Chapter 174: Noir Province Reinforcements (1/2)
Espionage experts or not, Rino was forced to acknowledge the prowess of those killer bunny monsters. In a different sense, they were terrifying.
The highway was dug and built so quickly that Rino missed his nap time after Sheila's drow escort reported the deed was completed. On top of digging fast, those monster rabbits ran fast too. Even for Rino, he needed a few days to fly from Town Zera back to Noir Province. However, these killer bunnies were able to dig their way over in one and a half days and run back in half a day.
The genesis fairies working on laying the mana web array were stumped when they saw the group who went forward return to report that the job was done. The drow escort found it hard to keep up with their pace, even with short teleportation magic.
No wonder Rino's mana recovery was non-existent! He only found out how much mana these monsters were consuming while they worked after they returned. With a combination of earth and dark magic used by over a hundred mid-levelled monsters, the World Tree and magic trees who shared Rino's soulbond could not keep up.
On the bright side, now that the highway was built, Rino finally saw some increase in his mana reserves when he told the spies to do physical labour instead. With so many bunnies around, they should be capable of keeping a lookout at spaced intervals around Town Zera's borders.
The speedy completion of the underground highway meant several things. Firstly, Rino could now call forth all the reinforcements he needed from Noir Province after the mana web array was linked to Cypress County. Teleporting will no longer use Rino's mana supply. Instead, it would be supported by the magic trees. These trees were good regulators of magic and constantly produced mana, unlike Rino, who had to receive mana from external sources as an undead.
A mana-saving trick that Kragami shared for long-distance travelling was to calculate the amount of time needed in the shadow realm. Although the necromancer wasn't sure about the exact amount of mana Rino could save from such a trick, he was certain that it would help the lich save a huge amount of mana when his goons were teleporting from Noir Province to Town Zera with goods.
Teleporting magic was a complex spell using the dark arts of travelling to the shadow realm and space magic to compress space and slow the speed of time before opening a portal to another part in the material world for the user to exit. Rino's teleportation gates were woven so that it took little to no time for the gate jumpers to get from one place to the other. Kragami was surprised initially when Rino shared his secrets. Those gates were not randomly hooked to the web mana array. He did not create a hexa-elemental magic world tree for no reason.
Everything was part of his plan.
The mana savvy trick that his teacher taught him was to space the intervals between jumper gates closer to each other so that the time it takes to travel between shadow realm and physical world is shorter. The portal itself did not use much mana. It was Rino's additional buff magic such as speed, weight compression, space manipulation and advanced time-slowing spells that cost a lot of mana.
As a strong believer of quality over quantity, the suggestion to create cheaper portals in mass quantities for his underground highway made Rino uncomfortable. He might still be that cheap and miser peasant from the memories of his humble beginnings as a baron in his past life. But Rino never bought easily disposable things. Even his favourite leather boots were used for at least five years before his butler could tolerate those tattered boots no more and hired a cobbler to dispose of them in the name of failing to repair them.
Naturally, Rino wasn't too happy when he found out about it, but the cobbler assured him that a very good shoemaker friend made better and more comfortable leather boots that could be enchanted with magic. The hide of those boots was pricier than the ones he bought himself after receiving his first paycheque from a job the magicians' tower assigned him. He remembered the satisfaction as he parted with a sizable portion of his monthly tributes earned from his fief as a baron for that pair of glorious Wolfsbane Spider Silk and Granite Drake hide.
”Must I really remove those enchantments?” Rino asked over the telepathic spell.
Kragami remained unmoved by Rino's reasoning. Instead, he only told Rino how his shadow summons could work permanently transporting goods from Noir Province to Town Zera using the highway,
”Living creatures cannot remain in the shadow realm for long as the shadow realm does not have air. However, shadow summons do not require air. As long as they are provided with enough mana from a bond with their summoner, they can remain there forever. Distance is not a problem as you've experienced for yourself.”