Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 122 Seed of Magic
It has been about a week since it snowed in the Divine Ridge Mountains area where the pioneer territory is located.

This means that the bitter cold winter is about to end and the hopeful spring is about to arrive.

The days when the snow melted were actually much colder than usual. Harvey shivered in the biting cold as he attended the completion ceremony of the pioneer city wall, and announced the new year's salary increase plan in advance in front of thousands of people who participated in this huge project.

Thunderous cheers resounded inside and outside the city walls. The people who had worked hard throughout the winter were now grateful and excited from the bottom of their hearts. This wave of jubilation rushed towards Harvey who was standing on the city wall, making his originally slightly cold body slightly warm.

"Although the outposts on the city walls offer shelter from the wind and rain, they're still too cold. Even with the fireplaces, soldiers staying inside for long periods of time are still susceptible to catching a cold and getting sick..." Harvey sniffed as he walked down the wall, instructing Reiner beside him, "Bring the HVAC system up to the walls. At worst, we can just build a few more hot water boilers near the base of the walls. Don't worry about the cost."

The northern wilderness, whether it is the endless primeval forests or the extreme temperature differences, is not the most suitable area for human life and reproduction. This defect can only be compensated through continuous technological development and planning and construction.

Fortunately, the land that had never been cultivated for thousands of years was extremely fertile and rich in various products. In just one year, in this territory that Harvey had secretly expanded several times, not only many rich mineral veins were surveyed, but also many wild magical plants that were extremely rare in the southern countries were discovered.

Even the glacial river, which is frozen for three or four months a year, has abundant fishery yields. Fishermen responsible for fishing operations at the river beach and dock often only need to sail out in the early morning or evening every day to return with a full load, transporting an endless supply of fat river fish to the convenience market.

On the way back to the castle, passing by the municipal center, Harvey saw many citizens who had previously participated in the construction of the city wall gathered at the gate, queuing up enthusiastically to apply for jobs in several newly opened factories.

Reiner had been worried about the possibility of thousands of people becoming unemployed after the completion of the city wall. Now, this problem has been perfectly solved. Labor-intensive industries such as textile mills and steel mills can almost absorb most of these people to participate in the work.

"After Egno finishes his work at the infirmary, remember to ask him when the production of the enchanted cotton seeds can be increased. Spring is almost here, and the land allocated for cotton cultivation has been plowed, right?"

Lennart quickly pulled out his notebook and flipped through it. "Mr. Egno should be able to complete the enchantment of the first batch of cotton seeds within this week, which won't delay the spring cotton planting plan."

The textile factory was established before the cotton field, resulting in most of the current production raw materials being imported from outside by Harvey with real money. The territorial government, which had finally achieved a balance between income and expenditure, was once again in a state of spending money like water.

We can only make up for the loss of raw materials after this round of spring plowing and harvesting this batch of cotton in autumn, whose yield has doubled after being enchanted.

The North is bitterly cold, and it is certainly unrealistic to rely solely on imported ready-made fabrics or animal leather produced by hunting teams to help the people of the territory with a population of more than 10,000 achieve clothing freedom.

……

"Sir, that inner demon has sent a few more living demon spirits via the sacrificial array. Will you transform them directly, or keep them and raise them for a while?"

Harvey was hesitating when Reiner immediately added, "Mr. Inner Demon also asked when arrangements could be made for him to visit the territory again."

Harvey couldn't help but roll his eyes. Wasn't it just over a month since the last time he'd "eat and take"? Why was he in such a hurry to come again? It was really easy to invite guests, but it was hard to send them away.

"Tell him that the next visit will be tentatively scheduled for the middle of next month. I've been too busy lately to receive him."

This is not just a polite refusal, Harvey is really busy recently.

Since completing the morphological analysis of the energy-absorbing beetles and living demon spirits, he's spent countless hours daily editing and modifying this "living source code." Using miniature wolf spiders, he then attached them to the crystal pillars of the underground magic stone veins, creating a "code database" that can be programmed and accessed at any time. This work couldn't be done by anyone else, so Harvey had to toil day and night, leaving his already frail body with even darker circles under his eyes.

Fortunately, Egno had recently prepared a lot of magic potions to boost energy and strengthen physical fitness. Harvey took them on time every day according to the "doctor's orders", which relieved a lot of physical discomfort.

Harvey "sneaked" at this potion recipe from a transaction among members of the spellcaster forum, but the efficacy is indeed quite good.

His latest research topic was also "accidentally" seen in the forum, which gave him new inspiration and led him to start an experiment - soul suture technology.

This is a research topic that the "Man in the Mirror" and the legendary spellcaster "Scorching Lord" have repeatedly discussed during their many private communications. It is still in the theoretical stage. Because it involves taboos that violate the Federation's regulations, there are no attached experiments for the time being.

Harvey couldn't care less about all that. He was in his private territory in the northern wilderness and was far away from home. He could start whenever he wanted.

"The idea proposed by Mr. Scorching Lord is indeed very novel, but this phenomenon actually occurs frequently. Why has no one paid attention to it before..."

Harvey muttered to himself as he flipped through the lab log.

Reiner is his experimental assistant today, so he installed the mechanical octopus prosthesis on his back early. This experiment requires very stable and fast delicate operations, and it is most appropriate to use his six metal tentacles to complete it.

The legendary spellcaster compares the souls of all living things to seeds of different shapes and properties, and the growth of spiritual power represents the sprouts and thriving branches that emerge from the soul seeds.

This is why many attacking spells involving soul-level damage often cause severe mental damage to the caster, but as long as the soul seed is not destroyed, the mental strength will always recover.

The soul is regenerative and has a certain degree of self-healing ability.

This led Harvey to come up with a bold experimental idea - if he could successfully extract the complete soul seeds from a living organism, he could sew them together using mental power.

Does that mean that this strange self-healing ability will cause the soul seeds that are forcibly stitched together to slowly merge into one and become a brand new soul whole?

From the perspective of the spellcaster's professional talent, manipulating souls is indeed the main research direction of the necromancer faction, but as far as Harvey knows, there seems to have never been any necromancer in the past who has attempted experimental research other than manipulating the souls of living things.

This strange world with many extraordinary people is not short of amazing geniuses in the way of magic. The forbidden spells and super-ring spells that exist in various historical texts also prove that the legendary spellcasters that have emerged in the past are all geniuses who are good at creation and research.

"Why has no one ever attempted to break through the barriers of soul research?" This was Harvey's biggest puzzlement. "Even the Alchemy Exploration Society, with its long history, is still stuck on the most basic soul transfer technology..."

What hindered the research path of these genius predecessors...

(End of this chapter)