Chapter 159 Auction (1/2)
After spending a good portion of the day, Yang Ling finally got a grasp on the Magical Beasts in that world. According to the explanation on the Magical Beast Knowledge Guide, space element beasts were extremely rare, but someone once discovered traces of a Steelback Eagle in Terras Forest. Perhaps he could try his luck deep in the untraveled portion of the forest one day.
Since he could not capture any space element Magical Beasts for the time being, he decided to instruct Goode to do a small excavation of the Five Colored Crystal Vein first. Developing land required many of crystal coins, setting up a Troops Association required many crystal coins, and building the Black Lake City required many crystal coins… He had to find a way to balance the income and spending as soon as possible, or he might go bankrupt.
In order to keep it quiet, Yang Ling adopted Goode's suggestion and decided to sell the crystals in small batches. As a safety precaution, Goode would personally transport the crystals using the Space Ring, then sell them secretly to Harribell as if they were treasures from the Anca family.
This way, even though he would not earn many crystal coins in the beginning, it was at least much safer. The Anca family had been built on piracy. They had robbed many tribes, and it was believable that they had kept some premium crystal ores for themselves. He believed that this would not attract anyone's suspicion. It was not too late for them to sell the crystal ores themselves after the development of the Wissen Merchant Team matured and his territory had a stronger defense.
After leaving his instructions on the more important things, Yang Ling cultivated his Wizard Techniques.
After forming his Crystal Core, even though he could gradually start to cultivate higher level Wizard Techniques, it was hard for him to achieve a quick breakthrough given that he was still not powerful enough.
For example, in terms of evasion techniques, the stele said that there were six kinds, namely Metal Evasion, Wood Evasion, Water Evasion, Fire Evasion, Earth Evasion and Wind Evasion, with each kind split into beginner, mid and high levels. So far, he had only gained a preliminary mastery over the Earth Evasion, which allowed him to instantly teleport twenty steps away, but he could only use it three times per day.
But as his Wizard Power and mental energy increased, he would be able to gradually increase the teleportation radius, as well as the number of times he could use the skill in a day. It was rumored that after cultivating it to a high level, he could teleport thousands of miles away, making it extremely powerful.
While he was cultivating the Earth Evasion technique, Yang Ling could feel the trees in the yard release tendrils of strange energy ripples. His body trembled gently, giving him the feeling that he was about to fly. It was as if his soul was about to leave his body. According to his experience with the Earth Evasion, he would be able to gain mastery over the beginner level Wood Evasion technique with just a little more effort.
Fast speeds, rich Wizard Power, the mysterious Tree Eye ability, and the Earth Evasion and Wood Evasion spells…
Yang Ling believed that his abilities would be taken a notch higher if he could master the Wood Evasion technique. When that time came, he might be able to escape safely even if he encountered a sage level fighter in the luscious Terras Forest, or even a Heaven-ranked Assassin.
Every time night fell, he would do two things simultaneously, cultivating the Starlight Wizard Mantra and the Psychic Spell at once, and giving his best effort in absorbing the energy released by the skyful of stars and trees around him.
Just like what had happened in Taildon Valley, the space of the Wizard's Pagoda expanded rapidly as the pagoda shaped mark between his brows absorbed energy from the stars and from the green life force. The white fog released by the Wizard's Pagoda thickened, and the pond in the middle of the grassy fields grew.
Just like that, Yang Ling cultivated the Wood Evasion Technique in the day and took the time at night to cultivate both the Starlight Wizard Mantra and Psychic Spell. Three days passed in a flash.
If it is expanding at this rate, would the pond expand to become the size of a reservoir, than a large lake the size of the Dongting Lake, and finally a sea like the Mediterranean?
On that day, after absorbing a large amount of green life force and clearly sensing that the pond had once again expanded, Yang Ling felt a wave of doubt. Until that moment, he had still been unclear of what exactly was going on in the space of the Wizard's Pagoda.
Yang Ling saw the Heavenly Fox Yuna silently training with her eyes closed, so he did not disturb her. He left quickly after making his way around the space of the Wizard's Pagoda once.
The auction of the Anacardia forest would happen after daybreak. Even though he trusted that Goode had already prepared everything, he also had to make preparations for himself and learn about each situation. After all, this was the very first auction in the history of Wissen Town. He couldn't afford to botch it.
The people once again broke into a commotion when the news of the auction of the forest of Anacardia spread out. The Anacardia were valuable because of the paint-like sap. Rubbing it on the skin could prevent bug bites and protect against the elements… It was widely used in many high-grade tents and military items.
The demand for the tree sap was very high in powerful countries like the Banto and Rossi Empires, and they usually went for a dozen Purple Crystal Coins per gallon. In the abundant summer, each mature Anacardia could produce one gallon of sap every three days, thus getting an entire forest of Anacardia was equivalent to obtaining a treasure trove.
In the past, even though the people knew that there was a forest of Anacardia in the Terras Forest, they had been unable to do a large scale sap collection because of distance and bandits. But it was different now. Yang Ling had spent a great deal of effort to pavE roads and send armies to clear off the bandits along the merchant routes since becoming the leader of the town.
It could be said that under his efforts, the cost of peddling tree sap not only decreased greatly, it was also many times safer. In the past, the people had only set their sights on the rich number of Magical Beast Essence Crystals in the Terras Forest. Now, they were gradually eyeing the resources such as the mineral ores, wood and tree sap.
In this period of time, everyone, be it the merchants that have gathered in Wissen Town, or the troops and adventurers, or the townspeople who had grown up there, they had all heard the news of the building of Black Water City and the harbor. Those that were a little more intelligent knew that the Magical Beast Territory would invite rapid development.
There were treasures all over the Terras Forest. Merely a ship full of the Flower Rocks that could be seen everywhere might earn them a fortune when transported to other cities, much less the Magical Beast Essence Crystals. Some of the troops and adventurers even opted to stop doing missions and pool money to set up a small merchant team, hoping that they could earn their first bucket of gold in Wissen Town.
As news spread around, Goode did not have to advertise it any further before everyone came to know about the news of the auction. As a result, the people had swarmed into Wissen Castle early that day. Other than the merchants in Wissen Town, there were also several troops, adventurers and townspeople.