https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-154-A-Guest-and-the-Surge-in-Profits-After-the-System-Split/12808492/
https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-156-The-Dragon-Antler-Ranch-Bloodlines-and-True-Spirits/12808494/
Chapter 155: Clues in the Dark Forest, Repairing the Elemental Pool
Chapter 155: Clues in the Dark Forest, Repairing the Elemental Pool
The well-lit parlor was filled with a warm and friendly atmosphere.
Su Nan and the traveler sat across from each other, exchanging light-hearted conversation.
"How has your rest been these past three days?" Su Nan asked.
"Very good," the traveler smiled. "I haven't stayed in such a comfortable room in the underground world for a long time. In the past, for convenience, I mostly stayed in caves, and when I occasionally entered a city, I could only stay in a simple inn."
Su Nan's interest piqued, and he curiously inquired, "Which city was it?"
"The dark elf city, Spider City, about a thousand kilometers from here."
"Could you tell me more about it?"
"Of course," the traveler readily agreed.
During his three days in Lake City, the traveler had toured the entire city. Although he hadn't visited the highly anticipated Base 2, he had a good understanding of the city's power dynamics.
The current military strength of Lake City far exceeded what it was eight years ago. In fact, if Lake City were on the surface, its military might would be enough to conquer some small countries.
And Su Nan's influence extended beyond Lake City, including Matu and Aosen.
Though he hadn't visited them personally, from the information he gathered over the past few days, the military strength of these two cities was likely on par with Lake City.
Together, the three cities formed the Star Alliance.
From the name alone, it was clear that Su Nan's ambitions extended far beyond just three cities.
The more the traveler learned, the more he found Su Nan to be a deep and enigmatic figure. He even began to suspect that what he had learned so far was just the tip of the iceberg of Su Nan's power and resources!
If anyone in the world had the potential to become a true wizard, the traveler believed Su Nan was one of the most promising candidates.
Faced with such a boundless potential, even someone as laid-back as the traveler felt the need to form a good relationship with Su Nan.
If a bit of information could win Su Nan's favor, it would be well worth it.
"The dark elf city is called Spider City. It is home to twelve dark elf families, and the matriarchs of all the families form the highest council, ruling the entire city."
"Spider City alone has over six thousand dark elves, and at least fifty thousand vassal races and even more slaves. In terms of both resources and strength, it can easily rank in the top three in the southeastern region."
Spider City, huh?
The name immediately brought up relevant memories in Su Nan's mind.
The underground world was home to countless races.
In terms of population, dark elves didn't even rank in the top thousand.
But in terms of combat power, dark elves were undoubtedly in the top three.
If it weren't for their internal strife and the waste of energy on power struggles, they would have likely unified the entire southeastern region long ago.
Su Nan vaguely remembered that in the last element revival, the dark elves had already unified the southeastern region of the underground world.
I wonder how they achieved internal unity?
Come to think of it, the Star Alliance and Spider City are only about two thousand kilometers apart. Whether the Star Alliance expands outward or Spider City expands its influence, it seems they will inevitably clash.
I need to start preparing for that.
While his thoughts raced, Su Nan's expression remained calm as he listened to the traveler's account, occasionally asking a few questions.
He had to admit that the traveler's knowledge of the underground world's power distribution was far more detailed than the limited information in his own memory.
As the traveler spoke, Su Nan quickly formed a detailed map of the power distribution within a thousand kilometers of the Star Alliance.
With this map, the Star Alliance's future expansion would undoubtedly be much smoother.
"Do you know where there's a silver mine?"
When the traveler finished, Su Nan suddenly asked.
The traveler thought for a moment and hesitated, "There is one, but it already belongs to someone."
"That's fine," Su Nan didn't mind. "Where is it?"
"It's near Giant Eye City. It's a medium-sized silver mine and is part of Giant Eye City's assets."
Su Nan's spirits lifted.
Even half of a medium-sized silver mine would be enough to make up for the shortfall in the materials needed to craft secret automatons.
I have to get my hands on that silver mine!
The traveler's Giant Eye City was located three hundred kilometers north of the Star Alliance, in the same area where the mind flayer tribes were previously discovered.
Su Nan speculated that those mind flayer tribes were likely the losers of a power struggle in Giant Eye City, exiled to the wild.
The ruler of Giant Eye City was a Nest Mother Eye.
It sounded like a female, but like other mind flayers, it had no gender.
The name came from its special ability to control other mind flayers.
Through this ability, the Nest Mother Eye could command a large number of mind flayers to serve it, which was the origin of the mind flayer city.
The Nest Mother Eye itself wasn't particularly strong, only slightly more powerful than an average mind flayer, at best reaching the level of a first-circle legend.
The real challenge was the horde of mind flayers under its command.
Hundreds, if not thousands, including some legendary mind flayer variants.
From the traveler's words, it was clear that Giant Eye City was even stronger than the former Dark Lake City.
However, Su Nan wasn't too concerned about it.
Sending out a single Adamantine Golem to lead the Golem Legion would be more than enough to flatten Giant Eye City.
Deciding to entrust this task to the Red Widow, Su Nan then brought up another topic.
"You know, why don't you establish your own force?"
"With your strength, taking over a city shouldn't be too difficult, right?"
The traveler smiled and shook his head. "I'd rather not. I'm not cut out for that, and I don't enjoy spending too much time building up a force. I prefer exploring and adventuring, seeing new sights. This continent has many beautiful places I've yet to see."
"But without your own force, it's hard to gather resources."
"I'm not alone," the traveler shrugged. "I have a few noble allies, and that's enough for me."
He paused, then sighed with a wistful expression.
"Besides, what good does it do to gather more resources?"
"The current state of the Starlight Continent means that becoming a true wizard isn't just a matter of having more resources."
"To break this deadlock, we need to find the legendary three wizard legacies. I've been searching for them for years."
As he spoke, the traveler's eyes flickered.
Su Nan noticed and felt his heart leap, staring intently at the traveler.
"Did you find a clue?"
The traveler hesitated but finally nodded.
"Yes."
"Which wizard legacy?"
"Black Forest."
Su Nan's eyes lit up, and he smiled. "Here's a deal. I won't take advantage of you. You tell me the clue about Black Forest, and I'll tell you the clue about the Tower of the Thousand Stars. How about it?"
"Deal!" The traveler agreed without hesitation.
Su Nan was taken aback for a moment, then quickly understood.
Earlier, when the Bloodmouth and the Grappling Hand were discussing the key to the Tower of the Thousand Stars, the traveler must have overheard it and taken it to heart. Mentioning the clue about Black Forest now was a way to set up this exchange.
The guy was pretty shrewd.
Meeting Su Nan's meaningful gaze, the traveler chuckled awkwardly.
"I can swear an oath to ensure that the information I give you is one hundred percent true!"
Su Nan, of course, didn't refuse.
After they sealed the oath, they began to exchange information.
"I got the clue about Black Forest in Spider City."
"One of the twelve families in Spider City, the Philir family, has a third-generation Matriarch who is said to have entered a strange forest and gained immense power. This allowed her to defeat all her rivals and inherit the Matriarch's position."
"I infiltrated the Philir family and checked their records. The event is indeed documented, but more detailed information is not available."
"My guess is that if this is true, such important information would only be passed down orally, perhaps known only to the Philir family's successive Matriarchs."
The Philir family, huh?
Su Nan's eyes gleamed with thought.
Regardless, with a clue, he definitely needed to investigate.
It seemed that contact with Spider City was inevitable.
Even if they didn't come to him, he would have to go to them.
Regaining his composure, Su Nan also shared the clue about the Tower of the Thousand Stars.
"A new member named Hunter recently joined the Night Owl's Lodge. Have you heard about it?"
The traveler shook his head. He hadn't seen the Night Owl in nearly two years, so he had no way of knowing the recent developments at the lodge.
"During a recent gathering, Hunter sold a key to the Tower of the Thousand Stars. With the key, one can locate and enter the tower when it appears. I suspect Hunter might have more keys, so you might want to look into that."
The traveler immediately regretted missing out on such a rare opportunity.
If he had known about the Tower of the Thousand Stars key, he would have attended the gathering.
Unfortunately, he had been too busy evading the Grappling Hand's pursuit at the time.
"Hunter, huh? I'll have to find a way to contact him privately," the traveler thought to himself.
At that moment, Su Nan tossed something to the traveler, who caught it reflexively. Looking down, he saw a spatial ring.
"This is..." The traveler looked at Su Nan with a puzzled expression.
"Mutual respect. You gave me so much information, so I should give you a gift in return," Su Nan said with a smile.
The traveler opened the spatial ring and found a hundred magic stones inside, which startled him.
This reward was too generous!
However, the allure of magic stones was too strong, and the traveler couldn't resist. After a moment's hesitation, he accepted it.
"Thanks," he said earnestly.
Su Nan waved his hand, indicating it was no big deal.
Honestly, besides the clue about Black Forest, the information the traveler provided about the power distribution was worth far more than a hundred magic stones.
(End of Chapter)Moreover, such generosity would leave a lasting impression on the traveler. In the future, if there were other pieces of intelligence, the traveler would be more than willing to trade with him.
The day after their information exchange, the traveler bid farewell and left. Su Nan didn't try to retain him and immediately immersed himself in his work once the traveler was gone.
Apart from his daily cultivation, he devoted most of his energy to two major tasks.
The first was to enhance the bloodline concentration of the Hidden Dragon. The second was to repair the elemental pool.
The cost of repairing the elemental pool wasn't excessively high, amounting to roughly ten thousand gold coins in materials. The real challenge lay in the technical expertise required.
Without the mental power of a fully-fledged wizard, many aspects of the repair became exponentially more difficult.
The intricate runes required precise drawing, and any failure meant starting over. Su Nan often had to try dozens or even hundreds of times to succeed, reminiscent of his first attempts at potion-making.
After three months of relentless effort, Su Nan finally completed the repair of the elemental pool.
At the top of the Dragon Bone Tower, in Longlin, Su Nan took a deep breath and let out a heartfelt smile as he gazed at the now-repaired square pool.
The completion of the elemental pool held immense significance.
It marked the beginning of a new phase in the development of his forces.
"All that's left is to activate it."
From his spatial ring, Su Nan retrieved a gemstone he had prepared in advance. He carefully carved it into an octahedron and embedded it into the array, making it look seamless.
Hum!
The entire elemental pool suddenly trembled violently, and cracks began to form in the surrounding space.
Behind these cracks, a variety of bizarre landscapes appeared: an abyss-like sea, an endless sky, a fiery inferno, and a dense, solid crust, among others.
These were elemental planes!
After a strange fusion of energies, streams of deep blue liquid began to flow into the elemental pool.
This wasn't ordinary water but condensed elemental energy, which appeared as water within the pool.
The gentlest form of energy manifestation!
With the successful establishment of the elemental pool, a rich and vibrant energy enveloped the entire Dragon Bone Tower.
"Success!"
Su Nan took a deep breath, feeling the air thick with elemental energy, and his expression was one of genuine pleasure.
The elemental pool would continuously diffuse energy outward.
Within this energy field, the mental power of wizards (and apprentices) would recover much faster, and their meditation efficiency would improve slightly. It could even slow down the aging process and extend one's lifespan.
In other words, those who lived long-term in the Dragon Bone Tower would benefit from longevity, faster recovery, and improved meditation efficiency.
The larger the elemental pool, the better the effects.
Su Nan estimated that the miniature elemental pool would increase mental power recovery by about 20% and meditation efficiency by around 5%.
Long-term residence could add 5 to 10 years to one's life.
As he watched the water level in the elemental pool slowly rise, Su Nan's mood grew increasingly joyful.
The elemental pool utilized the most primitive elemental channel mechanism, generating magic through elemental surges that poured into the pool. While the efficiency wasn't high, it was a sustainable source of energy that wouldn't run out as long as the pool remained undamaged and was regularly maintained. It could last for several thousand years.
With the elemental pool providing energy, the ecosystem within Longlin could gradually be restored, and there would no longer be concerns about energy shortages.
The only downside was that the energy provided by the elemental pool, while stable, was relatively weak and insufficient for more demanding tasks.
Regaining his composure, Su Nan opened the three-dimensional model of Longlin.
The spatial barrier of Longlin had already been repaired, leaving only the Dragon Bone Tower and Sector 2 to be fixed.
The main areas of the Dragon Bone Tower that needed repair included the cultivation tanks and various experimental facilities in the transformation zone, the mana crystal forging furnace in the workshop zone, the targets in the training zone, and the overall mana transmission pipeline.
Years of abandonment had left these facilities with various issues that needed to be addressed.
Fortunately, the Dragon Bone Tower had a comprehensive self-repair function, and with the assistance of Butler 1, the repairs could be completed relatively quickly as long as there was sufficient energy.
"1, start the repairs on the Dragon Bone Tower," Su Nan ordered.
"Repairs on the Dragon Bone Tower initiated. Estimated completion time: 18 days, 15 hours, 25 minutes, and 16 seconds."
Su Nan nodded in approval.
Once the repairs on the Dragon Bone Tower were complete, he could begin the relocation of the base.
As for Sector 2, he could wait until the energy was fully restored to start the repairs. After all, it wasn't as if he could find a dragon clan to cultivate anytime soon.
Without the dragon clan, even if Sector 2 were fully restored, it could only serve as a super-large magical plant garden.
---
End of Chapter
Chapter end
Report