Chapter 643: Millian's Ambition and the Formation of a Faction
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 643: Millian's Ambition and the Formation of a Faction
In the span of a single dinner, it felt as though something monumental had suddenly shifted in Ninglan New City.
While the average student might not have noticed any ripples, certain individuals sprang into action immediately. Those who had originally chosen to wait and see could no longer sit still.
They had just learned that the other party was going to be gone for at least a week!
What would happen to the resource points in the transcendent material mining zones currently shrouded by the Dream Overlap phenomenon? Were they supposed to risk the lives of ordinary people by sending them to mine amidst the threat of dream creatures?
Even if they were to hire a student who had mastered Dream Magic, how much would that cost?
Dream Magic wasn't something just anyone could cast on the fly. Without a background in spell research or runic knowledge, even a teaching assistant would need time to prepare, let alone the lower-year students who didn't even know what Runology was.
Consequently, most students who mastered Dream Magic were upper-year senior sisters. The hiring fees for such "high-end talent" were astronomical. Those witches had plenty of ways to make money; forcing them to use life-saving Dream Magic just to shoo away dream creatures for ordinary workers was considered beneath their dignity.
A week’s delay, followed by however long it took to haggle over contracts with Millian—and then the uncertainty of when Teaching Assistant Xiao Han would actually step in to help—meant the losses would far exceed a mere week of downtime.
They were mining rare transcendent materials, not common ores where quantity was the only metric. Since alchemy items had become widespread and mining and detection technologies had been perfected, their efficiency had skyrocketed. A single day of stagnation was agonizing.
The only consolation was that some resource points had already been shut down due to the Dream Overlap. Those owners had long since resigned themselves to the reality of waiting another week or two.
At worst, they could look for new resource points further away, but ordinary people couldn't travel that far. Without the massive, cheap labor force that ordinary people provided, mining efficiency would plummet while costs soared.
Now, the value of the Second Large Shelter became apparent.
The shelter provided housing for many, serving as a resting place and a transit station. They could use it as a base to explore outward. Furthermore, the site itself was a mixed mine; though the ores were unsorted, they were still highly valuable.
But then, something even more frustrating occurred.
The Second Large Shelter currently belonged to Teaching Assistant Xiao Han and the Jack-of-all-trades Club! A collaborative project that everyone had previously looked down upon had suddenly become a hot commodity. Because they had missed the initial opportunity, they were now in an incredibly passive position...
Furthermore, the person currently in charge of organizing the construction of the Second Shelter and acting as the primary communicator was that very same Millian...
In an instant, Millian’s name became famous!
This was exactly the situation Millian had hoped for; it was the source of her confidence!
That dinner had provided her with the final piece of the perfect puzzle: the business card that allowed her to summon Teaching Assistant Xiao Han at any time.
This was a development far beyond her expectations, saving her an immense amount of plotting. She finally understood the meaning of the phrase: with enough power, even a brick can fly.
At this moment, Millian felt as though happiness had arrived too suddenly. She held the advantage of time and place!
Moreover, she was a member of the Xiao Han Fan Club... so she even had the advantage of people on her side. She could even look toward the Expansion Realm... no, she could help Sister Xiao Han look toward the entire Expansion Realm!
Millian did not sleep well that night. It wasn't that she had ignored Sister Xiao Han’s advice to rest and adjust her state, but rather that too many people were trying to contact her.
It wasn't that she didn't want to just turn off her phone and give everyone the cold shoulder, but it wasn't necessary. At a juncture like this, it was vital to remain calm. There was no need to sour relations with those people too much; after all, she would be extracting benefits from them later.
However, she still had to refuse those she needed to refuse. Her reason was consistent: Teaching Assistant Xiao Han’s schedule for tomorrow was already set and could not be changed on short notice.
With a powerful backer, one speaks with true confidence.
* * *
That night, I slept quite comfortably.
Early the next morning, after finishing my meditation, I took Millian with me to begin clearing the Dream Overlap regions.
Although I had only signed four contracts plus the one for Millian’s Jack-of-all-trades Club, that didn't mean there were only five plots of land. These were the combined resource points owned by each club. Altogether, there were many areas, even if they only belonged to five parties.
As I smoothed out the dreams, a question arose in my mind regarding the ownership of these resource points.
I had asked Millian about it. The Expansion Realm didn't technically "belong" to anyone; that was the nature of the Witch Academy's contracts. Theoretically, once the dreams were dispersed from an area, other clubs could come in to mine it.
However, after looking into it, I realized they had their own established conventions. They respected the Academy's regulations, but as the dominant forces in this new version of the world, they also had the ability and strength to set their own rules.
They dared to do this under the major premise that the Witch Academy wouldn't care.
And because of that, I was the unstable factor. They couldn't control me, and they couldn't win me over...
"Sister Xiao Han, have you ever thought about building your own core team?"
"Why do you ask?" When I heard Millian suddenly ask this, my first instinct was to refuse. I didn't like managing a lot of people; perhaps the poor impression left by Tan Han’s fan club had soured the idea for me.
"I’ve noticed that you don't really like dealing with the people in the Academy, Sister Xiao Han. But as long as you stay in the Witch Academy, this is a reality you have to face. I know you feel that strength can crush anything, but there are many matters that shouldn't require you to personally draw your blade and waste time on those people."
"So, what are you trying to do?" I asked, though I already knew the answer.
"I think you need a core team of your own, Sister Xiao Han, to help you handle problems that pure power cannot solve. Besides, you're intentionally nurturing the people in the shelters and teaching them transcendent powers. Don't you also want to..."
"That’s different," I interrupted her. "I give them transcendent power so they can master basic strength for themselves, so they can rebuild civilization as quickly as possible. Of course, there's a new reason now: to watch out for those guys from the Witch Academy."
"I see..." Seeing that she couldn't convince me, Millian didn't push the topic further. Regardless, she didn't believe anyone came to the Expansion Realm with the sincere intention of helping people rebuild civilization.
Maybe some hot-blooded greenhorns did, but... she didn't believe anyone with the strength to stir the heavens in the Expansion Realm would do so without seeking benefits.
"Then... regarding the matter of building a team, or even just doing it in the name of a club..."
"You are persistent." I turned to look at Millian. For her to say such things meant she wanted to establish a separate faction.
However, there were two things constraining her: she was a member of the Jack-of-all-trades Club, and she was a scion of a certain faction within the Baker Family. Her family hadn't met with any accidents; her social ties were the standard for a family of her status.
"Do as you see fit. I won't provide any extra help. Currently, there are only two things you can use: my name, and the shares you've secured for me. If you end up turning everything into a joke, I will personally step in to end the farce."
"Then... that business card..."
"I’ve given that card to many people. Its validity lasts until I become disappointed with the relationship. That includes yours. I will treat everyone equally," I said.
My words carried many meanings. She had many chances to make mistakes, as long as she wasn't so foolish as to disappoint me. She could keep going like this.
There was also a subtext: she could seek out others who held these cards. If she could recruit them, that would be a testament to her ability.
Hearing my words, I wasn't sure if Millian fully understood the implications, but her mood visibly brightened.
"We've finished clearing this area. I have three locations left. Shall we head there directly?" Millian asked somewhat urgently, holding her flying broom.
She didn't possess spatial teleportation spells, so she had to rely on a flying broom. In fact, most people chose flying brooms, even those with teleportation spells, because they didn't dare teleport recklessly to places they hadn't visited or marked.
I was different. I had the root network of two Omni-Link Main Network Trees spreading out. One of them had hitched a ride on the "expressway" of the Ley Lines, allowing its roots to spread very far every day. I could use these roots for coordinate positioning and then use spatial teleportation.
"No rush." I shook my head, declining Millian’s suggestion. I reached out and patted the mutant beast I had restrained on the ground. "I can tell you have things to do, so go ahead. I know where the remaining locations are; the contracts have tracking marks. I have my own business to attend to."
"I... alright. I'll take my leave then."
Millian nodded and didn't stand on ceremony, leaving immediately. She did indeed have urgent matters to attend to, and staying behind wouldn't help; she would only be a drag. Moreover, Sister Xiao Han clearly had her own business, otherwise she wouldn't have been so blunt about sending her away.
She needed to get back quickly and prepare for many things.
To establish a faction that could stand its ground in the Witch Academy, she already had the pillar of absolute strength: Sister Xiao Han.
As for personnel... that required careful consideration. At least in the early stages, she would prioritize quality over quantity; every member needed to have value.
She had heard that Sister Xiao Han had brought a group of people back to Ninglan New City this time, including several teaching assistants. She didn't expect to recruit such beings, but she could use Sister Xiao Han’s name to befriend them and, in the process, figure out what it was about them that Sister Xiao Han valued so much.
Then there was the matter of finding out who else held Sister Xiao Han’s business cards. This wasn't exactly a secret anymore; it likely wouldn't take much effort to find out, as others were surely investigating them aggressively.
As for funding, although everything was currently based on allocated shares, the sheer volume was massive. Many clubs were still waiting for Sister Xiao Han to save them.
However, all of this had to be done in secret. At the very least, it couldn't be made public. Otherwise, the large club factions of the Witch Academy could easily crush this nascent organization before it was even officially formed. If that happened, it truly would become the "farce" Sister Xiao Han spoke of.
And before implementing these ideas, she had one very important hurdle to clear: she needed to give the Jack-of-all-trades Club an explanation.
Even if a situation looked stable, one still had to navigate it step by step. This would be a true test of her own methods.
She didn't think her methods were poor. After all, which club didn't start as a ragtag group? Moreover, the current large clubs, after so many years of inheritance, had become as stagnant as the families in the outside world.
Otherwise, why would the mere rumor that the Academy was going to conduct a major overhaul of the outside world scare them into such a state of paranoia? It was because they knew the current families lacked the foundation to survive it.
* * *
I remained where I was.
Looking at the large creature I had restrained, I felt a slight sense of wonder. The mutant beasts of the outside world really were endless.
The reason I hadn't killed this fellow immediately was that I remembered a flash of inspiration I'd had: what would happen if I used the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art on a mutant beast?
I had so few opportunities to use this spell that it remained largely theoretical. I didn't even have any corresponding sequence derivations for it, other than changing its base form into the Tree of Great Wisdom Enlightenment.
The only technique derived from this Great Spellbook was the Mimicry Soul technique, along with the meditation method I had learned from Sister Mei’s research materials, which I had modified into the Enlightenment Meditation Art.
Logically, the primary function of the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art was to awaken wisdom.
For a being that already possessed intelligence, the effect wasn't particularly obvious, though it undeniably worked. Therefore, I wanted to see what kind of effect it would have on a creature like a mutant beast—one that had mutated to the point where its brain was practically all muscle.
My personal prediction was that the change should be quite significant, perhaps even more obvious than with Fool's Dream. Fool's Dream was already a dream creature whose wisdom had been awakened, and even she had changed drastically after I used the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art on her. She now possessed the cognition and intelligence of an average girl, or at least she was much smarter than when she was in Fool's Village.
After I used the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art on the beast, its instinctive struggling began to "calm" down.
I directly released the simple binding spell. It didn't bolt; instead, it stared at me with its large eyes.
Finally, it lay down and exposed its belly. This behavior appeared in many animals; exposing the belly meant showing the most vulnerable part of the body, representing "submission" and "surrender."
At this moment, aside from its massive size, it was exactly like a "big dog" rolling around. However, I had no interest in petting it.
Just as I was about to continue observing what other reactions it would have, it took advantage of the perfect opening. It transitioned from rolling directly into a high-speed sprint, bolting away from me.
"Oh? Feigning weakness... then escaping?" I chuckled softly, amused by its reaction. Since that was the case, I would respect its choice.
So... in the next instant, it became a corpse.
Since it wouldn't cooperate with my test, it could skip the process and become an experimental subject directly.
This time, I didn't choose to compete with the Ley Lines for the mutant beast's soul essence. I allowed it to return to the Ley Lines, and then I used the Ley Line Identification Art to extract valuable information from its "memory."
Looking at such a large mutant beast corpse, I had another flash of inspiration... perhaps I could try using the Reincarnation Rebirth spell to obtain the information of this mutant beast's body.
My next clone... why did it have to look like me?
However... looking at the stench coming from its mouth, I ultimately decided to perfect the Body Husk Technique instead. I didn't necessarily need to fully experience the daily life of a mutant beast.
Moreover, I discovered from this beast's memory that it belonged to a migratory pack.
Perhaps I could use the Body Husk Technique as an observational perspective, using the vast numbers of a pack as a unit to test the Tree of Great Wisdom Enlightenment's effect on collective intelligence.