Chapter 17: Manuals, Drawings, Checking and Filling Gaps

After a day, Qin Muye and Demon Blood hadn't achieved much in terms of gains, unless one considers venturing further since the surrounding wild beasts and resources were already depleted by Demon Blood, not allowing others to rest on its laurels.

These resources and wild beasts couldn't respawn a second time and, due to the newbie period, were essentially immobile, confined to one place.

This resulted in quite a shortfall in resources, meaning that the starting resources available to all lords within a certain area were limited.

But it wasn't true to say there were no gains, as he and Demon Blood had re-cleared a circle with a radius of ten kilometers, and some overlooked resources and the few that slipped through the net were cleaned up.

They also opened a wooden Treasure Box, but as for wood and Minerals, those need not be mentioned now; there were a total of five hundred units. What truly surprised him was a set of Building blueprints for a Refining Room capable of producing the Special Resource Mercury, with building requirements of 100 units of Wood, 100 units of Minerals, and an additional ten units each of four different Special Resources.

[Refining Room]

[Each stationed troop type can acquire 1 unit of Mercury per day, limit (0/10)]

[Expansion: 100 units of Wood, 100 units of Minerals, 10 units of Mercury, 10 units of gemstones, 10 units of Sulfur, 10 units of Crystal]

Though he considered the resources for expansion, currently he hadn't thought about those due to the low productivity; a logging site and Quarry could get 10 units from one troop, reduced to just 1 unit at the Refining Room, which was normal for Special Resources.

Upon returning, he built two Refining Rooms and then arranged for ten Spirit Monsters to enter, waiting for the harvest the next day.

"There are still buildings to acquire for gemstones, Crystals, and Sulfur, three kinds of Special Resources left," Qin Muye realized, knowing the difficulty in obtaining the Building blueprints for these resources as the surrounding area was already low on resources.

Moreover, only the last day of the newbie period remained, so Qin Muye returned to the Mage Tower Territory at dusk; Demon Blood didn't come back but instead escorted Qin Muye back to the territory and took ten Spirit Monsters to prepare for an all-night sweep, probably returning no earlier than the next dusk.

His territory was lacking in many things, and Spirit Monsters were not adept at combat.

"Still not strong enough..." Qin Muye sighed and then took out the Building blueprints for the Spirit Monster workshop.

Although he already possessed this building, learning it again was futile, but that was not the point; the point was the Knowledge contained in these blueprints.

For instance, the transformation of Garden Elves into Spirit Monsters through Magic.

Although he had already learned the basics in the Spirit Monster Experiment Manual, without the corresponding Magic data, many things had to be guessed; but with the blueprints of the Spirit Monster workshop, Qin Muye could compensate for the lack in data, and if possible, he could even build his own Spirit Monster workshop.

"From what it seems now, the core of the Spirit Monster workshop is Magic transformation, following a set program to transform Garden Fairies using Magic, the technical content isn't high, and it seems to be among the most primitive transformations a Mage can create, almost as if it's being phased out," Qin Muye, now with the help of both the Spirit Monster Experiment Manual and the Building blueprints, had a solid theoretical experience, if not mastery over the matter.

This itself is about patching the gaps; Spirit Monsters are just low-level transformations by Mages. From another book, Advanced Spirit Monster Experiment Manual, Qin Muye saw more man-made beast forms that Mages created, whose levels of sheer madness far exceeded Qin Muye's imagination.

For example, beings such as Centaurs, Minotaurs, Harpies, etc., generally served as Mages' servants, playthings, and guards.

Of course, these were just creations based on real Monsters by Mages, fundamentally different, and their primary subjects were mostly Elves—truly unfortunate.

More formidable creatures like Titans and Rash Kings, the former being giant puppets and the latter representing the peak combat power among beast-like humans, existed.

Unfortunately, the "Advanced Spirit Monster Experiment Manual" only mentioned these briefly and did not provide a detailed introduction.

The development of Mages is the history of blood and tears of various Alien Clans, especially Elves, who naturally have a great affinity with nature and elements, making them prime subjects.

Qin Muye also found the precursor to Spirit Monsters, a low-level Fire System Spirit known as the Fire Spirit Monster, skilled in repair and construction. Mages imitated its structure to create Spirit Monsters loyal to them, and although they lost the Fire Attribute, they gained smarter minds and more flexible hands.

In exchange for their original combat abilities, they acquired more skilled life skills. For instance, a Spirit Monster, if trained for a certain period, could become a qualified Mage assistant and could quickly become adept in various industries.

In other words, they were purely Life System Troops, similar to Farmers.

Through the "Advanced Spirit Monster Experiment Manual" and the various Knowledge in the Spirit Monster Factory, Qin Muye learned about the evolutionary type of Spirit Monsters called Big Spirit Monsters, which enabled their originally small statures to grow as tall as ordinary people, better serving the Mages.

The Spirit Monster Factory produced Big Spirit Monsters; their skills remained unchanged, but their Attributes improved, with their attack and defense increasing from 0 to 3 and 2 respectively. Although still Low Level Troops, they far surpassed regular Spirit Monsters in terms of Attributes.

However, Qin Muye had no plans to build a Spirit Monster Factory. It might seem nice, but it was actually of no real use. Did he really need that extra 3 attack and 2 defense?

He was more interested in further enhancing the potential of Spirit Monsters and realizing their strength.

For example, upgrading the rank of the Troops?

He could manufacture Big Spirit Monsters himself after studying the experiment manual and two Building Blueprints; his initial healing technique for Demon Blood was a rough, unstable version of Big Spirit Monster technology, which inadvertently became Champion Level only because he lacked sufficient Knowledge.

Mature and stable Spirit Monster evolution technology meant creating Big Spirit Monsters.

"Magic Power is key for Spirit Monsters, if possible, can we further bind them with Magic Power in depth?"

Qin Muye understood that the potential of Spirit Monsters lay in the Magic Power within them, which meant the Magic Power Physique and Magic Wisdom skills.

Therefore, if he wanted to further develop the potential of Spirit Monsters, it was unavoidable to consider Magic Power.

For example, more comprehensive Magic Power, this could be modeled after the original form of Spirit Monsters, namely the Fire System Spirit like the Fire Spirit Monster.

If it were any other Mage, it would indeed be difficult to further study, after all, it's better to study creatures like Harpies or Gargoyles than Spirit Monsters.

But Qin Muye and his Spirit Monsters were different, they hailed from the "Lord Era"; the Spirit Monsters were more like creatures from the void, not truly transformed from Garden Elves.

Is a powerful beast-like human transformed from a Garden Elf not better than a weak Spirit Monster?

Consequently, Qin Muye surmised, Spirit Monsters had likely already been phased out by Mages.