Chapter 747: Difficulty of Magic Net Repair, Delivering Meals

After transmitting the original thesis he had transcribed to Niya and explaining it to her once more, Xia Duo walked out of the Tower of Time; having been away from his Territory for several days, it was time to go back and take a look.

From the Tower of Time to the Linshui Village Altar Square, the straight-line distance was only a little over 1 li. Nowadays, the development of Daxia Territory had long since surpassed this point, surrounding the Mythallar Ruins entirely, save for a small section to the north.

In other words, as long as Xia Duo stepped out of the Tower of Time, he was theoretically already in Linshui Village.

……

Attempting to perceive the surrounding Magic Net environment, Xia Duo frowned. Although the Magic Net environment of the Mythallar Ruins was much better now than it had been initially, it was still somewhat violent, with storms of Magic Net String vibrations erupting from time to time.

And as manifested in ordinary vision, this meant that a series of random spell effects appeared in the Mythallar Ruins every so often.

Compared to the storms of Magic Net String vibrations that had been erupting every single moment before, it was indeed much better now, but Xia Duo was not satisfied.

He thought of the scene where he had attempted to repair the Magic Net in the Advanced Laboratory of the Tower of Time; although it was not very easy, it was not as difficult as he had imagined before his advancement.

It was nothing more than expanding his Arcane Fire and using his own Micro Magic Net to temporarily cover the damaged area, smoothing out the Magic Net riot caused by the damage for the time being.

He let the external Magic Net and his own Micro Magic Net exist in a semi-independent, semi-assimilated state, starting the repairs from the surface of the Magic Net and gradually going deeper until all the damage was repaired.

Although the Magic Net damage area caused by Xia Duo's advancement was not large and was limited to the top five layers, there were seven or eight Arcanists here at the Mythallar Ruins!

Among them, two were Senior Arcanists, yet after working hard for more than a year, they still hadn't completely repaired this place.

Xia Duo had only spent about ten days, on and off, repairing the Magic Net environment in the Advanced Laboratory, while this had been going on for over a year, and those Arcanists were all experienced hands.

He made a simple estimate of the workload; assuming the work efficiency of both sides was about the same, the workload of these Arcanists up to now was at least several hundred times his own.

If one considered work efficiency, then it was even more!

Was the Magic Net environment of the Mythallar Ruins really that difficult to repair? Xia Duo couldn't quite understand.

Of course, he hadn't thought about trying it himself; after all, the outside world didn't have the various auxiliary means of the Tower of Time, and he didn't have an urgent need for Divine Grace.

After thinking about it, Xia Duo still felt he should go find the Arcanists from the Hand of Secrecy and ask when the Magic Net environment here would finally be repaired.

Originally, when the development front hadn't pushed this far, he hadn't been very anxious, but now that the actual developed area of Daxia Territory had enclosed this place, it was like a mud pond suddenly appearing in one's own courtyard, and it was emitting a foul odor all day long.

How could Xia Duo not be anxious about this!

……

To the east, south, and west of the Tower of Time, although it was still Elf Ruins, Xia Duo's territory residents were active everywhere in the outer areas.

By now, the Arcanists repairing the Magic Net here had moved their temporary residences to the north of the Tower of Time, with seven or eight integrated stone buildings sitting in a row on the edge of the Magic Net Riot Zone.

Xia Duo flew over and found a small house marked with the 【Hand of Secrecy】 emblem, sending a signal from afar. Before long, a short, white-bearded old man crawled out of the house. Xia Duo nodded slightly in greeting, but still did not approach.

This area had already been set up with quite a lot of Warning Magic by the other party, and it wasn't certain that there was only Warning Magic, so Xia Duo was naturally unwilling to step in rashly under such circumstances.

The old man also watched Xia Duo from afar and sent a message: "Lord Xia Duo, is there something you need from me?"

"Master Oulinsi, I would like to ask, when is the repair work here expected to be completed!"

"Lord Xia Duo, you must have some patience; Divine Grace is not so easily obtained. As for the completion date, based on my experience, it won't be finished until this time next year, but—"

Oulinsi's voice cut off abruptly here, and only then did he continue the message, "But even if it is finished, it won't count as being completely repaired!

"Some parts of the Deep Weave are unreachable for us; to repair them, we would need to find a Great Arcanist, or wait for it to repair naturally over time.

"Of course, we will also do our best to leave you with a relatively stable Magic Net environment."

"……"

Although he was somewhat disappointed by the result of another year, he at least knew a rough date. Xia Duo recalled the Magic Net repair records he had seen before; it was rare for seven or eight Arcanists to be repairing at the same time.

And—

Xia Duo glanced at the few houses to the left and right of Oulinsi's house—generally, only organizations like the 【Hand of Secrecy】 that held faith in the Magic Goddess would repair from start to finish.

The difficulty of Magic Net repair was not exactly the same from beginning to end; it went from difficult to easy, then back to difficult. If ordinary Arcanists were just looking to earn Divine Grace, most would withdraw during the middle stage, leaving behind a mess.

The situation at the Mythallar Ruins in Daxia Territory was somewhat special; by building an Elemental Channel, they could lower the difficulty in the early stages, and the repair difficulty in the later stages was relatively stable, which was why it had attracted seven or eight Arcanists to come at the same time.

But the further it went into the later stages, the greater the repair difficulty became; this was beyond doubt.

In other words, there were eight people here now, but by next year, that might not be the case. Currently, the 【Hand of Secrecy】 only had four people here.

He didn't know if the "this time next year" Oulinsi mentioned meant that the four of them from the 【Hand of Secrecy】 needed a year, or if it meant the existing eight Arcanists needed to continue repairing for another year?

Xia Duo told Oulinsi his doubts, and Oulinsi's answer to this was—

It required the existing eight people to continue repairing for another year! If it were only the four people from the 【Hand of Secrecy】, it would take at least 3 years, or even longer!

"……"

Xia Duo understood that the longer the Magic Net took to repair, the higher the difficulty would become.

There were even some Mythallar Ruins that had been completely damaged very early on, even earlier than the period when Netheril appeared.

Because they weren't repaired in time, the Magic Net there had become completely dead, and the repair difficulty was extremely high.

And Divine Grace had nothing to do with repair difficulty; it was only related to specific workload indicators such as repair area and degree of repair. Even organizations like the 【Hand of Secrecy】 that held faith in the Magic Goddess would not prioritize those Magic Net Dead Zones as repair targets.

Xia Duo naturally did not want a botched Magic Net Dead Zone to appear in his Territory; that would be too annoying.

"Master Oulinsi, I hope the Magic Net repair progress can be faster. Is there anything I can do?" Xia Duo asked again.

Oulinsi smiled and said, "If Lord Xia Duo is willing to participate in the repair work, or let other Arcanists from the Tower of Time participate in the repairs, I think that would play a big role in accelerating the repair progress."

"Sorry, Master Oulinsi, I have many things on my side that I cannot get away from. Is there anything else?"

"Anything else?"

Oulinsi thought for a moment, as if he had suddenly thought of something, "Lord Xia Duo, this you can certainly do. If Lord Xia Duo can solve our daily food needs, then we won't have to waste time looking for it ourselves."

"That is no problem; I will arrange for people to deliver food to you every day."

"Then many thanks to Lord Xia Duo."

……

Soon, Xia Duo visited the four Arcanists other than those from the 【Hand of Secrecy】 one by one.

Except for one who explicitly stated that they would leave after the snow melted next year, the other three all indicated that they had no plans to leave for the time being, and they also thanked Xia Duo for providing them with food.

"It looks like I'll have to think of another way!"