Chapter 392: Adjustment, Trouble

Xia Duo is currently only one step away from becoming a High Mage, and due to his longing for 【Teleportation】, he has slightly adjusted his advancement plan.

To advance to an Arcanist, one needs to master fourteen subjects, or courses, including theory and techniques, such as "Arcane Principles," "Soul Studies," and "Deep Weave."

The improvement of Spellcasting Level runs through all of this; by proceeding step-by-step, one will naturally become a High Mage, and eventually advance to an Arcanist.

What Xia Duo is doing now is simply shifting his focus slightly toward leveling up; after mastering 【Short-range Teleportation】, not being able to master 【Long-distance Teleportation】 is simply a torment.

After notifying Niya about the arrival of Priest Ke'er and the situation involving Rodney Territory, Xia Duo adjusted his subsequent plans himself. This will cause a slight delay in his advancement to Arcanist, but it will bring his mastery of 【Long-distance Teleportation】 forward.

In fact, the confidence Xia Duo has to adjust his plans so casually lies in the Tower of Time, or more accurately, the Plane Exploration Array within the Tower of Time.

Being able to use the Projection Plane to accelerate his learning, he actually no longer cares much about this bit of time in the Main Plane. His mindset has changed, and his arrangement of time in the Main Plane has become casual.

But regardless of whether it is in the Main Plane or the Projection Plane, the time he spends will be reflected on his original body without the slightest bit missing, so deliberately wasting time is impossible.

……

Three days later, inside a small tent in Linshui Village.

Xia Duo had one hand pressed on his Spellbook, while the other hand traced irregular patterns in the air with a Mithril Pen. If a veteran Mage were present, they would recognize that these seemingly irregular movements were actually replicating the twisting trajectories of the Magic Net Strings.

The subject of spellcasting is the spellcaster's will, which has nothing to do with hands or feet. Xia Duo doing this is actually just a subconscious behavior; of course, it could also be called Focus Training.

Right above the Spellbook, Magic Net Strings bent, entangled, joined, and overlapped, over and over again, never ceasing.

After a long while, Xia Duo rubbed his brow and dispelled the spell that was about to take shape. To level up quickly, theory must come first, but more importantly, one must practice more.

When all is said and done, as long as there are no automatic spellcasting devices, spellcasting remains manual labor.

Xia Duo's previous advancement plan also included a large amount of practice training, but those practices were more integrated with Arcanist advancement training, whereas the direct path to 【Long-distance Teleportation】 requires taking a slight "detour."

This session of practice came to a temporary end. Xia Duo prepared to go out for a walk to relax. His attitude toward spellcasting practice is similar to physical training, basically following the principle of small amounts and high frequency.

Ever since he learned that spellcasting originates from the soul and the will, he never thought about extreme spellcasting again; he often rests for a while at the slightest sign of fatigue.

During this period, he would either move his hands and feet to perform physical training or Sword Art training, or go out to patrol the Territory, which could be considered a balance of work and rest.

Now, Xia Duo was also preparing to rest for a while. He grabbed the 【Pioneer Scepter】 placed beside him and swung it around casually as if it were a sword.

As for so-called Sword Art, he does not blindly believe in it. The Sword Singers of the Elves are essentially Mages; without spells, simply practicing Sword Art to perfection is of little use.

Regarding Sword Art, and even physical fitness, he only treats them as a supplement to Magic, much like how no matter how strong one's physical fitness is on Earth, it is only a supplement to machine guns and missiles.

Xia Duo cannot do things that put the cart before the horse or abandon the fundamentals for the trivial.

After moving around a bit, just as Xia Duo was about to go out for a walk, the Tower Spirit suddenly sent a message—Aiboke had something for him and wanted him to return.

It had been three days since the Banishment of Priest Ke'er. For these three days, Xia Duo had been waiting for news, news in every sense, but he did not expect that before Niya's news arrived, Aiboke's news had come.

Xia Duo vaguely felt that it was not a good thing. The fact that Rodney Lord coveted the Green Pearl Forest makes Savile Territory, his Daxia Territory, or even the Tower of Time, quite passive.

Once the unwritten rules are broken, perhaps it won't just be Rodney Lord; others might also get ideas.

Right now, it is the wave of pioneering led by the Princess, but where else is there a place as good to pioneer as the Green Pearl Forest?

After years of clearing by Savile Territory, the most serious threat here—the Orcs—had their lair destroyed.

Since the start of the pioneering, Xia Duo hadn't even seen an Orc once, and he didn't know where those Orcs who lost their lair had gone.

It can be said that the Green Pearl Forest can already be considered a developed land, almost within reach. At least Xia Duo didn't feel there was any difficulty; what was lacking was merely population.

Population is a problem for Xia Duo, but it is not necessarily a problem for those Inner Land lords. There has been no outward expansion for nearly a hundred years, and the Orc Tide in the Inner Land has been almost completely eliminated, so there must be plenty of population.

At the thought of an Inner Land lord using a Portal to send a large number of territory residents into the Green Pearl Forest, Xia Duo felt very irritable.

After packing his personal belongings and sending a message to Laidun to give some instructions, Xia Duo summoned the Tower Spirit to guide the Teleportation and returned to the Tower of Time.

……

Aiboke's Reception Room.

Besides Aiboke, Saixili was also there this time. Xia Duo came over without even greeting them and asked directly, "What happened?"

Aiboke did not mind Xia Duo's rudeness; in fact, he was in no mood to pay attention to such things at the moment. Hearing Xia Duo's question, he replied, "Just now, the heads of several merchant guilds notified Saier Town Mayor that they will no longer sell Magic materials to Savile Territory from now on."

"Wait!" Xia Duo immediately raised an objection, "Wasn't there a contract signed before? They can just stop selling whenever they want?"

"Of course there was a contract, but as long as it's a contract, there are loopholes, and that's the case this time." As he spoke, Aiboke pointed his hand and sent a stack of Contract Documents placed on the small square table beside him to Xia Duo.

Xia Duo took the Contract Documents and flipped through them roughly. There were several copies in this stack, all signed with large merchant guilds from the Inner Land. In addition to Netherese text, there were also versions in Elven text to prevent ambiguity.

He focused on reading a few of the contracts. The content was mainly that the merchant guilds would provide materials and obtain the priority purchase rights for the products produced by the Tower of Time.

The details were quite thorough, even detailed to the point of specifying the origin and quality of every type of material.

Looking back and forth, Xia Duo did not find any obvious loopholes. These contracts could be called models of contracts even if placed on Earth.

He couldn't help but feel a little puzzled, "What loopholes do these contracts have?"

"These contracts were signed quite early. At that time, considering the reality of the situation, no fixed quotas were agreed upon, and now the trouble has come."

"Fixed quotas?" Xia Duo repeated subconsciously.

Aiboke thought Xia Duo didn't know about this, so he explained it to him, "This was something first proposed by some Mage Towers in recent years, allowing individual suppliers to provide a fixed quantity of materials regularly. Of course, correspondingly, the Mage Tower must also purchase everything at market price. This new form of procurement is very stable and beneficial to both parties."

In fact, Xia Duo had already understood when he heard "fixed quotas." This is indeed very stable, but for the purchasing party, which is the Mage Tower, there must be regular, fixed expenditures.

And a Mage Tower is actually not a stable production unit; only larger Mage Towers (organizations) can maintain this method of procurement.