Wizard: Scamming a Demon God

Isaac’s eyebrow twitched at the display of Magic. ’Is this the power of a Grand Arcanist candidate?’

The pile of Golem Remains might not have looked huge—only thirty to forty cubic meters—but it was all solid chunks of iron. The density was off the charts. Although he hadn’t weighed it, Isaac conservatively estimated it had to be at least a thousand tons!

Hadn’t the training ground already become a dilapidated mess after the pile sat on it for just two days?

When he first moved this stuff into his Dimension, it had taken several hundred Great Sword Ghosts to help him. Now, Cheryl had come along and taken care of it with a simple wave of her hand. The difference was just...

’Thank goodness, Sis is on my side!’

"There are three hundred forty-seven complete Golem Cores, and three that are slightly damaged... We’ll call it three hundred and fifty. As for the other materials... they aren’t worth much, so I’ll put them all down for a hundred thousand Gold Coins. The grand total is one million five hundred thousand Gold Coins. Do you want to verify the count?" Cheryl said, turning to Isaac after giving the floating Golem Remains just a single, sweeping glance.

"One million five...!" Isaac’s heart skipped a beat.

’Figures. No matter the world, this line of work is always the most profitable!’

’All the money I’ve ever handled in my life doesn’t even add up to a fraction of this!’

’In that instant, Isaac suddenly lost the urge to kill Philo. What a waste that would be! Legendary Mages travel frequently, and as a princess of the Empire, it would be perfectly normal for her to bring a hundred or two Golems along, right?’

Tsk~

’The financial prospects are limitless!!!’

"Isaac?" Cheryl prompted gently when he didn’t answer right away.

"Oh, right! That’s fine, I have no objections!" After a pause, Isaac added, "Uh, Sis, will the territory still be buying Golem Cores in the future? Emmm, and maybe more than just the cores."

"?" At first, Cheryl didn’t understand what Isaac was getting at. But as an Arcanist, she had a quick mind and immediately grasped his intentions, rendering her momentarily speechless. "It’s impossible for us to buy more in the future... First, the Mage Tower’s production capacity is limited. This batch alone will keep us busy for seven or eight years. Second, we don’t have that many customers. And third..."

"We can only make this a one-time purchase. If you get more, I’ll introduce you to a friend. You can sell to her in the future. She’s not afraid of trouble."

"Oh, I see." Isaac nodded, a bit dejected. He realized he’d asked a foolish question.

’The territory wasn’t like the Empire; it didn’t have that kind of massive production capacity where you could just toss in materials and have Golems pop out. Besides, this stuff had been looted from the Eldest Princess. The Empire was already in the wrong on this one, so they couldn’t complain.’

’But if his territory kept buying, the Empire would certainly start making trouble for them.’

’Still, it wasn’t all bad news. His idea had merit. Just as Cheryl had said, if he couldn’t sell to the territory, couldn’t he just sell to someone else?’

’The price might be a bit lower, but that didn’t matter. It was all pure profit, after all.’

The transaction went smoothly. Cheryl had done her homework before arriving; she already had a rough idea of the number of Golem Cores and had secured authorization from Gaia and Caesar. She had the authority to approve a one-and-a-half-million-Gold-Coin deal.

The paperwork for the transaction was completed quickly. "Paperwork" was perhaps an overstatement—it was really just a few pre-stamped, blank documents. Cheryl filled in the amount, and Isaac just had to add his signature to make the deal official.

According to the contract, the first payment of five hundred thousand Gold Coins would be delivered to Isaac in three months. Only the first installment would be delayed; subsequent payments would be made according to the agreed-upon schedule.

After signing the contract, Cheryl gave a grand wave of her hand, using Magic to temporarily create a vast pocket of Space into which she gathered all the Golem Remains. Then, without lingering, she turned and departed the territory.

For one, the battle at the fortress had just concluded, and she had a mountain of things to attend to. For another, there wasn’t much reason to stay. In the entire, vast territory, the only people were Isaac and Smith...

Isaac didn’t try to make her stay. Suddenly coming into such a fortune, even if it hadn’t arrived yet, was more than enough to thrill him. He needed to think long and hard about how to spend it!

’First on the list is obviously a Mage Tower!’

’On second thought... that’s way too expensive. I can’t afford that... I don’t really need one anyway. I’ll just upgrade my laboratory and make do...’

’Aside from the laboratory, I can finally buy the materials to set up the Demon Breeding Farm. I’ll convert all the former medicinal herb fields, just as I planned, and focus on raising Demon whelps.’

He wouldn’t even have to go through the trouble of building the Beast Breeding Arena himself; he could just buy a pre-made one. These kinds of territorial Magic Arrays came in all sorts of high-end versions. Some could even keep the Demons inside in a state of heat twenty-four-seven, allowing them to continuously perform the Ode to Life without any harm to their bodies!

It was all exceptionally magical!

Naturally, there were also versions designed for raising Demon whelps.

There were even arrays that claimed to help Demons awaken their Dragon Blood, but as for how effective those actually were...

...well, opinions differed.

’In any case, I’m not buying one of those. A high-end version suitable for Demon whelps will do just fine. I’ll research how to awaken Dragon Blood myself.’

Beyond these industrial projects, there were a few other things he could now get started on ahead of schedule.

For example, a Floating Island!

A Floating Island is not the same as a Floating City. The two are only superficially similar. The former is a miraculous natural landform, while the latter is a superweapon developed by Arcanists!

An evolved version of a Mage Tower!

A cluster of gigantic, high-speed Mage Towers, floating in the sky!

Normally, a Mage Tower is immobile. This is because its power comes from the Four Great Elemental Realms, which requires it to open a channel at a fixed location. It then uses a Magic Array to purify the four great Elements into the Magic Power needed for its operation.

If a Mage Tower were to move, it would either lose its connection to the Elemental Realms or the Magic Power flowing from them would go berserk!

Therefore, while Mage Towers were powerful, they could only defend a fixed position, which kept them from being completely overpowered.

That is, until the advent of a certain invention—the Aurora Melting Furnace!

No one outside the high command of the Truth Association knew how the thing worked, only that it could unleash a nearly infinite amount of Magic Power!

And it was a *mobile* Magic Power Source!

And so... the mobile Mage Tower was born...

But soon, the Arcanists discovered that the Magic Power unleashed by an Aurora Melting Furnace was far too immense for a single Mage Tower. It could easily power ten, or even a hundred!

And thus, the Arcanists’ ultimate superweapon was born: the Floating City!

’Even if my savings were a hundred times greater, I still couldn’t afford something like that...’

What he wanted to buy was a Floating Island, which was just a small island that could float in the sky. While still expensive, its price wasn’t nearly as outrageous as a Floating City’s. The cost difference between the two was like the difference between heaven and earth.

’Of course, I’m buying it to furnish my Dimension. The place is completely barren. If you want to start a farm, you need land first, don’t you?’

His Flesh Dimension was currently empty. Although the Space within was vast, most of it was unusable. Now that he had cleared out the Golem Remains, all that was left was the Flesh Nest and a few large rocks he had tossed in while building it.

Beyond that, it was nothing but an empty Void, with hardly any air.

Therefore, to develop the Dimension, the first step was to bring in some soil. But he couldn’t just shovel in any random dirt. The Dimension was an airless Void; nothing could survive in it.

A Floating Island, however, was different. This miraculous landform could not only float but also came with a natural, special Magic Barrier that could break down ambient Magic Power into the various substances needed for life to thrive.

Substances like air, water, and sunlight. Only with something like this could he finally start his farm.

’Furthermore, the structure of a Floating Island is perfect for being converted into a Floating City. The earliest Floating Cities were built by modifying Floating Islands. Once I have the money and the technology, I could do the same!’

’And I have a natural advantage over everyone else—my Floating City will be inside my own Dimension! It can be completely self-sufficient in terms of Magic Power!’

’No Aurora Melting Furnace required!’