Chapter 741: Energy Crisis, Educational Vision

The top floor of the Tower of Time, the Tower Master's residence.

This was originally the residence of Lord Epps, with conditions better than the general private accommodations on the sixth floor. When Xia Duo arrived at the study, Niya was sitting by the window, observing Daxia Territory through a projection.

"Niya actually has it too!"

Xia Duo steadied himself, walked behind Niya, and confirmed once more that Niya was also entwined with wisps of something resembling "Cloud Qi," like light and mist, yet not affecting normal vision.

He observed carefully for a while, preparing to observe more targets, and then spoke: "The farmland opened up this year is still a bit small; wait until next year, and there will be an even greater harvest scene!"

He arrived just in time; the projection showed the scene of the Daxia Territory residents harvesting those 100-plus acres of wheat fields.

Because the farmland had not yet been divided, a row of people moved slowly from one end to the other, with stalks of golden wheat falling behind them, to be bundled and carried away by those behind.

It looked quite spectacular.

Xia Duo knew that before this year, Savile Territory had never had such large-scale collective harvesting, but this year was different; he imagined Town Mayor Sain would arrange it well!

However, even with Town Mayor Sain organizing collective harvesting in Sein Town, it would be difficult for the scattered farmland to produce a scene like the one on Xia Duo's side.

Moreover, next year, Xia Duo's farmland would be even greater.

In his plan, the future division of land for the residents would not be divided in physical space, but in property rights. Since it was starting from scratch, he would lay the foundation for collective farms in advance!

Just as Xia Duo was envisioning the grand harvest scene of the future, Niya had already closed the projection on the window, turning it into a faintly lit sky projection, then stood up and turned to Xia Duo with a serious expression:

"Xia Duo, how long has it been since you paid attention to the Tower of Time's Element Pool?"

"The Element Pool? What's wrong with the Element Pool?" Xia Duo asked in confusion.

He had indeed not paid attention to the Element Pool for some time. Ever since the Magic Net environment of the Mythallar Ruins outside the Tower of Time had been restored to a certain degree, the pressure on the Tower of Time had been greatly reduced, allowing the Element Pool's energy reserves to achieve positive growth, so he had not concerned himself with it.

Now that Niya asked this, could it be that something was wrong with the Element Pool?

Regarding Xia Duo's question, Niya did not explain directly, but projected a blueprint of the Tower of Time in front of him. Of course, it was simpler than the blueprint that truly preserved the core of the Tower of Time, but it could still illustrate some issues.

In fact, when Xia Duo saw the Tower of Time blueprint, he immediately understood. This diagram described the overall energy flow of the Tower of Time, including energy consumption levels and energy reserves.

In the diagram, the Tower of Time's energy consumption in resisting the external Magic Net environment still accounted for a large portion, but it was no longer the largest part. The largest energy consumption now was actually in the Library's Spell Practice Room.

Although other Protection and functional infrastructure also had consumption, there was no significant difference compared to before; only the Spell Practice Room had changed significantly, which was very eye-catching.

"This—" Xia Duo was silent, not knowing what to say for a moment. He really did not want the transformation that had just begun to die in the cradle.

"Although the Spell Suppression Field within the Spell Practice Room can subdivide energy levels and reduce consumption, with so many people using it continuously, the Tower of Time really cannot hold on for much longer!"

Speaking of this, Niya canceled the Tower of Time blueprint projection, sighed, and said with much emotion: "I'm afraid Great-Grandfather Savile never thought when he built the Tower of Time that one day there would be hundreds or nearly a thousand Apprentices in the Tower of Time at the same time!

"Xia Duo, I am not against this method of training Apprentices, but the reality of the Tower of Time must be considered!"

"Sorry, it was my lack of consideration!" Xia Duo looked at Niya and said solemnly.

This was indeed something he had overlooked!

However, the energy consumption brought about by a large number of Apprentices was indeed a problem, and it was a difficulty that had to be faced on the road to transformation. Even if it hadn't manifested now, it might cause even greater trouble in the future after those Apprentices became Official Mages.

It was good that it had manifested now; it gave Xia Duo an opportunity to eliminate the hidden danger. He thought for a moment and asked Niya, "If no changes are made, how much longer can the Tower of Time's energy last?"

"About half a year, but didn't you say you wanted to step up the production of Communication Magic Tools? And there are other mass production plans later, I'm worried—"

"Don't worry, I will find a way."

In fact, Xia Duo did not have many worries about the production of Magic Items. This actually would not have much change in energy consumption compared to the past when Mages did everything themselves; on the contrary, it might even decrease due to increased efficiency.

Only the increase in output after efficiency improved could bring about new energy consumption, but manufacturing Magic Items was essentially solidifying a Spellcaster's personal spellcasting ability, and the maximum output was directly proportional to the number of spells cast per person per day.

Theoretically, no one would waste their entire spellcasting quota on making Magic Items; more would be used for practicing spells themselves or conducting spell experiments and the like.

Therefore, even if the output under the new model might increase, it would not increase too much. After all, Xia Duo was not a black-hearted capitalist; even for Magic Technicians, he would respect these people and give them room to grow.

Compared to this, the problem of these nearly a thousand Apprentices becoming Official Mages in the future was even more serious.

According to Xia Duo's rough measurement of Arcane Energy spellcasting consumption, the consumption of a 0 Ring Spell was about half that of a 1st Circle Spell.

And the consumption of a 5th Circle Spell was 10 times that of a 1st Circle Spell.

Correspondingly, even if the energy consumption of the Spell Suppression Field was not calculated based on the actual spell consumption, the consumption for suppressing spells of different circles was certainly related to the circle of the target spell.

Now that so many Apprentices were almost squeezing the Tower of Time dry, if they all became Official Mages and continued to use the Spell Practice Room like they did now, the energy consumption of the Spell Practice Room would almost double.

And if they all became Advanced Rank Mages, that would be 20 times the current consumption. This was not impossible; after all, in the vision Xia Duo planned, most ordinary people would have the opportunity to become an Arcanist.

Using the college entrance examination on Earth as an analogy, it was like giving everyone the opportunity to become a university student through the college entrance examination; a Senior Arcanist would be equivalent to graduating from university.

As for the Great Arcanist, these were the formal researchers in Xia Duo's vision; anyone below a Great Arcanist could be classified as "civilian scientists."

Although this was somewhat difficult, it was a vision after all, so it had to have some challenges and could not be easily realized!

From this perspective, one must obtain a powerful and stable energy source. The Element Pool might be feasible, but Xia Duo preferred a Mythallar.

Being able to make a mountain peak enter and exit the clouds, it should at least be able to satisfy the consumption of a Magic Academy.