Chapter 441: Five Teleportation Points

Time turned to February. Although the wind and snow had long since ceased, the temperature had reached its lowest point of the year. Even with the sun high in the sky, the Lord of Radiance strictly followed the established seasonal order, unwilling to bestow even a sliver of warmth. This afternoon, Xia Duo finally completed the first spellcasting process of 【Teleportation Mark】 in its entirety. Controlling over five hundred elements simultaneously made his brow burn and pushed his mind to its limit, but fortunately, he finally succeeded.

He applied this spell to a Mithril Ingot. As soon as the spell was completed, Xia Duo felt as if he were positioned within a void that was caving inward, as if he were about to be swallowed by this space at any moment.

This feeling was not without a source; the source was the 【Teleportation Mark】 on this Mithril Ingot. Now, with a mere shift of his consciousness, he could teleport himself to the location of the mark.

Since the mark was left on a movable object like the Mithril Ingot, this meant that as long as the position of the Mithril Ingot changed, the final teleportation destination would also change.

During the experimental phase, Xia Duo naturally would not choose just any material as a carrier for the 【Teleportation Mark】. Mithril, gold, Adamantine, and Silver were all among his choices. The most important thing was that the carrier of the mark needed to possess characteristics such as long-term durability and stability.

Otherwise, referring to 【Arcane Mark】, if the carrier disappeared, the mark would certainly disappear as well.

Since the mark was established, Xia Duo proceeded to the next experiment—field teleportation.

Taking advantage of the time before dusk, Xia Duo took the Mithril Ingot to the Altar Square and threw it onto the ground at random. At the same time, he ordered Ximeng to lead a team to seal off the square.

In winter, the ground outside was frozen as hard as stone. Aside from the territory residents who were rotating shifts at the brick kiln, the Woodworking Workshop, and the Canteen, most of the remaining residents had nothing to do.

They were either visiting neighbors in the village, busy making babies, or pulling a thin thread from their clothes to go fishing by the river to satisfy their cravings.

Seeing the lord send people to seal off the Altar Square, many bored people immediately gathered around. A blockade meant a boundary, and a boundary meant that as long as one did not cross it, it was not illegal.

Currently, the "law" in the Territory had long since taken root in people's hearts. Although it consisted of only a few simple articles and would gradually increase in the future, the residents liked this simple written law very much.

Especially the Slaves, who recited the territorial regulations almost like Sacred Proverbs, muttering them a few times every day when they had nothing to do.

Xia Duo did not care at all about the residents watching. Once the square was sealed off, he cast 【Flight】 and flew toward the north.

After flying past the Linshui River and continuing north for about a few hundred meters, he stopped in mid-air. At this moment, that feeling of being pulled by the void still existed, but since this was the first attempt, there was no need to fly too far.

Right there in mid-air, Xia Duo activated the 【Teleportation Mark】. With a flash of white light, his entire person vanished into thin air. At the same time, Xia Duo appeared out of thin air at the Linshui Village Altar Square on the other side.

"Whoa—"

The watching residents let out strange exclamations from time to time. There were only thirty-some Official Mages in the Tower of Time in total, and even fewer Intermediate Mages who could fly, let alone teleport.

These residents originally lived in the Savile Territory; usually, seeing a single Mage who could fly could serve as a topic of conversation for years. Now, they had actually seen their own lord fly into the distance and then suddenly return to the Altar Square.

In Netheril, although Magic was not yet a common commodity, it was not so mysterious that ordinary people rarely heard of it; even many rural farmers could perform a 【Prestidigitation】!

Now that the residents saw this scene, they naturally made the connection—if this wasn't teleportation, what was it?

After the exclamations came cheers. Regardless of their true thoughts, in this situation, they had to express themselves with cheers.

Listening to the waves of cheers around him, Xia Duo remained unmoved, but he did not stop them. He speculated that the awakening of his bloodline might be related to the power of Faith, though he did not yet understand what the power of Faith actually was.

He could only accept it passively; as for directly preaching a Faith, he was not yet that suicidal.

He had seen the two Small Wood Carvings of the Princess with his own eyes; perhaps she was collecting Faith. But even as a Great Arcanist, she did not preach it widely, so how could he, a mere High Mage, dare to do such a thing! The first experiment ended successfully, which was actually within Xia Duo's expectations. A spell is like the specific solution to a math problem; as long as the steps are correct and the solver makes no mistakes, the result is almost inevitable.

As a future Arcanist, Xia Duo naturally had this confidence.

In the following ten-plus days, Xia Duo continuously conducted fixed-point teleportation experiments. The experimental goals basically covered various scenarios needed for daily life, such as the limit of teleportation distance, the choice of mark carriers, the situation of multiple marks coexisting, and more dangerous anti-interference experiments.

After each experiment, Xia Duo would fine-tune and optimize the 【Teleportation Mark】. The final version of the 【Teleportation Mark】 contained just over 500 elements, forming more than twenty Element Units.

Compared to the previous version, the number of elements was reduced, but the Element Units increased. It seemed more complex, but in reality, the degree of order had increased, making the structure more perfect and the logic clearer, which actually reduced the difficulty of spellcasting.

This was the limit of what Xia Duo could do at present.

After completing the final version of the 【Teleportation Mark】, Xia Duo returned to the Tower of Time overnight and, with the help of an Alchemy Array, manufactured a dozen Mithril Blocks that looked like rough, small pebbles.

These would be the "teleportation points" for the future, even though they required him to set them up in advance.

It was not that he couldn't make more, but that there could be at most 5 【Teleportation Marks】 existing at the same time. Once that number was exceeded, all previous ones would become invalid.

This was the result of Xia Duo's many experiments, and he could not improve it for the time being, but 5 "teleportation points" were enough.

Xia Duo prepared to use these "teleportation points" as emergency passages, counting them as five backup plans.

After leaving the Tower of Time, Xia Duo continued north along the Wolfburg River and threw one of the "teleportation points" with a 【Teleportation Mark】 applied to it into the river, one mile away from Savile Town.

Then, he activated the 【Teleportation Mark】 left at Linshui Village. After returning to Linshui Village, he continued south along the Wolfburg River for about a mile and threw down another "teleportation point."

Xia Duo threw the third "teleportation point" into the undeveloped primeval land west of Linshui Village.

There were two spots left, currently empty.

As for the normal Teleportation Spell used in daily life, it still needed further research, but his state of mind was much more relaxed now.

Three backup plans—in truth, Xia Duo might not need even one, as he could return to the Tower of Time at any moment. However, this kind of retreat and security derived from his own strength still gave him sufficient psychological comfort.

(End of chapter)