Chapter 502: New Commoners, Rehearsal

According to Laidun's report, excluding the dozen or so people who died during transport, a total of 504 people arrived at Linshui Village alive, including men and women, old and young; some had families, while others were bachelors.

Currently, these people have all been assigned living quarters and have been dispersed into the various working groups previously in the Territory, with twenty people per group for the time being, which is considered a fairly large scale.

For now, we will arrange things this way and let these new commoners familiarize themselves with the unique pioneering model of Daxia.

"Are the food and tools sufficient?"

"My lord, we have prepared plenty of tools, so there is no need to worry about shortages for the time being, but the food—" Laidun spoke somewhat hesitantly.

"What is wrong with the food again? Didn't I just have someone send a ship over before I left? Why is there a food shortage now?"

"No, no, my lord, there is no shortage yet, but with over 500 people suddenly flooding into the Territory, the rate of food consumption has almost doubled. If it continues like this, I estimate we won't even be able to hold out until June."

Laidun had been hoping for the lord's return, but he also knew the lord had gone to Seventon, where he could not reach the lord at all, or the people of Savile Territory. If the lord did not return soon, he was prepared to cross the forest and return to Savile Town to borrow food.

Hearing this, Xia Duo could not help but feel fortunate that he had returned early; otherwise, if he had stayed in Seventon until the end of the competition, or delayed even longer, these people in the Territory would have been left with nothing to eat.

Currently, the Territory's food cannot yet be self-sufficient and must rely on external input; this is a problem that every Pioneer Territory encounters, not just Xia Duo's.

Actually, transporting food from Savile Town is still quite convenient; those pioneers developing on the Kangqi Plain have it much worse. The nearest city, Kangqi City, not only refuses to sell food but even imposes transit taxes on passing merchant caravans.

This is practically forcing people into a dead end, and not everyone can afford to transport people and goods through a Teleportation Array. Xia Duo heard news about the Kangqi Plain often during his time at Giles Tower.

It is said that the Princess was furious about this, but there was nothing she could do. After all, after much compromise, being able to establish a pioneer territory on the Kangqi Plain, which Kangqi City had already set its sights on, was already no easy feat.

However, Xia Duo also heard that the Princess intends to open another road connecting the core area to the Kangqi Plain, but such rumors are only rumors and have not received a clear confirmation from the Princess.

Xia Duo speculates that this might be a means to force Kangqi City to make concessions. He has seen the map near Kangqi City; although not very detailed, one can roughly distinguish that passing through Kangqi City to reach the Kangqi Plain is the shortest route, and taking a detour or even opening a new road is not very cost-effective.

Of course, setting aside troubles like Kangqi City, beasts, Gnolls, Goblins, and Trolls, clearing farmland on the plains is far easier than clearing farmland in the forest.

Xia Duo still envies the plain environment there, but only the environment; he does not want any of the trouble there at all.

While contacting the Tower of Time to start a food production increase plan, Xia Duo continued to listen to Laidun's report, and finally, he put forward two points of advice:

"For the next period of time, I will be quite busy, and there are two things I need you to do."

"One is that with the increase in the Territory's population, the pace of pioneering will also accelerate. To facilitate defense, the size of the Territory Guard also needs to be expanded. You, Jibu, Ximeng, and the others should select four squads of people from the commoners, prioritizing those from the original Savile Territory and the original Kewu Tribe."

Four squads mean forty soldiers, which directly doubles the number of the Territory Guard. Right now, including these five hundred or so new arrivals, the Territory has a total of just over one thousand people, so a Territory Guard of about 80 people is enough for the time being.

When the next batch of commoners arrives, Xia Duo will select another batch of soldiers from among them.

Next, Xia Duo continued: "The second thing is to talk to the new commoners one by one. Not only must you propagate the new policies of Daxia Territory to them, but you must also organize information about themselves and their past locations, compile it, and hand it to me."

This batch of new commoners does not come from the same place, but from several different territories. From the mouths of these lowest-level commoners, Xia Duo might be able to gain a relatively basic understanding of other parts of Netheril.

"Yes, my lord."

"Very good, then go and get busy."

"Yes."

Once Laidun left, Xia Duo had a rough understanding of what had happened in the Territory during his absence. As for more detailed matters, it would not be too late to learn them after his advancement; he had not even met those new commoners yet!

In the following days, Xia Duo was immersed in meditation every day, unable to extricate himself. Of course, when he felt that his meditation efficiency had dropped to a certain level, he would not force himself to meditate and waste time, but instead began to familiarize himself with, or even rehearse, the advancement process.

The essence of a Meditation Method is actually a type of Focus Training, and the goal of Focus Training is for the Spellcaster to perceive their own Soul. In the entire advancement process, the Soul is only needed in the final step.

If we set aside the advancement and only consider generating Arcane Fire, Xia Duo could do it now, but without perceiving his own Soul, he cannot combine the Arcane Fire with his own will, and thus cannot become a true Arcanist.

Therefore, rehearsing the process of the birth of Arcane Fire is perfectly fine.

However, Xia Duo must take into account the actual situation of the Tower of Time. He will definitely rehearse it once, but just like how one must apply to advance to Arcanist at Giles Tower, this is not entirely to exert control over subordinates, but because the cost of advancement is truly high.

First, one needs to isolate a region of the Magic Net from the entire Magic Net environment, but because one does not know exactly how many layers the Magic Net has, it is actually impossible to isolate it completely; however, the higher the degree of isolation, the easier it will be during advancement.

This is because to generate Arcane Fire, one must seize the essence of the Magic Net. In the normal external Magic Net environment, it would not be so easy to succeed, and even in a specialized Advanced Laboratory, it is not that easy.

Moreover, every time it is activated, the cost is high. Except for those who truly have hope of successful advancement, or the Tower Master themselves, it is estimated that no one is willing to try it in advance. After all, for an individual, one activation is roughly equivalent to bankruptcy.

Xia Duo is still very cautious about the rehearsal.

On the fifth day after returning to the Territory, Xia Duo felt that he was already quite familiar with the process, as he had been studying it for a long time; he was only lacking in the perception of the Soul.

This day, he returned to the Tower of Time, but he did not go to the Advanced Laboratory immediately; instead, he found Aiboke, wanting to get some more guidance based on experience.

Xia Duo was absolutely certain in theory about whether he could generate Arcane Fire, but advancement is not just theory; there is also practice, and in terms of practice, experience is needed.

Previously in Seventon, he had also asked Niya, but wouldn't a little more experience be better? If he were not worried about being too familiar too soon and causing others' resentment, he would even have wanted to ask the ten Arcanists he trained previously for their experience in this regard.

Now is the time to "harvest" Aiboke, this "experience pack."