NEC Chapter 118: Visiting Scholar and Technical Cooperation

Before arriving at Vast Sea Territory, Aidan Elliott, the third-circle scholar from the northern branch of the Magic Academy, had already had his ears filled with vivid descriptions from Mistmoon High Priest Farrell and trading company Executive Oren.

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

Everything would finally be seen with his own eyes.

When passing through Vast Sea Territory's final checkpoint, Scholar Elliott saw the "Goblin Observatory" that Oren had mentioned repeatedly.

One by one, those somewhat bewildered, hollow eye sockets gazed at travelers from afar.

"A remarkable creation!"

"In this lawless desert, this is simply a beacon of order, enough to make everyone who sees it reasonable and understanding!"

Next, Elliott personally witnessed this magnificent city standing in the desert.

The third-circle scholar couldn't help but stop and observe for a long time.

Scholars were perhaps the most learned group on the Starry Continent.

They usually considered themselves unmatched in academic purity, to the extent that they often held nearly obsessive reverence for rigorous, standardized, logically beautiful things.

After seeing Vast Sea City, Elliott couldn't help but compare it with similar cities he knew.

Finally, this magical scholar reached a conclusion: this city's design was extremely ingenious, worthy of being called a master's work!

"If I have the chance, I must meet this city's planner. This is the most comfortable urban structure I've ever seen that combines terrain, roads, and architecture, bar none!"

Worried that the others couldn't understand, Elliott even gestured, using the Silver Capital as an example, which was recognized as the perfect city.

"The Silver Capital underwent over thirty modifications. When you look carefully, you'll see those roads that had to be curved, city walls that were squeezed out and added later, and those buildings that were demolished and rebuilt repeatedly."

"When you understand the city's history, you'll discover that beneath the surface, there are traces of modifications everywhere."

"When a city develops to a certain stage, it will inevitably discover many inappropriate elements in its original structure."

"They have to demolish, repair, patch, and mend."

"But this city is truly different. Standing here, I seem to see what it will look like in three years, five years, even ten years."

"Those blank spaces left in the city now look like scars, but if you've seen the history of those great cities, you'll know how exquisitely brilliant these reserves will be in the future."

"I'm so looking forward to it!"

After entering the city area, Elliott once again expressed heartfelt admiration for the orderly transportation and workers within the city.

"You rarely see such a scene. Are you certain that most of these are slaves you sold here?"

"They look very spirited! Their eyes are bright! Not at all like slaves with their bent backs, as if they're just struggling in a quagmire!"

The Vast Sea Territory guards accompanying them couldn't help but straighten their backs, unconsciously taking larger steps as they walked.

"Such a place, actually..." Elliott couldn't help but wave his hands heavily, seeming to vent his inner indignation. "Well, I can only say that the Magic Academy's rigid, inflexible system is truly terrible!"

"Those old fellows always use their nearly moldy brains to imagine this world."

At the final checkpoint at the city gate, they met Herlan, who had rushed over dustily.

Compared to their last meeting, Herlan had lost some weight.

How to put it? In the eyes of Vast Sea's residents, the lord was omnipotent, but in reality, every simple command from the lord contained countless details that needed specific execution.

The lord moved his lips, while the common people ran their legs off.

Between moving lips and running legs off, there was a huge pile of interpretation, breakdown, refinement, and concretization work.

The trouble was that Vast Sea Territory had no one capable of serving as mid-level officials, and they couldn't even recruit any.

Herlan had no choice but to pull male and female servants with even a little cultural foundation into the territory's administrative team. If he could pick out one or two literate people from each batch of slaves, the Chief Administrator would treasure them like gems.

As for those rapidly growing youngsters under the lord, Herlan felt both anticipation and bitterness.

These little ones personally trained by the lord were proactive, enthusiastic, rigorous, and orderly. Though they still showed immaturity everywhere, they could already provide him great assistance.

The bitter part was that Herlan clearly understood that once any one of these people reached even half his level, or one-third, they could replace him at any time.

Those were the lord's confidants!

If back then, he had been more perceptive, negotiated fewer conditions, and brought his family, would things be different...

No point in overthinking, better get to work first!

For major diplomatic reception work, only Herlan in the entire territory could handle it. After welcoming the visiting delegation with standard and enthusiastic procedures, Herlan invited them to the territory's dining hall, first arranging dinner while waiting for the lord's return.

In the specially designated private room on the second floor of the dining hall, the long dining table was covered with white tablecloth. Exquisite silver tableware from the Silver Alliance gleamed under soft lighting.

Chilled desert berry juice filled crystal-clear glasses, sweetly intoxicating. Golden, crispy roasted camel ribs sizzled, the aroma of grease mixed with spices floating through the air.

Poultry cooked with unprecedented techniques, vegetables impossible to exist in the great desert, and those dazzling presentations with varied knife work made the already somewhat "talkative" Aidan Elliott begin his non-stop praise again.

"I can hardly imagine how much it would cost to arrange such a banquet in the great desert!"

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

While Elliott's praise was habitual, this statement wasn't entirely wrong.

Although Chen Mo was still reluctant to use precious altar transport capacity to bring food from home, the high-powered cold storage, diverse cooking methods, various seasonings, plus the halfling cook who had been conquered by the "God of Seasonings'" miracle and willingly stayed in the territory, this was definitely not something an ordinary territory could possess.

Especially in such a barren, desolate place.

Elliott forked a piece of tender poultry into his mouth, chewed, swallowed, and asked Herlan somewhat teasingly, "However, I'm still curious, if the lord doesn't attend such banquets, what would his dinner be like?"

"Uh... I think you'll see soon enough!"

About seven or eight minutes later, commotion came from the first-floor hall.

The dining hall's structure featured an open hall with a partially elevated second-floor reception area. From the second-floor windows, one could see the entire hall clearly.

A large group of people and centaurs poured into the spacious dining hall. Oren, with sharp eyes, was first to recognize that young lord.

Chen Mo wore fitted desert camouflage, no military cap, revealing neat short hair. Except for the badge on his chest, he wore no ornaments anywhere on his body.

If Oren didn't have a deep enough impression of Chen Mo, he would never have thought this was Vast Sea's master.

The trading company executive's astonished expression attracted everyone's attention.

"That person is... the lord?"

"Yes!" Herlan answered calmly.

After finishing today's Q&A session, Chen Mo entered the dining hall with his personal guard and Youth Corps, then began queuing for food.

On wooden trays: one bowl of thick soup, two small dishes, rice taken according to each person's portion.

For example, Simple Bull held what could truly be called a rice bucket, while the centaurs' portions could be called rice basins.

Chen Mo was first to get his meal, but after sitting down, he didn't rush to eat. Instead, he waited quietly until everyone had finished getting their food and sat down neatly, all straightening their backs and looking at him uniformly. Only then did Lord Chen Mo raise his hand, "Begin eating!"

"Yes!"

A uniform response, then they began devouring their food like a whirlwind!

This scene fell into the visiting delegation's eyes. Elliott, who had been chattering non-stop, rarely closed his mouth and remained silent.

Everyone just quietly watched Chen Mo finish his meal, walk to the public washing area himself, skillfully clean up, place the tableware in the recycling area, and finally walk up to the second floor.

"Does the lord... always dine with others like this?"

"Not entirely!" Herlan shook his head. "He only eats with his warriors and children. However, if there wasn't today's reception, I would probably find an opportunity to join them."

Elliott nodded with deep feeling, "Completely understandable. Who you eat with is more important than what you eat!"

Having probably eaten quite well downstairs, after coming to the second floor, Chen Mo barely touched the tableware, occasionally raising his glass while engaging in small talk and deep exchanges of opinions with the third-circle scholar from the Magic Academy.

"I deeply respect knowledgeable people, especially great scholars like you! If you want to research this topic, I firmly support it!"

"Electrical equipment from the Mechanical Monarch, yes! Since it's for research, providing sufficient experimental samples is completely no problem!"

"However," Chen Mo smiled as he raised his glass again, "how should the research results be distributed?"

"Complete sharing between both parties with joint cooperative development? Or allowing separate independent development? Can the technology be taught to outsiders?"

The translation provided was clearly not accurate enough, so Lord Chen Mo repeated it again in more direct terms.

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

"Those electrical devices the trading company brought me, the Magic Academy has already conducted simple analysis. As a new category of energy, the society's scholars find it quite novel, but it's only somewhat novel."

"Its energy is too weak, not even as good as dwarven thermal machinery or enchanters' golem power."

"The Magic Academy is merely curious and wants to understand more about the characteristics and principles of these 'electrical' devices from another world."

"I specialize in spiritual energy conversion research. I've previously studied the conversion between 'thunder power' and 'magical spiritual energy,' and 'electricity' is much gentler than thunder power, with more research possibilities."

"So, I and several colleagues need more 'electricity' for experiments."

"Of course, since this is our personal endeavor, I don't have the Magic Academy's wealth, so I have to seek some support from the lord!"

The tone was tactful, but the meaning was clear: this thing doesn't amount to much for the Magic Academy; it's a small-scale project by a few scholars. We can pay limited compensation, so the lord shouldn't value it too highly.

"If there are any results, I think both parties can use them freely. You can certainly teach them to others. I don't think this is anything remarkable."

Chen Mo thought about it; this seemed like a good thing too.

The solar panels previously provided to the Magic Academy had very limited power generation capacity per unit time, and the storage devices didn't have concentrated high-discharge functions, so they could only power light bulbs and small motors.

For these mages who dealt with various magical energies daily, it was normal to look down on them somewhat.

Since the other party expressed willingness to pay some fees, Chen Mo naturally prioritized mana crystals.

Then Elliott provided one piece of bad news and one piece of good news.

The bad news was that mana crystals had wide usage scenarios and fast consumption rates. From magic tower construction to training room enhancement, from spell scroll activation to battlefield magic array power supply, they were needed everywhere.

Buying wasn't difficult, but wanting large quantities was almost impossible. Each faction's production was mainly for self-use.

Elliott was the same; being able to produce dozens was his personal limit.

This wasn't even one-tenth of Vast Sea Territory's current reserves, merely better than nothing.

The good news was that this production could be artificially cultivated.

"Mana crystals are fundamentally the essence of spiritual energy, but this essence cannot be completed through conventional magical methods. There must be a carrier, and this carrier is elemental manifestation."

"Lord should have heard of lairs, right?"

Chen Mo nodded.

He was certainly familiar with this. Back when he set out with Little Blondie to solve the Dark Magic Tree pasture, that was a small lair. Given enough time, Dark Magic Trees would automatically generate there.

Destroying them could yield Tree Hearts, basic magical materials.

When registering at Whitestone City's mercenary guild, he had also heard about Whitestone City's advancement mission: investing obsidian in the magic wolf lair at the edge of the Gloomy Forest, using the magical energy contained in the lair to spawn Shadow Wolves.

Defeating these creatures could yield Magic Wolf Crystals.

This was considered a medium-sized lair!

With small and medium sizes, there were naturally large ones!

"So, the birth condition for mana crystals is the development of large lairs!"

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