Chapter 3017: Ether Cloud Beasts, Individual Verification

Two days later, upon receiving the latest news from Seventon, Xia Duo could not help but let out a long sigh of relief; from his current perspective, he seemed to have made the most correct choice.

But before today, he truly had not expected that this matter would have such a turn of events.

Hurrying to Seventon, with the Seven Towers having notified them in advance, the other councilors had also mostly arrived, and everyone met at the Ether Forward Base at the Arcane Union Headquarters.

The predecessor of the Ether Forward Base was actually a high-specification laboratory of the Arcane Union, which had an accident during an Elf raid, resulting in a large-scale, complete overlap with the Ether Plane.

In other words, one could consider that area to be both a part of the Main Plane and a part of the Ether Plane.

And because in Netheril Magic, creating a Tower Spirit requires the use of Spirit Material from the Ether Plane, this special area created by the accident was treated as a bridgehead for deep exploration into the Ether Plane, which is the so-called—

Ether Forward Base.

Furthermore, because the Arcane Union at that time was not a subordinate institution of the Seven Cities Council, but rather a neutral organization composed of Mage Towers from various regions and all Netherese Mages.

Therefore, the Ether Forward Base was actually something everyone could utilize; even Xia Duo had used the special environment here to set up a Warp Beast Farm!

……

Xia Shao stroked the soft body of the Ether Cloud, but he was thinking about how it was fortunate that it could not be used in the Material Plane, otherwise the newly emerging airship freight industry would suffer a major blow.

In a spirit state, if one is in the Ether Plane area corresponding to the Seventon urban district, dispelling the spirit state will cause one to appear directly in the corresponding urban district, rather than at the Arcane Union Headquarters.

Even though Seven Tons was right there, it was inevitable that everyone would want to verify it personally; one could not just believe whatever the Seven Towers said!

Because the town existed only as an Adventurer trading post and a cross-plane checkpoint, there were other outposts outside the town, such as Xia Shao's farm, or other laboratories established by other Mages, and so on.

At this location, as long as one cast a simple perspective spell, one could see the dim and hazy scene of the Seventon urban district in the Mist; if one did not transform their form and passed directly through the boundary, they would instantly return to the plaza at the Arcane Union Headquarters.

But now, at the edge of the plane overlap area, it seemed to be a natural gathering area for Ether Mist, and the initial state was even better than when in Nan Jing.

As the spell proceeded, Xia Shao indeed discovered the difference; in the past, when creating an Ether Boundary in Nan Jing, the gathering speed of the Ether Mist was always difficult to increase, as if some kind of plane protection mechanism existed—those Ether Mists always gathered at a relatively fixed speed, which did not change with the increase in Spell Energy Level.

If it were just near Seventon, one might still get lost; if it were as far away as Nan Jing, it would be almost impossible to arrive as desired.

The entrance to the Ether Forward Base was the original public laboratory area; the original buildings had all been demolished and transformed into the appearance of a large plaza.

In other words, one could actually come to the Ether Advance Base from places outside Seventon, but that would require passing through the Ether area, and that was precisely the greatest uncertainty.

If the concentration of Ether Mist in the spellcasting environment of Nan Jing was 1, then here it was at least 30!

Under the guidance of the Seven Towers staff, Xia Shao and the other councilors rode cloud-shaped Ether Creatures toward the edge of the plane overlap area.

Pulita of the Verdant Tower looked around, did not find Seven Tons, and immediately could not help but complain to the people from the Seven Towers.

"Where is Seven Tons? We have all arrived; has he not come yet?"

It was just that everyone's mindset while verifying was completely different.

This was truly a treasure land for creating an Ether Boundary!

But the dense fog only affected the initial state; the subsequent gathering speed was the key, and here, with the same spell, the mist gathering speed was at least five times that of Nan Jing!

And Xia Shao was very happy at this moment; if the Seven Towers were not lying, then the existence of the Ether Advance Base would flatten the strength of all individual forces and regional organizations in one fell swoop.

With Xia Shao taking the lead, others also used their own methods to verify it; Pulita, who had just been complaining, was naturally no exception.

"Pulita, don't make things difficult for the others; I will explain it to you."

In this situation, Huo En, as the person coordinating with Seven Tons, had to stand up and explain, "Previously, we only conducted temporary experiments here; Seven Tons prepared to move the permanent facilities from New Seventon over here for a more intuitive demonstration."

Around the plaza was an emerging town, but the "Base" in Ether Advance Base did not refer to this town, but to the entire plane overlap area.

……

……

Come to think of it, it was because everyone was anxious and arrived early; including Xia Shao, they had rushed to Seventon the moment they received the news, with almost no delay in between.

……

Currently, the state of Xia Shao and the others was still their normal material form; to enter the Ether Plane outside the plane overlap area, they still had to transform into a spirit form.

Xia Shao had taken that path when he came; after entering the Ether Advance Base, he appeared on another similar but more spacious plaza.

According to relevant personnel, this cloud-shaped creature was originally brought back by an Adventurer from the depths of the Ether Mist; it was somewhat similar to an Elemental Creature and could be divided into many parts, then each would grow.

Very soon, the group arrived at the edge of the plane overlap area, got off the cloud beasts, landed on the ground, and walked further out; it was still land, but it was permeated with thin mist.

Most importantly, this creature, named "Ether Cloud," had no aggressiveness at all and did not even need to be fed, making it very suitable to be used as a mount.

The process of walking from the edge of the plaza to the center of the plaza was the process of entering the Ether Advance Base; there was no need to pass through any teleportation devices in between. Although it was a plane overlap area, it was naturally connected to the space of the Main Plane.

"It is a pity that this kind of creature can only exist in a spirit state in the Material Plane; otherwise, bringing it to the Main Plane would also be an excellent flying mount!"

The people from the Seven Towers sighed with emotion.

However, wanting to verify the situation notified by the Seven Towers earlier did not necessarily require waiting for Seven Tons to arrive. Xia Shao looked around, casually found a position that was separate from the others and more spacious, and attempted to create an Ether Boundary.

Utilizing the Ether Advance Base was the greatest advantage and the strongest bonus!

Councilors native to the Main Plane, such as Pulita, would likely be very disappointed. Even though the situation notified by the Seven Towers should actually be a good thing for Plane Exploration itself, it was a huge blow to their desire to occupy the new plane for themselves.

Entering from different directions of that small plaza of the Arcane Union would lead to appearing at different positions in the Ether Advance Base plaza; it seemed that the small plaza at the Union Headquarters was spatially divided equally into the large plaza of the Advance Base.