Chapter 2473: Amusement Park, Arcane Cat Concept

After saving the Semi-plane, Xia Duo checked the progress of the Plane Creation for another 【World Incubator】; it had currently reached the Element Filling stage, and he estimated it wouldn't be long before he could harvest another one.

"Very good!" Xia Duo nodded with satisfaction.

In fact, he could temporarily stop worrying about this side; only two of the eight Semi-planes for the first phase of the new city construction remained, and since he had two 【Plane Incubators】, these two production slots were enough for him. It wouldn't be too late to come back once everything was ready.

……

Leaving the Plane Exploration Center, Xia Duo stopped by to check on the current High Mages of the Tower of Time. Because the new city construction plan had been finalized, these people had recently stopped all other work except for normal maintenance and production, focusing instead on Spellcasting Training.

Although they were High Mages, in terms of spellcasting proficiency, they were not necessarily better than some veteran low-rank wandering Mages. After all, everyone had a comfort zone, and the Spell Elements involved in the spells these High Mages used daily were actually very limited.

It was true that some had practiced spellcasting day after day for years, but that was a minority; even Xia Duo could only guarantee absolute accuracy for his commonly used spells, while for other spells, it was a matter of luck.

Fortunately, he studied the Principles of spells deeply, so even if he made a mistake in spellcasting, he could remedy it most of the time, avoiding any overly serious consequences.

But this time it was a collective spellcasting, and the more people involved, the more the fault tolerance rate plummeted. Even with the assistance of mental spells, there had to be a basic lower limit of proficiency. Xia Duo did not want to repeat the attempts over and over; he hoped to succeed in one go.

……

After the inspection, Xia Duo called Aiboke aside, "Where have you arranged those High Mages you brought back?"

"They are temporarily settled in Linshui Village, along with those High Mages who followed to see the situation. They have toured the Territory over the past two days, and two more High Mages have agreed to join the Tower of Time."

"Is that so!"

Xia Duo nodded, expressing his satisfaction with Aiboke's work once again. Now, it was confirmed that fourteen High Mages would soon join the Tower of Time.

Although these people would not be used in the spellcasting rituals for the first phase of the new city construction for the time being, they could fill the current shortage of High Mages in the Tower of Time. There was plenty of work for them here!

"I plan to hold a welcome banquet for them. I'll have to trouble Uncle Aiboke to go to Linshui Village again to send them an invitation. The time will be tonight, and the location will be the banquet hall on the first floor of the Tower of Time. Later, I will move the Tower of Time to Hengchun Square; if they are willing, they can also come to the Floating City or the Tower of Time early to visit."

"Alright, I'll go now."

Having said that, Aiboke was about to set off, but Xia Duo stopped him, "Wait, I haven't finished yet. Tell them they can bring their families."

Since it was a welcome banquet, bringing family members would make it livelier. In any case, Niya would definitely attend. Although his arrangement for those newly arrived High Mages was still primarily as Magic Technicians for the time being, they were, after all, High Mages of the old era and possessed some strengths.

As long as they were given the opportunity, their future achievements in the Tower of Time would at least rank in the upper-middle tier. As long as they sincerely supported the Daxia Order and obeyed the arrangements of the Tower of Time, they could be cultivated as core members.

In addition, Xia Duo welcoming them personally could show how much he valued them, which was, to a certain extent, a way of "buying horse bones with a thousand gold."

The Iolorum might not be able to recruit more people in the short term, but there were opportunities elsewhere, especially after the appearance of the three Planes: Tianshui, Golden Plain, and Strange Cliff.

With a total population of over seven million, not to mention how many High Mages there were, the number of ordinary people alone made his mouth water.

If he could recruit ten or twenty percent of them, the Daxia Territory and the Tower of Time could instantly undergo a qualitative change!

Although those three Planes could not yet connect to the Main Plane, Xia Duo had already begun planning to poach people. When he performed the Prophecy Ritual before, he saw that the Portal connecting those three Planes to the Main Plane was the Permanent Teleportation Portal using the Daiwei String he had provided.

Except for using Daiwei String materials, no other material could withstand such a massive migration of people. Why did the Arcane Union's Teleportation Array cost one thousand Gold Coins per use? The reason lay in the high maintenance costs.

The cost of a Teleportation Array was slightly higher, with each maintenance costing about 500 to 600; not everyone could afford to take it, and its only advantage was safety.

But compared to an instantly connected Portal, the safety of a Teleportation Array was actually lower. However, Portals also had their drawbacks: as soon as they were opened, they began to depreciate, and maintenance fees started to accrue.

And the most critical point was that they couldn't just be opened when needed; the damage to the base from starting a Portal and maintaining it was vastly different. If it were started too many times, it would be directly scrapped.

Therefore, most organizations that possessed Portals preferred to maintain them long-term.

Comparing the two, the cost of a Teleportation Array was lower. Although the safety was slightly lower, as long as it was higher than self-teleportation, it was still relatively practical.

But all of this was based on the premise that "the Energy-Conducting Material of the Portal or Teleportation Array is a consumable." Once the Energy-Conducting Material was not a consumable or was very durable, the advantages of the Portal would immediately stand out.

Safe, instant, and efficient.

Even for a Teleportation Array that did not require consuming Energy-Conducting Materials, one had to activate the array every time one teleported—activate it once for every teleportation. A Portal, in essence, folded and connected the space between two places, allowing one to walk directly through.

As long as the Portal was built large enough, it could completely replace the Teleportation Array.

And the Daiwei String Portal was just such an existence; it required almost no maintenance, and even the construction cost was far lower than a conventional Mithril Portal.

If the millions of people in those few Habitable Planes of the Seven Towers were to be migrated back to the Main Plane using conventional Portals, the maintenance costs of the Portals alone would probably be enough to hurt the Seven Towers' foundations.

Of course, not everyone wanted to migrate back to the Main Plane. If a portion were migrated back to free up space for survival and development, the remaining people might not want to move.

After all, for ordinary people, the cost of migration was very high, even within the same Plane, let alone across Planes.

But the Main Plane was their hometown after all. Even if they settled in a small Plane, coming back to take a look was perhaps, or rather should be, the thought of most Netherese in other Planes.

At this time, if there were a low-cost means of transportation, coupled with the broader development space of the Main Plane, Xia Duo believed that most Netherese in other Planes would still be willing to return to the Main Plane.

In a certain future Time Line, the reason he provided the Daiwei String Portal for those three Planes to use might have been to more conveniently attract people from those three Planes to join the Daxia Territory.

At the previous Council of Great Arcanists, Sikumu, Badijiaer, and other Controllers of the Seven Towers had raised the issue of transfer costs, which the other Great Arcanists were clearly unwilling to bear, and the Seven Towers were also unwilling to bear.

It was not very good to let the people in those three Planes bear it; after all, their ancestors had voluntarily gone to explore other Planes to "keep the incense burning" for Netheril in the Main Plane. Now that they wanted to return, who would have the heart to charge them?

If Xia Duo did not participate, it might end up with several parties jointly funding it, and then very few people would actually return. Even if those Great Arcanists could all return to the Main Plane, as long as the Planes remained under the control of the Seven Towers, and as long as there were enough people there who could not migrate, those Great Arcanists born and raised in other Planes would still very likely be influenced or even dominated by the Seven Towers.

This did not align with Xia Duo's interests.