Ethan closed his panel, turned around, and began walking toward the War Fortress.
About half an hour later, a large group from the cannon fodder legions appeared ahead.
They were using specialized Wizardry Tools to clean up the battlefield.
A slave squatted beside the corpse of an Amons Sentinel, holding a palm-sized, dark purple crystal.
Pale gold runes flowed across the crystal's surface. When pressed against the body, the corpse dissolved into a cloud of grey-white powder that was scattered by the wind.
Another slave pushed a small silver-white metal cart covered in intricate runic arrays.
Wherever the cart passed, the soil contaminated by energy residue was automatically overturned. The polluted parts were sucked into a storage compartment at the bottom of the cart, while fresh soil was discharged from the rear and laid flat back onto the ground.
Several massive contract beasts dragged even larger cleaning equipment through the depths of the battlefield.
These machines were over ten meters tall, with countless thick metal tentacles extending from the bottom, spraying a pale green mist.
Where the mist swept, the wreckage of shattered war machines automatically decomposed, with metal fragments and wooden splinters sorted into different piles on nearby transport wagons.
A mechanical hound, five meters tall at the shoulder, was using its front paws to dig through the ruins of a collapsed bastion, dragging out the corpses of Amons buried beneath.
Two slaves followed behind it—one responsible for processing the corpses with a crystal, and the other for recovering any salvageable materials.
Simple.
Efficient.
And very environmentally friendly.
If this were his previous life, Ethan thought, someone would be making a fortune.
However, this level of efficiency was to be expected.
After all, a world war wasn't about destroying a world; it was about conquering it.
It was about turning a world completely into a wizard's backyard, into private property.
They couldn't just destroy everything.
The teleportation array at the War Fortress lit up with a ghostly green glow, and Ethan stepped out from it.
The scene inside the War Fortress was much the same as when he had left.
Apprentices were hurrying everywhere.
Though their numbers were far fewer than when they first arrived, there were still plenty of people.
And after surviving such a massive battle, the aura around many of them had changed—they were fiercer, more crazed.
Ethan only spared them a few glances before heading straight to the Supply Exchange.
There was a long line at the entrance.
Ethan stood at the back and waited for nearly an hour before it was his turn.
The Treant behind the counter was the same one as before. Its emerald-green leaves drooped slightly, looking bored out of its mind. When it heard footsteps, its leaves suddenly perked up.
"It's you!" the Treant said with a hint of surprise in its voice. "You're not dead?"
Ethan's mouth twitched. "I'm not dead. Is there a larger, more private area? I have quite a few things to exchange."
"No problem."
The Treant's leaves quivered as it snapped its fingers.
The surrounding scenery instantly warped, folded, and redeployed.
The wooden floor beneath Ethan's feet became a grey-white stone floor. The crystal chandelier above vanished, replaced by a high, vaulted dome.
This space was the size of three or four football fields.
The walls were bare rock covered in a thin layer of dark green moss.
The air was dry, carrying a faint, fresh scent of vegetation.
"This should be enough, right?" the Treant stood beside Ethan, its emerald leaves spreading slightly.
Ethan nodded.
The first corpse hit the floor with a dull thud.
It was Andiyu's body.
His pale blue skin gleamed with a cold, hard luster under the light of the crystals. The jagged scars on his chest were no longer bleeding, but the energy fluctuations unique to a First-Tier lifeform still lingered on the corpse, causing the surrounding air to vibrate slightly.
Every single one of the Treant's leaves stood straight up.
The second corpse. The third. The fourth.
Corpses were released from the storage ring one by one, forming a line on the floor.
Some were missing half their heads, some had gaping holes through their chests, and some had limbs twisted at grotesque angles.
The pale blue blood had already dried, forming a dark brown crust on the surface of the bodies.
Then, the corpses of three magical beasts were brought out.
A four-legged behemoth five meters tall, covered in rock-like scales, its chest pierced from the inside by a wooden stake, the scales around the exit wound shattered like a spiderweb.
A serpent-like magical beast eight meters long, its dark green scales covered in fine cuts from Flying Leaves.
A flying magical beast with a ten-meter wingspan, its wings broken and its skull caved in.
The Treant's leaves began to droop slightly.
Finally, the corpse of the Holy Beast was brought out.
The massive body, forty to fifty meters long, slammed onto the floor, making the entire space shudder.
The Treant's leaves went completely limp.
Ethan then took out the war machines.
Catapults, ballistae, bundles of bolts, and crates of energy ball ammunition were piled onto the floor one by one, quickly forming a small mountain.
"That's all of it," Ethan said, dusting off his hands.
The Treant stared at the pile of items for several breaths.
It didn't ask how an apprentice like Ethan had such a large spatial Wizardry Tool.
It raised a slender arm, and a palm-sized, pale blue crystal display appeared in its wooden hand. "Twenty-three First-Tier lifeform corpses. Nineteen are humanoid, three are magical beasts, and one is a special species. The humanoids are valued between eighty thousand and one hundred and forty thousand magic stones each. The magical beasts are between one hundred and twenty-five thousand and one hundred and fifty-five thousand each. The special species is valued separately at two hundred and seventy thousand magic stones."
Its fingers moved rapidly across the crystal display.
"This batch of equipment is in good condition; the runic circuits on the ballistae are still functional. Total: two million and fifty thousand magic stones."
"For this pile of weapons and armor, I'll give you a lump sum of one million and two hundred thousand magic stones."
"And this Wizardry Tool..." The Treant picked up the crystal left by the Energy-Eating Insect. "Hmm, the quality is excellent. Two hundred and eighty thousand magic stones."
"Wait a second, that crystal is that expensive?"
The Treant looked up. "Yes. I'm not an expert at appraisal, but that's the price the fortress's system quoted. Is there a problem?"
"Uh, no."
"Right. Twenty-three First-Tier lifeform corpses, plus various supernatural weapons and armor, plus the war machines... the total price is three million, nine hundred and thirty thousand magic stones. Oh, you also have seventy-four thousand magic stones waiting to be claimed. Do you want magic stones or magic crystals?"
"Magic crystals."
The Treant nodded and swiped its slender fingers across the crystal display a few more times.
A pale blue teleportation array opened on the floor at its feet. With a flash of light, a pile of magic crystals appeared out of thin air.
The Treant bent over, swept the magic crystals into a grey storage bag, and handed it to Ethan.
Ethan took the bag and tucked it into his ring.
Four million and four thousand magic stones—plus the magic crystals he had left from before.
It was enough.
He had far exceeded his goal.
As expected, war really was the quickest way to make a fortune.
If he were struggling to sell potions, who knows how many years it would have taken to save up several hundred magic crystals.
And now?
Even counting all the time he'd spent, it had been less than two years.
Two years.
This was incredible.
Rate on N.U.
