Nick didn't like the fact that the two Magicians seemed to know each other:
(If they decide to work together, that seriously raises my risk of losing, even if I don't necessarily know what this newcomer is capable of. I at least know that the newcomer, Crocker, is a rank 3 Magician. Should I rush to finish the Lightning path Magician...Ulrich, off first? No...I need to find out what the other Magician's intentions are.)
Nick raised his voice and spoke with a coldness in his tone that was razor sharp while still keeping his eyes locked on Ulrich, but focusing Tyrant Sense's power on Crocker:
"Crocker, is it? What are your plans, exactly? Assuming that you aren't blind and can see your companion's pitiful state, you should be wiser than him and learn from his mistake. Now is the time to bury the axe before things get worse. Do you two really want your cultivation journeys to end in a place like this?"
Crocker openly chuckled and replied:
"You are really confident. I suppose that there is no way for you to know who I am, so I will explain. My name is Denar Crocker of the Crocker family. I am also a Supervising Magician of The Crown Company. Ulrich here is actually one of my subordinates, and you basically made him a cripple. You don't really expect me to just turn a blind eye to that, do you?"
Nick openly sighed and shrugged both his shoulders, saying:
"It's your funeral, don't say that I did not warn you."
Crocker descended to Ulrich's side and instructed him:
"Ulrich, get the hell out of here. If Nick Capitol really does kill you, my performance appraisal will be affected. If that happens, I might try to raise you from the dead to kill you a second time."
Ulrich was visibly enraged by Crocker's words and was about to argue, but Crocker pointed his wand at Ulrich's face and coldly said:
"That wasn't a request, it was an order. Go, get your arm regrown if you can. I don't want a cripple under my supervision. If you argue with me, I will remove your other arm, and then you will really be fucked."
Ulrich opened his mouth before silently closing it within a few seconds. Following that, Ulrich's already electrified body developed ten times the electric currents and voltage that were coursing through it as before.
(Propelling Voltage)
Ulrich's body developed a blinding yellow light, immediately following which, he shot into the sky like a bolt of reverse lightning and scattered into free-flowing electric currents as soon as he hit a white cloud below Humble Desert's beautiful, purple sky. Within seconds after Ulrich had resolved his movement spell, Nick and Denar Crocker were alone.
Nick took the initiative by processing his black miasma magic energy outside his body. Crocker noticed Nick's actions but did not immediately try to stop him. Eight seconds later, Nick drew in 20,000 magical units worth of his black miasma magic energy into his mindscape. Crocker squinted his eyes and somehow deduced what Nick did, saying:
"Wow...you must have a kind of divergent mindscape, right? Mindscapes that grant peculiar ways of recovering magic energy besides active meditation are rare. If you want, I can write you a recommendation to be hired by The Crown Company and placed on my team. Would you like that?"
Nick spat on the ground before replying:
"Enough nonsense."
Crocker smiled in response to Nick's words and watched on as Nick clenched his right hand, following which, Crocker felt the gravity acting on him suddenly vanish, and he was raised into the air and forced to float freely. Crocker thought:
(Beginning the battle by removing my footing. That's a good move to make, considering that he doesn't know what I am capable of. He saw me flying before, so he is basically daring me to do that again. Fine...)
Crocker's body was seemingly held by some kind of force as his body stopped floating freely, and his posture became upright and stayed that way two feet off the ground.
(Born Satellite)
Crocker did not have time to reorganize himself because, within moments, Nick suddenly appeared, floating less than one meter away from his immediate front. While still covered with Tyrant Armor's sparking black magic power, which also still covered Stoic Grave completely, Nick swung Stoic Grave diagonally at Crocker's torso, from his right shoulder to his left lower abdomen.
Crocker countered by casting a spell that made his two-foot-long wand glow brilliantly with a white light like a glow stick:
(Luminous Guide)
Crocker's right arm then moved at inhuman speeds to parry Stoic Grave, following which, a grapefruit-sized glowing sphere appeared above Crocker's head that surprised Nick because it looked like a realistic replica of the moon. A brilliant linear ray of white light then shone out from Crocker's moon and quickly struck Nick in the face, enveloping his head with extreme light.
(Luminous Satellite)
Nick was shot backwards ruthlessly by the intense light, over forty meters away, in two seconds. Nick continued gripping Stoic Grave tightly, and a few inches away from hitting the sandy ground, he used Saturn's power to prevent himself from falling further and corrected his posture in midair. Nick's face currently emanated white smoke, but it was quickly fading away. He now had an opinion about Crocker's magic power:
(Tyrant Domain is evidently not suppressing Crocker's magic in the least, which means that his mindscape is well developed enough to accumulate high-quality rank 3 initial stage magic energy, and that last blast of magic proved how high-quality Crocker's magic power is. That type of magic...it's...)
Nick's thoughts sped up as he tried to remember books that he had read about magical paths so he could identify what kind of magic Crocker was using. When he thought that he had a likely answer, he muttered it aloud:
"Moon path?"
Crocker heard Nick's guess, and he proceeded to chuckle while tapping his own nose using his left index finger before saying:
"Right, I am a Moon Magician. I bet you did not expect that."
Nick mused in response to the revelation:
(There is nothing too special about moon path except that it does well in environments that either possess extreme light or extreme darkness. It is a path all its own, and its laws are surprisingly not strongly related to any other magical paths. That information is good to have, but it doesn't change what I have to do.)
Nick willed, and from his new position, he had two grapefruit-sized spheres of red magic power suddenly appear at Crocker's immediate front and rear, following which, the two red spheres expanded and superimposed on each other, which resulted in Crocker being enveloped by both red spheres. Crocker's smile quickly transformed into a frown in response to the turn of events. The red spheres and their enveloped space then collapsed into themselves, but halfway to crushing Crocker to dust, a bright, white light radiated from the red sphere's position in all directions.
Nick focused on the origin of the white light using Tyrant Sense's powers while he processed black miasma magic energy outside his body. Nick soon realized that his two red spheres had been strongly resisted for up to three seconds after the white light appeared, and ultimately destroyed about eight seconds after the white light appeared. By that time, Nick drew his black miasma magic energy into his mindscape and readied himself for Crocker's counterattack.
Amidst the outburst of white light, a ray of white light shot at Nick's throat at extreme speed that Nick was only able to keep up with because of Tyrant Sense's powers. Nick waved Stoic Grave and cast Tyrant Aurora to counter the white light ray. A wide arc of grey blade light shot out that suppressed Crocker's white moonlight, practically ripping the white light ray apart until the grey blade light was itself suppressed and dispelled when it reached within a few feet of the origin of the moonlight.
Nick followed up by enveloping the epicenter of the moonlight with a cream colored sphere of magic power, after which Nick tried to use the cream sphere's push and pull forces to scatter the moonlight, but the moonlight and Nick's own space magic power struggled against each other for a little more than five seconds. In the meantime, Nick cast another spell:
(Soul Haze.)
With him as the center of the change, a faint, black haze spread throughout the area one kilometer in all directions around Nick. Less than three seconds after the Soul Haze's appearance, the cream sphere and the moonlight finally resolved their struggle by canceling each other out. Crocker appeared in Nick's view once again, but he was not the least bit happy about the Soul Haze and reasoned:
(This is a soul path spell. I don't know its effects, but its magic power feels ominous and foreboding. That's soul path for you - creepy as hell.)
Nick was still within Crocker's line of sight, so Crocker pointed his still glowing wand at Nick and cast a spell:
(Luminous Laser)
A thin ray of white light instantly shot out from the wand's tip, moving faster than Nick could see but not faster than he could sense. Nick instantly disappeared and reappeared at Crocker's immediate right side, adeptly dodging the Luminous Laser, following which, Nick canceled Tyrant Domain and held out Stoic Grave's blade so it could be included in Crocker's field of vision; Nick then cast:
(Tyrant Specter.)
Within moments, Crocker witnessed Stoic Grave's sparking black surface being exaggeratedly bent out of shape before returning to its original shape quickly thereafter. Crocker creased his brows as he sensed that he was afflicted by a mix of soul and blade magic. Whatever Crocker's personal background, he was first and foremost a well learnt Magician, and he quickly realized that Nick had done something to him that he did not fully understand.
Crocker snorted and immediately took advantage of the gap in Nick's movement because of the latter's insistence on successfully casting his last spell. Crocker quickly shifted his Luminous Laser towards Nick at a speed that could not be followed with the naked eye. When the Luminous Laser was dragged over half of Nick's midsection, starting at Nick's right side, Tyrant Armor's sparking black magic power was penetrated, and Nick's right side was ruthlessly cut through, but Nick ignored the pain and quickly sliced at Crocker's right shoulder using Stoic Grave.
Half of Crocker's shoulder was cut through before it radiated strong moonlight that prevented Nick's sword from going any deeper. Fortunately for Nick, the damage to Crocker's right shoulder prevented the latter from shifting the Luminous Laser any further towards Nick's spine. While spitting out mouthfuls of blood, Nick cast Neptune to teleport fifty meters away from Crocker, to the latter's rear and onto the ground. As soon as Nick reappeared in his new position amidst a flash of blue magic power, he then cast Tyrant Recovery to heal himself of his severe injuries; several important organs had been seared through by Crocker's Luminous Laser.
Crocker himself was forced to cancel his Luminous Laser due to the severe damage to his right shoulder. Not only that, but his movements became noticeably slower after he was cut, and his complexion became paler as a result of a weakness that he could not describe that suddenly took root in his body. Seconds later, as he was concentrating moonlight into his right shoulder while keeping an eye on Nick, who was also healing himself, thin streams of blood began flowing from his mouth, ears, and nostrils, and his mind became a little 'fuzzy'. Crocker was indignant but kept calm; he thought:
(My soul has been damaged to an unacceptable degree. The blood flowing simultaneously from my orifices is the best proof. I have a hunch that this damn black haze is related to my soul injury. Nick is also wielding a soul path sword, and there is a soul path magic tool attached to his right hand. My 'Moon Quill' wand is an intermediate, apprentice grade moon path magic tool that harnesses moonlight and amplifies its speed and intensity. It is a powerful magic tool, but Nick's own magic tools do not lose out to it. There was something weird that happened when I was cut by that soul path sword for sure.)
True to his background, Crocker quickly developed accurate suspicions about Nick's magic powers with very little experience needed. In most academies, he would be considered an elite in terms of magical awareness. That being said, Nick was an elite in his own right. While Nick healed himself, he began processing black miasma magic energy outside of his body, following which, currents of black miasma started forming around him. Crocker's right eyelid twitched when he realized what Nick was doing, and considering that he did not have the same luxury, he pointed Moon Quill at Nick.
Crocker's shoulder had mostly healed under the influence of his moon path recovery spell, and so he was once again planning to concentrate one of his spells within his white glowing wand to increase the pressure on Nick, but as soon as he aimed his wand accurately, a vague, translucent human figure appeared on his right side and patted his still sore right shoulder before disappearing. Crocker's heart jumped after seeing the vague figure appear, but he did not have time to think about the cause before his expression went blank, and Nick suddenly appeared standing at his immediate front, drawing out his sword from Crocker's impaled throat. Crocker, though somehow relaxed, internally screamed:
(What?)
Sensing that Crocker was now mixed up in a false reality, Nick used the opportunity to draw his black miasma magic energy into his mindscape and performed one more round of magic energy processing, after which, he drew in more black miasma magic energy into his mindscape, recovering 40,000 magical units in less than thirty seconds. By the time Nick got to his feet with his injuries mostly healed immediately afterwards, Crocker escaped from the false reality while sweating profusely.
He glared at Nick for a few seconds before saying:
"No wonder Ulrich was crippled by you. What company do you work for? The Magicians Association, the Ministry of Magic, or another..."
While the Magicians Association and the Ministry of Magic employed some of the most powerful Magicians in the world, Nick was not interested in working for either of those entities. Crocker had only guessed so because of the quality of Nick's spells, which were top-notch, even by the standard of a 'rich boy' like him.
Nick replied indifferently while canceling Tyrant Recovery:
"Does my answer really matter? You're going to die here, anyway."
Crocker rolled his eyes at Nick and pointed Moon Quill at him, casting:
(Luminous Satellite)
A basketball-sized replica of the moon instantly appeared over Crocker's head, and from it, a thick ray of moonlight was shot out at Nick at a speed that the naked eye could not keep up with. Nick focused his attention on the information that Tyrant Sense's power was transmitting to him, and with difficulty, he side-stepped the onslaught of the moonlight by a few inches. This resulted in the sandy ground at his previous position and several dozen meters behind it being bathed in intense moonlight and heated into becoming glass, then glass chips and dust.
At that point, Nick mobilized the power of his Cursed Vessel talent:
(Dreadful Aura.)
A dark, fear-inducing aura quickly spread out from Nick in all directions, bathing his surroundings and Crocker with it. Crocker gritted his teeth as he developed goosebumps due to the extreme discomfort that the dark aura made him feel. Luminous Satellite was dispelled because Crocker momentarily lost focus, in addition to being a result of the mind weakening effects of Nick's soul path methods. The moon replica vanished, and Nick took the opportunity to draw Hard Marvel from its sheath using his right hand and canceled Saturn. Nick then cast another spell:
(Tyrant Form.)
Nick now had four spells active, namely: Tyrant Armor, Tyrant Form, Soul Haze, and Tyrant Sense. That is, three rank 3 advanced grade spells, and one rank 3 intermediate grade spell, which was reasonably close to the limit of spells that he could wield at one time without making mistakes in his execution of them. Nick brandished both Stoic Grave and Hard Marvel using his left and right hands, respectively, and readied himself for the start of the real fight.
Crocker soon shook off the 'stun' effect of the dreadful aura with much difficulty and was ready to fight Nick again, but he became confused when he saw that Nick's form had been replaced by what looked like a winged magic beast made entirely of black miasma that had red and blue eyes. Crocker sighed before rising to about twenty-five meters above ground and pointing Moon Quill towards the sky while casting another one of his spells:
(Luminous Station)
An intense but thin, white ray of moonlight shot upwards from Moon Quill's tip at pseudo-light-speed. When the ray of light reached an altitude of sixty meters above the ground in two seconds, the white light burst into a widespread cluster of light particles. Each light particle then expanded and shot down at Nick as thick rays of moonlight in random sequence at pseudo-light-speed.
At that point, sensing the danger, Nick put intense focus on using Tyrant Sense's powers to keep track of the incoming rays of moonlight. The black sparks currently coursing over Nick's clothes and skin doubled in frequency as Nick pushed Tyrant Armor's powers to their limits. With both Stoic Grave and Hard Marvel gripped tightly by his hands, and Stoic Grave still entirely covered with Tyrant Armor's sparking black soul magic power, Nick ran forward towards Crocker's position at a speed that made him appear like a blur.
He did not want to instantly teleport to Crocker's position using Neptune because he wanted the beams of moonlight above him to resolve predictably first. As Nick ran forward at inhuman speeds, rays of moonlight fell all around him, igniting the black sand to form glass and dust. Nick was not just running forward predictably. He was moving in such a way as to dodge each ray of moonlight as it nearly met with the ground. In fact, Nick circled Crocker eight times, in an effort to exhaust the latter's magic power and magic energy, thinking that:
(This spell is too powerful not to have a huge magic energy and mental energy cost to maintain and direct. Let's see how long the old boy can last...)
After one minute of the rays of moonlight descending ceaselessly, the black, sandy terrain below, within sixty meters all around Crocker, had been mostly transformed into rough glass, while Nick had circled Crocker sixteen times to dodge and exhaust the moonlight. Crocker gritted his teeth, knowing that he could have done no better in terms of pressuring Nick:
(Luminous Station requires me to put most of my mental energy into maintaining it, so there is no casting other spells while it is resolving. This Nick Capitol is a freak. Not only did he actively evade all the rays of moonlight that were moving at pseudo-light-speed, but he purposely circled me multiple times to exhaust them so they wouldn't become an obstacle when he would next try to go directly after me.
Although Croker realized Nick's scheme, what could he do about it? He himself had to give his all to take Nick down, or else he would not last much longer. He witnessed Nick recover his magic energy reserves mid-battle multiple times while Crocker's magic energy reserves were currently less than thirty thousand magical units. Crocker internally complained:
(Fighting this Nick Capitol character is troublesome.)
True to Crocker's expectation, Nick finally appeared directly below him and bent his knees before making an impactful jump upwards that cracked the now glassy ground below him. Nick shot straight towards Crocker like a black jet while casting Tyrant Aurora and pouring massive amounts of magic power into both his swords. Nick's ascent soon became a scene of a pillar of mixing black and grey blade lights rising towards a lone man.
Crocker pointed Moon Quill at Nick and cast Luminous Satellite five times consecutively to summon five basketball-sized replicas of the moon side-by-side above his head, following which, five intense and thick rays of white moonlight shot down towards Nick. When the five rays of moonlight collided with the grey and black blade lights, a silent explosion of light took place that released a mixture of white, black, and grey lights into the surroundings.
Crocker was a moon path Magician, not a light path Magician, so he was forced to squint his eyes greatly to block out most of the light. Soon, however, black blade light erupted forward and enveloped five of his moon replicas, suppressing them and gradually forcing them to dissipate. Crocker's emotions flared, and his tired body erupted with a physical strength that he rarely displayed and that caused his muscles to bulge, increasing his muscle tone by two times, but with that surge in emotions, a vague, translucent human figure appeared, holding onto Crocker's left ankle and dangling from it for a few moments before disappearing.
Crocker's eyes opened wide in shock, and he panicked internally:
(No, not now!)
Within moments, Crocker's expression became blank, and his movements halted, giving Nick a chance to swing Stoic Grave at Crocker unobstructed.
(Cross Stream Sword Technique.)
The soul path sword sliced into Crocker's flesh in a crisscross pattern, from head to toe, but Nick controlled his swings so as not to kill the man; however, he did seriously flay Crocker and cut away his right leg and left arm at the hip and shoulder joints, respectively. That one iteration of Cross Stream lasted almost two seconds because Nick held back against Crocker, and the pain that the event evoked shocked Crocker out of his false reality.
Crocker canceled most of his spells due to the pain and fell towards the sandy ground pitifully, but still gripped Moon Quill tightly using his right hand. At the last second, Crocker cast Born Satellite to prevent himself from falling to his death by catching himself just before he hit the ground and then canceling the spell again, which caused him to suffer a painful yet relatively inconsequential fall.
All the magic lights had faded by then, and Nick cast Neptune to appear on the ground, a few meters away from Crocker's left side. Nick watched as the Crocker lied on his back in agony while bleeding out. Crocker tried to move, but the effect of Sheer Soul's power basically paralyzed him while in this state. Crocker tried to cast his healing and other spells, but he could not focus for long enough to do so. Nick noticed Crocker's inability to cast spells and reasoned:
(His soul is too damaged. The effects of Soul Haze, Stoic Grave's passive magic power, and Tyrant Specter's blade path effect on his soul have probably caused a lot of damage to accumulate, and so, in addition to his severe physical injuries, his mind is in too much of a mess to successfully cast spells. If he tried and failed, he might even kill himself due to the backlash. I never expected to win like this. If I had just used Hard Marvel from the start with the aim of cutting him up, I could have probably killed Crocker minutes earlier, but it is good to know that my soul path offensive is so effective; after all, I cannot cut up all my opponents to death.)
Nick had thought about killing Crocker, but decided that it was not worth it.
(For one, the man comes from an apparently large company that should know about their altercation since there was a witness who could testify against me. Another problem is that Crocker spoke as if he came from an influential family. I am not so strong as yet that I can freely take on the grudges of an entire legacy family. I still have my business to build. Sparing Crocker's life is enough to maintain an amicable stance with his family and company, at least in public.)
Life was like this. When you were not strong enough, you had to make compromises after considering the ire of the strong. That's just how it was while developing yourself.
(This restraint might feel bitter right now, but from my experience, doing the right thing almost always feels like swallowing a bitter pill. Medicines are bitter too, but they cure and heal.)
Nick canceled Tyrant Form, Tyrant Armor, and Soul Haze while sheathing his two swords again. Nick then spent a few minutes actively meditating before he cast Saturn and used its powers to stabilize Crocker's wounds by stopping the bleeding. At that point, Crocker lost consciousness, after which Nick flew the heavily injured Crocker and himself back to Mardust, which took a few days. Nick was not worried about Crocker dying during that time.
Rank 3 Magicians were relatively tough, and as long as Nick prevented Crocker's blood from flowing out and protected him from receiving any more damage, he would probably live. Nick reached Mardust in seven days. Crocker remained unconscious during that time, presumably because his soul still had not recovered from the harm that Nick had inflicted.
When Nick entered Mardust, he placed Crocker's body at the guards' feet and told them of the crippled man's identity. The two male guards, who were each wearing black magician's robes, gasped because they knew who Denar Crocker of The Crown Company was. One of the guards with short black hair asked Nick:
"Did you do this to him? I get that you didn't want to kill him, but rich guys like this usually hold grudges. You would have been better off if you had killed him in the desert."
The brown-haired guard echoed the other guard's sentiments, saying:
"He's right, The Crown Company and this guy's family will probably seek revenge. It is not easy to regrow limbs, even for high-ranked Magicians."
Nick wasn't going to explain his reasons to the guards and simply left Crocker in their care, after which, Nick left for the wilderness once again. Through his battles with Ulrich and Crocker, Nick was at least certain that his combat standard was above average when fighting other Magicians, but there were a lot more improvements that could be made to his skills, and he was going to make them.
Nick flew back to the Dark Grain region, reaching there after seven days of travel. Nick continued to slay magic beasts, mostly at the rank 2 level, just to become even more proficient in casting his spells, using his talents during battle, and swinging his swords; Nick also practised his sword technique, Cross Stream, a great deal. When Nick came across rank 3 Magic beasts, they would be those of the rank 3 initial stage standard. It seemed more difficult to find stronger rank 3 magic beasts within Dark Grain than Nick expected.
Like this, almost eighteen months passed within Humble Desert, and at the end of that period, Nick used one of his crystal-blue projection stones to return to his workspace on his company's third basement floor after having been gone for about one month in Grand Earth's time. After getting a shower and sleeping on his office's carpet for two days, Nick got dressed in a silver silk polo shirt, a pair of light blue jeans pants and a pair of black, laceless dress shoes. Nick then holstered his two swords at his waist before going back to his workspace to use one of his space path magic formations to get to Sidon within Forgotten Peril.
Nick left his house in Sidon to exit the settlement, after which he spent a few days flying to Beast Land. Eventually, he flew through the thick, ghost-white colored haze created by the Absorb Life Battle Formation until he found his way into the clearing while thinking:
(Of course, I can find my way through my own magic formation. I may have given up some control of it, but it is still very much under the influence of my own will.)
When Nick entered the space where he had left a clearing, the entire area was now filled with healthy-looking calamity lilies, thousands of them. Nick clenched his hands at his sides in triumph that his gamble had paid off. Nick then raised his voice to announce his presence:
"Shawn Martin, Tony Gillies, Ben Facey, and Jordan Kelvin! This is Nick Capitol speaking! It's time for you to go back to Grand Earth! Assemble here, on the double! "
Nick heard the latter phrase in an anime that he used to watch. He thought that it sounded cool, so he made use of it here. Not long after Nick made the announcement, the doors to the four small, portable safe-houses opened, and the four rank 2 Magicians that Nick had left here for a few years exited the safe-houses and gathered in front of Nick. They all looked pretty much the same as before Nick left them here, and they each even still wore a white magician's robe. With a weird expression plastered on his face, Nick asked them :
"Why do you all look the same as when I left you in this realm? Were you cultivating at all during my absence?"
Ben was the first one to answer:
"Sure, I was, sir. Cultivation is hard, though. I am trying to get to rank 3, but I do not see a way."
The rest answered with similar meaning behind their words:
"Same here."
"Me too."
"Sir, since you are rank 3, why don't you give us some pointers?"
Nick awkwardly rubbed his head, thinking:
(I expected too much from these people, presuming them to be capable of figuring out their own way to rank 3, but I will not personally guide them to rank 3. Their power is their own responsibility, and if they can't figure it out during the age of information, they only have themselves to blame.)
Nick replied coldly:
"Enough of that talk. Your cultivation is your own business. I just wanted to know why you four didn't seem to have made progress after two years. Anyway, I guess it is also a matter of things taking time. The calamity lilies seem to have grown properly, and so I will be taking them away and dismantling the Absorb Life Battle Formation and the Calamity Cultivation Formation."
The four rank 2 Magicians sighed in relief because they missed Grand Earth and were tired of living within Forgotten Peril. They were not concerned with the fact that Nick did not agree to help them with their cultivation; that was natural since powerful Magicians rarely had the time to spend doing such things unless they had special reasons to put forth that effort.
Nick spent the next few hours constructing a new Compact Garden Formation that he then used to extract and store the calamity lilies along with the soil that they grew in. He then stored the Compact Garden Formation into his newer space band. After that was done, Nick dismantled the Calamity Cultivation Formation, followed by the Absorb Life Battle Formation.
Once the magic formations were taken down, Nick stored the portable safe-houses in his older space band. Following that, Nick had his subordinates gather around him, at which point he summoned a crystal-blue projection stone from his older space band into his right grip and threw it at his feet. A blue space path magic formation then appeared, encircling the group, and after Nick spoke its trigger phrase in Valteese, the magic formation glowed with bright, silver light that enveloped the five Magicians, including their fields of vision.
When the silver light abated, all five Magicians appeared within Nick's house in Sidon. Nick then led his four subordinates in making use of his other space path magic formation to travel to his workspace on the third basement floor of his company's building. Nick dismissed the four rank 2 Magicians as soon as they arrived on Grand Earth, saying:
"You can spend the next two days resting, but today, you have to go write reports on what happened within Forgotten Peril. You can do that by speaking with Joyce. You can leave, now."
The four rank 2 Magicians took the elevator to where they would be heading next, while Nick meditated for a few minutes before calling Carl and telling him that he had the calamity lilies that were to be processed. The two Calamity Processing Formations were already in place, and six new rank 2 Maicians had already been hired, trained, and were waiting on standby to operate them.
Joyce and Carl had apparently been working spiritedly while Nick had been away, so everything was in place for work to begin. The time was now a little past midday, and so Nick met Carl, the six new rank 2 Magicians, and other operations staff on the second floor, where the work would begin.
Once there, Nick greeted all his employees and explained how important what they would be doing was to the company. After that, three of the new rank 2 Magicians were put in place to man each of the two Calamity Processing Formations. Nick spent the time to slowly feed each Calamity Processing Formation with the calamity lilies, while thinking:
(I collected about eight thousand three hundred calamity lilies from Forgotten Peril this time around. I assume that since my processing method is novel and the rank 2 employees are new, there will naturally be wastage. I just hope that it won't be too much.)
The processing was intended to neutralize the negative luck path effects involved with handling the calamity petals and properly packaging them. It took a few tries for the six involved rank 2 Magicians to get used to the Calamity Processing Formation and avoid making mistakes. The Calamity Processing Formation, due to the nature of what it facilitated, had to be guided manually despite many of its functions being automatic, and so there was a huge chance of human error taking place during the final processing of the calamity lilies.
Nick and his employees spent three days while taking infrequent breaks, to process all of the calamity lilies, but two hundred of the plant magic materials were destroyed before the rank 2 Magicians got used to manipulating the Calamity Processing Formation, leaving Nick with eight thousand one hundred sellable flowers. The packaged calamity lilies were then stored within the ground-floor storage area, waiting to be picked up. With tiredness in his tone, Nick informed Hank, his sales manager, via his smartphone, how many calamity lilies they had to sell, and Hank endeavored to do his part in marketing the flowers to the right people to get orders.
Over the next week, while Nick focused on meditating within his workspace, Hank managed to sell each of eight thousand eighty calamity lilies for an average price of £1,460,000,000 each and amounting to a total revenue of £11,796,800,000,000. Before each sale was finalized, Hank made sure to have each packaged calamity lily appraised, which amounted to appraisal fees of over 8 vatas, leaving Nick with over 100 vatas in remaining gross profit.
At the end of two weeks after returning with the magic plants, Nick looked at the corporate account that was filled with over 180 vatas and began to feel like he had finally built a company that could sustain itself for a while without being on the verge of failure. Nick sat within his workspace and spoke with much emotion:
"After all those risks...my efforts are finally amounting to something that doesn't look like a mess."
Nck breathed in and out deeply many times before finally coming to terms with his partial success. Nick summoned his laptop and began making more plans regarding his cultivation and business activities:
(Beast Land was a great testing ground for planting the calamity lilies, but its wild west, grab-and-take environment puts this company at significant risk if news of what I did or how much I earned because of my activities there leaks, so I need to find a better, protected place to cultivate the calamity lilies. I still need to go about further exploring Forgotten Peril's Reckless State because not only is it a good training ground, but also because there are probably still valuable resources for me to unearth there. I also have several important cultivation milestones that I have to reach in the near future. The important question now is whether I should put my current resources to the test by cultivating or move forward with my business plans right away, putting my cultivation on hold for a few months.)
After spending an hour weighing the pros and cons of his choices, Nick ultimately decided that his cultivation should come first:
(If I don't keep improving, the risks of realm exploration will eventually overwhelm me. Being rank 3 initial stage still leaves me in a fragile state. I might have been able to overwhelm a few rank 3 Magicians, but in my opinion, those Magicians were not warriors, and I cannot be satisfied with defeating just them. I need to get stronger, or the amount of wealth that I gain is meaningless because I could die at any moment. Besides, if I want to find a more suitable location to plant calamity lilies, I need time to make an informed decision, and as for Reckless State, that place is still risky for the current me. If those two calamity mongrels had not been hibernating when I raided their den, who knows what could have happened to me?)
After making a decision, the rest of what Nick had to do became clearer to a large degree, but before he could begin making moves, Dewy called him on his smartphone. Nick accepted the call, saying:
"What's going on, Dewy?"
Dewy answered with an irritated tone:
"Sir Nick, there are some people here on the ground floor who claim to be from the Crocker family, and they are requesting to meet with you and threatening that if you don't show yourself that they will level this building."
Nick's expression became weird when he heard that, but then he suddenly remembered the battle that he had with a man named Denar Crocker some time ago. The latter did say that he was a member of 'the Crocker family'. Nick sighed in annoyance, thinking:
(...Looks like the chickens have come home to roost.)
Nick stored his laptop within his space band and used the elevator to get to the ground floor. Nick walked towards the entrance of the building, only to see Dewy nervously speaking to a tall, burly man dressed in a blue, three-piece suit that included a white dress shirt; the man also wore a pair of fancy-looking, black dress shoes. He had a slightly tanned, white complexion, sharp eyebrows, a head full of short, black hair, and dark eyes.
There were three more people similarly dressed in three-piece suits standing behind the burly man, one of whom was a young woman who was all smiles.
Nick walked up to the group without his swords being visible because he had temporarily stored them in his older space band. Nick asked indifferently, to the displeasure of the four unknowns:
"What the hell is this?"
The tall, burly man eyed Nick, who soon stood beside Dewy, and then spoke to him with a plain but firm voice:
"White hair and strange blue spiraling eyes. You must be Nick Capitol. My name is Saffon Crocker, and I am the Cousin of Denar Crocker, who you crippled some time ago..."
Nick raised his right eyebrow and interrupted Saffon with a question:
"Do you have proof that I did such a thing?"
Saffon openly snorted and turned his head to look at a man in his entourage, clearly signaling him. This man had a slim, wiry body, was just as tall as Saffon, and wore a grey three-piece suit along with a pair of black suede dress shoes. The wiry man stepped forward and spoke:
"My name is Davy Louis, and I am a Senior Supervisor at The Crown Company. I am also Denar Crocker's supervisor. One of Denar's subordinates, who was also apparently crippled by you, reported that he left you and Denar on the verge of fighting, so you cannot deny that you are the most likely culprit in the misfortune that befell my man. The Crown Company will not ignore such heinous acts against its people, and I am here to help see justice done."
Saffon nodded his head once at Davy before turning his attention to Nick again, and said:
"Let's not waste time by blowing smoke up each other's asses. I'll be clear, I came here to make you regret what you did."
Both Saffon and Davy released their rank 3 middle stage magic energy at this time with the intention of intimidating Nick. Nick stood firmly while maintaining his indifferent expression and facing down two apparently strong men. He leisurely scratched his chin using his right fingers and responded by saying:
"You should really think twice before making threats, Saffon. When your cousin made his ill intentions known, he paid a steep price. Leave before I lose my magnanimity and patience!"