Chapter 10: Two Choices

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

The old gentleman shop owner walked out from the warehouse behind the shop, holding a stack of boxes piled high. He greeted the sisters with a smile.

"It's okay, good things are always worth waiting for."

Dorothy looked at the old man with great expectation. Her powerful perception could detect the preciousness of the materials inside even through these sealed boxes specially used to isolate spiritual loss.

"Hmm, these are all my proud collections."

Hearing Dorothy's words, the old man couldn't help but feel a bit proud, but he quickly straightened his attitude and asked the customer in front of him seriously.

"Regarding the materials for your wand, Dorothy, I have two sets of plans. See which one you think is better."

"One is based on your spellcasting habits. I asked the spirit in your old wand, and you are the type with high spellcasting precision. Then I personally recommend you use a dragon-series wand: dragon-blood wood as the main body, sub-dragon nerves as the core, and a sub-dragon dragon ball as the inlaid gem."

"It's just that dragon-series wands are often quite irritable and difficult to control, but their bonus to mana quality is unquestionable. I believe that with your precision, you can completely master them."

"The second option is based on the spirit of your old wand. It has just awakened, and it is still too weak. If it is made with materials that have higher compatibility with it, then after changing the wand, it will adapt faster, and its growth speed will be faster."

"Here, I recommend you use "soul-nurturing wood" for the wand body. As for the wand core, it is inherited from the old wand. Previously, it was a black cat's whiskers, so the new wand can use the whiskers of this "nether tiger," which is also a very good material for nurturing spirits. As for the inlaid gem, I think this "dead soul crystal" is a good choice."

"Such a wand, although it cannot bring you high bonuses in the initial stage, can give your wand spirit the most perfect growth environment. And the most precious thing about a psychic wand is the growth potential of the wand spirit. Excellent psychic wands will evolve the most compatible effects for their masters after maturing. It's just that growth always has certain uncertainties, and you must take certain risks."

After the old man finished speaking, he just looked at Dorothy quietly, waiting for her choice.

And Dorothy was now convinced that the old man in front of her was indeed a true wand-making master. The two plans he gave were indeed the most suitable for her.

The dragon-series wand in Plan 1 could maximize the compensation for her mana not being strong and the quality not being high. Combined with her powerful magic precision talent, it would definitely improve her strength immediately.

Plan 2 was "old promising." It abandoned the immediate bonus in exchange for greater growth potential in the future.

She had heard many legends about psychic wands. Although this kind of wand full of spirituality was weak in the early stage, it would self-adjust in the process of accompanying the master's growth to reach the perfect realm of "human-wand unity."

Well-nurtured psychic wands could even awaken unique wand talents to better assist the master in casting spells, which was an existence like a cheat.

It was just that she heard that the cultivation of such psychic wands was not cheap. It required constant feeding with various precious spirit-nurturing materials to maximize their spirituality.

And just as the old man mentioned, growth always required taking risks. People who were cute when they were young might grow up to be ugly. Psychic wands were the same. According to rumors, whether a psychic wand grows "crooked" depends on its intimacy with the master.

After all, this thing has spirituality and is a living, intelligent wand with its own ideas. It cannot be treated by the standards of dead objects. If the intimacy is not enough, although it won't betray you, it will be very difficult to be of one heart with the master. At that time, who knows what kind of abilities it will evolve? It might not have any bonuses and might even drag you down.

So, should she choose Plan 1, which has immediate effects and is relatively cheap, or Plan 2, which is like a bottomless pit of burning money, and whose future is uncertain, requiring a gamble?

"I choose Plan 2."

Without much conflict, Dorothy made her choice. She said very firmly.

Anyway, she herself belonged to the "promising" type of witch, so matching it with a "promising" type of wand was very fitting. Double the "promising," and she hoped to harvest double the happiness when the future arrived.

Of course, the main thing was that she didn't have an urgent need to improve her strength now. At least for the next twenty years, she should be studying at the Witch Academy. A student wouldn't go to the battlefield or anything. Just study honestly. It was very stable. By the time she graduated, she believed the psychic wand would be nurtured almost to maturity.

"Alright, then it's Plan 2."

Regarding Dorothy's choice, the old man nodded with satisfaction. The look in his eyes toward the customer in front of him became even more appreciative.

*This is indeed a good child who cherishes wands. I must bring out all my skills. I absolutely cannot let such a good child down. *

The old man Odell thought to himself.

"Then, may I ask, Dorothy, what is your career plan for the future? Armed type or research type?"

He confirmed cautiously once again.

"That goes without saying, Sister will naturally be with me in the armed..."

Before Dorothy could speak, Alice on the side couldn't wait to open her mouth.

However, before she could finish, Dorothy covered her mouth without hesitation, and then said to the old man even more firmly.

"Research type. I am on the Path of Omniscience, and the research type is more suitable for me."

Mentioning the classification of witch professions, one has to mention the structure of the witch world.

This was never a race that loved peace. On the contrary, witches were a standard war race, and the social atmosphere was extremely militaristic. This was no longer the level of "all people are soldiers"; it was "all people are war maniacs."

*I came, I saw, I conquered. *

This was the life motto of witches. Once a new world was discovered by witches, a plane war and conquest war were inevitable.

There was no way around this. After all, the growth of mages was notoriously expensive, not to mention the witch race where everyone was a mage. With so many witches needing to grow and become stronger, the demand for resources was imaginable.

If they only relied on the local resources of the witch world, they would sooner or later be consumed by more and more witches. At that time, they would probably have a civil war for limited resources. So, to relieve resource pressure, external expansion was inevitable.

Fortunately, the multiverse was infinite, with endless starry skies waiting for witches to explore, discover, and conquer. Over time, such a war race took shape.

Today, witches have become the "Fourth Disaster" race in the multiverse, as famous as the three old disaster races: angels, demons, and dragons.

It was just that unlike the chaotic clowns of demons and dragons who only knew how to destroy and plunder, and unlike the colonial rule of angels who only treated a conquered world as a resource warehouse, worlds conquered by witches would be directly merged into the witch world, with the conquerors responsible for guiding and building them, emphasizing "sustainable development."

Well, this wasn't to say that witches were kind-hearted. This really couldn't be said. The reason they did this was just to make the cake bigger to get greater benefits.

However, one had to say, those conquered alien races in the witch world could at least drink some soup behind the witches, and if they were lucky, they could eat some shredded meat. This was much luckier than worlds that encountered the other three disaster races.

After all, encountering demons and dragons, whether one could live or not depended on fate.

And encountering angels, the whole world would fall into the despair of chronic death until the last trace of supernatural power was sucked dry by the angels, and the whole world became a dead world, a so-called non-magical world. Even getting to this step wasn't the end. The church established by the angels would continue to "educate" the people, harvesting the faith power composed of scattered soul energy, not letting go of this last bit of utilization value.

Therefore, according to those alien races under witch rule who had symptoms of "convert fanaticism," being a witch's dog was their honor.

It was precisely because of this disaster race habit that the professional classification of witch society was mainly in two directions: one was the combat-oriented specialization responsible for pioneering and conquest—Armed Witches; the other was the logistics-oriented specialization responsible for new territory construction and technological innovation—Research Witches.

From the perspective of social status, there was no doubt that Armed Witches were higher. After all, the rule of the witch world's external conquest was "whoever conquers, rules." Generally, only Armed Witches could become witch lords, while Research Witches generally hung under these witch lords as workers.

For example, the Haiyue floating island and the vast territory under the sky island where the sisters were now was the territory of the Armed Great Witch titled "Haiyue Witch," and Dorothy's stepmother was a Research Witch, now responsible for territory construction under the Haiyue Witch.

This structure was the most common structure in the witch world. The entire witch world was composed of countless witch territories of various sizes, and the one who commanded these witch lords was the Council of Sages composed of the thirteen most powerful lords with the largest forces.

Although Dorothy had joked at the entrance of Haiyue Island before, saying things like "A great witch should be like this, one day I will take its place," those were just some temporary "delusional" (middle-schooler syndrome) remarks.

It was impossible for her to really go to the battlefield. That would never happen in this life. Her mana talent wasn't good, and she couldn't fight. In this life, she could only rely on reading and doing research to barely maintain her life.

Dorothy, who had transmigrated from a peaceful world, expressed that she was a pacifist. She hadn't fought much in her life. Whoever wanted to be an Armed Witch could be one; anyway, she wouldn't.

And war was so dangerous. Although witches were strong, they hadn't reached the point of being invincible. What if they encountered other disaster races on the battlefield? Don't get killed by someone accidentally. She was only sixteen and had nearly a thousand years of beautiful life waiting for her. There was no need to risk her life on the battlefield at all.

In short, it was impossible to be an Armed Witch. Even if Dorothy were poor to death, starved to death, or jumped off this sky island, she would absolutely not be an Armed Witch. ===== CHAPTER 11 =====