Chapter 602: Apprentice, Eve of the Midsummer Festival

The first phase of the Tower of Time's transformation only had four small goals, but the matters involved were not as simple as just four things; they were multifaceted and complex. Fortunately, Xia Duo had long been planning the transformation of the Tower of Time.

Now that he was doing it, he had some mental preparation. After leaving the Town Hall, Xia Duo immediately went to four chambers of commerce: Liyadun, Hans, Silaiwen, and Shanjin.

With an Arcanist visiting in person to borrow a few managers skilled in bookkeeping and auditing, it took almost no effort at all. As soon as Xia Duo arrived and mentioned his request, the people were already arranged.

Xia Duo asked for two people from each chamber of commerce, totaling eight people, which served as the initial staff for the Audit Department of the Tower of Time. As for why he did not ask Dailike, the Commercial Director of the Savile Territory, for people, it was naturally out of consideration that the Intermediate Mages of the Tower of Time had close ties with the territory's chambers of commerce.

Using those people would be equivalent to letting them audit themselves!

It was better to find some unrelated people; it was more reliable, similar to a third-party organization.

……

Before long, Xia Duo returned to the Tower of Time with the eight chamber of commerce managers. After notifying Saixili, he had these people move into the Material Department. After handing over the relevant documents and files, they officially began their work.

The first target Xia Duo chose for the Audit Department was the "Tilake Research Lab." On one hand, checking his own direct subordinates first meant there would at least be no voices of opposition, which would facilitate the Audit Department in quickly accumulating experience.

On the other hand, it was out of the consideration of "public service brings clarity, integrity brings authority."

Tilake and the others had no objections to this. Everyone in their research lab was a Primary Mage, and the establishment of the research lab itself had been strongly pushed by Xia Duo, breaking the tradition that only Intermediate Mages could establish private research labs.

With many eyes watching them, they dared not line their own pockets; this was also why Xia Duo dared to choose them first.

……

In the following two days, Xia Duo did not return to the territory. Although a new batch of residents had just arrived in the territory and there were many things waiting for him to handle, he still patiently organized two exchange meetings.

One was for Primary Mages, and one was for Intermediate Mages.

One of the four small goals for the Tower of Time's transformation was to organize formal exchange meetings and establish standards.

Of course, while called exchange meetings, they were actually more like Xia Duo giving lectures to those mages. The mages of the Tower of Time were very enthusiastic when listening to the lectures, but when it was their turn to speak, their attitude was somewhat indifferent.

Two exchange meetings were not enough to change their concepts. Xia Duo planned to set aside time every week to organize exchange meetings, determined to stir up an atmosphere of exchange.

During the exchange meetings, the 300 New Apprentices summoned by Saier Town Mayor had also completed their registration at the Tower of Time.

In order to get these 300 people into the Tower of Time as quickly as possible, the Fixed Teleportation Portal connecting to Savile Town was almost crashed. Sending 300 people in succession was still a bit too much of a burden for a portal originally intended only as a single-person passage.

The fixed Magic Array on the Savile Town side almost needed to be rebuilt, and the cost was quite high. From this, one could see the importance Xia Duo placed on the transformation of the Tower of Time.

Afterwards, with the enrollment and class assignment of the New Apprentices, Xia Duo had to personally oversee almost every matter. In addition to the New Apprentices, the original apprentices of the Tower of Time also had to be reassigned to classes.

Excluding those apprentices who truly wanted to give up the path of Magic, there were 685 apprentices in the Tower of Time under the new system.

Among them, Level 3 Apprentices: 5 (Probationary Members of the Progress Society, quasi-mages);

Level 2 Apprentices: 140;

Level 1 Apprentices: 540.

The number of apprentices surged, the teaching plan was adjusted repeatedly, and the time for Xia Duo to return to the territory was postponed again and again. By the time the Apprentice Management Office was on the right track, the time had quietly reached the end of July.

Xia Duo was preparing to return to the territory, and he would not come to the Tower of Time again for a short time. As for what would happen to the Tower of Time next, it would have to be left to time to test.

……

However, before Xia Duo could return to the territory, Niya returned to the Tower of Time from Seventon first.

Because the two of them communicated every day through the Tower Spirit or Communication Artifact, Niya was very well-informed about the recent situation of the Tower of Time, and Xia Duo was no stranger to Niya's daily life in Seventon.

After meeting, Xia Duo suddenly remembered the sentence Niya said before she left last time and couldn't help but tease, "Niya, do you want a child?"

"……"

Niya rolled her eyes at Xia Duo and decisively did not take the bait, instead skillfully changing the subject, "Tomorrow is the Midsummer Festival, aren't you staying?"

"Stay? Stay to have a child?"

"You—" Niya was annoyed, "I kindly asked you to stay and celebrate the festival, why do you keep bringing that up!"

Alright, Xia Duo understood the principle that too much is as bad as too little, so he put away his smile and said seriously, "Sorry, I won't say it next time. As for staying for the festival, forget it. There is a pile of things in the territory waiting for me to go back and handle. If there is nothing else, I am leaving now."

Xia Duo apologizing so readily made Niya feel a bit embarrassed, and her tone softened immediately, "It's not like one day makes a difference!"

"Uh—" Xia Duo did not expect Niya to say that. However, thinking back to last year's Midsummer Festival, Lord Epps was cursed and entered the Stasis Chamber, which could be said to be equivalent to passing away, and Niya's mother died when she was born.

Now, she only had him as a relative, although it was more at the level of a contract, but that was still a relative. Perhaps Niya felt lonely.

Even someone as powerful as an Arcanist would have such mundane emotions. Thinking of this, Xia Duo couldn't help but feel a trace of pity in his gaze towards Niya. At the same time, he also thought of his own relatives in his hometown in another world.

Thinking that in this world, the one who would accompany him on the long road in the future might be the Niya before him, Xia Duo made a decision, "I'll stay!"

Immediately after, he clearly felt Niya's mood lift. However, his business was not just promising to stay an extra day; he still had to notify the territory so that they wouldn't think something had happened here.

Sending the news of staying an extra day back to the territory in front of Niya, the two then went to Niya's Private Research Lab together.

Although Xia Duo promised to stay, the Midsummer Festival was tomorrow, and the things that needed to be done today still had to be done. Although the cracking progress of the Fielder Spellbook was not fast, it was always being pushed forward firmly.

After the last bridging experiment, Xia Duo contacted Niya every day to discuss the bridging plan. They had already found the reason for the earth element oscillation anomaly in the set of Mithril Components bridged last time and had corrected the subsequent bridging plan.

This time, the two were confident in bridging three sets of Mithril Components. If everything went smoothly, after seven or eight more bridging experiments, they would almost be able to find the "lock" of the spellbook.

Afterwards, they could take targeted measures to speed up the cracking process.

As for the content of this spellbook, Xia Duo was very curious!