Chapter 66: Base Completion
Time flew by, and it was now the month of Thunder (April). The weather gradually became hotter, and the heat in the air made people feel a bit restless.
However, Sunan was quite excited.
The foundational construction of the base was finally complete!
Upon receiving the news, he rushed back to the base to prepare for the final step—laying the mana transmission conduits! If the earth node was the heart of the base, then the mana transmission conduits were its "blood vessels."
Only by laying a complete mana transmission system could the elemental magic from the earth node flow smoothly throughout the base, allowing all its facilities to function properly.
There were various materials available for creating mana transmission conduits, and after much consideration, Sunan decided to use crystals.
Crystals were the cheapest, had the best performance, and were the easiest mana transmission medium to produce artificially.
Mana transmission conduits made from a large number of artificial mana crystals were known as Crystal Traces.
Despite the low cost of crystals, the sheer size of the base meant that a significant amount of mana transmission conduits was required, resulting in substantial costs.
To date, Sunan had invested over 10,000 gold coins into the base's construction.
This was nearly equivalent to the annual income of the Shimmering Territory.
He spent the past two months tirelessly making potions for the Fire Fox Trading Company and supplemented the rest with territory funds to gather this amount.
As a result, his [Potion Making] skill was now just shy of advancing to level 4, with less than 1,000 proficiency points needed.
"This is only the beginning. The subsequent construction of the magic plant garden will also require a lot of money," Sunan thought to himself.
Wizards could earn money easily, but they also spent it just as extravagantly, like water flowing through their fingers.
Sunan spent two whole days without rest, meticulously drawing the Crystal Traces throughout the base using the Mage Hand, melting each crystal into fine threads and etching them onto floors, walls, and ceilings with micro-level precision.
As for the massive crystal serving as the central energy core, he placed it in the very center of the base in a dedicated room he named the Energy Central Room.
"Begin power supply!"
In the room's center, Sunan placed his hand on the central energy core and recited an incantation.
A pale purple glow appeared on the surface of the giant crystal and quickly spread along the crystal veins outward.
In Sunan's perception, a rich energy wave radiated from the room, spreading in all directions.
Before long, the entire base was enveloped in this dense energy wave.
"It's done!"
A joyful smile appeared on Sunan's face.
With this, the base was truly completed.
Next, he only needed to refine the details of each area.
Sunan took out the base's blueprint from the cube and looked at the various designated areas.
Meditation Area, Spell Training Area, Experimental Area, Residential Area, Pharmaceutical Area, Warehouse...
Sunan even designated a Detention Area next to the Experimental Area to hold some experimental magical beasts in the future.
If any enemies came knocking, they could also be detained there.
These areas were considered "ordinary areas" and were relatively simple to set up, requiring only some borrowed manpower from Key to handle.
Only the magic plant garden, workshop, and puppet factory needed his personal attention.
"The two mana crystal forges are ready to be moved into the workshop and puppet factory."
"But for the magic plant garden, I need to set up the power-gathering arrays quickly and start planting the first batch of magical plants."
Sunan had long decided what to plant first.
Silver Moon Flowers were a definite choice.
The super potions he was currently using required Silver Moon Flowers as the primary material.
They were currently indispensable!
Moreover, if he intended to train a large number of apprentices in the future, he would need a significant supply of Silver Moon Flowers to make lower-tier active potions and active potions.
Instead of purchasing Silver Moon Flowers from the Fire Fox Trading Company, growing them himself would be more cost-effective.
Additionally, he could improve the Silver Moon Flowers to cultivate superior varieties, which would be beneficial for crafting higher-tier potions later.
The second magical plant Sunan chose to cultivate was the Red Vein Fruit.
This relatively common magical plant could slightly enhance physical constitution with long-term consumption.
However, its effects were moderate; consuming it consistently for one or two years might increase constitution by 1 or 2 points, with a long onset time, and it was only effective below the knight level.
Thus, Red Vein Fruits were priced lower than Silver Moon Flowers.
Sunan intended to merge them with dragonkin blood to see if he could cultivate a more potent magical plant.
Considering the planting and growth cycles, this would be a lengthy process.
However, with the cube, Sunan was confident of success.
"As for daily maintenance, the clay golems can handle it."
"Producing 10 more clay golems, totaling 20, should be sufficient for the base's routine maintenance."
"For security, stone golems would serve well."
In Sunan's vision, aside from future apprentices, no other humans would reside in the base.
The base's daily maintenance and security would be entirely managed by golems.
"Too bad there's no tower spirit to control everything; otherwise, the base's operations could be automated."
Tower spirits are the pinnacle of artificial intelligence.
They manage wizard towers, handling integrated operations, including terminal computation, data recording, combat command, experimental assistance, and more.
A single tower spirit could easily manage the automation of an entire base.
Unfortunately, even the lowest-grade tower spirits required legendary-level soul crystals to create, which was beyond reach at this stage.
"Fifty stone golems, combined with magical alarms, will make the base's defenses impenetrable."
Over the past few months, Sunan had mastered three new first-circle spells.
These were [Ray of Enfeeblement], [Burning Hands], and [Magic Alarm].
The first two were offensive spells, while [Magic Alarm] was a highly practical auxiliary spell.
The spell's effect was to designate a specific area; when any unmarked creature entered or touched the area, an alarm would be triggered.
The alarm could be mental or auditory.
The former would silently alert the caster or a designated creature.
The latter would produce an audible sound, heard clearly by all creatures within the alert area.
Sunan planned to set up permanent magical alarms throughout the base.
With stone golems in the open and magical alarms hidden, the defense network would be complete.
Even a legendary knight couldn't silently infiltrate the base.
"It would be ideal to create a steel golem as the base's ultimate defense."
"With a legendary knight-level steel golem stationed, the base's security would be foolproof!"
"Thanks to the rewards from my supporters, and the reader's votes, much appreciated!"
-Support me in Patreon for more chapters 35+ chapters in there
patreon.com/LegendaryTL
Thanks!