to manage our supplies. The latter should not be allowed, under any circumstances, to do the actual payments for the supplies, though. Make sure that an office is prepared for me. I want you to drive me out to the building two days from now."
Dewy accepted the instructions and hung up the phone. Nick just kept meditating until the day came for him to leave for the new building arrived. Nick stopped his meditation early in the morning, then showered, got dressed in an orange, silk polo shirt, a pair of fitting, dark-blue jeans pants and a pair of laceless dress shoes. Nick didn't have many important personal belongings that he kept outside of his space band so moving would be an easy task for him.
(All the other equipment can stay here in case I have reason to stay within this building in the future.)
Nick went down to the ground floor and Dewy met him in front of the entrance doors. Nick told Dewy:
"I want you to still keep a stock of meat here and have Nate come here every day to feed the magic beast living within the underground parking lot. It will take me some time before I transfer the magic beast to the new building."
Nick wanted to get acquainted with the new building and sort some things out with the Magicians Association before he moved the jade-green wyvern. After all, it was a dangerous magic beast. Having it live within Richter Order Academy's campus, where there were many Magicians that could deal with it if it went on a rampage, was fine in the eyes of the relevant authorities but having it live in close proximity to a commercial center, where there were many more normal people than Magicians, required permissions that Nick did not currently have.
(Considering my ordinary background, I'll have to work my way up to getting such permissions.)
Nick still remembered when he was attending high school and witnessed a Magician riding on a magic beast as the creature flew through the air. It was likely that the riding Magician had received permission beforehand to do so. Of course, Nick could use a space path magic formation to teleport the jade-green wyvern to his new building but...
(Rank 3 space path materials are probably not cheap and I just started my company. I need all the funds that I currently have to continue my cultivation and earn for the company. Moving the jade-green wyvern comes later.)
Dewy led Nick to an all-black town car parked outside and once Nick entered the car and sat on the back seat, located on the left side of the car, Dewy got into the driver's seat, which was also on the left side of the car and drove Nick towards the academy's gates. At the gates, Nick showed the guard his magician license and so he and Dewy were allowed to leave. Nick felt a weight lift off his shoulders when he crossed the gates.
(After so many years, I am no longer chained to the academy campus. I can go anywhere in the world if I wanted to. That will come later, though.)
Nick smiled and pressed the button on the car door that let him bring down the car window on his side and once the window was down, Nick placed his left arm outside the window and enjoyed the breeze that flowed into the car as it hit his face. He watched the streets of London as the car drove to his new building and he was filled with an intense feeling of excitement.
(This is the start of my new life. I'll do everything possible to take care of and develop myself and what is mine.)
After declaring that to himself, Nick just kept his eyes on the roads and relaxed until the car finally drove up to his new building forty minutes later. As the car drove towards the sliding black metal gate, Nick eyed the building and noticed the changes that Real Moguls had made:
(They repainted the building red and silver for some reason. I guess that's fine. Hmmm...the building also has a large section that was not on the original pictures that I saw. That must be the area for magic material storage.)
When Nick's car finally reached the gates, a dark skinned man in an all blue security uniform, which featured a crest sewn onto its left breast area that read, 'Range Eye Security', opened the gates and let the car drive onto the property. When the car drove fifteen meters further towards the entrance of the large building that was the size of a large commercial warehouse, and stopped, two security guards were seen at the front entrance while a man in a blue, three-piece suit, which included a black dressed shirt, stood between the two guards, smiling at the car.
Dewy introduced the man wearing the blue suit before Nick got out of the car:
"That is James Dwyer and he is our new head of security."
James Dwyer was a dark skinned man of average height and seemed to be in his mid-thirties; he had short, well-trimmed, black hair, sharp eyebrows and dark eyes. Although the man was smiling in a friendly manner, Nick felt that there was something creepy about his smile.
(That's just my intuition, though. I better go greet the man before carrying on with the rest of my day.)
Nick exited the car and walked up to his head of security, saying:
"Hello. James Dwyer, right? My name is Nick Capitol, the owner of this property and I hope that we will have a mutually beneficial relationship from now on."
James looked Nick in the eye and his smile did not abate. He held out his right hand for a hand shake while saying:
"Please to meet you, boss. We'll do great things together."
Nick looked at James' right hand before correcting the man:
"I appreciate your words James but I am not the touchy-feely type so I won't be shaking your hand. I hope that you can understand that."
James' smile remained on his face while he withdrew is hand and moved on effortlessly, saying:
"I will give you a tour of the building. I had the time to look it over during the past day, so I know that everything is in tip-top shape."
James then led Nick and Dewy through the building's sliding automatic, glass entrance door and gave them both a tour of the entire building, which took about two hours because Nick had the three of them walk everywhere instead of using the elevator. This annoyed James and Dewy became winded after an hour of walking but they persevered under the direction of their boss.
The building's interior was large, having six above-ground-floors and it featured offices, bathrooms, a kitchen and dining hall, two conference rooms, spacious production areas that covered two entire floors, material storage areas and a large enough reception area. James soon brought Nick and Dewy down to the first basement floor, where he explained:
"This building has three underground basement floors of about the same size. There aren't security cameras on any of the underground floors yet, though."
Nick then said:
"I will use the lowest underground floor as my personal workspace and it won't require security cameras. The other two underground floors can be used to store vehicles and equipment. Dewy, if alterations need to be made to the building to accommodate that, just work with Kurt and Sai to arrange the construction using Real Moguls' services."
Dewy nodded and took a notepad and a pen out of his vest pocket, writing Nick's words on paper. After the three reached down to the third basement floor Nick summoned a large metal work table and an adjustable office chair from his space band at the center of the floor, following which, he sat down onto the office chair. After a few seconds of James and Dewy awkwardly watching Nick's actions, Nick finally instructed:
"Let us conclude the tour here, I have much work to do in building this company. Dewy, get the person that is responsible for managing our supplies down here. James, make sure that after today, entry to this floor is restricted by ID access. You both can go now."
Dewy and James left the third basement floor after Nick gave his instructions using one of the two elevators that were connected to all the floors. Nick summoned his laptop from his space band onto the work table and started making notes about his plans. Ten minutes later, a woman arrived onto the third basement floor using one of the elevators and walked up to Nick.
This woman seemed to be about thirty years old, had average height, a white complexion, a head full of short, blonde hair that reached down to her shoulders, styled eyebrows and green eyes; she wore an all-black pants suit and carried a closed laptop in her right hand. Nick summoned an office chair to his right side and pointed at it when the woman was within two meters of him, indicating for her to sit down.
The woman acquiesced to Nick's subtle instruction before Nick went on to introduce himself:
"My name is Nick Capitol, the owner of The Realm Exploration Company. You are?"
The woman's expression remained plain as she put her laptop on the work table and introduced herself:
"My name is Riley Walters and I am your head of supply management. It is nice to meet you, Mr. Capitol."
Nick nodded his head towards Riley and got straight to the point afterwards:
"Okay Riley, I need you to do a few things for me. First, I need you to get me 500,000 rank 2 magic beast souls at the best quality you can. I already have a relationship with the Spirit Nectar Company, so you can start there. Second, I need you to purchase equipment for the refinement of magical metal ores; I want the entire first floor to be equipped and ready to do refining work within a month's time. Third, I'll need you to work with Sai Lee, our lawyer, to set up an arrangement with a decent company that can rent us a space path magic formation that leads to Sidon within the Forgotten Peril realm."
Nick needed more magic beast souls in order to fuel Silent Ark. Despite his relatively short period of exploration a few years ago using the magic formation, its fuel reserves were nearly empty. Nick suspected that the situation had something to do with him ramming Silent Ark into two rank 3 magic beasts. He was also interested in going back to Forgotten Peril so that he could mine the gold and other natural resources there.
He refused to return to the realm that had persistently dark skies, while he was still too weak to deal with its magic beasts and although he could probably generate the blood of the ancestor of the dust fade dragon using the bones that he had received from Desmond Eltshire, he would probably end up in another highly dangerous realm if he used that blood to obtain spatial coordinates. He could generate the blood of the dust fade dragon itself and use it to enter the realm where that specie of magic beast resides but Nick did not want to openly compete with the royal family and the Nefaris for resources.
(As for why I don't just generate the blood of a creature that originates from Forgotten Peril and use it to obtain spatial coordinates that I could use when activating the Space Transit Formation. If I did that, I would end up in a seemingly random place within Forgotten Peril and that could result in disaster. Forgotten Peril was not free of powerful magic beasts and harsh environments and so I do not want luck to be the thing that determines where I would end up.)
Riley opened her laptop and made notes as well as looked up a few companies that could supply the space path magic formation. After ten minutes of quiet research, Riley reported to Nick:
"I can get us a space path magic formation that leads to Sidon, but it won't be cheap. We will have to fork over £10,000 a day as rent and that the price is only that low because Forgotten Peril is widely accessible by many organizations all over the world.)
Nick waved his right hand, saying:
"That's fine, I will only need the space path magic formation for about one month, two at most. I'll tell Sai to expect a visit from you. I need the formation laid onto this floor within three days."
After receiving the instructions, Riley left the third basement floor via the elevator and Nick used his laptop to deposit £400,000,000,000 into the company's corporate account. He doubted that buying the magic ore refining equipment would be cheap and the souls that he asked Riley to procure would require over £200,000,000,000 to obtain.
(If I don't work this right, I am going to be a very poor man when the dust settles.)
Nick then called Sai to inform him of the instructions that he had given to Riley.
After that, Nick left his laptop on the table and summoned his tablet computer from his space band, following which, he began to work on a new mining magic formation that would include earth path, rule path and soul path laws. He mused:
(This magic formation will need to be movable, relatively quiet and have the ability to detect resources below the ground. I'm including soul path because if I use my own soul as the receiver for the detection, then the magic formation ought to be highly sensitive if he laws are formulated properly.)
Within a few hours of working, Nick received sudden inspiration for the rule path principles of 'Detect', which he then used in his magic formation design without hesitation.
(The Limitless Path talent is very useful although it only provides information that I would eventually figure out myself but it gives a kind of a shortcut to coming to certain conclusions about the direction that I need to go in when it comes to creating rule path laws, so its influence is very significant on my cultivation.)
Nick spent the next three days designing the mining and detection magic formation, which he ended up naming, Mining and Detection Formation. The formation was indeed fully equipped with formation path, earth path, soul path and rule path laws and consisted of over 500,000 symbols drawn in Valteese, Nickel or D-Soul. It was a fairly complex rank 2, basic grade, magic formation.
(I designed it to be rank 2 because creating a rank 3 magic formation with the same functions would bankrupt me due to the magic material requirements. A rank 2 magic formation will suffice for now.)
After finishing the design, Nick went to his office on the fifth floor and had a shower in his personal bathroom. Nick's office had clear glass windows that gave him a view of the nearby commercial center, a clean, grey carpet and floor and a stylish, modern desk but did not have much else. The bathroom within the office was designed using a very modern style as well.
After taking a shower, Nick got dressed in a sky-blue, silk polo shirt, a pair of fitting, a pair of dark-blue jeans pants and a pair of laceless, black dress shoes. Nick then called Riley using a number that he got from Dewy and told her to purchase the magic materials that he would require to lay his Mining and Detection Formation.
He also asked her to procure an advanced, apprentice grade space band for him to store magic materials. His current space band was only intermediate grade and was already filled with items; he needed one more to handle future loads. Nick could always order the magic materials and the space band himself using the Magicians Association online platform but he thought:
(What would be the point of creating this company if I wasted time doing everything myself? Besides, buying magic materials and devices as a company can save costs, especially if Riley does her job and negotiates for discounts on purchases.)
Riley then informed Nick that a representative of the Space Travel Company had arrived to lay the space path magic formation that was connected to Forgotten Peril. Nick went to the ground floor reception area, which was spacious but just had two black leather couches for now, and met a male Magician wearing a white and pink magician's robe; Riley was already speaking with the magician by the time Nick had arrived and James also arrived onto the ground floor one minute after Nick to act as the escort for the guest.
Nick could sense that the robed Magician was rank 3 like himself but he could not tell what stage the other man was at. The robed Magician had a head full of short, but flowing black hair, a white complexion, dark eyes, was of average height and wore a persistently serious expression on his face.
Nick greeted the Magician plainly:
"Hello, my name is Nick Capitol, CEO of The Realm Exploration Company. Please follow me."
Nick did not even ask the man for his name because Riley should have already gotten that information and so he got straight to business. Nick led the other three to the third basement floor using the elevator. Nick had gotten a company ID from James, so he could now access his workspace by scanning the ID within the elevator using a special, electronic and magical proximity reader attached to the control pad, where the buttons that controlled the elevator's movements were situated.
When the four of them got to Nick's workspace, the robed Magician spent two hours using his space magic to lay the space path magic formation near the center of the floor and even provided the rank 2 magic materials that the magic formation would need to operate.
The magic formation was circular in shape and consisted of over one hundred thousand Valteesian symbols drawn with a silver pigment. After laying the magic formation, the robed Magician spoke to Nick:
"Be aware, if any crimes are committed using this magic formation, my employer will be forced to cooperate with the authorities."
After giving that peculiar warning, the robed Magician asked to leave and so Nick had James escort the Magician out of the building. Nick then dismissed Riley as well after telling her that he needed the items that he had asked her to procure as soon as possible. After Riley left, Kurt called him and asked if he could come down to the third basement floor to meet Nick.
After gaining security access from James, Kurt arrived onto Nick's workspace using the elevator. Kurt handed Nick a short pile of documents to sign related to purchases. Kurt left with the documents after Nick read through and signed them all. Feeling a little tired, Nick reclined in his office chair and looked up at the concrete ceiling for a few minutes and then asked himself:
"Am I crazy? Why do I even think that this will work?"
As soon as Nick asked those questions, memories of his upbringing and his struggles while he attended Richter Order Academy ran through his mind. Within a few minutes, Nick stopped looking at the ceiling and his expression seemed more serious than ever. He then muttered:
"This will work. I'll make it work or die trying."
Nick meditated until the next day; at that point, Riley came to his workspace with a clear, magical orb that housed the 500,000 souls that he wanted, his new, advanced, apprentice grade space band and a disposable space band filled with rank 2 space path, formation path, earth path and soul path magic materials.
All in all, these purchase had consumed over £300,000,000,000 pounds. Riley soon left Nick alone and Nick then wore his new advanced space band that was colored red and black and looked similar to a smartwatch, on his right wrist, above his older space band.
After that Nick unloaded the magic materials from the disposable space band and checked each of them before storing them into his older space band. Nick also stored the orb of souls into his older space band. Nick then spent the next two days going over his map of Forgotten Peril before deciding that it was time for him to return there.
Before Nick left, he called everyone to one of the conference rooms on the fourth floor, so that he could address them. There were ten people present within the conference room, including Nick himself, sitting around the large, oval, wooden table at the center of the room. Nick sat in his office chair and spoke:
"I will be going to the realm, Forgotten Peril, for about a month. During that time, you all just need to do your jobs. I will still be reachable by phone while I am there, so there should no problem keeping communications open. When I get back, there will probably be a lot of work for you all to do, so prepare for that. You are all dismissed."
Everyone got up and left but they all had similar thoughts:
(How is he going to perform mining operations in another realm without a crew?)
(Is this gut insane? He thinks just because he somehow has a lot of money to burn that he can run a mining company. I better start sending out resumes so that I can find another Job when this place goes up in flames.)
(Hmph! Even if you are a Magician, if you can successfully do business while barely knowing anything about what you are doing, this daddy here will eat shit for breakfast.)
...
Nick was well aware of what his staff were probably thinking but he was used to other peoples doubts about him. He did not mind it. Dewy, however, before he left, gave Nick a 'thumbs up' using his right hand and Nick lightly smiled in response. Nick summoned his laptop from his space band and deposited £100,000,000,000 into the company's corporate account, leaving his personal account with about 2 vatas left. When the conference room only had himself, Nick also left and returned to the third basement floor.
(I had more than five times the amount of money currently in my personal bank account only a few months ago and now it's mostly gone. My trip has to be successful.)
Nick immediately used the rented space path magic formation to travel to Forgotten Peril. The space path magic formation glowed with an intense silver light that enveloped Nick's vision and when the silver light abated about four minutes later, Nick appeared standing on a large magic formation out in the open. The magic formation was painted with some kind of brick-red pigment and was surrounded by four tall, brick buildings.
Nick recognized this area as where he had been when he needed to return to Grand Earth from Forgotten Peril previously. There was not much people around at this time and the time of day seemed close to sunset. Nick Cast Tyrant Armor and covered his entire body with its magic power, coating himself from head to toe in a black hue that made his body seem metallic and smooth.
Sparks of black and red lights emanated from Nick's body until only black sparks remained and then he rapidly ran off towards Sidon's gates. Nick appeared like a fast moving blur as he ran. Some of the people on the streets were bothered by the tail wind that Nick generated as he ran but sensing Nick's rank 3 magic power, most of those people chose to mind their own business and not invite trouble onto themselves.
Nick soon ran beyond Sidon's large double metal gates, only less than one minute having passed since Nick had arrived within Sidon.
(I would have just flown out using my spell, Saturn, but no flying is allowed over the settlement.)
Nick ran five hundred meters away from Sidon's walls before he stopped and cancelled Tyrant Armor. Nick then summoned Silent Ark from his space band and then Cast Tyrant Sense and Neptune in order to disappear from his position on the ground and then reappear within Silent Ark's cabin amidst a blue flash of magic power, sitting on the black, leather chair situated at the center of the cabin.
Nick then summoned the clear orb that stored magic beast souls, from his space band and following the appearance of a grapefruit-sized, black void at the right side of his chair, Nick released the souls from the clear orb and loaded Silent Ark with the rank 2 magic beast souls, one by one. After half a day of doing that, Silent Ark's fuel reserves were almost full and so Nick activated Silent Ark's full capabilities.
Five holographic screens that had the formless aura of space path emanating from them appeared in front of Nick and the exterior of the magic formation was wrapped in a layer of silver magic power. After that, Nick activated Silent Ark's scouting method, which resulted in pulses of soul and space path magic power shooting out from Silent Ark in all directions.
Following that, Nick had Silent Ark rise fifty meters into the air and speed off towards the destination that he had in mind.
(One month on Grand Earth is about two and a half years within Forgotten Peril so during that time, I cannot give an inch when it comes to my cultivation either.)
Nick's eyes shone with resolve and so he rode Silent Ark at over one hundred and fifty kilometers per hour towards his destination, making sure to simultaneously use Silent Ark's scouting method to really get a feel for scouting for long periods of time. Usually, Nick used scouting methods rarely and only recently started doing so more frequently because after using Silent Ark's scouting methods to find magic materials that made him wealthy, he knew the value of being able to effectively search your surroundings.
Not only was Nick operating Silent Ark, he was also training his Cursed Vessel and Spatial Awareness talents, both of which had become more effective since he became rank 3. Spatial Awareness, for example, was no longer triggered so randomly and Nick could now decide when its effects could feed him with images and when they could not. As for Cursed Vessel, Nick could sense that his dreadful aura had become higher in magic power quality.
He remembered Clark Lance's reaction to his dreadful aura during the test of strength and he felt like the talent would become more useful going forward. Nick mobilized and dispelled the dreadful aura repeatedly while he steered Silent Ark. Also, images of the surroundings beyond Silent Ark frequently appeared within his mind as a result of Spatial Awareness; the places and things that the images represented could be very close or very far but Nick noticed a limit of about two kilometers using Spatial Awareness.
(That is a far better range than Tyrant Sense but the latter method is far more dependable and stable. During my battle with Clark Lance, Spatial Awareness was actually triggered very rarely. That could either be due to the fact that Clark was a Time Magician, he could have had a method that blocked Spatial Awareness' effect or Clark's overall power level just rendered the talent ineffective against him. I'll only know for sure as I gain greater experiences.)
Nick arrived over his destination five days later. He had not gotten a wink of sleep throughout the entire ride but he still felt as rested as he did when he arrived in Forgotten Peril.
(The Soul Cradle talent is really just too good when it comes to keeping my mind in great shape during a long period of mental exertion. I was even able to use Silent Ark's scouting method without rest while training my talents. Spending so much money to buy souls so that I could earn the talent was worth it.)
Nick observed Silent Ark's holographic screens and manipulated its scouting method in order to gain a good understanding of the environment below. This area was infamously named, Beast Land, and it was a large valley filled with many varieties of tall trees and plant life. It presumably received its name because it had a high concentration of rank 2 magic beasts living here. It was generally considered a no man's land as a result and rank 2 Magicians and mining companies avoided coming here but Nick was different.
(With Silent Ark, withstanding an onslaught of rank 2 magic beasts is no problem. Even the rank 2 flying magic beasts that I met along the way avoided Silent Ark as soon as they sensed it. Not to mention that I am now rank 3. For most companies, having a rank 3 Magician come here to scavenge for resources would be a waste of time since a rank 3 Magician could potentially do more profitable work elsewhere. But for me, I can use my masteries and methods to find resources at a scale that other companies would never exert the effort in trying to obtain.)
With that thought, Nick cast Saturn and left Silent Ark's Cabin through its door, closing the door behind him; Silent Ark remained stationary in midair without any issues. Nick breathed in deeply and then out before a cloud of black miasma radiated from his body while he cast one of his spells:
(Tyrant Domain.)
The space that covered a radius of two kilometers around Nick and that included the space fifty meters above ground immediately developed a slight grey hue as Nick's space path power saturated the surroundings. A large chunk of Nick's 200,000 capacity magic energy reserves vanished as a result of casting Tyrant Domain but Nick did not mind; the black miasma like magic energy exhaust emanating from Nick's body abated a few seconds after the spell's effect resolved.
AAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOO!
RRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWRRRRR!
KKKKKKKKKKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKK!
...
Hundreds of cries from different kinds of magic beasts resounded in the area because they sensed Nick's rank 3 magic power. Rank 2 could not compare to rank 3 and even beasts naturally knew that and so the rank 2 magic beasts below panicked when they realized that a powerful presence had appeared out of nowhere. Nick quickly grew annoyed with all the noise and acted to silence the magic beasts by waving his right index finger.
Following that, every single magic beast within the area of effect of Tyrant Domain suddenly became weightless and floated up into the air, moving past the trees and rising to the limit of the spell's area of effect, which was about the same altitude as where Nick was situated. The magic beasts tried to resist by thrashing about but how could those actions amount to anything in front of a rank 3 Magician. Over three thousand magic beasts were affected by Nick's spell at once and they were all caught like fishes in a steel net.
(These magic beasts are simply meat on the chopping block. This rising effect is not caused by Tyrant Domain but instead, it is caused by Saturn. Saturn's usual area of effect is about sixty meters around me but I realized after I became rank 3 that for some reason, my space path spells' effects harmonize with each other in a way that allows their effects to fuse if their laws are compatible enough. I assume that phenomenon is a result of my being a deep seeker dragon warlock or a master of space path but I don't really know for sure. Anyway, since both Saturn and Tyrant Domain are active, I can mobilize Saturn's effect throughout Tyrant Domain's area of effect despite Saturn's usual limitations and the magic energy expenditure doesn't even increase one bit when I use the spells in this manner.)
Moments later, grapefruit-sized spheres of dull-red magic power appeared in contact with every magic beast affected by Nick's power. The magic beasts had many different forms; some looked like large cats, some looked like bears, some looked like wolves or dogs and some even looked like cattle but they all had strange features that made them distinct from their animal likenesses like very large bodies, additional eyes or limbs, odd colored flesh and fur or unusual growths on their bodies.
Nick proceeded to pinch his right index finger and thumb together, following which, the magic beasts were tragically sucked into the dull-red spheres that touched their bodies and silence reigned - no more beastly cries could be heard. After that, Nick waved his right hand and the thousands of spheres of dull-red light simply dissipated with no trace of the magic beasts being visible except for some faint dust. Nick immediately muttered:
"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Good riddance."
Nick then cast Tyrant Armor and covered his right hand in a layer of black magic power. Nick's right hand sparked with flashes of black and red lights until only black sparks remained, following which, Nick drew his right index finger towards himself. Following his actions, thousands of white glowing orbs, the size of tennis balls, manifested and flew towards him.
Nick then used Saturn's power to open Silent Ark's door and the white orbs were forced inside the magic formation's cabin, following which, the grapefruit-sized black void appeared at the right side of the chair at the center of the cabin and sucked the white orbs into it. Nick knew clearly what those white orbs were:
(Tyrant Armor is a powerful soul path method. I can use its soul path powers to also capture souls; being a soul path scholar, that much is easy for me to do but the souls' hosts had to have been dealt with first. That wasn't a problem here because the effects of Saturn turned the magic beasts' bodies into dust but left their souls alone. The reason for the latter phenomenon should be obvious - souls are not affected by gravity or the push and pull forces of space path so easily.)
After the souls were sucked into Silent Ark's fuel reserves, Nick closed its door and then used the power of Tyrant Domain and Saturn to turn the trees below within the former's area of effect into dust in the same way that he had turned the magic beasts into dust - grapefruit-sized, dull-red spheres of magic power suddenly appeared in contact with every tree and sucked the trees into themselves.
Within moments, two kilometers in every direction of Nick was cleared, only grassy land remaining. Nick then manipulated push and pull forces to rip the grass and other vegetation out of the ground and condense them into a large bundle that covered half the cleared area. After that, he gathered them high above the ground and sent every sphere of dull-red magic power towards the bundle, following which, the hundreds of red spheres crashed into the bundle of vegetation and swallowed up the raised vegetation within less than ten seconds.
Nick then waved his right hand and the red spheres were dispelled. Nick looked at the completely cleared space and the now barren ground. Nick lowered himself onto the ground and stooped down to palm a section of the ground at his feet, casting:
(Big Copy.)
A large representation of Nick's Mining and Detection Formation appeared, drawn using a red pigment and covering the large area that Nick had cleared; the magic formation was almost circular in shape. After laying the base of the magic formation onto the ground, Nick summoned hundreds of pieces of formation, rule, soul and earth path materials from his space band and used his push and pull forces to place them appropriately until all the materials were subsumed by the magic formation's base.
Following that, the Mining and Detection Formation was now ready to be activated. Nick spoke the magic formation's trigger phrase in Valteese:
"Begin."
The magic formation immediately adopted a dull-brown glow and developed a low buzzing noise. Nick continued to stand on the ground since he had to be in close proximity to the magic formation in order to fuel it using a portion of his own magic energy as well as to make use of its detection capabilities, which Nick was doing right now.
The Mining and Detection Formation was currently emitting subtle pulses of soul path magic power into the ground in order to search for materials that weren't just ordinary dirt and stone. This detection method was far reaching, going down to about fifty kilometers below the ground before reaching a limit. All the resulting information was sent to Nick's soul as soul messages and then forwarded to his mind. After thirty minutes of using the magic formation's detection method, Nick sighed and his indifferent expression became bitter as he muttered:
"There are no valuable resources below this cleared area."