Chapter 243: Kuke

Arriving near the Mythallar, Xia Duo first checked the surrounding physical "traps," and after discovering no abnormalities, he entered the Mythallar.

The Magic Arrow was still in its original position, though the area where it had originally been was now almost completely hollowed out by Xia Duo, with dozens of thin supports whittled from tree branches fixing it completely in place.

Originally it had been stuck diagonally into the ground and covered with a layer of humus and loose soil, but now it was suspended and fixed by the supports. The spiritual light on the Magic Arrow remained; though weak, it was still tenacious, unwilling to be extinguished completely.

Xia Duo grabbed a handful of leaves left over from whittling the supports yesterday to cushion the edge of the excavation pit, spread his notebook out on his knees, and began to record just like that.

This Magic Arrow was quite precise, far more complex than the Focus Ring on Xia Duo's hand, and it involved different layers of the Magic Net; for Xia Duo, who had only come into contact with the second layer of the Magic Net, it was simply impossible to record it completely.

What he could record now was only a portion, but even this portion was no small project.

And this was also the first time Xia Duo had used secret script to record notes; this Magic Arrow was worth him doing so. Previously, even for the Imprisonment Sphere, he had only drawn an arcane geometric analysis diagram of the spell, and had not even encrypted it.

It was truly because everything he currently learned and knew came from the Tower of Time; a 2nd Circle Spell was simply nothing to a Mage Tower.

Encryption not only made things difficult for others, but in reality, it also made things difficult for himself, unless he used the Chinese characters he was familiar with, but Xia Duo was not yet prepared to use Chinese characters on a large scale.

There is a saying that the more a type of writing appears in this world, the easier it is for people to crack it; the "cracking" here is not just parsing it through linguistics, but through magical brute-force cracking.

That is why there is the saying that every Mage needs a personal secret script.

Furthermore, Chinese characters have a very unique aspect in expressing meaning, and Chinese is also a mature language that is more complex than Netherese and more concise than Elvish; appearing rashly might cause trouble.

Xia Duo only occasionally used Chinese to record when he encountered things difficult to express in Netherese, and even then, he used pinyin.

In the following few days, Xia Duo was like a worker punching in at the Mythallar, from dawn until dusk, punctual every day; any further and he would be forgetting to eat and sleep.

Until he had recorded all the elements that could be recorded, the "Lucky Owen" was also arriving soon; it would likely be in these few days.

Last time he returned to the Tower of Time, he had agreed with Niya to go to Seventon together. Besides letting Niya read the Nether Scroll, Xia Duo was also very much looking forward to seeing what the true core of Netheril actually looked like!

Descriptions in books are often one-sided and indirect; the "City of Seven Towers" and the Arcane Union were places Xia Duo had longed for for a long time, but he had never had the opportunity to travel.

……

This day, Xia Duo was inspecting the work situation of the territory residents at the "construction site" when Nuoman, a soldier from Qiaoqi's squad responsible for guarding the riverbank, came to report:

"My Lord, the 'Lucky Owen' has arrived."

"Mm."

Xia Duo nodded and did not go to the landing point to wait immediately; he knew this ship did not have much worth looking forward to, probably just food!

Before long, Laidun also seemed to have received the news; he first came to see Xia Duo, and then the two of them went to the landing point together. The "Lucky Owen" had already lowered its gangplank.

Lao Ouwen was directing the crew to move supplies onto the shore. Seeing Xia Duo arrive, he hurriedly saluted and reported the situation of this trip: "My Lord, this ship carried a total of 【pounds】 of coarse flour, as well as a cook and a helper, but Steward Yarman said these two were hired with money, not recruited territory residents."

Hearing there was a cook, Xia Duo was happy for a moment. Now the camp's staple food was ready-made bread; as more and more people came, buying ready-made food would become more troublesome and also more expensive.

It was just a pity that this cook was not his territory resident.

However, if they really became his territory residents, Xia Duo estimated he would not be willing to use such precious manpower to be some cook; going to chop trees for him was the real deal.

Now the shrubbery near the camp that was relatively easy to clear had all been cleared, and the ground had all been burned once, but what followed were the tough ones.

In this primeval forest with no traces of human activity, trees one or two arm-spans wide were almost everywhere; one would have to be lucky to even encounter a tree as thick as a thigh.

Reaching this step, wanting to expand the land further was very difficult. Such large trees were not just a matter of felling them; they had to be cleared away. Whether made into timber or burned directly, it was no small project.

Furthermore, the ground was not completely flat. If it were just uneven terrain, that would be fine, but the key was that some places were rock.

Clearing these rocks was also no small project.

On Earth, clearing a forest five miles in radius—let alone three years, it could all be cleared in three months.

Without advanced tools, so-called productivity is people! Xia Duo needed a large number of people, a large number of territory residents he could command at will.

Looking left and right, Xia Duo asked in a low voice: "Did Yarman say anything about the special channels?"

The so-called special channels were slaves, but the reputation of engaging in the slave trade was ultimately not good to hear; generally speaking, few chambers of commerce were willing to admit it publicly, only doing it without speaking of it.

"My Lord, no slaves can be bought in the Savile Territory now. When he came, Steward Yarman specifically asked me to tell you that the Liyadun Chamber of Commerce has already gone to Konnifila City to search, but this will take time."

"Time, yes, it takes time." Xia Duo was silent; it was not just the Liyadun Chamber of Commerce that needed time, the Silaiwen Chamber of Commerce also needed time.

And it might take even longer; after all, going to the Inner Land was much further than going to Konnifila in the east!

If he had talent under his command for training slaves, he would have been prepared to go catch Orcs, or if he had known earlier that he would obtain a territory, he could have prepared in advance.

Thinking of this, he could not help but develop a strong interest in prophecy spells; even if he could only obtain some specious fragments, he could still gain a significant advantage from them.

It was just that Xia Duo had never heard of any Mage who was proficient in prophecy spells; even those famous Mages with personal biographies did not have them.

Only certain members of the clergy would make prophecies, but in most cases, they were inaccurate; it was hard to say whether the future had been changed or if they were truly inaccurate.

And for Xia Duo, prophecy spells and the like might just be an extravagant hope.

Soon, all the supplies had been organized and put into storage, and Xia Duo also took the time to chat a few words with the cook named "Kuke."

When he learned that this cook was willing to risk unknown dangers to come to a newly founded pioneer territory just to save up the 20 Gold Coins of monthly wages for his son to learn magic, Xia Duo did not know what to say.

He could not bring himself to recruit him (territory residents were not paid cash), and of course, raising the wages was also impossible; 20 Gold Coins per month was already double that of a normal cook.

He was not some peerless master chef; he was just an ordinary cook, and his skills might not even be as good as Xia Duo's!