Wizard: I Can Refine Everything-Chapter 540 - 4: A Bizarre World

"At last, a fish has taken the bait."

In the Secret Realm, Richard looked at the Space Rift in front of him, his lips curving into an unstoppable grin.

"I’ve waited five years, and now I can finally enter safely."

Ulysses, perched on Richard’s shoulder, flapped his wings a bit tiredly.

"So many contracts sent out, and finally, someone has taken the bait. Making these contracts has almost killed me."

"Ha-ha, stop complaining; let’s go in," Richard laughed, "You’ve been in the Secret Realm for so many years, aren’t you bored to death?"

"Psh, you’re the one with no patience, barely a few decades and you already can’t sit still..."

Amid their banter, the man and the bird entered the world.

Inside the world, Ben suddenly woke from a dream. The effects of the painkillers had worn off, and the pain gnawing at his body from all over was almost unbearable.

But quickly, the pain vanished, replaced by a numb tingling itch.

"Hmm?"

Ben opened his eyes, a look of surprise on his face.

Why did the pain suddenly stop?

Next to him, Richard retracted his World Tree Staff, sizing up the bandage-wrapped otherworldly creature.

"This thing kind of looks like a goblin, doesn’t it?" Richard thought to himself.

Even though the creature was swathed in bandages, its green skin, huge hooked nose, and somewhat drooping long ears reminded Richard of evil creatures he had seen in comics in his past life.

However, as far as this world was concerned, the little guy in front of him definitely wasn’t the kind of creature from those comics that specialized in targeting female knights.

Richard sent out his spiritual power, and the appalling environment of Bruno City came into full view.

"Steam technology, huh?"

Richard mused to himself as he observed the massive factories outside the window.

The Wizard World also dabbled in steam technology; many of their Alchemy Machines were powered by steam. However, this world’s development path seemed a bit different from theirs; this world did not have Alchemy, so they had developed steam technology to a quite advanced level.

Additionally, he noticed some other issues.

"There’s something wrong with this world’s energy environment," Richard said to Ulysses on his shoulder. "The energy in this world seems a bit too frenzied."

In Richard’s perception, the energy environment of the world in front of him was severely flawed, with energy being very active in a given space.

Active energy wasn’t a big problem for higher-level creatures, but for lower-level ones, it directly resulted in a sharp increase in the difficulty of absorbing energy.

Judging from the current energy environment of this world, the creatures capable of entering the evolutionary sequence must be pitifully few unless the creatures of this world had some special method.

While Richard was observing around, the itchiness on Ben’s body had already faded. He was surprised to find that, after the itchiness went away, he felt somewhat rejuvenated.

It was like returning to his eighteen-year-old self.

He sat up and then saw Richard standing by his bed.

"...Hmm?"

Ben rubbed his eyes, making sure he wasn’t seeing things. The strange creature from his dream had actually appeared in reality.

The scenes from his dreams flashed before his eyes like frames from a film reel, and he remembered that in the dream, out of anger and unwillingness, he had signed a contract with this beautiful man who resembled a noble.

Noticing that Ben had spotted him, Richard turned to look at the little green-skinned guy, ready to ask for some information through a Spiritual Message.

But before that, he needed to come up with a name for this type of creature.

"He looks like a goblin and is good with Steam Machinery; this is definitely a Goblin," Richard thought to himself. "I’ll call them Goblins then."

Having decided on a name, Richard spoke up, "Goblin, tell me what this place is."

Hearing the voice inside his head, Ben was taken aback for a moment. Although he didn’t know what the phrase "Goblin" meant, it seemed to be addressing him.

So he immediately replied, "My lord, this is Bruno City in the Mechanical Kingdom, Thirteenth District."

Upon hearing Ben’s reply, Richard stood startled, not so much at what Ben had said but at realizing he had overlooked something.

He didn’t know the language of this world at all.

"This is going to be a bit tricky."

Richard rubbed his forehead with a slight headache then looked to his shoulder and said, "My Subordinate God, I leave the task of teaching this Goblin to you."

Learning a language in a short time wasn’t difficult, but that was based on having teaching materials.

Richard had entered this world alone and had no one to prepare materials or a Crystal Ball of Inheritance for him.

"My Main God, this is your first Believer in this world. In our place, this ’Goblin’ is your Pope."

"Well, it’s not my fault that I can’t preach."

"Alas, you refused to learn from me before. It’s fortunate that I am not asleep right now, or you’d be waiting to die trapped in this world."

After complaining, Ulysses draped himself in a layer of majestic Holy Light. Subsequently, he began conversing with Ben through Spiritual Messages. During the conversation, Ulysses packaged himself and Richard as Prophets. He also took the opportunity to inquire whether there were any peers in this world.

The inquiry yielded an unexpected result: they did indeed have peers in this world.

"The Complete Lord and two Sons of God?" Richard’s eyebrows furrowed slightly, "So, that means we have three peers, right?"

"No, no, no, it’s two peers," Ulysses shook his head, "The legend goes that the Complete Lord transformed into the Supreme Sacred Mountain tens of thousands of years ago to resist the invasion of the Evil Demon and subsequently suppressed it. After his death, his power was inherited by the two Sons of God.

These two Sons of God established the current two great Kingdoms and became Divine Kings who possess both the divine and the kingly."

At this point, Ulysses’s tone became exceedingly disdainful.

A mere native World Master dares to claim the title of Divine King?

"It’s going to be a bit tricky with peers around," Richard voiced his headache, "Dealing with an old-established Church that has been running for tens of thousands of years, are your methods sufficient?"

"Sufficient?"

Ulysses’s tone turned gleeful as if he had heard a joke.

"This sort of corrupt Church that knows nothing of internal cleansing, stealing their Believers couldn’t be easier. The only thing we need to be careful about is secrecy, not to expose ourselves to the Church’s view before we have grown to a certain size."

Seeing Ulysses so confident, Richard suddenly struck a serious pose, and said righteously, "In that case, this glorious and arduous task is yours."

"... Eh? Go to hell," Ulysses flapped his wings wearily, "I told you a long time ago that I need to sleep soon.

Although you found a body for me, at most this will reduce the duration of my sleep, not prevent it.

I can feel that the day of my slumber is not far away. I’ll lay the groundwork for you during this time, but you’ll have to develop the Church on your own."

Ulysses wasn’t lying to Richard about learning to preach, he really was about to sleep.

Barring any unforeseen events, once he awoke, his strength would return to the limit of the Fourth Level. At that time, he only needed to reshape his Rule Body and complete his rules to return to being a Level 5 Creature.

"This... Alright then."

Richard sighed helplessly, unable to take the shortcut he wanted.

After Ulysses preached, Richard was able to communicate unhindered with his own Believer.

In the conversation with Ben, he gained a deeper understanding of this world.

"Cybernetic enhancements, biological modifications... this world is quite fun."

After hearing Ben’s descriptions, Richard couldn’t help but marvel at the diversity of the vast universe.

In this small world, he actually witnessed the battle between two branches of the Alchemy School from the Wizard World.

There are two types of power systems in this world: one favors mechanical cybernetic enhancements, and the other flesh modifications. And both have been completely popularized.

Slaves in the factory undergo simple flesh modifications to better adapt to the harsh factory environment. Factories that are more assembly-line oriented, on the other hand, perform cybernetic enhancements on their workers.

After the enhancements, mechanical bodies are stronger and less prone to damage. Once adapted, the precision of low-level enhancements is almost indistinguishable from normal arms, and the precision of high-level ones is many times more delicate than human hands.

Above civilian usage, military enhancements are even more extravagant. According to Ben, those Knights who have undergone military modifications can withstand taking steam baths in scalding vapor, and the weaponry mounted on their bodies is as formidable as cannons.

Legend has it that there are even higher-level modifications above those of the Knights. But he, merely a Mechanic, knew this only from visiting the Royal Capital to take the Mechanic’s examination and chatting with other Mechanics.

After determining the general state of the world, Richard and Ulysses deliberated and decided not to preach initially.

To know oneself and the enemy is to be undefeated in hundreds of battles. They needed to first ascertain the position of the two competing Churches before moving forward.

If the two Churches were merely occupying the ecological niche of religion and helping to gather wealth, then they could commence preaching boldly and confidently. But if the two Churches also had the role of collecting the Power of Faith, they would have to be more cautious.

However, before that, he needed to help out his first Believer in this world.

"Ben, now you need to make a choice."

Richard shone in a gentle Holy Light, his voice seeming mild yet carrying a hint of authority.

"Do you wish to undergo flesh modification?"

Ben looked up at Richard, knelt on the ground, and responded with the most sincere words of his life, "My Lord, I am willing."

Richard nodded slightly, "Alright then, follow me to the cast shadow of the Divine Country in this world."

With that, Richard opened the Secret Realm Rift and led Ben into the Secret Realm.

Seeing the azure sky within the Secret Realm (tinted by the World Mushroom), smelling the fresh air sweetened a little (compared to Bruto City’s air, even car exhaust would seem fresh), Ben knelt down once again.

In Richard’s perception, his connection with Ben became even more intimate.

Richard stroked his chin, thinking to himself, "So this is what makes a Fanatic? It seems the task of preaching isn’t as daunting as I thought."