Chapter 706: Heavy Assets, Painting Plan

Fortunately, this kind of heavy asset investment does not need to be made every year; rather, one invests once and benefits for a lifetime, and it can even be passed down to descendants, almost never depreciating.

Similar to a Spellbook is the Mage Tower, though the Mage Tower is even "heavier."

Even for Xia Duo, he has not considered building his own Mage Tower at this stage; it is too expensive, and even with Niya's help, it would be difficult to scrape together the down payment for a Mage Tower.

Just knowing that a single major overhaul of the Tower of Time costs nearly one million Gold Coins gives one an idea of the scale of expenditure required to build a Mage Tower.

Of course, the Tower of Time is somewhat special; excluding the Plane Exploration Array, the mere fact that it has multiple sets of equivalent backup Magic Arrays of different ring levels causes its construction cost to exceed that of a normal version by more than ten times.

For an ordinary Mage Tower, one million Gold Coins would be enough to start construction, and Niya could probably scrape that amount together if she really tried, but Xia Duo is unwilling to make such an excessive request.

In reality, no matter how close her relationship with him is, Niya must consider the Sustainable Development of the Tower of Time itself; if she were to really disregard everything to scrape money together for Xia Duo, Xia Duo would truly not dare to accept it.

Such an irrational person—heaven knows what unexpected actions she might take in the future; if she were to turn dark one day, Xia Duo would not doubt it at all.

Fortunately, although Niya is occasionally a bit childish, she does not have a yandere attribute; she is still a normal woman with normal thinking, normal rationality, and normal emotions—and, well, she is also very beautiful.

Otherwise, Xia Duo would have already been thinking about running away.

……

Putting away his Spellbook, Xia Duo followed his body's instinct to summon a clean water sphere; the moment the water sphere appeared, it trembled and moved toward Xia Duo, rolling back and forth over his body.

Before long, Xia Duo was completely refreshed and full of energy, sweeping away the sloppiness of many days of "seclusion," after which he called the Tower Spirit to cancel the "Do Not Disturb" status.

"Xia Duo, you finally came out!"

As soon as Xia Duo's Permission Level status in the Tower of Time was restored, Niya came directly to him, looking at Xia Duo quite nervously: "Is the Spellbook finished? Are you missing any materials?"

"Not missing any, I have already finished it."

Xia Duo comforted Niya, asking her to sit down first, then asked: "How many days have passed? Has the Rodney Lord sent an invitation?"

As long as there are no special operations, the sixth floor of the Tower of Time is always kept at a constant temperature and brightness; during his "seclusion," whenever Xia Duo felt a bit tired, he would cast 【Deep Sleep】 on himself.

At first, he would ask the Tower Spirit for the current date and time after waking up, but later he became too lazy to ask; he wouldn't go out anyway until he was finished, so he lost his sense of time.

Out of respect for Xia Duo and the habit of High Mage Avoidance of Detection, Niya did not know the specific actions Xia Duo had taken during this time.

Upon hearing Xia Duo's inquiry, Niya felt a bit strange; she carefully scrutinized Xia Duo and did not find any sign that he was in poor condition or had lost track of time, but she still answered earnestly:

"Four days have passed since the departure of the Advanced Rank Mage Greta, and as for the invitation from the Rodney Lord, it has not been sent over."

As she was speaking, Niya suddenly seemed a bit embarrassed; she hurriedly moved her gaze away from Xia Duo and lowered her head, whispering an explanation: "I have contacted the Princess, but the Princess did not reply."

Xia Duo was stunned, then realized what Niya meant, and couldn't help but feel moved: "No need to disturb the Princess again. I believe that since the Advanced Rank Mage Greta said there is no danger, there will certainly be no danger. Besides, I will make full preparations myself; you don't need to worry."

Niya gave a soft "mm," said nothing more, but did not leave either, just looking at the ground not far away, not knowing what she was thinking about.

*Ahem*—

"Niya!"

Xia Duo called out softly, and when Niya looked over, he said rather unromantically: "Do you know of any silver or light gray dyes that do not fade easily?"

"Ah—"

A soft cry of surprise escaped Niya's lips; she clearly did not expect Xia Duo to ask such a question, so she wanted to confirm again:

"Xia Duo, you... are looking for dye?"

"Yes!"

Xia Duo took the Spellbook he had made earlier out of his Personal Space; he did not hand it to Niya, but just shook it in his hand, and the deep blue of the Adamantine's original color looked even more glaring at this moment than before:

"This is the Spellbook I finished, but I don't really like this color and want to change it to something more low-key."

Xia Duo did not know much about the dyes of this world, nor those of Earth, so asking Niya for help now was just a matter of asking whoever he happened to catch.

Looking at Xia Duo's deep blue Spellbook, which clearly had a metallic luster, Niya's expression was quite strange: "You used Adamantine as the casing material? Are you thinking of using it to smash people?"

However, she did not want to interfere too much with such a private item as a Spellbook, so she began to think earnestly about which dye could be maintained on the surface of Adamantine for a long time.

After pondering for a moment, Niya gradually frowned; in her memory, there did not seem to be any silver or light gray dye that could be maintained on the surface of Adamantine for a long time.

"Sorry Xia Duo, I can't think of any dye that can be maintained on the surface of Adamantine for a long time. I will help you ask others, but I don't think the hope of finding one is very high."

Hearing this answer, even though he had been somewhat mentally prepared, Xia Duo was still a bit disappointed; however, the color of the equipment was ultimately secondary, as long as the function was normal.

Just as Xia Duo was about to give up on painting the Spellbook, a flash of inspiration suddenly struck his mind, and he thought of someone—the Dwarf Buloutuo, with whom he had just killed a dragon not long ago.

Perhaps he could not find a dye that could color a metal surface, but that did not mean there was no way to change the color of the metal surface.

So-called painting is not just simple adhesive dyeing; there are also ways to directly change the color of the metal itself, such as the plating on Earth that changes color through chemical reactions.

Although there are no electromagnetic chemical reactions like those on Earth in this world of Magic, similar elemental reactions are very common.

For example, the transmutation of Mithril is the result of different elements and energies constantly circulating, offsetting, and converting within the Mithril Component, causing a small amount of Mithril to turn into other substances, thereby reducing the purity of the Mithril and subsequently affecting the energy flow within the Mithril Component.

As an Ironmaster in the world of Magic, the Dwarf Buloutuo should be quite clear about the various reactions of these metals; perhaps he has a way to plate a thin film of a different color onto the surface of the Adamantine that can cover its deep blue original color.

Perhaps he could even choose the color, or even customize a pattern!

Thinking of this, Xia Duo couldn't help but feel a bit expectant; of course, there was no need to give up on Niya's side, and if he could find a more convenient dye, he would still choose to use dye.

After all, in many cases, convenience is enough to outweigh everything else.

Even if he couldn't find any way to change the color, he wouldn't be unable to accept the current Spellbook, but if conditions allowed, it would still be more pleasing to the eye to change the color.

……