Wizard Lord:I can Extract Anything

The war had begun. Following orders, Richard, accompanied by his alchemical golem, hurried to his assigned location.

This place was familiar to him—it was the war fortress he had entered after escaping from the insect hive.

Along the way, black-robed wizards flew towards the front lines, while above them, the skies were darkened by the war airships of the white wizards.

All war airships, including those under maintenance, were activated and dispatched to various war zones for signal transmission and combat support.

By the time Richard arrived at the war fortress, the battle was already underway.

A vast sea of insects, accompanied by a swarm of moths, surged towards the fortress like a tidal wave.

And this was merely a supplementary attack, leveraging the auxiliary forces of the insects against the wizards.

On the front lines, wizards faced enemies several times this number.

The alchemical weapons of the fortress roared, casting fireballs into the insect tides, leaving trails of destruction.

The priest insects, being rare and valuable units, had mostly been deployed to the front lines, with only a few remaining in secondary battlefields to relay commands.

Thus, Richard did not see the starlight barriers he had encountered in the hive.

Soon, the swarm entered the trap zone.

In an instant, countless traps were triggered, showcasing the power of various elements—fire, ice, lightning, acid... The magical array traps inflicted heavy losses on the swarms.

Insect limbs were scattered across the sky.

However, Richard noticed something peculiar.

The strength of these insects seemed off.

These insects appeared to be below the first tier, otherwise, the traps' power seemed disproportionately high.

But Richard was too far from the battlefield to confirm the situation.

Soon, the insect commander ordered a retreat, and the swarm receded like a retreating tide.

Using this lull, Richard entered the war fortress.

"Hey, Ivan, how have you been?" Richard greeted warmly in the fortress's command room.

Ivan's face lit up upon seeing him.

"Richard, long time no see. You've been doing well, I see."

He glanced at the alchemical golem beside Richard.

"You've gotten so much blue mushroom iron, you even used it for the golem's shell."

Richard shrugged, gesturing a small galaxy with his fingertips.

"Not bad, just made a little profit."

After the pleasantries, they got down to business.

"What's the current battlefield situation?" Richard inquired, eyeing the menacing swarm in the distance. That swarm was merely a diversion.

He couldn't imagine how terrifying the main battlefield must be.

Ivan spread out two maps: one of the Third War Zone and another encompassing all zones.

"Based on our intelligence, the insects have amassed around twenty million troops, with most concentrated in the First War Zone. The Second and Third War Zones each have about four million insects, with roughly ten thousand allocated to each fortress."

Richard raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't sound like much."

"Not much?" Ivan's voice rose. "This fortress has only twenty people, including you, just twenty-one.

Twenty-one against ten thousand! Each of us has to take on nearly five hundred insects!"

Ivan's voice, amplified by the bloodline of some otherworldly creature, roared like a tiger in Richard's ears.

Richard rubbed his ears, gesturing for Ivan to lower his voice.

"From what I saw earlier, alchemical weapons are quite effective against the insects. Their task is to hold us, not to overrun us.

As long as we hit them hard, a siege isn't out of the question."

Ivan sighed.

"Easy to say. Alchemical weapons consume magic stones and overheat. The magical array traps work, but only once. Next time the insects come, they'll be useless.

These insects have been holding back for so long; they won't stop at this."

Richard frowned. Ivan's attitude was problematic.

If the commander lacked confidence, how could the soldiers?

He patted Ivan's shoulder, speaking seriously:

"Wizard Ivan, your words are filled with defeatism, which is unacceptable. As the backbone of this white wizard team, you must believe that great wizards are invincible. Only then will your team have the spirit to continue fighting.

War is not just a material battle but a psychological one!

If you, the commander, succumb to defeatism, this fortress is doomed, and we'll die on the battlefield!"

Richard's words jolted Ivan. As a veteran white wizard, he understood the deep meaning behind Richard's words.

Ivan was silent for a moment before asking:

"Richard, are you really on your first battlefield?"

Such talk didn't come from a rookie.

Richard raised an eyebrow. "Of course, I'm a genuine student soldier, a pure volunteer who has to give up half of my spoils."

Ivan chuckled. "Still joking around at a time like this? And you say you're not an old wizard?"

After the banter, Ivan assigned Richard a combat position—support.

Wizards in this role supported the main assault, tasked with clearing enemies in the alchemical weapon blind spots and handling ammo and weapon cooling.

This position was well-suited for student soldiers.

Ivan watched Richard closely, hoping to see the veteran wizard's reaction to being given a student soldier's role.

He even discreetly prepared a crystal ball to capture the moment.

But his plan backfired.

Richard truly was a battlefield novice.

Seeing Richard take his position without hesitation, Ivan was dumbfounded. This wasn't what he expected.

Where was the anger? The frustration?

How did he just start working?

I was joking!

Ivan considered stopping Richard but saw him disappear in a few strides.

Simultaneously, a shout echoed in his mental network:

"Commander! The insects are attacking again!"

...

At his post, Richard quickly integrated into his role.

This position suited him well.

It didn't require battlefield experience, just a wizard to act like a robot, constantly transporting magic stones and cooling alchemical weapons.

A standard war fortress had many alchemical weapons, typically six alchemical magic stone cannons and a single-use strategic cannon.

The term "alchemical magic stone cannon" referred to the weapon type; each academy and white wizard regiment might use different versions.

In Richard's fortress, four of the six cannons were Lavossier Type II fireball cannons, each firing thirty fireballs per minute, with each fireball, after enhancement, reaching eight hundred energy units.

The remaining two were Tesla Type V lightning cannons, each firing every ten seconds, with a single-target damage of twenty-five hundred energy units, meant for eliminating indigenous powerhouses.

However, the power of these cannons came at a cost.

The Lavossier Type II consumed five magic stones per fireball, while the Tesla Type V needed fifty per use.

Moreover, the cannons required regular maintenance; spellcasting cores had to be replaced frequently. Otherwise, with continued use, wear would increase consumption, heat, and the risk of misfiring catastrophically.

Despite these challenges, alchemical weapons remained indispensable in planar wars.

On both main and secondary battlefields, they provided significant support to the white wizard forces.

Richard's task was to supply two Lavossier cannons with ammo and cool them, an easy job for him.

In his spare moments, Richard released Ulysses to collect insect remains from the battlefield.

"Hey, why'd you let your familiar out!" a wizard manning a cannon shouted.

"Aren't you sending it to its death on this battlefield?"

"Don't worry, my familiar isn't ordinary," Richard replied loudly over the weapon's hum.

Ulysses deftly wove through the fireballs, narrowly avoiding them as if taunting them.

Dare you hit me?

Ulysses glided gracefully, grabbing an insect and flying back. Some insects tried to attack, but under the alchemical onslaught, they were reduced to cinders.

With the corpse, Ulysses returned to the fortress.

"Caw, boy, you're in trouble," Ulysses communicated telepathically.

Richard frowned, taking the corpse.

Upon touching it, his expression changed.

"These insects are facades. They're not even first-tier!"

Richard's words drew alarmed glances from two nearby wizards, who immediately grasped the insects' strategy.

They were depleting the fortress's ammo reserves.

But even knowing the insects' plan, the cannons didn't cease firing.

This was an open scheme by the insects. Even knowing they were wasting ammo, they had to keep firing.

On the main battlefield, such tactics were futile. The white wizard regiments' mass casting could wipe out insects by the thousands, rendering numbers irrelevant.

But here, defending a fortress, if genuine first-tier insects breached the defenses...

The twenty-one wizards would have no choice but to flee.

Soon, the insects withdrew, leaving corpses strewn about. But no wizard celebrated.

"If this keeps up, we won't last long."

--Support me in Patreon for more chapters 35+ chapters in there 

patreon.com/LegendaryTL

Thanks!