Chapter 376: Earth Elements, Spell-Assisted Excavation

After returning to the Territory, Xia Duo handed Mote over to Laidun to make arrangements; after all, in the Savile Territory, Priest Tusi also resided within the Temple of the Lord of Radiance, so perhaps they already had a tacit understanding of how to get along.

Afterward, Xia Duo hurried to the river-digging site; it seemed he had only been delayed in the Savile Territory for one day, but adding in the trip to the Projection Plane, this time was far too long.

Fortunately, while in the Projection Plane, Xia Duo had already considered this situation and noted down on his notebook what to do upon returning to the Main Plane; checking the progress of the river-digging site was one of those items.

The river channel was related to the timely completion of the Elemental Channel, which could calm the Magic Net riots within the Mythallar Ruins; the Tower of Time was located within them, and its energy consumption was therefore also related.

Everything here was linked, and it even concerned the issue of whether these 500 river workers could return before the autumn harvest in the Savile Territory.

The three Arcanists from the Hand of Secrecy had agreed to help and were even willing to contact other Arcanists; as for the specific number, Xia Duo only remembered after checking his notebook that it was four.

A total of seven Arcanists, all things considered, was truly a very powerful source of assistance.

From the Wolfburg River in the west to the Mythallar Ruins in the east, the trees along the straight line where the Elemental Channel was located had already been felled, and now they were clearing stubborn things like tree roots and stones.

The assistance of those seven Arcanists was being used right here.

……

This "Elemental Channel" was not long, only a little over a mile; with Xia Duo's physical fitness, even though the road conditions in the forest were poor, he arrived near the Mythallar after a few minutes.

Through the various anomalies of the Magic Net riots, the silhouette of the Tower of Time could be vaguely seen.

And that small section where the Elemental Channel penetrated deep into the Mythallar had already been dug into a deep gully; this, of course, was not dug by those river workers, but by large, yellowish-brown hulks!

"These must be Earth Elements!" Xia Duo looked at those large hulks that were composed entirely of ordinary soil yet could move, feeling very curious.

This reminded him of the scene where he summoned a Water Element in the river, but the Water Element he summoned was silly and cute, with almost no self-awareness, whereas the four Earth Elements here were different; they could dig a river channel.

Of course, using "dig" to describe it was not accurate; a more precise description was that after these spherical Earth Elements rolled over the ground, their bodies grew larger, as if rolling a snowball.

Then they rolled to other places, discarded the excess soil, and after their bodies had shrunk, they went back to roll again, repeating this over and over.

"Is Lord Xia Duo interested in these Earth Elements?" Arcanist Aigeberde walked over and said, not without pride.

And following his words, one of the Earth Elements even stretched out its arms, making a punching motion like a human.

"I am quite interested, Lord Aigeberde. Would you be willing to sell this spell?"

Xia Duo was very envious; summoning a Water Element was actually a Bloodline Ability, though of course, it could also be converted into an ordinary spell.

It was just that what was summoned would still be that silly, cute ball of pure water.

Xia Duo, who knew the essence of the spell 【Elemental Summoning】, did not truly want the spell itself, but the summoning contract!

He could research the spell himself, but Earth Elements were not created by spells; they were summoned from the Elemental Plane, and Earth Elements that had self-awareness and could understand commands were rare treasures.

There were too many jobs in Xia Duo's Territory that were suitable for them to do!

"Lord Xia Duo, I am very sorry, this spell is a proprietary spell of our Hand of Secrecy and is a gift from the Goddess. If Lord Xia Duo—."

"That is truly a pity!" Xia Duo hurriedly interrupted his words; he was still quite cautious about faith, joining a religion, and the like.

Currently, there was a saying in Netheril—what blocked Great Arcanists from advancing further was faith; most Netherese believed in the Lord of Radiance, and it was unknown when or where this rumor had originated.

Of course, this was not what Xia Duo was worried about, and he believed that Great Arcanists would not believe this either; anyone with a certain understanding of the essence of magic would not believe this.

What he was truly worried about was not wanting to get involved with gods so early; utilizing a Cleric was one thing, but believing in one himself and joining a religion was another.

After all, in this world, gods truly existed.

……

Extending from that gully in the Mythallar Ruins was the Elemental Channel; now, a small section here had already been cleared. Inside the ruins, there was "excavation" by Earth Elements, but outside, it was the river workers doing the digging.

And a little further away, three Arcanists stood facing each other in an equilateral triangle, with the tree roots that needed to be cleared in the middle; they were currently casting a spell jointly.

The Arcane Energy flowing between them linked together, lifting the tree roots between them slowly but very firmly; Xia Duo walked a few steps closer, and he even heard the sound of the tree roots being pulled out of the soil.

Then, with a "bang," two thick tree roots that looked like monsters were thrown to the south of the Elemental Channel; the root systems were very complete, with the thinnest being about as thick as a little finger and the thickest as thick as a human thigh.

That really was a big tree!

"Both tree roots were lifted at the same time; how much power would that require?" Such a thought flashed through Xia Duo's mind.

On Earth, there was the story of Lu Zhishen uprooting a weeping willow, but that was just a story; he had once specifically searched online to know how much power was needed to pull up the tree that wasn't even that thick in the TV show at the time.

He didn't remember the specific value, but he clearly remembered that the unit was "tons."

And the power these three Arcanists were using to lift the tree roots should at least be calculated in tons!

Seeing Xia Duo staring at the three Arcanists casting the spell, Aigeberde thought Xia Duo was interested in this spell again, so he introduced:

"This ritual spell was researched by several of us together, specifically for pulling tree roots out from the ground. If Lord Xia Duo is interested, I think they would agree to sell it!"

"No, no, no need." Xia Duo hurriedly refused.

He couldn't help but glance at Aigeberde; this didn't look like a crooked merchant, so did he really think he didn't understand?

The spell might be specifically used for pulling tree roots, but in its essence, it was still a series of Transmutation spells like 【Mage Hand】, 【Levitation】, and 【Flight】.

What was being changed was the object's state of motion.

Three people casting a spell jointly was not strange either; this was not essentially different from an Apprentice helping a mentor conduct a magic experiment, and there was even a specific technical term for this in the field of magic, called—Synergistic Resonance.

The term Ritual Magic was even passed down from the Elves; Xia Duo had long known this very well.

"Could it be that an Intermediate Mage in his twenties still couldn't demonstrate his understanding of magic?" Xia Duo couldn't help but mock himself.

But once he thought that Niya was also in her twenties and had already become an Arcanist, he felt a bit dispirited; he didn't want to waste time here.

He hadn't met the other three Arcanists on this visit, which made him feel a bit regretful; he expressed his thanks again to these four Arcanists for coming to help, and then Xia Duo left.

And judging from the clearing speed he had just seen, it wouldn't be long before all the tree roots and stones on this straight line of the Elemental Channel were cleared.

And without the obstruction of tree roots and stones, just digging a river channel of a little over a mile would not take long at all for a team of 500 river workers.

……