Chapter 575: Rush Work, Reviewing the Old

The sun slanted to the west, dusk arrived, and the surface of Maihete Lake reflected the dim sunset, appearing exceptionally peaceful.

However, when Xia Duo looked back, the ceaseless, busy work on the Ming Shui Chamber of Commerce's large ship seemed somewhat out of place in this tranquil environment; not long ago, Mai Er Si had just sent him a message that because the task of collecting murloc mucus had not yet been completed, the Archmage would not be coming until tomorrow or the day after.

This depended on the work efficiency on Mai Er Si's side.

And Mai Er Si had already decided to let his workers collect through the night, ensuring the task was completed before noon tomorrow, so that when the Archmage arrived and cleared out the murlocs here, they could return immediately.

Xia Duo had no objections to this; he merely instructed his own fleet to heighten their vigilance, and after ordering the fleet to move a bit further away from the Ming Shui Chamber of Commerce's large ship, he personally set up Warning Magic.

Before going to sleep, Xia Duo slightly adjusted the categories and circle levels of the spells stored in the Magic Net, mainly leaning towards concealment and mobility, such as Illusion, Invisibility, flight, and teleportation.

As for Spell Breaking, one type is Dispel Magic, which forcibly smooths out the Magic Net, and the other is Spell Counter, which utilizes one's own knowledge; the former is a specific spell, but Xia Duo did not believe he could completely dispel an Archmage's spell, so having a Magic Scroll as a backup was sufficient.

On the other hand, Spell Counter has no fixed form and relies entirely on one's own knowledge for on-the-spot improvisation; the Snow Melting Competition in early May hadn't passed long ago, and Xia Duo had learned quite a bit of experience, so he still had some confidence in this regard.

Even an Archmage is not completely impossible to contend with.

But his goal was not to engage in spell combat with an Archmage; Xia Duo knew well that even if he won in spell combat, it wouldn't have much significance, as if an Archmage truly wanted to run, he wouldn't be able to catch up.

The main priority was to ensure he could escape.

Spells stored in the Magic Net are nearly instantaneous, and the only drawback is probably that—any spell must be stored in advance, and once used, it is gone; it does not recover on its own.

But as an additional spell system independent of himself, this shortcoming can be completely ignored; who knows how many Mages rely on Magic Net stored spells to make a living!

Although Xia Duo did not rely entirely on Magic Net stored spells, he also attached great importance to this aspect; it was just that his own on-the-spot spellcasting ability was quite qualified, so regarding Magic Net stored spells, he had always aimed for running away, staying prepared at all times.

This time, he just made a slight adjustment to better cope with a potential Archmage enemy.

……

The night was peaceful.

The anticipated murloc attack or Archmage ambush did not occur, and the first thing Xia Duo did after waking up was to set up a pile of status spells, such as Avoidance of Detection, Alarm Clock, Delayed Teleportation, and Changxiao Hujia.

Most of these spells lasted for over 24 hours, and Xia Duo would refresh them every morning when he woke up; especially when out and about, he could not forget these.

After finishing this, Xia Duo began to wash up and eat; this was something he had replenished at Giles Tower before leaving, and although it couldn't be called delicious, it was still decent.

After breakfast, Xia Duo came to the deck outside; First Mate Lusi had already arranged for people to fish here, and the other ships in the fleet were much the same, though this time they weren't "fishing" for murlocs, but rather, as Xia Duo had instructed, using the catch to supplement the ship's food consumption.

Looking toward the Ming Shui Chamber of Commerce's large ship, Mai Er Si was also awake, talking to someone who looked like a steward on the deck; Xia Duo waved his hand, and the other party responded immediately, also waving, while sending a message:

"Apologies, Lord Xia Duo, I have delayed your itinerary."

"It is of no matter, it is only a day's wait at most." Xia Duo appeared very generous, though he still asked about the progress of the collection task; after all, the sooner they could go back, the better.

"It should be finished by noon, and Archmage Ti Mo Xi will also arrive at that time; at that point, I would ask Lord Xia Duo to help search for the murlocs' location."

"Easily done."

……

Whether it was fighting or searching next, he needed to maintain a good state, so Xia Duo did not go to do any spell research, but sat quietly at the bow of the ship, as if looking at the scenery.

But in reality, he was organizing data in his Personal Space, including books copied from Giles Tower and the Projection Plane, as well as his own past experimental records.

Previously, he had done similar organizing, but every time he reorganized, different thoughts would arise; this was probably "learning and practicing," "gaining new insights through reviewing the old"!

This time, he set up a library-like layout in a corner of his Personal Space, placing all notes and data into categories for easy reference next time.

Moreover, this time he no longer categorized from the perspective of application, such as protection, defense, or auxiliary, but rather categorized by the Principles of the spells, roughly the three major schools currently mainstream in Netheril: Creation, Transformation, and Mind.

And the Plane domain that Xia Duo was currently mainly researching spanned both the Creation and Transformation schools; it was definitely an interdisciplinary field.

The purpose, of course, was to make better use of his Personal Space.

As for the Mind school, the series of Judgment spells Xia Duo brought back from the Projection Plane were exactly that; in Netheril, they were called Mind Spells, but he was not prepared to conduct in-depth research on this, as being able to use them was enough.

Besides having already selected his future research direction, more importantly, seeing the Pioneer Scepter, he had no motivation to research; others had even created a Magic Item that was immune to Mind Spells, and he had obtained one himself, so how much more motivation could he have!

Although it was impossible for this scepter to be absolutely immune to all Mind Spells, at least for now, Xia Duo had indeed not seen any Mind Spell that could break through the protection of the Pioneer Scepter.

Occasionally, Xia Duo also referred to this scepter as the Mind Shelter Scepter.

……

Time flew to noon; Mai Er Si's side had already completed the collection task ahead of schedule, and the workers had returned to the ship's cabin to rest, though Mai Er Si had not lifted the control over the "corpse" murlocs gathered at the bow.

"Lord Xia Duo, Archmage Ti Mo Xi has already set off and will be here soon!" Mai Er Si sent another message.

Xia Duo did not reply, but silently stood up and stood at the bow, looking at the Ming Shui Chamber of Commerce's large ship not far away.

Hmm, the distance was a bit far, already exceeding the effective range of Delayed Teleportation.

If it were an ordinary Mage, they would probably be helpless at this moment.

But Xia Duo had long understood the Principles of Delayed Teleportation; it was just that the spellcaster's own active identification had been programmed into a specific spell, which could identify automatically.

It was not to say that with this spell, one's own ability to identify teleportation was gone; it was still there.

Moreover, one's own active ability and the spell's passive ability could basically be compared to "precision-made goods" versus "mass-produced goods"; there was a gap between the two.

In fact, although he could not interfere with the teleportation that might appear over there, discovering it in advance was no problem, even if this lead time was very small.

But even the lead time for automatic identification by the spell was very small; it was just that the spell would automatically delay (which could be turned off), whereas if a spellcaster identified a teleportation and then tried to actively delay it, it would basically be too late.

Therefore, the spell possessed both convenience and limitations.