Wizard: I Can Refine Everything

After assigning tasks in the laboratory, Richard casually glanced at the laboratory warehouse.

Over the span of a million years, even the creations of the Pioneers were bound to suffer some damage. The Divine Palace Laboratory had experienced several major spatial storms over this millennium, and with the power furnace operating at low load, damage was inevitable.

As the part of the Divine Palace Laboratory with the lowest protection priority, the warehouse naturally became the most severely damaged area.

For the laboratory, resources and materials could be replenished, but damaged machinery was a serious issue.

Even in the years when the Pioneers were still around, it took decades, even centuries, to produce a single piece of laboratory equipment.

Nevertheless, there were still some remnants left in the laboratory's warehouse.

…

The crystal walls disintegrated into tiny cubes, scattering about, and a severely damaged warehouse appeared in front of Richard.

Entering it, the first thing that caught Richard's eye was a dozen large and small space bubbles.

"Due to a data loss when I malfunctioned, I am not sure what items are in the laboratory warehouse. However, for safety reasons, please be extremely cautious. Although the Divine Palace Laboratory is a second-level laboratory, many of the research items stored here are capable of fatally injuring a World Master."

Lan's advice echoed in Richard's ear, but he didn't need to be reminded to be extremely cautious towards the items left by the Pioneers.

After all, the evolution light instrument's blue flames were one of the Pioneer's experimental items. If it weren't for Ulysses's protection at that time, Richard would never have been able to obtain that flame.

Standing in front of a space bubble, Richard cautiously erected a magic barrier. Inside this space bubble was a human-head-sized black rock that looked ordinary, but no one knew if it would be harmful until opened.

Under Lan's control, the space bubble was released.

The next instant, an extremely strong radiation of decay instantly filled the entire warehouse.

Richard was certain that if this radiation had erupted in the Secret Realm, it would have rendered every part of the realm barren except for the World Mushrooms.

However, this didn't mean it was very dangerous.

"It's alright, not too dangerous."

After determining the intensity of the decay radiation, Richard breathed a sigh of relief.

Although decay radiation was lethal to other organisms, to Richard, it was no more troublesome than ordinary energy radiation.

A wave of rule fluctuations emanated from within Richard's body, and a magic bubble teeming with life energy flew from his hand, enveloping the entire rock.

Under the filtration of the Life Rule, the radiation emitted from the rock instantly transformed into normal energy radiation, which was much easier to handle.

Richard took out a metal ingot from his pocket and immediately crafted an enchanted lead box on the spot. Placing the rock inside, he then turned to face another space bubble.

The item inside this space bubble was quite ordinary.

The bubble was large, containing fifty mithril bricks each about ten by twenty by five centimeters in size, and judging by the purity, they were comparable to those Richard had refined using the Miracle Furnace.

After inspecting a few more large space bubbles, which contained rare alchemy materials, Richard noted that these items would be excellent materials in the hands of any race. Thus, there was no possibility of the Wizards considering these items impressive, whereas the Pioneers regarded them as trash.

Soon, only two out of the dozen space bubbles remained. Maintaining his magic barrier, Richard approached a small space bubble the size of a palm.

This bubble contained a palm-sized black beetle, but just by feeling it, Richard knew it was an extraordinary creature.

Taking out the Balancing Hand, Lan unlocked the space bubble.

The next moment, a pressure as powerful as Richard's immediately erupted from the beetle.

Under Richard's astonished gaze, the beetle suddenly moved.

"Does the space bubble also have the effect of stopping time?" Richard exclaimed in shock, otherwise, after a million years, this beetle, even if it were a World Master, should have died of old age.

"Of course not, stopping time requires a specialized stasis chamber, which is very precious."

Richard waved the Balancing Hand, and in an instant, a soil-yellow spherical force field appeared out of nowhere, precisely enveloping the black beetle.

This was an Elemental Force Field from Earth Element Magic, borrowing part of the properties of the earth element. The force field composed of the earth element had a significant slowing effect. If the life encompassed by the force field was weak enough, this force field could be comparable to an imprisonment spell.

With the amplification of the Balancing Hand, the intensity of this magic was qualitatively enhanced. Although the effects of the elemental force field cannot be measured in energy levels, an equivalent amplification of thirty thousand energy levels was enough to boost a force field that could only delay an Apprentice Wizard to one that could delay a World Master.

Within the Elemental Force Field, the black beetle struggled continuously. However, strangely, the beetle showed no regular energy fluctuations nor exhibited noticeable intelligence.

It seemed just like an ordinary beetle.

As a Master studying physique, Richard immediately discerned the mystery within.

"The soul has perished, but the body is still alive?"

Richard's tone carried astonishment, and if his conjecture was true, then he might have found something even the Physique Crown would envy.

Ordinarily, a creature's body and soul are closely linked. Without actively breaking this connection, the death of the body would also lead to the simultaneous death of the soul. This is also the fundamental reason Wizards protect their bodies.

Except Soul Wizards and Undead Wizards, few Wizards could sever the connection instantaneously.

This situation could also be reversed. After the soul perishes, the body would also die.

However, through the research of Garon the Great Wizard, he discovered an extreme case wherein some lives with overly tenacious life forces might resurrect under certain special circumstances after death.

This sort of resurrection was a resurrection of the body, and the creature's soul would not return with it. Thus, the resurrected creature would be limited by the traits of its race, and also be unable to perform some abilities it had while possessing a soul.

For example, a beetle cannot think, and without spiritual power to assist, it would be extremely difficult to manipulate energy...

However, this was just a hypothesis; even Garon the Great Wizard had not found an example when he became the Physique Crown.

Richard brought the bug out of the laboratory and immediately called out to the World Mushroom for it to start nurturing the bug. His Sealing Skill was insufficient, unable to seal a life of the World Master Level.

Having sent the bug away, Richard arrived in front of the last Space Bubble.

The content within this Space Bubble was peculiar, holding a formless black substance that looked like a dense cloud of smoke.

Prepared with defenses, Lan opened the last Space Bubble.

The moment it opened, Richard's body tensely stiffened. However, the danger he anticipated did not occur; the black substance stayed in place after the Space Bubble's release, as if the Space Bubble itself was just a box.

"Control center, analyze it."

"Yes, Sir Richard."

Soon, Lan's voice rang in Richard's ears.

"Sir Richard, this cloud of smoke is a type of ultra-micro community organism. For now, they pose no threat to you."

"Explain that term."

"Community organisms are a unique life form model, where their group can be considered as one individual. Ultra-micro refers to the fact that the individual organisms are so minute they have reached nanoscale."

"Gestalt creatures, I refer to these organisms as Gestalt creatures."

"Yes, Sir Richard."

With the Magic Barrier retracted, Richard casually waved his hand, and an Earth Element Field appeared out of nowhere, enveloping the black smoke. However, once the Elemental Field materialized, the black smoke unexpectedly changed form. A faint spiritual fluctuation emerged from the smoke.

The meaning embedded in that spiritual fluctuation seemed to be… begging for mercy?

"Possessing intelligence?"

Richard was startled, his right hand gripping the Magic Wand unconsciously tightened. But soon his expression turned to elation—possessing intelligence was a good thing!

With a thought, Richard sent a fine spiritual fluctuation from between his eyebrows.

"Do you possess intelligence?"

"Spare my life."

"Can you communicate?"

"Spare my life."

"…I haven't eaten breakfast this morning."

"Spare my life."

After some testing, Richard came to a somewhat humorous conclusion. The creature possessed intelligence, but only a little.

Nevertheless, that was enough.

Compared to the Wuxiang, which only reacted instinctively, this cloud of smoke had completed a transformation from zero to one.

Richard took out a small metal ingot from his pocket, flicked his finger, and the metal ingot fell into the cloud of smoke. As soon as the metal ingot made contact, the smoke suddenly erupted violently.

The Gestalt creature instantly condensed from a gaseous to a solid state, enveloping the entire metal ingot.

Richard timed the reaction, and after one minute, the Gestalt creature reverted to smoke form, and the chunk of metal had completely disappeared.

The Gestalt creature sent out a wave of joyful spiritual fluctuations, and Richard noticed that the creature had grown slightly larger.

He continued to feed it various materials, from stones to wood, and even strands of World Mushroom mycelium. Except for the mycelium, which was absorbed very slowly, the creature consumed other materials quite rapidly.

A fist-sized stone took only ten seconds to be fully consumed. When replaced with wood of the same volume, it took even less than a second.

"The efficiency of absorption is much better than that of Wuxiang, and it's not picky either. But what use are you?"

Richard thought to himself, and a fine Wind Blade emerged, slicing off a corner of the Gestalt creature. But the moment the Wind Blade approached, the creature materialized again.

The blade struck it, leaving only a faint mark.

"Not high in strength—it seems not to have value as a material."

Richard snapped his fingers, and a burst of Flames sprang to life beneath the smoke. Under the burning Flames, the creature once again shrunk into a substance. Through spiritual power, Richard could clearly see that part of the smoke was being consumed by the flames.

"Okay, it's confirmed—it has no value as a material."

Richard was somewhat disappointed and was about to seal the smoke when Lan's voice interrupted him.

"Sir Richard, I think some of my observational data might be of use to you. When you were feeding it, I noticed that the free elements in the unit space where the smoke was situated decreased a bit. And its volume also increased by 0.001%."

Richard was startled, "Are you saying it can absorb free elements for self-replication?"

"Very likely."

With this affirmative answer, Richard's gaze toward the smoke turned fervent.

The foundation of matter is elements, and elements do not vanish into thin air. If this creature could absorb free elements for self-replication, then when its numbers reach a certain level, wouldn't any elemental attack be directly neutralized by it?

Richard envisioned a scene where the creature expanded to the magnitude of a tidal wave.

In this elemental-absorbing black tide, any army that stood in its way would be utterly consumed.