Exploring Technology in a Wizard World-Chapter 638 - 636: Reaching a Consensus

Richard listened to these words and turned to Eva, speaking in a gentle voice, "Master Eva, it’s alright, I am willing to make the appropriate sacrifices for the assembly. If there really is no Wizard Organization willing to take on this route, I will carry it out myself, without wasting any additional power of the Gathering Place."

"This..." Eva was momentarily at a loss for words, as she had no authority to command Richard.

At this point, the brown-haired wizard who had spoken earlier chimed in, fearing Richard might change his mind, "Since that’s the case, have you really decided to undertake this route, with no regrets?"

"There’s no rush," Richard stated. "I still need to wait for the replies from everyone present. Only if everyone here agrees with my proposal, and all are unwilling to substitute me to carry out the plan I proposed, will I do so."

The brown-haired wizard quickly said, "Then fine, let’s not worry about the others for now. At least I, on behalf of White Mist City, accept your proposal and also do not wish to replace you. You can go ahead with your task."

Richard looked to the rest of the people in the meeting.

A moment of silence ensued, then one by one, they gave the same response as the brown-haired wizard.

After all, they did not know the route included all the suspected locations of Yadisi Village; even if they did, they were not interested. They were only interested in resource territories; without these, they would coldly abandon them.

Having received the responses, Richard said, "Since that’s the case, then fine, I will represent myself alone and confirm this route of attack. As for the rest of you, you can proceed to mark out your routes in order, then let everyone vote and choose. I think, with that, there won’t be any need for debate. So be it."

After finishing his statement, Richard returned to his seat.

Just after sitting down, he could feel Eva’s gaze on him. Richard knew Eva must be puzzled, but he did not want to explain further, responding with a smile instead.

Eva, seeing Richard’s smile, opened her mouth but ultimately chose not to ask him directly in the assembly hall. After all, Richard’s decision was not harmful to Jungle Hut or the Dark Forest Gathering Place; it was merely a personal sacrifice of some interests. Blinking her eyes, Eva turned her head to look at the hall, where each major Wizard Organization had already begun the process as Richard had outlined.

This time, since there was no dispute, the process was very smooth.

Everyone first held a discussion to determine an order.

In the order, Jungle Hut was first, because Richard had already chosen a route; White Mist City was second, Black Evil Castle third, followed by Rose City, Rotten Swamp, Death Valley...

After the order was established, it was then White Mist City’s turn to take the stage.

The wizard from White Mist City, with a pensive expression, thought long and hard before drawing a line on the map.

The route was very similar to the one Richard had marked, very delicate, but the difference was the route passed through several of Deep Blue Castle’s resource territories, but also through several of Deep Blue Castle’s controlled strongholds, a mix of good and bad—gains to be had at a cost.

After marking the line, the wizard from White Mist City waved a hand to let everyone vote.

Black Evil Castle, coming after White Mist City, was the first to vote unwilling, followed by Rose City as the second, Rotten Swamp as the third...

As the process continued, when it came to the fourth, Death Valley expressed a different view—they were willing to replace White Mist City in executing the route, and so the route fell to Death Valley.

The expression on the face of the wizard from White Mist City was indifferent, neither sad nor happy, as if they had anticipated this possibility. They shrugged and stepped down from the stage.

Then, it was Black Evil Castle’s wizard’s turn to take the stage. After hesitating for a moment, they drew a delicate and winding line.

The nature of the route was similar to that of White Mist City’s wizard, also a mix of good and bad, but the terrain was quite complicated, and several of Deep Blue Castle’s strongholds were clustered together, making them difficult to deal with.

In the following selection, no Wizard Organization was willing to vote in favor, so the route remained with Black Evil Castle.

The wizard from Black Evil Castle who had drawn up the route had a slightly stiff expression, as if they had swallowed a fly, clearly not expecting this outcome, but there was no way to go back on it now, and they stepped down from the stage with a cold face.

Next to take the stage was the witch from Rose City.

Having learned from the precedent set by White Mist City, the witch from Rose City outlined her route with extra caution, striving to ensure that not too many advantages could be poached by others nor too many disadvantages left to cause her own loss, thereby achieving a certain degree of fairness.

Actually, this was a relatively simple game of strategy, like two people sharing a cake: one cuts, the other chooses; psychologically eliminating the possibility of intentional cheating and ensuring both parties are content.

Of course, this method had many issues, especially in the complex processes of war where numerous problems would become apparent.

However, for Richard, these were not his concerns. He was simply prepared to superficially solve this issue in order to achieve his own goals.

After all, he didn’t feel a sense of belonging to these Wizard Organizations of the East Coast. Even if he did feel belonging and truly wanted to help the others with all his might, whether or not he could succeed was one thing, and whether the others would accept his help was another.

So, the current situation was just fine.

Following that, the exchange meeting proceeded according to plan, ironing out various details. For instance, if a Wizard Organization agreed to execute a route in the previous round of voting, in the next round, their voting order would automatically drop to last place to prevent any organization from monopolizing all the routes. Also, once a route was determined, the personnel responsible for executing it had to be confirmed to prevent the route from becoming vacant. It was also ensured that the number of routes each organization had matched their strength. And so on...

Thus, the exchange meeting that originally might have taken days to resolve ended up hashing out most decisions in less than one day.

By evening, except for some minor details, the entire offensive strategy had been laid out. Correspondingly, the map was covered in a web of lines.

A wizard from Black Evil Castle scrutinized the map as if deep in thought. After a moment, he suddenly stood up and voiced out, "Say, isn’t our current offensive plan too chaotic? One Wizard Organization has many routes, but these routes are not contiguous; they are separated by the routes of other organizations. The forces are extremely scattered, and it will be quite difficult to adjust should the offensive falter."

Upon hearing this, the Wizards were momentarily stunned, then they furrowed their brows and seriously contemplated the issue.

And then they realized that what the red-haired wizard said wasn’t an overstatement, it was a real problem.

Following Richard’s method for the final decision indeed seemed fair, but the forces were indeed dispersed. Some routes might encounter smooth attacks while others would face great difficulty, which would make the whole operation particularly rigid. If the enemy were a bit smarter and continuously adjusted their tactics, the war would be extremely difficult.

The more they thought about it, the less appropriate it seemed to the wizards, and they turned their eyes toward Richard.

Richard, however, was not panicking. He opened his mouth to say something, but at this moment, "Element Master" Russell from the Green Wind Gathering Place spoke up.

Casting a glance at the wizard from Black Evil Castle, Russell said, "Maps are static, people are dynamic. Just because the routes are a certain way on the map, does it mean we must follow them exactly? If you from Black Evil Castle think the routes are too spread out and the forces too fragmented, it’s simple—trade with the other Wizard Organizations. Swap your routes for theirs, and you could cluster them together to concentrate your forces, couldn’t you?"

This!

Hearing Russell’s words, everyone’s eyes lit up, realizing the solution was so straightforward.

Russell continued, "Actually, if I’m not mistaken, the offensive plan obtained through route exchange won’t differ much from the original plan we first put forward. It’s just that since it was discussed bit by bit, it’s easier to figure out whether we’re at a loss or reaping benefits, so there won’t be too much debate. Right, Wizard Richard?"

At that, Russell looked toward Richard.

Richard thought to himself, "It seems there are still clever people here."

But aloud he simply agreed, "Master Russell is right."

"That’s good," Russell said, his eyes sweeping over everyone before he asked, "Any other issues then?"

Silence ensued.

"Very well," Russell concluded.

With that, the joint vengeance exchange meeting ended "successfully."

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