Necromancer, summoning 055? What the heck?

Chapter 119 Visiting Scholars' Technical Cooperation

Aidan Elliott, a third-circle scholar of the Northern Chapter of the Magic Society, had already been listening to vivid descriptions from High Priest Farrell of Mistmoon and Merchant Guild Steward Oren before he even arrived in the Vast Sea Territory.

The legends about the desert city sketched a vague yet grand outline in his mind.

We will see it all with our own eyes eventually.

As they passed through the last checkpoint in the Vast Ocean Territory, the scholar Elliott saw the "exquisite sight" that Oren had mentioned repeatedly.

Each eye socket looked somewhat lost and empty, gazing at the traveler from afar.

"A remarkable creation!"

"In this chaotic desert, it is a beacon of order, enough to make everyone who sees it reasonable!"

Next, Elliott witnessed firsthand the magnificent city that stood in the desert.

The scholars from the Three Rings couldn't help but linger and watch for a long time.

Scholars are perhaps the most learned group of people on the Starry Continent.

They often consider themselves to be the most pure in academia, to the point that they often have an almost obsessive reverence for things that are rigorous, standardized, and full of logical beauty.

After seeing Hanhai City, Elliott couldn't help but make a comparison with similar cities he knew.

Ultimately, the magic scholar came to the conclusion that the city's design was so exquisite that it could be considered a masterpiece!
"If I have the chance, I must meet this city planner. This is the most comfortable urban structure I have ever seen, with no other city like it!"

Worried that the others might not understand, Elliott even gestured and used the Silver City as an example, which is universally recognized as the perfect city.

"The Silver City has undergone more than thirty revisions. When you look closely, you will see the roads that had to be bent, the walls that were squeezed out to be added, and the buildings that were demolished again and again."

"When you learn about the history of a city, you will find that beneath the surface, there are traces of alteration everywhere."

"When a city develops to a certain stage, it will inevitably find that there are many unsuitable things in its original structure."

"We have to take it apart and repair it, patching it up."

“But this city is really different. Standing here, I feel like I can see what it will look like in three, five, or even ten years.”

"The blank spaces left in the city now look like scars, but if you look at the history of those big cities, you'll know how wonderfully these reservations for the future will be."

"I can't wait!"

Upon entering the city, Elliott once again expressed his sincere admiration for the orderly transportation and workers within the city.

"You rarely see this kind of weather. Are you sure... most of the people here are slaves you sold?"

"They...are full of energy! Their eyes are bright! They don't have the stooped and hunched backs of slaves, who look like they're just struggling in the mud!"

The guards who had accompanied him all the way couldn't help but straighten their backs and take bigger steps.

“A place like this, how could it be…” Elliot couldn’t help but slam his hand down, as if venting his anger: “Well, all I can say is that the rigid and inflexible system of the Magic Academy is truly awful!”

"Those old guys always use their moldy brains to imagine the world."

At the last checkpoint at the city gate, they met Helan, who had rushed over, covered in dust.

Helan looked thinner than when we last met.

To put it simply, in the eyes of the people of the Vast Sea, the lord is omnipotent, but in reality, behind every simple command from the lord lies countless details that need to be carried out.

Leaders speak up, but ordinary people run themselves ragged.

Between simply talking and running around, there's a huge amount of work involved in interpreting, breaking down, refining, and detailing the concrete details.

The problem is that there are no people in the Han Hai territory who can serve as mid-level officials, and they can't even recruit them.

Helan had no choice but to bring all the male and female servants with a little bit of literacy into the territory's administrative staff. If the governor could pick out one or two literate people from each batch of slaves, he would consider them a treasure.

As for the rapidly growing youngsters under the lord's command, Helan felt both anticipation and bitterness.

These little ones, personally trained by the lord, are proactive, enthusiastic, and meticulous. Although they are still quite immature, they are already able to provide great assistance.

The bitter truth is that Helan is very clear that if any one of these people is only half or a third as good as him, they could replace him at any time.

That's the lord's confidant!
If only I had been more astute back then, negotiated fewer conditions, and brought my family along, perhaps...

There's no point in overthinking, let's get to work!
When it comes to receiving guests for important foreign affairs occasions, only Helan in the entire territory is competent. After welcoming the visitors from afar with a standardized and warm welcome, Helan invited them to the territory's dining hall to arrange a dinner and wait for the lord's return.

In the private dining room on the second floor of the cafeteria, a long table is covered with a clean white tablecloth, and a set of exquisite silver tableware from the Silver Alliance shines brightly under the soft lighting.

The chilled desert berry juice, served in a crystal glass, was irresistibly sweet. The golden-brown, crispy camel ribs sizzled, their aroma a blend of oil and seasonings, wafting through the air.

The birds cooked in a way he had never seen before, the seasonal vegetables that could not possibly exist in the desert, and the dazzling array of plating and the various knife skills made Aidan Elliott, who was already a bit of a chatterbox, start praising them non-stop.

"I can hardly imagine how much it would cost to put on such a feast in the desert!"

"I even think this must be the second most expensive meal I've ever tasted in my life, second only to the feast I witnessed at the headquarters of the Magic Academy in the Silver Kingdom during the last Year of True Knowledge!"

While Eliot was certainly prone to praising, this statement is not entirely wrong.

Although Chen Mo was reluctant to use the extravagant altar's transport capacity to bring food from his hometown, the high-powered cold storage, the wide variety of cooking methods, the various seasonings, and the halfling cooks who had been conquered by the miracles of the "God of Seasonings" and were willing to stay in the territory were definitely not something an ordinary territory could possess.

Especially in such a desolate and barren place.

Elliot forked a piece of tender poultry and put it in his mouth. He chewed, swallowed, and asked Helan with a hint of teasing, "However, I'm still very curious. If the lord doesn't attend such a banquet, how lavish must his dinner be?"

"Um... I think you'll see it soon!"

About seven or eight minutes later, a noise came from the lobby on the first floor.

The canteen is a double-height hall with a second-floor reception area on the inside. From the windows on the second floor, you can see the entire hall.

A large group of people and centaurs flooded into the spacious canteen. Oren, with his sharp eyes, was the first to recognize the young lord. Chen Mo was wearing a well-fitting desert camouflage uniform, without a military cap, revealing a neat head of short hair. Apart from the badge on his chest, he wore no other ornaments.

If Oren hadn't had such a deep impression of Chen Mo, he would never have imagined that this was the master of the Vast Ocean.

The astonished look on the merchant guild's face drew everyone's attention.

"That person... is he the lord?"

“Yes!” Helan answered calmly.

After finishing today's Q&A session, Chen Mo, along with his personal guard and the Torch Youth Group, went into the cafeteria and started queuing for food.

On a wooden tray, there is a bowl of thick soup, two side dishes, and rice for each person to take as much as they like.

For example, what the old ox is holding is a veritable rice bucket, and what the centaur is holding can also be called a rice bowl.

Chen Mo was the first to get his food, but after sitting down, he didn't rush to start eating. Instead, he waited quietly until everyone had finished getting their food, sat down neatly, and were all sitting upright, staring at him in unison. Only then did the lord raise his hand and say, "Let's eat!"

"Yes!"

The answers were uniform, and then they began to devour their rice in a whirlwind!
This scene was witnessed by the visiting delegation. Elliott, who had been talking incessantly, unusually fell silent and did not utter a word.

Everyone watched quietly as Chen Mo finished his meal, walked to the communal sink, skillfully washed his dishes, put them in the recycling bin, and finally went upstairs to the second floor.

"Lord... has he always dined with other people like this?"

“Not entirely!” Helan shook his head. “He only eats with his soldiers and children, but if it weren’t for today’s reception, I probably would have found a chance to join them.”

Elliott nodded in deep understanding: "I completely understand. Who you eat with is more important than what you eat!"

Having likely eaten his fill downstairs, Chen Mo barely touched his utensils after arriving on the second floor. Instead, he occasionally raised his glass, exchanging pleasantries and engaging in in-depth discussions with the third-circle scholars from the Magic Society.

"I have great respect for knowledgeable people, especially great scholars like you! I firmly support your research on this topic!"

"Power equipment from the Mechanical King? Yes! Since it's for research, providing enough experimental samples is no problem at all!"

"However—" Chen Mo smiled and raised his glass again: "How will the results of this research be distributed?"

"Is it a complete sharing and joint development between the two parties? Or are they allowed to develop independently? Can the technology be shared with other parties?"

The translation was clearly inaccurate, so Lord Chen Mo repeated it again in even more straightforward terms.

After listening, Aidan Elliott chuckled and said, "Mr. Chen is overthinking things!"

"The electrical equipment that the Chamber of Commerce brought me... has been analyzed by the Magic Academy. As a new type of energy, the scholars of the Academy find it novel, but that's all they find novel."

"Its energy is too weak, not even as good as the heat flow machinery made by dwarves, or the power of an enchanter's puppet."

"The Magic Society is simply curious and wants to learn more about the characteristics and principles of these 'electric' devices from another world."

“I do research on psionic energy conversion. I have been doing research on the conversion between ‘thunder power’ and ‘magical psionic energy’ before. Electricity is a much gentler energy than thunder power, and there is more room for research.”

"Therefore, my colleagues and I need more 'electricity' to conduct our experiments."

"Of course, since this is our personal matter, I don't have the financial resources of the Magic Society, so I have to come to the lord for some support!"

The tone was tactful, but the meaning was clear: this thing is nothing to the Magic Society; it's a small project for a few scholars like us, and the price we can afford is limited. The lord doesn't need to take its value too seriously.

"If there are any results, I think we can both use them freely, and you can certainly pass them on to others. I don't think it's anything special."

Chen Mo thought about it and realized that this seemed to be a good thing.

The solar panels previously provided to the Magic Academy had very limited power generation capacity per unit time, and the energy storage devices did not have the function of concentrated high discharge, so they could only power light bulbs and drive miniature motors.

For magicians who deal with all sorts of magical energies every day, it's normal to look down on some things.

As for the other party's willingness to pay some fees, Chen Mo naturally prioritized the mana crystals.

Then, Elliott delivered both bad news and good news.

The bad news is that mana crystals have a wide range of uses and are consumed quickly. They can be used everywhere, from building magic towers to enhancing training rooms, from activating spell scrolls to powering battlefield magic circles.

Buying isn't difficult, but purchasing in large quantities is almost impossible, as each faction primarily produces for its own use.

Elliott was the same; being able to produce a few dozen was his limit.

It's less than one-tenth of the current reserves in the Vast Ocean Territory; it's better than nothing.

The good news is that this kind of production can be artificially cultivated.

“Mana crystals are, in essence, the essence of psionic energy, but this essence cannot be achieved through conventional magic. Instead, it requires a vessel, and that vessel is elemental manifestation.”

"My lord, you must have heard of the lair, right?"

Chen Mo nodded.

He was certainly familiar with this thing. Back then, when he and Little Golden Retriever set off to deal with the Dark Demon Tree Grassland, it was a small nest. As long as you waited enough time, the Dark Demon Tree would automatically spawn there.

Defeating it will grant you the Heart of the Magic Tree, a basic magical material.

When he registered with the White Stone City Mercenary Guild, he also heard about the White Stone City advancement mission, which involved putting obsidian into the wolf den at the edge of the Dark Forest and using the magical energy contained in the den to spawn Shadow Wolves.

Defeating these guys will reward you with Demon Wolf Crystals.

This is considered a medium-sized nest!
There are small ones, medium ones, and naturally there are large ones!

"Therefore, the condition for the creation of mana crystals is the development of large nests!"

(End of this chapter)