A Wizard’s Secret

However, reality was cruel. As soon as Merlin spoke, the Matrix immediately replied, “There’s a malfunction in the manufacturing room. Restoration is required. Begin restoration?”

“There’s a malfunction?”

Merlin clenched his jaw and said in a low voice, “Restore immediately, as quickly as possible!”

The entire ship was over ninety percent damaged. It was normal for the place which manufactured martial arts robots to be damaged as well. Merlin could not help but rejoice that he had first manufactured repair robots. Otherwise, resolving malfunctions would take up an unknown amount of time.

Soon, a hundred repair robots surged toward the manufacturing room of martial arts robots, bustling around swiftly. With a hundred repair robots doing restoration work, naturally, the process was very fast. Nonetheless, Merlin saw another downside – consumption of power was too fast.

Initially, he had manufactured a hundred repair robots, using only one percent of the energy source, leaving ten percent left. However, as the repair robots worked endlessly to repair the malfunction in the manufacturing room now, it was taking up a lot of power too. Very soon, the energy bar fell quickly. In a mere half an hour, it had fallen by one percent. Now there was only nine percent of the power source left.

“Repairing one malfunction already requires so much energy?”

Merlin was somewhat taken aback. This was just a small malfunction. If he were to fully restore the ship in the future, the amount of power that would be consumed would be astronomical.

After more time had passed, another hour went by. The energy bar was left with eight percent. The amount of energy used to repair one small malfunction induced a sense of helplessness in Merlin.

“Beep.”

Just as Merlin wondered if the power would be used up incessantly, the Matrix’s voice finally rang out. “Restoration complete. The malfunction has been resolved. Continue to manufacture martial arts robots?”

Naturally, Merlin said without hesitation, “Begin manufacturing!”

Following that, Merlin began to wait in silence.

However, after a long moment, there was no movement in the warship. Merlin could not help but ask, “Matrix, what’s the matter?”

“Rumble.”

The entire warship suddenly quaked slightly, and the Matrix’s voice rang out again, “Energy insufficient. A huge amount of energy is required, please replenish!”

Merlin’s expression shifted at this. The energy was insufficient, but how much was really needed to manufacture one martial arts robot?

“How much energy is actually needed to manufacture one martial arts robot?”

“According to calculations, manufacturing one martial arts robot requires a hundred percent of the warship’s power source. Please supply more energy!”

“A hundred percent?”

Merlin’s mouth was agape as he stood there blankly. He had already used up more than ten million elemental crystal stones and only managed to replenish the energy to eleven percent. If it were a hundred percent, would he not need at least a hundred million elemental crystal stones?

“Fine, I’ll forget about the martial arts robot for now. Then how much power is needed for a superior robot?”

Merlin had already given up on manufacturing a martial arts robot for now. The cost was too high. Even if he dug up all his elemental crystal stones now, he could not possibly replenish the power source of the warship to a hundred percent. Naturally, he would not be able to manufacture a martial arts robot.

It looked like Merlin’s fantasy of leading a few martial arts robots to sweep away Glorious Land was too naïve. He could only abort it before he even began.

“A superior robot requires at least ten percent of the warship’s power!”

The Matrix’s reply caused more doubts in Merlin. Ten percent of the energy meant at least ten million elemental crystal stones in exchange for a superior robot at the level of a preeminent Great Wizard. In huge numbers, this was a terrifying force but Merlin did not have so many elemental crystal stones.

“What about an ordinary battle robot?”

“It would require at least one percent of the warship’s power!”

An ordinary battle robot was a powerful existence on par with a Great Wizard. It needed only one percent, which was worth it. However, Merlin, who was unclear about the workings of the Church of Light, was unwilling to spend energy in manufacturing a batch of ordinary robots.

“That’s right. Can I change the chips of these four robots to obey my orders?”

Merlin recalled the four robots he had captured back in the warship. These robots should be superior robots, powerful as well, already very close to a civilization-level genius or a Great Legend.

“It’s possible to program four new control chips to replace the old control chips.”

The Matrix was in control of the warship, and thus able to program new chips from scratch. Naturally, Merlin was overjoyed, so he nodded. “Program the new chips!”

“Beep. Chip room is badly damaged, and requires restoration.”

Merlin’s face was wooden by now. He had expected this long ago, so he ordered the chip room to be repaired. He watched as the energy dropped from eight percent to five percent. At last, the restoration of the chip room was a success, and it had newly programmed four chips.

Soon, Merlin controlled the four superior robots to go into the chip room and started to switch out their chips.

The process of changing the chips went smoothly. After all the chips were switched, when the four superior robots awakened once more, they were utterly deferential toward Merlin. They would obey any command from him, even if he asked them to self-destruct.

“Matrix, how many undamaged robots are left on the warship?”

These robots on the warship had recovered slowly throughout this long period. Perhaps there were some who were slowly repaired when the warship still had power.

Therefore, in the warship, there should be a considerable number of robots. If their chips could be changed, Merlin would not have to use up much power to obtain a formidable force.

“Scanning complete. In the warship, there are five additional superior robots and thirteen ordinary robots!”

“Oh? There’s still so many?”

Merlin’s eyes brightened. Following that, he personally led the four superior robots, and with the Matrix’s help, easily captured those other robots.

Thereafter, he changed their chips. In total, he had used up one percent of the power source to get five superior robots and thirteen ordinary robots under his control.

Merlin now commanded nine superior robots and thirteen ordinary robots. This was a rather fearsome force. It should be known that the superior robots were equivalent to preeminent Great Wizards. In addition to their weapons, they were close to Great Legends, perhaps only slightly lacking in comparison to Kleis who had special Spatial Pandora Demon Ability.

By relying on these twenty-two robots, Merlin had enough to conquer the entire Spell Caster world of the Glorious Land.

“I should leave!”

Merlin stood in the warship. With the power source maintaining things, this warship shone with a “vitality”. Nonetheless, because of insufficient power, it could not be restored.

As a result, Merlin gave an order to the Matrix. The operation of the entire warship should be maintained with the lowest energy possible. There was no need to restore it for now. In the future, after Merlin had enough elemental crystal stones or other things which the warship could transmute into energy, he could restore the warship.

“Whoosh.”

Merlin flew out and stared at the two broken halves of the warship. Naturally, Merlin did not wish to abandon this warship here for it was comparable to an Honored Legend, and had a chance of being restored.

Therefore, Merlin took out a Spatial Ring. He had killed some powerful existences before and obtained some Spatial Rings. He took the one with the biggest space within, aimed it at the warship, and yelled, “Keep!”

“Swoosh.”

As soon as he spoke, the colossal warship trembled lightly but soon, it disappeared without a trace. Merlin used his Mind Power to look within the Spatial Ring. The vast space within the ring was now occupied by this mammoth warship but it looked rather compact, meaning that the space within the Spatial Ring was not very adequate.

“I’ll have to find a Spatial Ring with a bigger space!”

Merlin had never worried about space. After all, no matter how many elemental crystal stones he carried, the Spatial Ring could fit everything with such a large space. However, this warship was way too big, so the space it needed was naturally very large. Merlin needed a Spatial Ring with more space.

Upon detecting a commotion near the warship, the silver puppet appeared suddenly. He stared at the place where the warship had been, which was now a wide, empty gap, and could not help but ask, “You’ve taken the warship?”

Merlin nodded. “The things aboard this warship are very useful to me. I’ve already kept it in my Spatial Ring. I can take it with me, right?”

“Of course, you can. This warship isn’t of much use here anyway.”

The silver puppet did not stop Merlin. This was a space created by the Origin Lord in the first place to await true prodigies. Merlin had passed the two challenges and might attempt the third in the future. He was practically half a disciple of the Origin Lord. Naturally, the silver puppet would not object.

“That’s right. I wonder if I can take a look at those four martial arts puppet?”

Merlin asked the silver puppet.

“Look at the martial arts puppet?”

The silver puppet hesitated for a beat. Perhaps it considered that Merlin was practically half a disciple of the Origin Lord, so it finally nodded. “Sure!”

Therefore, Merlin followed behind the silver puppet and reached the second layer of subspace. When he saw the four martial arts puppets once again, Merlin finally learned how the Origin Lord had controlled these four martial arts robots without changing their chips.

It turned out that the Origin Lord had used the method of puppet transfiguration. He had imprinted martial arts into the four puppets with a method similar to a mind imprint. Therefore, even without a chip, these four martial arts puppets possessed the force of the Origin Lord, able to explode with formidable strength.

“If I can capture these four martial arts puppets and implant new chips, I’ll be able to completely control these four martial arts puppets!”

Merlin’s eyes brightened. The Origin Lord was a Great Lord, and his mind imprint was powerful but this was nothing in comparison to a Mind Power Master like Merlin.

Even if Merlin was unable to forcibly remove the Origin Lord’s mind imprint with his current abilities, he still had the help of the Illusory World and was sure to succeed.

“Can I bring these four martial arts puppets with me?”

Merlin suddenly asked the silver puppet.

“Bring the martial arts puppets away?”

The silver puppet was slightly startled but soon shook its head. “They were left behind by Master back then, so you can’t take them away! Unless you pass the third challenge in the future and obtain the treasure he had left. In which case, this place won’t serve a purpose anymore. The subspace will collapse automatically. At that point, it’s up to you whether you want to bring these puppets away. However, for now, you can’t!”

Merlin frowned. If he could bring these four martial arts puppets with him, he was almost a hundred percent certain of removing the Origin Lord’s mind imprint. Thus, he would be able to control these four martial arts robots almost comparable to Great Legends.

“What if I take them by force?”

Merlin’s voice was steely. He did not think that there was any force here which could stop him. Regardless of whether it was the silver puppet or the four martial arts puppets, they had no way to stop him.

“Take them by force? This is a multi-layered subspace left behind by Master. Even a Great Legend, if they tried to act recklessly here, would be killed instantly!”

The silver puppet’s words were followed by an indescribable pressure in the entire subspace, causing Merlin to feel an intense threat. It was as if once this power exploded, he would be unable to block it no matter what methods he used.

Merlin was overwhelmed with shock, only coming to his senses now. Since it was left behind by the Origin Lord, how could there not be any protective measures? Honored Legends would be killed as well. Merlin had no doubt about that.

With this in mind, Merlin could only say helplessly, “I’ll surely return to pass the third challenge!”

With that, he turned to leave and exited the subspace left by the Origin Lord in one step.