Chapter 68

Time passed.

Several months passed.

With Ai Di's teachings and the alchemical steel-making equipment produced, the weapons and armor manufacturing industry of the Dark Scale tribe made great strides.

Full sets of steel armor, steel knives, steel swords, and spearheads were mass-produced and equipped on Dark Scale warriors.

The Dark Scale tribe, with a population of over thirty thousand, could easily muster an army of ten thousand.

As for food, there was no need to worry.

Several years ago, the mutant rice seeds that Lai Ang obtained from the Dragon Mother Xi Er Wa Na Si, after being propagated, have now been planted in the tens of thousands of mu of paddy fields that were opened up.

The yield per mu is also extremely high, reaching two to three thousand catties.

There are three reasons for such high yield per mu: first, the rice seeds are mutant and inherently possess many excellent traits; second, because the soil of Fish Spirit Marsh is fertile, with abundant marshes, natural marsh itself is high-quality fertilizer.

Third, the mutant rice seeds are water-attribute, and Fish Spirit Marsh has a rich water element, giving natural environmental support.

The mutant rice can be harvested twice a year.

Each harvest yields nearly twenty thousand tons of rice, and a year can yield thirty to forty thousand tons.

Based on the Dark Scale tribe's population of over thirty thousand, if each person ate only rice for a year, they would need to consume almost one ton of rice per person to finish all the produced grain.

But this is obviously impossible.

Ordinary humans living decently consume about a hundred kilograms of rice per year; goblins and dog-headed people, being small in size, even if they train battle qi, only eat a bit over a hundred kilograms.

Unless all the monsters in the Dark Scale tribe are trolls, given the current food production, there is no need to worry about a population explosion in the short term.

Hunting meat, fish from lakes and rivers, plus wild fruits and vegetables, etc., food sources are plentiful.

Gray Stone Dragon Fortress.

The black dragon opened its eyes, a hint of ease and joy flashing in its pale yellow dragon eyes.

"The spellcaster's rank has finally broken through to Fourth Rank, entering the threshold of an intermediate spellcaster."

Although he didn't use the idle slot to idle the black dragon contemplation method, Lai Ang still spent plenty of time cultivating the black dragon contemplation method on ordinary days, not to mention that the idle slot itself has the effect of honing mental strength; although weak, over the years it also provides several tenths of additional effect.

At less than eleven and a half years old in dragon age, he crossed into the threshold of an intermediate mage.

This is a remarkably exaggerated pace of progress.

Longevity species are by nature long-lived, with slow strength progression and high limits as their distinguishing traits.

And becoming an intermediate spellcaster at over eleven years old, even if placed among short-lived humans, would be considered a very talented genius.

For ordinary dragons, a spellcaster wanting to reach Fourth Rank, even if fairly diligent, generally needs to be past twenty years old; if not diligent, they might not even reach the intermediate threshold by fifty.

"Now I can learn some fourth-circle spells." Lai Ang had already organized some fourth-circle spells useful to himself, precisely for this moment.

Offensive spell: Fourth Circle·Rain of Water Arrows—highly compatible with Second Circle Water Magic Cannon, can be fused.

Defensive spell: Fourth Circle·Tidal Water Ring—an upgraded version of Third Circle Tidal Shield, can be fused with Tidal Shield.

Enhancement spell: Fourth Circle·Intermediate Enhancement—can be fused with Third Circle Berserk Spell.

Special spell: Fourth Circle·Shrink—can reduce body size.

Roughly these four; Lai Ang also knows that greed for many leads to lack of precision.

As a spellcaster's rank advances further, the time required increases greatly, and the difficulty is far greater than that of battle qi cultivation. Therefore, these four spells will accompany Lai Ang for a long time, becoming spells he frequently uses.

However, this time Lai Ang did not use the idle slot to enhance these spells.

It plans to first study and learn them himself; the spells in the early levels are relatively easy to improve, and Lai Ang also intends to learn some lower-level spells, then fuse them to become stronger.

By then, even if it's only fourth-circle level three, if the fusion traits are all stacked together, it might possibly have the power of a fifth-circle spell.

After making up his mind, Lai Ang began to study these four spells.

Ten days later, he successfully entered the Fourth Circle·Rain of Water Arrows, turning it into a rune ability.

Lai Ang fused the fully leveled Second Circle·Water Magic Cannon with it.

Second Circle Spell: Water Magic Cannon (max level, 2nd-level casting speed increase, 1st-level spell damage increase, 1st-level auto-homing) Fourth Circle Spell: Rain of Water Arrows (summoning many magical water arrows to attack.) 【Fusion!】

【Unknown Spell】

【Rank】: Fourth Circle 0th Level (0/500)

【Fusion Traits】: (4th-level casting speed increase, 3rd-level spell damage increase, 1st-level auto-homing) "The casting speed trait increased by two levels, the spell damage trait increased by two levels, not bad." A glint of joy flashed in Lai Ang's dragon eyes.

"Let's just call it 'Rain of Magic Water Arrows'."

With the third-level spell damage increase trait, this Fourth Circle 0th-level Rain of Magic Water Arrows likely ranks among the top tier of Fourth Circle offensive spells in power.

If the level is raised a few levels, it should then have the power of a Fifth Circle spell.

Moreover, with the fourth-level casting speed trait, this newly learned spell can also be released within one second.

Also there is the auto-homing trait. "If it could be taught, this Fourth Circle Water Arrow Rain spell would likely be sought after by many intermediate water-system spellcasters," Lai Ang suddenly thought, and his dragon eyes lit up.

So-called fusion spell actually just takes the advantages of the fused spells; as for the traits, they are merely described in a more plain and easy-to-understand way.

Essentially, others can also learn it, and after mastering it, its power will not be inferior to Lai Ang's in the slightest.

"I could use these spells to train a batch of elite spellcasters," Lai Ang muttered to himself.

A Third Rank spellcaster can already wield power comparable to Fourth Circle spells; knowing that becoming a Third Rank spellcaster and becoming a Fourth Rank spellcaster differ greatly in difficulty.

"I can also contribute to the Emerald Dream in exchange for precious resources," Lai Ang mused.

It is a dragon; the Emerald Dream's most noble ruling race, while optimized fusion spells are valuable, if they are merely mid- to low-level spells, they would hardly cause any ripple.

Just find any excuse, saying it's an ancient spell obtained from ancient ruins.

"This idea is feasible." Lai Ang's dragon eyes flickered.

"Third Circle max-level Berserk, Second Circle Water Magic Cannon, plus several max-level First Circle spells and Zero Circle tricks, can all be used to exchange resources with the Emerald Dream."

"At the same time, it can also be taught to monsters in the Dark Scale tribe that have spellcaster talent."

However, the former is not urgent for now, after all, it has only been less than half a year since leaving the Emerald Dream.

As for the latter, let's start doing it now.

Having just learned the Water Magic Arrow Rain spell, I also needed to relax a bit.

The black dragon stretched, shook its wings, flew out of Gray Stone Dragon Fortress, and headed toward the tribe down the mountain.

(End of chapter)