"The review board is really difficult to deal with."
After another hour of heated debate, both sides exited the meeting room. Garrett Nordmark or Garrett wiped his neck, feeling the dampness in his palm, realizing he was drenched in sweat.
Of course, negotiations—or rather, arguments—of this intensity were quite fruitful. He secured a laboratory, no, a mage tower!
With funding from the Magic Council and according to his request, they would rebuild the P4 laboratory! Garrett’s blueprint this time included four floors: sewage treatment, operational, piping, and air filtration!
And because it was decided to construct four floors with added magical defense and control, the review board decided to just build him a mage tower. As for expenses beyond the laboratory, such as constructing the tower’s energy pool and attuning the tower, those would be deferred, with the mage tower used as collateral, payable in installments...
And the Magic Council also gained something. Within six months, Garrett was obliged to explain the documents he provided, to teach and train the personnel dispatched by the council. Of course, the council’s students could not exceed 30...
If the council established a second P4 laboratory, Garrett had the obligation and authority to inspect and approve it. If it didn’t pass inspection, the laboratory couldn’t operate.
The compensation for these tasks was included in the construction costs of the laboratory, no, the mage tower, without additional payment.
Ah...selling an aircraft carrier for $1 billion, with additional costs for modifications, maintenance, personnel training, and weapon deployment, totaling $6 billion, the wisdom of a warring nation in his previous life was still useful... Garrett happily crossed his arms and hummed a tune.
Alright, now, he was waiting for them to produce the mage tower blueprints!"This little guy is really difficult to deal with."
The protective and transformative mages exchanged wry smiles. After that round of negotiations, their days weren’t easy either; they too were drenched in sweat.
Garrett didn’t give an inch, even dared to slam the table in front of a group of senior mages, spouting incomprehensible terms one after another. Yet they sounded reasonable and the consequences were terrifying, astonishing...
"Don’t say that. Even a rabbit bites when cornered!"
The diviner shook his head with a smile, his gaze soft. The necromancer beside him frowned:
"Isn’t this a bit too much? Logically...regarding the incident in the City of Radiance, he should have been rewarded. But now it’s all been deducted?"
"Are you stupid?" Old Sam suddenly turned and glared at him. His gaze was sharp, almost shooting out sparks and lightning:
"Garrett is a healer! A healer!!! Which healer, after hearing that a plague they created killed tens of thousands, could still be happy? Did you see how anxious he was when the plague leaked a few days ago, how frantic he was? You think he’s one of you necromancers? —Let me tell you, even if he created those plague seeds, it’s not to harm people, it’s definitely to save them!"
"Saving people" Garrett was invited respectfully to the adjacent mage tower as soon as he came out of the Tower of Heaven. Led by Lin Ferrell’s mentor, Archmage Edgar, a group of necromancers escorted him inside:
"Garrett, how should we handle the spy that escaped from your laboratory?"
"Mr. Nordmark, the diviners have already dealt with that spy. We’ve also paid what we owed. What’s next?"
"Can we directly resurrect him as a skeleton?"
"Or turn him into a zombie?"
The secondary tower in the Black Crow Swamp, shaped like a pyramid, was slightly larger in area than other towers, and deeper below—above was the normal pyramid shape, below was the inverted pyramid. Garrett was surrounded by the crowd and led along a sloping corridor, feeling somewhat like being buried alive.
Entering the heart of the pyramid, descending ten levels on an elevator, indeed entered a tomb—or rather, a specialized floor for preserving corpses. The temperature of the entire floor was particularly low, and Garrett shivered. Immediately, a badge was handed to him:
"Positive Energy Charm. Each compartment here is saturated with negative energy. Just withstanding extreme temperatures won’t be enough; you need this."
The badge in his hand was a golden circle, shaped like a sun, and Garrett strongly suspected it was stolen from the Radiant Church. He obediently pinned the badge on, feeling an instant warmth throughout his body, involuntarily sighing with relief. Although at the same time, the necromancers beside him all stepped back two steps...
Garrett followed the necromancers deeper into the tomb. The tomb appeared quite clean, except that the walls were not made of bricks but of dried thigh bones and skulls arranged in rows. The leading necromancer frequently glanced at him, but Garrett remained composed, striding confidently.
The spy who committed suicide was sealed inside a huge block of ice. There was a slight gap between the ice and the part
of the body that touched it, indicating that the necromancers’ claim of "having paid what was due" was definitely not a lie. Garrett circled the body twice, then sighed deeply:
"You haven’t opened this ice coffin, have you?"
"No! Absolutely not!"
Archmage Edgar hurriedly assured him. Behind him, two necromancers shook their heads repeatedly, almost shaking out a mirage. Further back, two skeletons rattled their heads, and one even shook its head right off...
Garrett relaxed. Who knew how many deadly bacteria were on this corpse? It would’ve been disastrous if the ice coffin hadn’t been sealed. After pondering for a moment, he said:
"Turning him into a skeleton is fine, but it’s best not to make him a zombie...after all, there are too many pathogenic bacteria in the skin and muscles, easy to transmit. Skeletons can be thoroughly disinfected with sterilization solution. But..."
He looked expectantly at Archmage Edgar:
"Can I buy this corpse? I’ll pay in gold! 100, no, 200 contribution points!"
Edgar: "..."
He heard about the review board’s affairs! When Garrett started bargaining, he was meticulous, not giving an inch! But now, he just casually spent 200 contribution points, without even blinking his eyes!
Do you know that 200 contribution points are almost equivalent to the annual income of a level 2 mage!
"A level 7 rogue’s corpse, officially priced at 500 contribution points." Edgar replied flatly. Garrett didn’t hesitate: "Deal!"
A corpse!
It’s been so long since I dissected one!
And it’s a corpse infected with multiple contagious diseases!
So what if it’s 500 contribution points, I can afford it!
Edgar originally wanted to say "If you give a couple of lectures, we’ll waive the fee", but now he felt too embarrassed to bring it up. He stepped aside to clear a path, gesturing for two skeletons to move forward and lift the ice coffin, asking Garrett:
"Do you want to dissect it here?"
"Absolutely not!—This has to be dissected in my laboratory! Otherwise, if the plague leaks, it’s over!"
"Alright, we’ll help you move it over. Can we observe the dissection?"
"Of course!"
And then, Garrett stood confidently in front of the dissection table in his laboratory, and with confidence, made the first incision.
...Which didn’t cut.
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