Chapter 708: Plans, Invitations

After sending Niya away, Xia Duo sat back down behind his desk, adjusting his mood to switch from the relaxed state of chatting with Niya to the serious state of working.

Taking his plan notebook out of his Personal Space and spreading it open on the desk before him, Xia Duo stared blankly at the "Make Spellbook" and "Go to Leisen Territory" items under "Personal Plans (Short-term)," lost in thought.

Now that the Spellbook was finished, he had prepared to set off for Leisen Territory after the Drow War, but no one knew when the Drow War would end; such a question was something not even a Great Arcanist could necessarily answer, let alone Xia Duo.

The time could be very long, or it could be very short; during this period, without a relatively clear short-term goal hanging in front of him, Xia Duo always felt a bit unsettled.

Compared to his time on Earth, the biggest change since coming to this world was not learning Magic; in his view, learning Magic was no different from learning to sing, dance, or play basketball.

The real change lay in the fact that he had become more self-disciplined than before, planning almost everything and executing it firmly; if this was initially triggered by the unease of arriving in a new world, he now naturally realized the benefits of self-discipline.

On Earth, Xia Duo could also be considered a relatively disciplined person—never late for work, never missing a chapter update—but that was more like being driven and pushed by life; he had never truly realized the benefits, let alone the joy, of self-discipline.

But now, he deeply understood it.

Once there was no (personal) plan ahead, what Xia Duo had to do was to re-plan and execute it earnestly.

Of course, as someone who had always followed the principle of "having short, medium, and long-term plans," Xia Duo was not completely clueless about the future; some medium-term plans could be shifted to short-term, long-term could be shifted to medium-long-term, and so on.

Even combined with the current actual situation, the priority of some plans needed to be readjusted.

Trip to Rodney Territory

Xia Duo wrote this line on the paper and circled it with a ring, which indicated that this was a temporary plan, or rather an emergency, not in his original expectations.

Clearly, Xia Duo wanted to use this matter to determine a relatively near time interval; even if it were tomorrow, it would not hinder his plans for the rest of today.

Before the trip to Rodney Territory, he had to familiarize himself with the Spellbook as soon as possible and find a balance between casting spells with the Spellbook and his own Spellcasting; this required plenty of practice.

As for the real short-term plan, Xia Duo could only think of one; he casually circled a medium-term plan behind it and one about the state of his Territory on the left page.

He wrote down in the short-term plans—

Research Petrification Spell, and deduce other Earth Element Domain spells

After writing it, he cast a spell to erase the medium-term plan he had just crossed out; this was an Erasure Spell of the Transmutation school, only at the 1st Circle level, which Xia Duo often used as an eraser.

Having used it so much, even without deliberate practice, he could perform it almost instantly—a textbook example of "practice makes perfect."

As for the "Territory discovered ruins, has a scaled Statue" on the left page, he did not erase it, letting it exist as a record for future inspection and review.

In fact, except for the initial period as an Apprentice when paper was scarce and some plans were scraped off to write other text, Xia Duo kept almost all of his written records.

His Personal Space of nearly 25 cubic meters was enough for him to store these, and even in the future, he wouldn't run out of space even if he wrote until he died.

After all, he already knew how to expand the size of his Personal Space; not to mention that cheap Arcane Crystal might appear in the future, even if it didn't, did he have the ability to make his money-making speed outpace the expansion demand of his Personal Space?

……

After writing down the Petrification Spell plan, Xia Duo subconsciously wanted to pull "Become a Plane Scholar" from the back to the front; although it was a bit early to start researching the Plane Domain now, it was not early at all to become a Plane Scholar to lay the foundation.

However, just as he put pen to paper, he stopped; flipping back to the plan for the sale of the Communication Magic Tool and combining it with some arrangements for the development of his Territory, Xia Duo wrote before "Become a Plane Scholar"—

Principles

It was just one word, without any other description, but this was a plan Xia Duo had long looked forward to in his heart; it no longer needed any descriptive language—seeing this word, he understood what the plan was.

It was just that in the past, he was either too busy or the timing was not right, so it hadn't been realized; now, however, he had the time, and the timing was just about right.

Not doing it would be inhuman!

Xia Duo thought viciously, dotted heavily twice under "Principles," then closed the notebook and put it into his Personal Space.

As for the painting plan for the Spellbook, it couldn't really be considered Xia Duo's formal plan; it could only be said that this was fun he found for himself in his spare time!

……

Just as Xia Duo determined his short-term plans and began to firmly execute them, entering the Spell Laboratory to familiarize himself with the Spellbook and practice spells.

In the northern Rodney Territory, inside the West Tower, the lord Aozikaer was hesitating whether or not to follow that Excellency's instructions and send an invitation to the south.

After struggling for a long time, Aozikaer suddenly let out a long sigh, got up, and walked toward the Communication Room, clearly having made a decision.

"Master, wait for Lali!"

The middle-aged butler called out exaggeratedly and followed quickly, almost sticking to Aozikaer; a flash of resentment crossed Aozikaer's eyes—a mere low-level Mage dared to be so insolent!

For a split second, Aozikaer even wanted to turn around and kill the other party with a sword, but he endured it, calmed his emotions slightly, and scolded: "Making such a racket, what kind of behavior is that!"

Then his tone softened, as if explaining his actions, "I need to go to the Communication Room to contact the ships going south and urge them; if they don't hurry, I'm worried the south won't make it through this winter."

"Master, leave such a small matter to Lali! Lali guarantees it will be handled properly!" Lali followed Aozikaer closely, not wanting to leave his side for a single step.

Aozikaer seemed a bit irritable and said casually: "No need, I'll urge them myself; if you want to follow, then follow!"

After saying that, he left without looking back.

Behind him, Lali followed again, saying, "Serving Master is Lali's life mission!"

……

In the West Tower's Communication Room, Aozikaer started the Magic Array normally and selected a target, while Lali on the side watched with bright eyes, seemingly wanting to see every step of Aozikaer's operation clearly.

But the two were a Senior Arcanist and a low-level Mage; even if the latter had a series of auxiliary equipment provided by a Great Arcanist, the gap between the two was almost like heaven and earth.

On some binary or existential matters, Aozikaer might not be able to hide things from Lali, but on matters like Spellcasting where the boundaries were very clear, Aozikaer had sufficient confidence to deceive the other party.

Thus, on the surface, Aozikaer contacted the fleet heading south from the Territory, but in reality, he secretly contacted the liaison at the Seven Towers, saying only two very simple words—

"Send invitation"!

After the communication ended, looking at Lali's somewhat confused expression, the pent-up frustration in Aozikaer's heart was suddenly relieved a lot.

He feigned anger and cursed a few times, then ignored Lali and teleported directly into the Spell Laboratory; in the entire Rodney Territory, only here could he feel relaxed.