Lord Harland.

Chapter 400 The fisherman’s advantage

After defeating the legendary ghost, the Skeleton Mage did not kill his opponent, but used a seven-ring magic ghost coffin spell to control the legendary ghost.

The core goal of the Skeleton Mage's purpose of capturing the legendary ghost alive is to absorb the soul fire of the legendary ghost so that he can be promoted to a legend.

Because the soul fire of the legendary ghost is far more powerful than the skeleton mage, it can only be absorbed slowly.

After the battle, the expedition team could no longer hold back and prepared to take action. After all, the timing was perfect. After a fierce battle, both sides were already defeated. Now that the magic power of the legendary ghost has been consumed, it is no longer a threat to the expedition team and has been reduced to nothing more than fish.

Although the skeleton mage still has some strength, there are more than 600 soldiers left, and most of his own mana has been consumed. He is no longer a match for the expedition team.

As long as this group of skeletons is destroyed, a lot of soul crystals can be obtained. Even if the plane passage is destroyed after going back, the harvest this time is already very impressive.

After careful discussion with Sylph and William, Richard decided not to take action yet. After all, the battlefield was too close to the plane passage. If the news is leaked and high-level undead are searched repeatedly, the coordinates of the plane passage are nearby, and there is a certain risk of leakage.

After making a decision, the expedition team carefully followed the skeleton army.

The Skeleton Mage's lair was about thirty kilometers away from the battlefield. Richard and others followed for two and a half hours before reaching the Skeleton Mage's hiding place.

In order to hunt down legendary ghosts, two skeleton mages have cleared three nearby undead nests. For this reason, the density of undead in the western area of ​​the plane passage is not as high as in the southeastern area.

Following the Skeleton Mage to the lair, Richard estimated that it was about sixty kilometers away from the plane passage, which was barely enough distance to take action.

"Do it!" Richard suddenly waved his left hand, and the twelve expedition members immediately took action.

Warrior professionals led the way, followed by magicians.

Undine and Sophia had the strongest magic power, releasing the Fire Cloud Technique and the Smart Magic Ball respectively. These two magic spells are both eighth-level spells and are very lethal.

A large cloud of fire hit the skeleton army, and in an instant magical flames fell from the sky, burning forty undead creatures to death.

The two mid-level skeleton warriors managed to survive the fire cloud spell because they were more resistant to magic. William and Sylph easily shattered the soul fire and beheaded them.

Both Sylph and William have been promoted to legends, and their close combat abilities are extremely terrifying. The two of them were like two sharp arrows, piercing into the depths of the undead army in the blink of an eye.

Just as the Fire Cloud Technique passed, the agile magic ball came over. The skeleton mage hurriedly released a high-level force field protection, barely blocking the agile magic ball.

However, the dynamic magic ball is a range of magic. Although it did not seriously damage the skeleton mage, it successfully exploded among the skeletons and successfully killed more than thirty low-level skeletons.

After Undine and Sophia took action, the three magicians Richard, Eve, and Wendy took action one after another. Richard released the seven-ring magic flame dragon, Eve also released the return of the undead, and Wendy released A chain lightning spell was cast.

The magicians' first round of raids was very fierce, especially the flame dragon released by Richard, which was more powerful than the nine-ring magic flame meteor. Richard had already awakened his powerful spell-casting talent. The power of the spells released by his hands was about twice as powerful as standard magic. Coupled with the blessing of the flame body on fire-attribute spells, even though this spell was a seventh-level spell, it was extremely lethal. Far beyond the standard nine-ring magic.

Although Richard did not invest more mental energy, the destructive power of this spell was already about 40 to 50% of the legendary magic.

The magic power released by Eve and Wendy is equally impressive, especially when Wendy holds a lightning staff and releases lightning-type spells, which are more powerful than seven-ring magic.

The three spells successfully hit a large number of skeletons, killing more than a hundred skeleton warriors at once.

In particular, the flame dragon released by Richard directly killed more than seventy undead, including a sixth-level skeleton mage, and severely damaged the undead creatures.

The magicians led by Richard and Sophia killed more than 200 undead creatures in just one round of spells, causing a large attrition to the enemy.

In order to capture the legendary ghost alive, the skeleton mage killed and injured more than a thousand of his skeleton soldiers. Now there are only more than 600 skeletons left, and after a round of magic attacks, about one-third were killed or injured.

At the same time, Sutton, Wilde, Soros, Jennings, and Ruola took action almost simultaneously.

The five Suttons are all high-level professionals. Although their impact power is not as good as that of Sylph and William, they can kill many skeletons in a short time.

Sutton, Ruola, and Wilde also mastered bloodline spells, and also killed a large number of skeletons after using them.

In an instant, the skeleton army was defeated like a mountain.

Sylph and William's impact was so strong that they rushed to the skeleton mage in the blink of an eye. Seeing that the skeleton mage was about to use magic to escape, William immediately used the giant bear transformation spell.

In an instant, William's body swelled and transformed into a six-meter-tall giant bear. He opened his giant hand as big as a cattail leaf fan and easily smashed the skeleton blocking the way. Before the Skeleton Mage could cast his spell, the estimate was shattered by William, and the soul fire was extinguished by Sylph, and he died easily at the hands of the two of them.

Once the skeleton mage dies, the magic coffin spell it releases becomes ineffective, and the legendary ghost is free again.

It's a pity that the legendary ghost was unlucky. At this time, the magic power in his body was exhausted and he could not escape at all. He died easily at the hands of Sophia.

As soon as the high-level skeleton mage died, the skeleton army was left without a command and immediately fell into chaos.

The remaining middle and low-level skeleton mages, although somewhat intelligent, did not belong to each other and were quickly killed by the expedition team.

After killing all the skeletons, Richard and others carefully cleaned the battlefield and used energy-absorbing stones to absorb the remaining magical energy nearby.

The two high-level skeleton mages possess a sixty-cubic-meter space bag, which should be their relics before death.

Before the blue plane was transformed into the world of the dead, it was also an extraordinary world with a very high level of magic civilization and many legendary masters. In order to rescue the Azure Plane, the Dawn Plane also sent many experts.

After the death of these high-level professionals, many of them were transformed into undead creatures.

The sixty cubic meter space bag, worth more than 200,000 gold coins, was given to Sophia by Richard for use.

After cleaning the battlefield, everyone divided into two groups. William, Soros, Wendy, and Sophia were monitoring nearby, while Richard and others were investigating the western half of the plane passage.

The reconnaissance and surveillance lasted for five or six days. After seeing nothing unusual, the expedition team returned to the Dragon Canyon through the plane passage. This expedition lasted for about ten days, surveyed about 6,000 square kilometers of land, and reaped the benefits of killing legendary undead creatures.

In a few days, Sophia has opened the Skeleton Mage's space bag, and the harvest from the space bag is also very rich.

The first was negative energy crystals, a total of three thousand were found.

Because the world core was refined by the Undead King, the operation of magic energy in the undead world is very special. Once a magical world is transformed into the undead world, the magic crystal can slowly be transformed into negative energy crystals, which can only provide energy for undead magic.

Although the use of negative energy crystals is quite limited, and it is not as powerful as magic crystals in powering various magics, due to the factor of scarcity, the price of negative energy crystals in the Dawn Plane is five or six times more expensive than magic crystals. become.

Although there is no necromancer in the Harland Territory, the three thousand negative energy crystals can still play an important role.

Relying on the magic materials collected in the undead world, the alchemists led by Harland can refine a batch of special magic props. These props can release undead magic, just enough to allow negative energy crystals to power these special props.

Richard and Undine referred to the technology of manufacturing searing ray guns and used some white bones rich in negative energy to create a batch of death ray guns. Since the death ray is a three-ring magic, this batch of magic props is more lethal than the searing ray guns. A cut above the rest.

There are not only negative energy crystals in the storage bag, but also more than 160 soul crystals. These soul crystals are collections accumulated by the skeleton mage over the years. Now they are all cheaper than the Harland leader mage.

In addition to the harvest from cleaning the battlefield, Harland found about 200 soul crystals during this expedition to the Dead World. The harvest was even better than the last time at the Princess Mausoleum.

Among the two hundred soul crystals, in addition to the legendary soul crystals dropped by the legendary ghosts, there were also four high-level soul crystals. After returning, Sophia quickly refined the Styx potion.

Since Richard's mental strength exceeded fifty points, taking the Styx potion would be of little help. Sophia has used the legendary Styx potion once, and the effect of the second use is only about half of the last time. In addition, her mental power has exceeded 40 points. Even if she refines this Styx potion, it will only increase her spirit by a little at most. Power is almost dispensable.

Undine's mental power is also over 40 points, so taking the legendary Styx potion will waste a lot of power.

In order to maximize the value of this potion, Richard and Undine decided to leave the legendary Styx potion to Wendy after discussion. The remaining four high-level Styx potions were given to elf mages. The highest priority was to participate in it twice. Adventure Eve.

After refining a bottle of water of life, Wendy's mental power already reached 32 points, 11 points more than the average six-ring magician. Four of them were due to drinking the water of life, and the remaining seven points were due to drinking the water of life. It was because of the results of magic research. Taking the legendary Styx potion this time, Wendy's mental power increased by six points at once. She was only one step away from breaking through forty points and awakening the talent of magic multiplication.

In addition to precious resources such as negative energy crystals and soul crystals, the most precious trophy is the skeleton mage's space bag. There are 60 cubic meters in this space bag. It is already a ninth-level magic prop and belongs to Sophia.

Not long after the expedition team returned to the Harland Territory, William decided to go south to serve the Grant family. After he was promoted to legend, his position became more prominent in the Grant Kingdom's system and he was directly appointed governor of Ferdinand Province.

The system of the Grant Kingdom rarely established a governor. Even in the three northern provinces in the war zone, the provincial governors and the army commanders share the power of both the military and the government. Although the commander of the main army is more powerful, the royal family will not easily concentrate the power of a province in the hands of military generals.

Generally speaking, governorships are temporary positions. For example, Earl Steven served as the governor of the southern occupation zone for several years after suppressing the rebellion of the three southern earls.

The governorship of Ferdinand that William serves is probably a temporary position that will be revoked when the situation in the south changes. By then, William may lose his position as commander of the Grizzly Bear Legion, just like Count Steven. , returned to his fiefdom and retired.

As William took control of the military and political affairs in the province of Ferdinand, the Harland family's influence in the south became more prominent. Along with William, there were many Harland-led caravans traveling south. These caravans mainly engaged in smuggling in the south and collected people by the way.

Last year, Harland Territory's population increased by more than 750,000, and the original schools were no longer enough.

In January of this year, Harland led an increase in investment in education. Not only did eight major colleges and universities start enrolling students, but eight new primary schools and two middle schools were also built.

After twenty years of development, Haaland has a relatively sufficient talent pool, especially low-level talents, such as primary school teachers, who can be easily recruited.

Today, Hallandland has 32 primary schools, eight middle schools, and a small number of college students. The number of students in Hallandland exceeds 50,000. The talents that Harland can cultivate every year are far beyond the talents cultivated by the Grant royal family and the aristocratic system.

After entering January, Harland began to pardon indentured servants in advance.

There are 320,000 indentured servants who have expired this year. In these years, they must be pardoned and the land divided before spring plowing. With the indentured servants pardoned this year, the number of free people in Harland Territory is close to 1.5 million.

The political treatment and income level of freedmen were far higher than those of indentured slaves. Although it was the first year after they gained freedom and they did not have much property, they still had a lot of income after a hard year of hard work because they were allocated land and houses, as well as seeds borrowed by the government. , can also be regarded as a population with spending power.

With a consumer population of 1.5 million, the domestic demand market is probably much larger than the export market.

There are 1.5 million free people, about 100,000 of whom have received education. After twenty years of hard work, Richard has only managed to cultivate more than 100,000 educated people.

With these 100,000 educated talents, Harland Leadership has laid the foundation for rapid development.

Thirty-two primary schools have recruited 12,000 new students this year, and testing the qualifications of 12,000 people has made the Harland Master Association very busy.

Fortunately, the Harland Mage Association now has sufficient manpower, and the qualification testing no longer requires the intervention of the higher-ups in the territory. However, Richard's daughter Margaret participated in the task of testing qualifications.

There are more than 12,000 new students, and about 114 of them have been found to have magic aptitude. The probability is still relatively stable at about one percent.

Including this year's apprentices, the total number of Harland Mage Association has exceeded 700, which is close to the number of large magic organizations. However, the number of official magicians is still relatively small. As of late January this year, there were a total of 159 people. The number of magicians is still far behind the Grant Mage Association.

Today, in the Harland Mage Association, there are about twenty or thirty magicians who can be promoted in a year. The speed of replenishing new blood is relatively fast. The Grant Mage Association, which has been in business for a longer time, only adds a dozen new magicians a year, which is not as fast as the development speed of the Harland Mage Association.

Based on the current development trajectory, in about five or six years, the magical power of the Harland Territory will exceed that of the Grant family.

In late January, a lot of good news came from the Harland Mage Association. First, the elf mage Eve participated in two expeditions. After taking the advanced Styx potion, she quickly broke through the bottleneck and was promoted to the seventh ring.

Eve is over 200 years old. According to the standards of elves, she has just entered adulthood. Although elves are very long-lived and are born to be extraordinary species, their bloodline matures very slowly.

Generally, elves are promoted to high levels when they are three or four hundred years old. Eve was able to advance to the seventh level at the age of two hundred, which is considered very talented among elf mages.

Not long after Eve was promoted, Butler was also successfully promoted to the fifth ring, and Adrian and Berica were also successfully promoted to the fourth ring. The backbone grew up and strengthened the thickness of the Harland Mage Association.

(End of this chapter)