Chapter 513: Pay-to-Win Recharge, Technological Progress

On the other side, hearing Xia Duo's call, Niya had just finished this round of practice. She wiped the non-existent sweat from her forehead, came before Xia Duo, and asked with concern:

"Is the problem solved? If you don't have enough Arcane Crystals, I have some here."

Niya knew that just after advancing to an Arcanist, the link between Arcane Fire and the Magic Net would appear unstable; if energy was not drawn from the Magic Net in time, it was even possible to be directly knocked back to one's original state.

At such times, one needed to use Arcane Crystals to maintain the Arcane Fire. Niya felt that because Xia Duo had advanced so hastily, he might have encountered a situation where his Arcane Fire was unstable.

Now that Xia Duo's mood had calmed down, he would not reveal anything in his speech. Regarding Niya's concern, he felt a bit guilty in his heart, but how could he easily disclose such major matters as his Personal Space or the materialization of a Nether Scroll?

Do not attempt to test human nature, because regardless of the result, it would only increase the suspicion between two people, eventually evolving into a scene one would not want to see.

Even between blood-related fathers and sons, secrets exist, let alone between a husband and wife. Besides, the relationship between this couple, Xia Duo and Niya, had not yet reached the level of a normal married couple.

Since Niya might have misunderstood something, Xia Duo followed her lead: "It's already solved. It's getting late today, I should head back. You should get some rest early too; we still have to go watch the competition tomorrow."

"Alright."

Niya nodded and saw Xia Duo off from her residence, walking him all the way to the area where Xia Duo could move freely, before being refused by Xia Duo. If they kept seeing each other off like this, they wouldn't get any sleep all night.

……

Returning to his own residence, although Xia Duo's mood had calmed down and was no longer as agitated as before, his interest in the Personal Space had not diminished in the slightest; instead, it had increased a thousandfold.

Only now, he was more composed.

Come to think of it, he hadn't closed his eyes from last night until tonight. He should have rested long ago, but making him go to sleep now was simply a form of torture.

Taking advantage of the lingering feel of his successful spellcasting earlier, Xia Duo directly cast the 5th Circle Spell 【Create Arcane Crystal】 in his residence—an environment without a Magic Net Suppression Field.

Compared to casting in Niya's Spell Laboratory, Xia Duo clearly felt that the "resistance" of the Magic Net Strings was greater when casting in a normal Magic Net environment.

The difficulty of controlling this spell had also increased.

Thanks to his long-term, unrelaxed spell practice, although it was a bit bumpy, Xia Duo still succeeded in casting. A particle of Arcane Crystal, smaller than the previous one, appeared at the location indicated by his will.

Xia Duo hurriedly reached out to grab it. Arcane energy that had solidified into a crystal could not be directly controlled unless re-absorbed; it was equivalent to being discarded by the Arcanist.

At this moment, under Xia Duo's gaze, this tiny Arcane Crystal particle was emitting a faint, pale blue glow, completely different from the previous Arcane Crystal particle.

It looked as if the Arcane Crystal was slowly evaporating; in fact, the Arcane Crystal was indeed shrinking.

But—

This scene was also similar to the scene where an Arcane Crystal was slowly being "devoured" within the Personal Space.

If he hadn't experienced the Personal Space devouring Arcane Crystals, Xia Duo might not have thought of this point. Although there were records of this in books—that when an Arcane Crystal is manufactured, if the solidification process is not mastered well, such dissipation phenomena will occur.

But isn't the Main Plane also a massive space?

From another perspective, isn't such Arcane energy dissipation just the Main Plane "devouring" Arcane energy?

It's just that the Main Plane is truly too large; if it were anyone else, it would likely be very difficult to notice this.

However, Xia Duo did not dare to be entirely certain that the Main Plane also devoured Arcane energy to grow. If that were truly the case, then the importance of Arcane energy might need to be elevated to another level.

……

Taking advantage of the fact that the Arcane Crystal particle had not yet completely dissipated, Xia Duo hurriedly put this "mosquito leg" into his Personal Space. Arcane Crystals were not cheap; the price of a standard crystal had been stable at around 5,000 Gold Coins for years.

But those were all past transaction prices; in reality, very few people would take Arcane Crystals out to sell.

Generally speaking, only by the unit of a Mage Tower could one obtain a certain quota from the Arcane Union, and for ordinary Mages, there were basically only two channels to obtain Arcane Crystals: trading directly with Arcanists, or obtaining them from their affiliated Mage Tower.

The Tower of Time currently had a reserve of less than 100 standard Arcane Crystals, and this was thanks to those Arcanists who wanted to go to the Mythallar Ruins to "earn Divine Grace."

The Tower of Time only received a quota of 2 from the Arcane Union each year, which was generally only used for the maintenance of the Tower of Time's key Magic Arrays, and very rarely used for crafting Magic Items.

Not to mention letting Xia Duo misappropriate them to expand his Personal Space.

In the past, Xia Duo felt that developing a Territory was quite expensive, but now it seemed that the expenses of Territory development couldn't compare to this "gold-devouring beast" called the Personal Space at all!

It seems that no matter which world he is in, he cannot escape the fate of "paying to win." However, how can one become stronger without spending money?

Xia Duo pursed his lips and easily accepted this setting. Seeing that the Arcane energy circulating in his Arcane Fire was nearing disappearance, the Arcane Fire still tirelessly drew energy from the Magic Net, endlessly converting it into Arcane energy.

But this speed was almost negligible compared to the extraction speed of Xia Duo's spells and the devouring speed of the Personal Space.

"I should find a way to quantify Arcane energy."

Before becoming an Arcanist, there was no need to consider the issue of energy at all. All spell consumption was provided by the Magic Net; the Spellcaster only needed to start the "machine" that was the Magic Net.

But as an Arcanist, how could one not have a count of the actual consumption of spells?

What's more, for Xia Duo, knowing the quantitative standard of Arcane energy was also conducive to him judging the growth progress of the Personal Space, and even formulating corresponding expansion plans in advance.

After writing down some of his thoughts on paper, Xia Duo tidied up and prepared to sleep.

……

The next morning, Xia Duo woke up from his deep sleep. Subconsciously, he wanted to perform Meditation, but once he thought about the fact that he had already successfully advanced, the motivation for Meditation suddenly became much smaller.

Although he knew that the final result of Meditation might reach the level of integrating the subconscious and Conscious Mind—perhaps this was the max state of focus—but as of now, it occupied a large amount of time while the actual effect was negligible.

From Arcanist to Great Arcanist, it was no longer considered an advancement, just normal growth. Theoretically, any Arcanist could eventually become a Great Arcanist.

One only needed to upgrade their own Arcane Fire to the level of a Great Arcanist. This process did not require external objects, only Knowledge.

In reality, there were many reasons why there were few Great Arcanists, but in the end, it was because human lifespans were too short to complete the upgrade before their lifespan ended.

If one were an immortal, even if it were a hard grind, after a thousand or a hundred years, one would have ground it out.

In terms of cost-effectiveness, half a day of Meditation without actual effect was not as good as using it to research Magic. Integrating consciousness through technical means might be faster than the slow, grinding work of Meditation!

The Foolish Old Man moving mountains required endless generations of descendants, but in modern society, as long as it was necessary, machines could be driven over to complete work that the Foolish Old Man could not finish in several lifetimes at any time.

This is the productivity improvement brought about by technological progress.

Xia Duo came from Earth. Although most of the technology on Earth could not be used in the Magic world, the scientific methodology was built on logic and could undoubtedly be brought over for use.

On Earth, science and technology are the primary productive forces; then in the Magic world, Magic technology (Spells) is the primary productive force.

After clarifying the source, Xia Duo no longer held any expectations for Meditation. The methods of the past stage were not suitable for the development needs of the new stage; what should be eliminated must be eliminated.