Chapter 812: Misunderstanding

Wish magic was a high-level type of magic that only archmages and powerful existences could use. However, wish magic wasn’t actually that rare at all in this world. Wish magic would often appear in stories, plays, myths, and so on… but wish magic would always be on the evil side, or end in a bad result.

Anyone who truly understood wish magic would never think about trying to rely on it.

A wish could become real? Haha, if something so wonderful really was true, then mages would have long since conquered the world already. Anyone who had used wish magic before would likely arrive at an identical conclusion – that they absolutely didn’t want to ever use wish magic again.

The main reason for this was because the great majority of wish magic spells followed the principle of equivalent exchange. The more that you paid, the more you could obtain.

“Don’t be greedy.”

This was the experience of those who had succeeded in using wish magic. This was also why story protagonists would always win in the end. Powerful antagonists who used wish magic would always meet their doom due to their greed. The strange creatures, God Equipment, lords of alternate dimensions, and so on would always use strange methods to fulfill a person’s wish.

Stories always stemmed from reality. According to my knowledge, most wishes that appeared in stories were based on real incidents.

You wished for eternal life? You would be transformed into a statue and thrown into the endless void. This was indeed a form of eternal life.

You wished for tremendous power? You would instantly obtain power sufficient to destroy a planet, and then you would immediately die as your body was unable to handle such power.

You wished to become a God? You would instantly be combined with the divine corpses amongst the stars, or the same method as the previous would be used, and you would instantly die after ascending to Godhood due to your body being unable to handle divine power.

You wished for a harem of beautiful women to always be by your side? The unfortunate mercenary king who made this wish in history had a permanent illusion spell cast upon him. After that, he saw all men as various beautiful women… in a way, this was a truly pitiful result, but the mercenary king who made this wish was highly satisfied. He even did end up creating a tremendous “harem”, but when trying to imagine what hellish scenes that must have involved… ahem, it would be better to not pursue this topic.

Wish magic wasn’t something that could solve all your problems. Wish magic was simply a system that used a mysterious exchange to achieve your objective.

Some people would say that the Gods were the ones who granted wishes. However, there wasn’t a single God with the Divine Concept of Wishes. Most mages believed that the world’s natural dimensional laws would complete the exchange in wish magic.

In a way, wish magic was a type of trade that would definitely “succeed”. Of course, that would also be determined by how you defined success. If you intended to obtain a mountain of gold in exchange for paying a mere fifty cents, then you wouldn’t be able to blame your death on the wish magic for twisting your meaning when you were buried and suffocated under a literal mountain of gold.

No matter how wonderfully worded your wish was, the principle of equivalent exchange was impossible to change in wish magic. Even the most expert haggler wouldn’t possibly manage to have a store owner sell a product for less than the base price to create the product. This would only be possible through scamming or robbery.

However, there was no target to rob in wish magic.

Those who succeeded with wish magic would spend a certain amount of mana to complete something they could have done themselves, which meant that this was definitely a losing exchange to begin with.

However, this didn’t mean that wish magic was meaningless. I knew that archmage Lain was someone who truly knew how to utilize wish magic. His way of using wish magic really gave me much to think about.

“I wish for a bottle of ’62 Sosi red wine.”

“I wish for my home to become clean.”

“I wish that my apple tree sprout will grow into a large tree and bear fruit in a single day.”

He didn’t use wish magic as something to try and reach the peak instantly or to achieve a distant goal. Instead, he used it as a tool to make life more convenient. He didn’t view wish magic as being different from any other type of magic.

“I will only wish for things that I’m personally capable of achieving.”

Asking for a wish that was reasonable, losing only a little in the exchange, and paying a small price for the convenience. This was the correct method to make an exchange with the world.

I could sense a power similar to wish magic on this sign located at the edge of the world. This sign was directly connected with the source of the world, making use of Creator Goddess Eich’s power, so the world itself would pay the price for this wish, rather than the person making the wish.

It could be said that this wishing sign teleportation portal’s existence was even more precious than its power. If I could successfully research the secrets of Creator Goddess Eich, even if only by a little, this would be a great advance in magical civilization. Unfortunately, I had no time to perform research right now at all. I could also faintly sense that once I left this place, it would be impossible for me to arrive here ever again.

The “wish spell” cast upon this sign limited the type of wish that could be granted here, which made it really difficult to distort the wish with wordplay.

Since this wish spell was something that Creator Goddess Eich left behind as a gift to her children, I didn’t need to worry that the wish would be granted in the worst way possible. In that case, I might as well take a gamble.

“I, Roland Mist, wish to go to… the place that Karwenz wants to see me the least!”

If this wish wasn’t grantable, then I would simply change to a more specific wish regarding my destination.

If my wish was granted, then I would likely be teleported to the chaotic domain in Bardi regardless. However, if my wish was granted but I wasn’t teleported there, then I would really look forward to where I went.

“I’ve really lacked the ability to take the initiative recently due to all of Karwenz’s preparations. I’ve only been able to passively react. Even if I go to the chaotic domain in Bardi, is that really his greatest weak spot? I doubt it.”

This was an opportunity to finally overtake Karwenz in initiative. Of course I wouldn’t pass this by.

I received no response when I spoke my wish. Just as I was hesitating if I should change to a different wish, the world in front of me suddenly changed.

“So this is the power of Creator Goddess Eich? I didn’t feel anything at all…”

I hesitatingly looked in front of me. A group of busily working tiny demons stared at me in astonishment since I had suddenly appeared. They were so surprised that some of them even dropped what they were holding. However, they then started panicking right away when they saw my face.

*Crack crack crack!*

A whip descended from above and scattered the tiny demons.

The next instant, a high-level succubus descended before me and kneeled on one knee.

“Milord, you have returned.”

I was surprised for a moment, but then I instantly realized what was going on.

This succubus probably thought that I was Karwenz. It was common for Karwenz to go around in a human form that didn’t expose his true strength. Anyone who didn’t know us well definitely wouldn’t be able to differentiate between us.

I looked all around me. This place appeared to be some sort of pitch-black cave. Demons and humans were working busily here, seeming like they were building something.

Many others also looked at me as I looked over everything.

The next instant, I unhesitatingly changed into my Original Sin Demon form and enveloped myself in the power of the Chaos Abyss. The power of Chaos started emanating from my body. The succubus in front of me seemed to tremble in fear as she sensed this.

“…Who are you? How is the work that I gave you going?”

I was the one who immediately asked a question, rather than the succubus overseer here.

My tone was quite calm, but I didn’t even try to hide the indifference and arrogance in my tone. I was doing my best to imitate Karwenz’s manner of speech, gambling that this succubus didn’t know Karwenz that well at all.

This succubus was a mere high-level succubus, of which there would be several hundred thousand or even several million in the Chaos Abyss. Even if she had seen a Chaos Main God before, she would only be able to see him from a far distance. Being able to recognize Karwenz would likely depend on having seen a drawing of him before.

Since she already mistook me for Karwenz, then this tactic of mine was highly likely to succeed.

“Venerated lord, I am the second level overseer, Tina. We have been working day and night here, and Lord Didina personally whipped 37 lazy bastards to death, but… but that grand mission is far too difficult, so we still need a little more time.”

The succubus kneeled and trembled in fear with her head lowered, as if she didn’t even dare to look directly at me. It seemed she was afraid that the work here hadn’t progressed well enough, so that I would casually tear her to pieces in displeasure.

However, I smiled at the succubus Tina before me. Although I figured that I wouldn’t be able to keep up this ruse for long, I would never pass up on a free tour guide and information.

“Don’t notify the others. I’m here to secretly check on the progress to see if anyone dares to slack off. Lead the way for me and show me the ‘results’ of your hard work. If I’m not satisfied… heh heh.”

Tina just stood up but then almost fell over again, because she felt that the “heh heh” uttered in a strange tone just now sounded like the worst tortures possible were waiting for her.

For a succubus of her level, even if a Chaos Main God wasn’t directly angry at her, even some vented rage would easily kill her many times over.

Demon Main Gods were never reasonable, because they didn’t need to be.

There were countless incidents in the past where succubi had been torn apart by angry Demon Main Gods. Tina almost crawled as she scampered forward, but she didn’t realize that the “venerated lord” following behind her was now smiling teasingly.

“Now then, allow me to see just what else Karwenz is hiding here.”