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658. The Empire's Age of Exploration: Jean Claude's First High Level Plane
🕑 Added 2025-03-07 07:29:14 +0000 UTCKarak and Virek suddenly screamed in agony, and before they could react, their flesh and blood disintegrated, leaving two massive, illusory dragon souls. The dragon souls flew upward and entered Serashi’s body, drastically increasing her mana and soul.
‘This is not enough,’ she thought with gritted teeth. Her powerful soul warned her that this improvement was not nearly enough to deal with Jean Claude. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do now, or so she thought. An unknown will descended on her body, and Serashi’s aura increased until she reached the next level of her magic — Tier 9.
“The Plane Will,” Jean Claude uttered. “Is this a last counterattack?”
“This power,” Serashi muttered as she felt her body's transformation. She did not dwell too much on her body as she looked at Claude with intense killing intent.
“You seem confident,” the Arcanist said calmly.
“I will make you pay for the suffering you’ve inflicted on my world,” Serashi said, not hiding the hatred in her eyes. However, the response she received made her pause as Claude chuckled instead of being scared. For a moment, she thought this tactic was to disarm her, but a nagging feeling told her this man was simply confident he would not lose even in this situation.
“If you were facing any other civilization, your last ditch effort would have worked,” Claude said calmly. “Unfortunately for you, the Arcane Civilization represents the epitome of wisdom and magic. Arcane Spark: Activate.”
Jean-Claude was a reasonably accomplished arcanist, meaning he had plenty of karma in his Arcane Spark for empowerment. With the boost, he could now cast a Tier 9 Spell, and he chose the World-Imprisonment Spell created by Grand Arcanist Michelle Lee. Grand Arcanists are beings whose understanding of magic is on the level of the law, but they are missing the Willpower requirements to truly wield that power and become Legendary Arcanists.
The World-Imprisonment Spell is considered the epitome of Spatial Magic — if you don’t consider the secret royal archives that contained the Arcane Emperor’s Space Mastery Spells.
Serashi tried her best to resist, and with the assistance of the Plane Will, she put on a decent battle. However, Claude was not playing around, so he accessed the Aether Core from his tower to further boost his spell. In the end, Serashi is imprisoned in this little black cube that Claude keeps in his presence.
“This conquest is finally over,” Claude exhaled. He was lucky to have found a civilization with such a fatal flaw. Otherwise, he would have to spend longer and waste even more money and manpower before taking over this world.
“Sorceress, this is the last obstacle, correct?”
“There a few small rebellions, but nothing the Golem or Knight Legion cannot put down.”
“Sent the Knight Legion since they need to gather merit,” Claude ordered. “Have the Golems build the Astral Gate to connect to the Empire.”
“As you wish,” the Sorceress nodded. “I have a plenary result of this plane’s resources. Do you want to see it?”
“Alright.” As Claude flew back to his tower, he reviewed the information. This plane had ample magical ores, plants, and even numerous veins of mana stones. Claude first checked the ores but was immediately disappointed when he saw things like mithril and common ores available in magical planes in the Astral Realm.
The Empire had reached the level where it could artificially create most of the magical ores it had discovered, except for a few unique ones, meaning their value had drastically decreased over the years. Claude checked the plants and nodded in satisfaction after seeing many rare plants that needed further analysis/study.
The mana stone veins needed to be processed first. In the Astral Realm, mana stone is used as money for most commercial exchanges because it is one of the best energies and because it’s backed by the Wizard Plane. However, the Empire has taken over a small portion of the market with the introduction of artificially created mana crystals. Claude planned to turn these veins into an even higher form of energy—Aether Cores.
“The halt will drastically increase my wealth,” Claude commented. “But what I care about is this plane’s knowledge.”
“A small Golem squad is building you a library with all of the world’s knowledge, and it’s almost complete,” the Sorceress responded.
“Excellent. By the way, how long will the gate take?”
“12 hours, 35 minutes, and 54 seconds.”
“Remind me when it’s done — I’ll be in the library.” Claude did not waste time and plunged himself into this world’s knowledge. He did not just focus on their magic but also their history, culture, art, and religion. Claude cared especially about the latter since he knew the people of this world worshiped the Goddess of Magic — Vi’Vek.
His tower did not detect divine energy or beings, but Claude wanted to be cautious. He searched for information to ensure Vi’Vek was a pure spiritual religion and not one with an actual Faith God. Luckily, he was worried for no reason.
…
“Sir, the gate is finished.”
“Have we connected to Skynet?”
“We have.”
“Good,” Claude nodded. “Show me the report you wrote.” A screen appeared before him, and he modified the report after reading it. The Sorceress did not exaggerate the situation enough, and since this involved remuneration from the Empire, Claude wanted to do his best. Once he was satisfied, he submitted the report.
Someone, or maybe an Artificial intelligence—Claude couldn’t tell—responded to him almost immediately. He had to discuss the state of his plane and whether he would sell the entire plane, its knowledge, or resources, or make it purely private for his use. Claude chooses to sell knowledge, but only after studying it himself. He also took his time to register Kroll for the test; he also wanted to apply for Serashi, but he hadn’t convinced her yet. Finally, the government paid him to partake in their experiment.
“These cheap skates were quite generous this time,” Claude commented. With this reward, he had plenty of merit to buy important knowledge and secrets, and his wealth would further increase once he digested the knowledge of this plane and sold it.
“What do you think I should do with the merit? Save it for later or buy something?”
“If you want to increase the chances of completing the Arcane Body, I suggest updating your lab,” the Sorceress suggested.
“You have a point,” Claude nodded. However, just as he was about to start shopping, he received a call. “Luiz?” Luiz Souza was an Arcanist from the Brazilian Region and one of Claude’s acquaintances.
“Luiz, is your conquest over?”
“Not yet,” Luiz, a handsome man with black hair and a mustache, answered.
“You don’t look too good,” Claude commented.
“My conquest is not going too well,” Luiz admitted.
“Were you unlucky to find a high-level civilization?”
“Not quite,” Luiz responded. “Seven empires rule my plane, and these bastards have long discovered Planar Traveled and kept it quiet. Once I had the advantage in the war, they called for backups.”
“So, you’re fighting seven planes at once?” Claude asked in wonder.
“I’m not that crazy. I had an infiltration operation and destroyed six of their gates, but one remained open. But even with 2 on 1, I’m barely managing.”
“That’s rough, buddy,” Claude commented. “If I were you, I would have the Empire for help.”
“No, I can’t do that. As long as I win this war, I will gain access to seven plane coordinates — I cannot hand over such an opportunity.”
“Fair point, but if I remember correctly, didn’t Weasley Financial Institute fund your expedition? If you lose, you’ll have to sell your soul to them.”
“I know this, but I’m prepared to gamble everything. The worst that will happen is I will declare bankruptcy.”
Claude secretly shook his head. This method might help him avoid financial ruin from any other institutes, but the Weasleys are the Emperor’s most trusted people, so Luiz will be in trouble one way or another.
“So, why did you call me?”
“I have a slave plane under my control and wonder if you were interested in buying a few cannon fodders for your expedition,” Luiz asked.
“I’m sorry, but I was lucky this time, and my expedition went well,” Claude shook his head.
“Is that so?” Luiz muttered, with the light in his eyes dimming slightly. “What about your contacts? Do you have anyone who might need it?”
Claude hesitated briefly: “I can connect you to a few people, but I don’t know whether they will need your service.”
“Thank you,” Luiz said sincerely. “I promise I won’t forget this favor.”
“No problem.”
----
[AN: I will show the story of one more character before we continue with Edward's story. Thank your for your patience and understanding.]
Comments
incognito viewer
I love this side stories
Mohamed Mayow
Keep up the good work
