Chapter 316: War Suspension and Merit Calculation
No one knew what kind of deal the two Second Circle wizards ultimately reached, but in any case, after a certain amount of negotiation between the two Second Circle wizards in the sky, in the end it was Wizard Justin, the Second Circle wizard from the White Wizard Association side, who ordered the association's First Circle wizards to stand by and watch the black wizards retreat, and had Dean Thompson release the Giant Wood Spear's seal on the Holy Flesh Punishment.
Dean Thompson, seeing the war subside, breathed a slight sigh of relief. The current situation was a great victory for the White Wizard Association. Although they hadn't achieved a complete victory, the significance of achieving a great victory was already enormous.
As long as nothing happened to the Second Circle wizard on the Black Wizard Alliance side, their White Wizard Association basically had no possibility of completely annihilating the Black Wizard Alliance.
Achieving the current battle results was already enough to make the association very satisfied.
What came next would be a protracted war. The White Wizard Association, which had already established a complete wartime economy, would now have to pay an enormous price even if Justin himself wanted this society to stop the war.
Once the war machine started moving, it would generate enormous profits. Once this economic system was fully established, the white wizard society that originally greatly feared war would become more warlike than any other society.
Not to mention that the Black Wizard Alliance in the southeastern quadrant claimed to have currently discovered a medium-scale world that no one had ever discovered before. This point would drive the white wizard society, which had already converted to a wartime economic system, even more crazy.
Locke could almost foresee that for a long time to come, within the white wizard society of the southeastern quadrant, those industrial chains highly related to war would generate enormous profits.
And those industrial chains with relatively low relevance to war, such as flavorists and so on, would likely temporarily decline for fifty years. The flavorists might even ultimately be forced to leave the southeastern quadrant and go to other wizard lands to seek survival.
When the war was fought to the later stages, there would definitely be material shortages. At that time, there wouldn't be so many wizards taking real gold and silver magic stones to purchase the delicacies made by flavorists that were only for satisfying one's appetite.
At the same time, medium to large wizard organizations like Atlas Palette Academy would very likely shift their production of magic paintings from leaning toward artistic enjoyment to leaning toward magic painting maps useful for war.
The greatest impact on Locke was that his Augustine series magical plants would likely achieve even greater sales volume in the southeastern quadrant.
Of course, having witnessed First Circle level warfare, the bizarre ritual magic of crystallization wizards, and the sudden intervention of Second Circle wizards, Locke understood that if he wanted to obtain more benefits in the southeastern quadrant, he needed to develop First Circle combat-type magical plants.
But he would soon be leaving the southeastern quadrant.
Locke frowned. His best choice was to continue maintaining cooperation with certain people and jointly open a share-based wizard shop in the southeastern quadrant.
Halen Vera and Lady Irina came to mind. Lady Irina was one of Halen Vera's most senior students.
Perhaps he could contact Lady Irina through Teacher Halen Vera and discuss this matter with her.
Having himself stay in the southeastern quadrant was impossible, because while this wizard land was very suitable for wizard apprentices, for First Circle wizards, the resources were somewhat cramped.
In the past, a large number of First Circle wizards originally stayed here for retirement, but now even this last advantage was gone. For the next fifty years, this place would become a battlefield.
A large number of ordinary First Circle wizards would probably leave here and go to other wizard lands.
At this time, the battle situation outside had already turned into the stage of collecting spoils of war and cleaning up the battlefield.
Dean Thompson found the astral ring of that infant spirit witch Brittany from the ground, as well as her sister's astral ring, and handed them both to Locke.
Dean Thompson seemed to be in a good mood. "Locke, one of these rings is your spoils of war, and the other one counts as a gift from me to you."
Locke didn't refuse but accepted the two astral rings of the First Circle black wizards. Because he would still have many places where he needed money in the future, he currently only had fifty thousand magic stones in savings, which was far from enough.
It wasn't even enough to purchase a boat ticket, wasn't enough to find someone to open a share-based wizard shop in the southeastern quadrant, and wasn't enough for him to purchase a Druid's Ring either.
Locke briefly inspected the two astral rings. The specifications of these two black wizards' rings were different from the two most basic astral rings in his hands. His two astral rings connected to astral regions only as large as a single room, but these two astral rings were actually each as large as a basketball court.
Inside were a large number of collections, most of which were items related to phantom magic.
Locke even saw many strange and bizarre human body products in Witch Brittany's ring. Suppressing his disgust, he decided not to waste them. In a few days, he would package them all together and sell them to the black market, to those wizards who were interested.
He would make a hefty profit from them.
These things were all waste materials to plant-based wizards, even purely disgusting items, but to black wizards of certain disciplines, they were like rare treasures.
In any case, it was like a turtle meeting green beans, a case of finding the right match.
Locke looked at Dean Thompson strangely. "Dean, you seem to be in a very good mood."
Dean Thompson said with a beaming smile, "Of course. The agreement that Lord Justin and that Second Circle black wizard ultimately reached was quite good."
"Some of it includes clauses very beneficial to our academy. We're giving up pursuing and killing their remaining people, and as the price, they'll have to purchase large quantities of goods from us going forward, as the price for their defeat in this battle."
"The contract is guaranteed by the Aztec gold coins managed by the association. Even Second Circle wizards cannot violate it."
Dean Thompson smiled. "This agreement was signed very well. If you ask me, this is far better than pursuing and killing the remaining black wizards. The remaining black wizards are all tough nuts to crack. Even if we could finish them off, we'd have to pay an enormous price."
Dean Thompson said, "By the way, the white wizard association wizards in this war will have their merits calculated. However, only formal wizards who have joined the association can have their merits calculated, so the prerequisite for obtaining war merits is to have a teaching contract signed with the local white wizard organization."
Dean Thompson raised his palm and said to Locke, "Don't worry, I'm not finished yet, Mr. Augustine."
"I have a convenient way to resolve this. I have several temporary work quotas for Lilith's Cottage. I can directly give you a temporary advisor title, and you'll indirectly count as a formal wizard of the southeastern quadrant's White Wizard Association. Therefore, you can also obtain war merits."
"The temporary advisor title has no binding force and doesn't count as a proper teaching position. The reason this kind of title was created was for situations like this one."
"So it doesn't count as you having held a teaching position."
Dean Thompson advised Locke, "You must cherish the opportunity for a teaching position at the first wizard organization you work for. You know this, right? Your first job determines the caliber of wizard organizations you can find afterward."
"If the caliber of the first wizard organization you work for isn't high enough, then what comes next will become an invisible obstacle blocking you from finding better teaching work."
Locke blinked, recalling Senior Advisor Francis's previous advice to him. He immediately felt speechless. Senior Advisor Francis had never mentioned this point at all. Instead, he constantly spoke of the benefits of working at Lilith's Cottage first.