Inheritor Of Magic: The Magi King



Wolfe spent most of the morning working his way through the requests, with entirely too many garden charms for Stephanie's liking, until finally, he was faced with only a Colonel from the Myrrh Coven Army who had rushed over from the town her unit was stationed in as soon as she had heard about what was going on here today.

In her mind, there was a good chance that the event would be a one-time thing and that they wouldn't be able to find him in such an agreeable mood again later, so they were going to go all out and try to get the sort of upgrades that only a being as powerful as Wolfe could offer.

A lightning blade cast at the power level of a Fourth Rank Demon would cost the same amount of mana as a weapon created by a First Rank witch but would have exponentially more power. The advantage that the higher ranks had was that they could cast spells at the lower levels more efficiently, so Wolfe could recreate their armour and make it cost much less mana than the version they were currently using.

For a unit where many of the soldiers couldn't or could barely activate their own defensive spells, it was a huge survivability benefit, but having weapons created with the full power of a Rank Four Demon would be an overwhelming advantage.

A First Rank witch might struggle to activate some of the Arrays that Wolfe was capable of, but if he used his full skill to put [Wind Blades] and [Gravity Increase] charms in an Array, a simple sword could chop a tank to pieces.

The Colonel had, of course, prepared what she hoped would be a sufficient payment for Wolfe. The only problem was that she had misunderstood Wolfe's nature.

When the message had been relayed, they had told her Command Group that the Demon enjoyed new experiences and valued knowledge and experimentation, which the Commanders had filtered through their minds with their personal impressions of other Demons colouring everything.

They had assumed that Wolfe was evil and sadistic but easily amused, so they had prepared for him ten books of magical item schematics and then had brought him five criminals from the juvenile detention centre who were slated to be cast out of the coven once their sentences were served.

Presumably, a Demon who liked new things would need test subjects, and the Coven wanted to get rid of these young witches anyhow, as they were deemed a menace to society.

"What sort of proposal do you have for me?" Wolfe asked as the final request of the day was in front of him.

His wagon was full, loaded with books, trinkets and one huge stand mixer for Cook and the kitchen staff. He had made out like a bandit today, and it hadn't cost him a thing. He had even made the witches provide their own reagents, and he didn't have any requests that he needed to bring back to them at a later date.

Well, unless the magical item engineer wanted to return home at some point, but once she made it to the Den, it was unlikely that she would change her mind about following him.

"I would like you to make enough enchanted armour and weapons for two whole units." She informed him directly as if there was no question that he would agree.

"That sounds like a lot of hassle. A thousand Arrays? That's a big request." Wolfe informed her.

[You know full well that you can do them a hundred at a time when they're using the same Array. You do bullets that way.] Stephanie reminded him.

[That's not the point. She's asking for a thousand times more than the others. That's pretty greedy, and we're not just some random lackeys of the Coven.]

"We heard that you have many talented witches but no manufacturing facilities or construction experts, so I have prepared ten volumes of essential device schematics, as well as a group of test subjects for your experiments." She replied proudly, certain that the Demon would be impressed with her foresight.

Wolfe's icy tone made the witches shiver in fear. "Test Subjects? You would throw your own Coven Members to a Demon in exchange for a few spells?"

The witch backtracked quickly to smooth over the misunderstanding.

"Not Coven Members, criminals. They have all been deemed undesirables and will be either executed or cast out when their sentences are over." The Colonel explained.

She placed a stack of files in front of Wolfe so that he could see what she was offering.

"Serial thief, Assaulting a Coven Leader, Assaulting an officer, consorting with demons. Okay, that one is pretty ironic. More violent crimes against authorities, witches with records like these are the ones that Morgana Coven usually drafted for the army and sent to the front lines. Does Myrrh Coven not do that?" Wolfe asked.

"Myrrh has a three-strike rule. If they had been convicted once or twice, they could have served the Coven and redeemed themselves. But from the third crime on, we have found that there is little chance of them not reoffending, so they are not given any more chances."

The Colonel seemed to be attributing Wolfe's anger to him being a Demon and not to him having grown up with these sorts of people, especially the orphan girl who had been caught stealing food three times in a year.

Plus, what kid from the lower levels hadn't considered punching a Coven Security officer at least once when they came to grab 'undesirables' for the draft?

The problem was that helping the Myrrh Army was also helping himself, as they were neighbours, and the Coven Army was the one that kept the bandits and monster tides in check.

"Do you have the equipment here as well?" Wolfe asked while doing his best not to let his annoyance show.

"It's in the truck that I arrived with. All in crates ready for enchantment. I can have my escort lay it out for easier access if you need." She informed him with a slight smile as she saw that her proposal was likely to be accepted.

"There is no need for that. I can cast the arrays while it is in the crates. You have a deal. I will take the books and the Witches, and I will enchant your gear in exchange. Would you like it more powerful or more mana efficient?" Wolfe agreed.

"More Mana Efficient, so that we can keep it active for longer periods of time."

That made sense, the units often only activated their gear for larger battles due to mana constraints, so if they could keep them up all the time as Wolfe's unit on the Sylvan front lines had done, everyone would be happier. He would increase the power of the ranged weapons a little, though. The soldiers would appreciate that more than anything else.

"Let's go out and see what we're working with."