Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, seven months have passed.

On June 1st, of the year 204 in the Wizard Calendar, a major event occurred in the Wizard Alliance.

Players who were active throughout the Wizard Alliance, providing witchcraft positions to countless Wizards, suddenly disappeared.

Although before leaving, those players informed the Wizards that this was just a minor version update and that they would return in the future, the exact time remains unknown.

Central Milton Continent, top floor of the Francis Wizard Tower.

"Gone again after just two years?" Francis looked at the message sent by Amy, rubbed his brow, and sighed with some helplessness, "It seems things will get chaotic for a while."

The disappearance of players will inevitably lead to a surge in the price of witchcraft positions.

Originally, a witchcraft position cost only ten magic crystals, but in the future, it might spike higher than before the players arrived.

According to his estimates, the future value of a single witchcraft position should halt at around five hundred magic crystals.

The reason is that due to the low price of witchcraft positions over the past two years, many Wizard Apprentices and one to Third Ring Wizards have modified their Meditation Technique, trying to explore new paths and earn a large amount of contribution points.

This is also due to the fact that, despite the numerous channels for obtaining contribution points, acquiring enough to advance to the Fourth Ring is extremely challenging.

On a rough calculation, an ordinary Third Ring Wizard would need to spend a thousand years' lifespan to gather the required amount.

But even reaching this amount is just the foundation; afterwards, one must still condense the Origin Container.

For ordinary Wizards, without sufficient accumulated knowledge, condensing the Origin Container is purely a fool's errand.

Exploring new paths not only yields a large amount of contribution points, allowing one to construct systems independently, but also helps in understanding the essence of all rune transformations, making it the most convenient shortcut.

If one proceeds along this path, as long as the road opened does not encounter significant problems, the hope of becoming a Fourth Ring is great.

Of course, all this must be founded on the players not disappearing.

As for now...

"Should I intervene to regulate the price of witchcraft positions?" Francis felt a bit hesitant.

If he intervenes, he can stabilize the price of witchcraft positions at the same rate as before the players arrived.

However, the downside of this is that witchcraft positions must be allocated by quota, otherwise, they would be far from sufficient.

There is no way around it; the Wizard World can only produce so many new apprentices each year. He cannot create more witchcraft positions out of thin air.

Such regulation, compared to letting it develop naturally, seems no different?

"Forget it, let it be."

Francis's eyes drooped as his spiritual perception passed through the barriers of the Wizard Tower, enveloping the Energy Furnace research base in the east of the city, "Regulation is meaningless. Only if the Energy Furnace achieves two more fundamental breakthroughs can the issue of scarcity in witchcraft positions be solved at the source."

In the year 92 of the Wizard Calendar, the Energy Furnace had a breakthrough, allowing it to simultaneously support ten Third Ring Magic Arrays instead of just three.

Unfortunately, reaching Lor's previously envisioned Abyssal Sun, this is still far from enough.

According to his deductions, the Energy Furnace must at least support a Fifth Ring Magic Array to barely meet the energy supply needs of the Abyssal Sun.

"We haven't even created an Energy Furnace that can support a Fourth Ring Magic Array, what are we thinking about the Fifth Ring?" Francis chuckled bitterly, shook his head, and set aside his thoughts, returning to immersing himself in the deduction of the fit points between Origin Container and Domain.

...

Betula Continent, top floor of the Lor Wizard Tower.

Lor timed to halt his exploration of the microscopic domain of the Sea of Consciousness, and after recording the space rune fragments collected earlier, opened the Sequence Panel and looked at the Origin Points section.

[Origin Points: 4, 78.25%]

"Four points?" Seeing the remaining balance of Origin Points, Lor's eyes lit up.

Originally, in his estimate, if the players provided two Origin Points over the past seven months, it would already be considered good.

But the result turned out to exceed his expectations, providing a total of four Origin Points.

"Hmm, on thinking carefully, it's actually normal."

Lor mused, "The more time passes, the more magic crystals players accumulate, and the higher the levels they reach. The efficiency of Third Ring Wizards compared to one ring Wizards in demon slaying can hardly be compared, now only doubling is already considered little."

"The next time players descend, they might bring me greater surprises."

Of course, this surprise has its limits; aside from the initial demon accumulation burst, later it would not exceed one Origin Point per month.

The third layer of the Abyss barely has enough Abyssal Demons each month to advance to the first ring, let alone speed up.

Lor gently shook his head, ceased further thoughts, and proceeded to command the Sequence Panel: "Activate Macroscopic Insight."

The River of Time, like a blue bracelet, appeared before his eyes.

Lor calmed his mind and continued recording the outlines of the Time Runes.

In the first month, he recorded two hundred and fifty-five arcs.

In the second month, he recorded one hundred and eighty-seven arcs.

In the third month, he recorded one hundred and seventeen arcs.

Looking at the single remaining Origin Point, Lor fell into silence.

According to his previous thoughts, he wanted to wait until the recorded arcs were fewer than a hundred before probing into the center.

Sharpening the axe will not delay the chopping of wood; a solid foundation ensures steadier progress.

But if he sharpens the axe again, he won't have an axe to cut wood...

"Another three hundred years until the players next descend, how truly long."

Lor sighed softly, paused momentarily, then finally decided, "Forget it, this time let's chop some wood first."

"Activate Macroscopic Insight."

The River of Time reappeared.

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