I Arrived At Wizard World While Cultivating Immortality Chapter 843: Intelligence
Hearing the intelligence Augusta provided, the bridge fell quiet for a moment.
That was over a billion fourth- and fifth-level transcendents. In a real fight, never mind a billion; the other side would probably only need to send out a few thousand elite transcendents to kick them around the field.
Even counting the cannon-fodder units they carried themselves, there was no possibility of handling that many enemies.
A normal fifth-level wizard, even one specializing in biological modification or matrix breeding, could carry a number of cannon-fodder units somewhere between tens of thousands and a few hundred thousand.
And of those cannon-fodder units, apart from a few leader creatures able to reach the sixth level, only a few thousand or so could reach the fifth, while the rest were of lower level than the wizard himself.
Facing enemies on that order of magnitude, even pooling everything they had, they could not win if they threw in their entire holdings.
And… every wizard present understood one thing.
What had been named so far was only the number of elite units. The far more numerous civilians had not yet been mentioned.
As though seeing through the young wizards’ thoughts, Augusta switched the image again, and one gathering site after another was marked across the plane’s surface.
“As for the ordinary civilians among the mushroom-men, the estimated number exceeds a hundred billion!”
“Hssss!!!”
A good many young wizards could not help drawing a cold breath.
A hundred billion!
The young wizards felt their faces turn green.
Was this thing really an enemy they could handle?!
Put unkindly, an enemy on that order of magnitude, even standing still and letting itself be slaughtered, would be enough to leave these wizards and all their cannon-fodder units killing until their hands went numb.
Even the six wizards belonging to the elite combat units, whose expressions had scarcely changed until now, could not help their faces changing at that figure.
As elite combat units, it was not that they had never experienced a battlefield of such magnitude.
But at those times there had been millions of other wizards around them, along with the cannon-fodder units those wizards commanded, as support.
And now… with these mere dozen or so people, could they really handle this plane?
Augusta’s expression still had not changed in the least, and she went so far as to throw out another piece of bad news:
“Also, these mushroom-men have a rather troublesome physiological trait—their reproductive capacity is extraordinarily outrageous!”
“They are called mushroom-men not only because they look alike, but because their method of reproduction is similar to an ordinary mushroom’s: they rely on spores.”
“Every mushroom colony can cast out spores numbering in the hundreds of millions with each reproduction, and those spores need only two or three months to reach adulthood. Add the properties they take from elemental creatures, and these creatures’ endurance is outrageous; if environmental resources permit, they can very nearly expand without limit!”
Hearing that, Jie Ming’s gaze flickered slightly.
That reproductive capacity was quite absurd; even many insect types famed for their fecundity could not be mentioned in the same breath.
Put plainly, Jie Ming was somewhat tempted.
As material, this thing was really rather good…
Augusta’s briefing continued. “Beyond that, these creatures’ demands on resources are extremely low. When short of food and energy they can even gnaw rock directly and just barely sustain life.”
“So if the war later enters a stalemate, that is absolutely to our disadvantage. Trying to wear these fellows down over time is essentially unrealistic.”
On the bridge, everyone’s expression grew graver.
Vast in number, extremely fast-growing, tenacious of life, and no weakling in combat…
Any one of those traits alone would be enough to give an enemy a headache, and concentrating them all in one race made it troublesome in the extreme.
Creatures like this… were very nearly a swarm of tireless war machines!
Just as everyone’s expression turned grave, Augusta laughed lightly. “So one of the most valuable objectives of this plane war is precisely these mushroom-men.”
“On assessment, the mushroom-men’s bodily structure, reproductive capacity and survival capacity all make them extremely suitable as modification frames for cannon-fodder troops.”
“If the biological modification can be completed successfully, in future the family will possess a legion of vast numbers at extremely low cost!”
Hearing that, the young wizards present at once had their eyes light up.
That was a solid, substantial achievement, and if the modification could really be completed, they as participants would naturally share in no little of the credit.
“Also, because these mushroom-men have bred without restraint for so long, the whole plane’s biological resources are extremely impoverished. Potions, rare plants, magical beast resources; very nearly all of it has been consumed.”
Jie Ming, listening, was not much surprised. With traits like that, this race was bound to become the whole plane’s overlord.
And their unrestrained breeding would certainly have done no small damage to the plane.
“However…” Augusta’s tone shifted.
“According to elemental spectrum analysis, because this plane’s earth element is extremely rich, its various mineral resources are very abundant. High-quality elemental veins in particular far exceed those of an ordinary medium plane in number.”
After all, the earth element is best at deriving matter.
And the formation of many elemental crystals is in fact the result of certain elements being wrapped in the earth element, with the outer earth element deriving matter around them.
Augusta then made her summary. “So the primary objectives of this plane war are the collection of mushroom-man samples and the extraction of resources!”
“Yes!”
The young wizards answered as one.
Just then, the warship suddenly trembled lightly.
A mechanical voice sounded aboard the ship. “Target coordinates reached. Plane barrier detected ahead.”
At that notification, everyone’s gaze turned at once toward the front of the bridge.
On the light screen, an earth-yellow sphere too vast to imagine hung quietly there.
Outside the plane, a plane barrier as thick as amber wrapped the whole world entirely within it.
Augusta shut off the intelligence panel and turned to look at all the young wizards present.
Her gaze passed slowly over every face. “There is no need to put yourselves under too much pressure. This plane war will be led chiefly by the two of us; you need only do your best.”
Then Augusta looked toward Jie Ming beside her:
“Let us go. As agreed before, wide-area suppression is yours, the high-level combat power is mine… no problem with that?”
“Of course, no problem.”
Jie Ming smiled, straightened slowly from beside the pillar, worked the wrist joints of his puppet shell, and walked out of the bridge shoulder to shoulder with her.
Behind the two of them, the dozen or so Augusta family wizards followed in good order.