After the matter was settled, Liang Lidong returned to the castle and returned the remaining chest of gold coins to the castellan's wife. The latter sat on a chair, elegantly holding a glass of fruit wine, and looked at him while eating.
"This is 500 gold coins, and you don't want it?"
"It's just an errand. 500 gold coins is too much."
Liang Lidong smiled. In the game, he had done so many errand quests that he could barely remember them. However, none of the errand quests had a bounty of more than one gold coin. The highest bounty was 36 silver coins. At that time, he already felt that this quest was a great benefit. All he had to do was pass by two cities, walk more than 300 kilometers, and deliver a letter to an old man. Although this quest took him two days to travel, he still felt that it was quite worthwhile and too easy.
And now, an errand quest could actually earn 500 gold coins? Hehe, Liang Lidong didn't believe that there was such a good thing in this world. Besides, this gold coin belonged to a noble with real power. Following the principle of never touching anything that went wrong, Liang Lidong didn't intend to be greedy for the 500 gold coins. Anyway, he wasn't short of money now. When he really ran out of money, he could sell some scrolls to make a good living.
Seeing that Liang Lidong refused the gold coins, the castellan's wife didn't comment on the surface, but there was a hint of appreciation in her eyes. "In that case, I'll take back the gold coins. Although we have a gold mine in our hands, our castle doesn't actually have much gold coins right now. Now that the assassin guild has cooperated with us, is it still necessary to continue building a magic array at the gold mine? "
"Of course!" Liang Lidong said. "In the long run, building a magic array at the gold mine is very useful. Even if we take care of the Church of Life, you can't guarantee that no other forces or organizations have designs on the gold mine … What about the castellan?"
"He's a busy man. When you went out just now, someone from the army came to report that a small group of suspected enemies was found somewhere outside the city." The mayor's wife shrugged her smooth shoulders. "Sometimes, my husband is like a wild wolf. He is very territorial and can't bear to see people from other countries running into his territory and behaving atrociously … Do you want a glass of juice?"
A man and a woman alone in a room, drinking a little wine, no matter how one thought about it, it was very ambiguous. Liang Lidong shook his head. "Forget it. I'll go back to the gold mine and draw the magic array. Tell Barbara to come over tomorrow morning and start the construction. Of course, you have to supply the materials in time. If everything goes well, we can complete the magic array in ten days. "
"Sure, no problem."
Then, Liang Lidong left. The City Lord's wife looked at his back, and her eyes turned pale purple for a moment before returning to normal.
Liang Lidong returned to the mining area. This time, he was treated very respectfully. A patrol team personally escorted him up the mountain. When he arrived at the entrance of the mine, the soldiers on guard looked at him with respect. The people in the army held the strong in high esteem, and they admired those who were decisive. When they had faced off against the royal infantry, the middle-aged butler's weakness and Liang Lidong's strength were a clear contrast.
After returning to the mine's basement, Liang Lidong continued to draw the magic array. Since he had already completed most of the blueprint earlier, it took him less than three hours to complete the entire blueprint. Then, he carefully checked the nodes of the array and the magic veins to see if there were any problems. After several confirmations, he called the middle-aged butler and placed a piece of paper in front of him. "In a while, send a group of laborers to help me build the roof of the gold mine according to the paper."
The middle-aged butler was a little hesitant. "But this will cause the mine's production to drop, and we won't be able to reach the target set by the mayor."
"You're still stubbornly guarding the production in this situation?" Liang Lidong was a little helpless. "Don't you know how to improvise? Building the magic array is the first priority now. If you don't do it, I don't mind temporarily stripping you of your command. I think the soldiers outside will support me more."
The middle-aged butler looked a little angry, but he didn't dare to lose his temper. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Alright, we'll do as you say. But if the mayor asks for it, I'll tell him everything truthfully and tell him that I didn't make this decision on my own."
"Just say that I threatened you." Liang Lidong waved his hand. "Go give the order first. Time is tight, and I don't have time to argue with you."
The middle-aged butler let out a sigh of relief. For a commoner like him, as long as he didn't have to bear responsibility, he could do anything.
Although the middle-aged butler didn't have much decisiveness, he was very good at carrying out orders. It didn't take long for him to organize a team of laborers to start digging through the roof. Liang Lidong was in charge of supervising them from the side. The work continued until night time. The middle-aged butler wanted to let the laborers work overnight, but Liang Lidong stopped him. He said that rest was for better work, so he forcefully took the middle-aged butler's authority and let the laborers rest.
The next day, Barbara and Karl's female student, the black-robed girl, came to the mountain together. Along with them was a team of black-armored soldiers. Because the alchemy materials needed to build the magic array were very expensive, the mayor Uther had sent a team of black-armored soldiers to escort them.
Seeing Liang Lidong, Barbara seemed a little excited, but the black-robed girl still looked very scared.
"Rest for a while. We'll start setting up the core of the magic array in about ten minutes." Liang Lidong looked at the two magical girls and said, "I know you've never learned how to set up a magic array, so you'll have to do whatever I say later. You can ask questions, and I'll answer them. But if you see something that doesn't match your ideas, please don't mind it and don't be afraid. This is normal when setting up a magic array."
The two nodded vigorously.
Seeing that the atmosphere was a little heavy, Liang Lidong knew that his words seemed too serious, so he joked, "I'll arrange work for you later. Of course, if one of you does a good job, I'll try to put in a good word for her in front of Kail."
As soon as this was said, the harmonious atmosphere between the two magical girls immediately became strange. The seemingly calm surface of the lake was actually turbulent. They smiled, looked at each other, and looked away at the same time.
Liang Lidong liked this atmosphere very much. Only when there was competition would there be motivation. He had a feeling that the magic array would be set up faster than expected. As for the innocent Kail, he didn't feel guilty at all. Hehe, when the time comes, students are used to be sold.
After the two magical girls had enough rest, Liang Lidong took them to the depths of the mine and chose a place that was safe and wouldn't easily collapse as the core of the magic array.
Setting up a magic array required an energy core, and making an energy core was very troublesome. First of all, it required enough alchemy materials, and secondly, the maker had to have exquisite control over magic power. In this regard, the Divine Nobles had a natural advantage. Intelligence affected the upper limit of the magic elements they could control, and Coordination determined how well the hands, eyes, and brain worked together. It also directly determined basic magic power control skills.
The growth of the Divine Nobles' Coordination was seven, and Liang Lidong estimated that a pure fire mage like Barbara would only have a growth of four. Even though her level was temporarily higher than Liang Lidong's, she couldn't surpass Liang Lidong's in terms of Coordination.
The two magical girls watched as Liang Lidong agilely mixed different alchemy materials with his hands and then used magic gestures to guide the magic elements around him. The alchemy materials and magic elements mixed together, and soon, the prototype of an energy core was formed. It was a small light ball with three evenly distributed colors. Held in Liang Lidong's hand, it gently emitted three colors to the surroundings.
"It's so beautiful!" Barbara exclaimed.
The black-robed girl nodded vigorously again.
"Once a magic core is completed, it will be very stable. Like this magic core, it won't be a problem even if you drop it on the ground." While tossing the small light ball in his hand, Liang Lidong said, "But the process of making it is very dangerous. If a mistake is made, it can easily cause an elemental resonance, resulting in an explosion no weaker than the Big Fireball. Also, the more powerful the energy core, the more powerful the explosion will be. Take the core in my hand for example. If it was incomplete, it could have collapsed half of the mine. "
Barbara's eyes widened. "That powerful?"
"So, sometimes, incomplete magic cores can be used as powerful compound spells."
This was the first time Barbara had heard of such a thing. "Is there such a thing? Aren't you afraid of getting yourself involved in the magic resonance?"
"As long as we do it properly, we can use techniques to delay the magic resonance of incomplete cores." Liang Lidong grinned. "I've tried it many times and killed many people!"
The two magical girls paled in fear.
Liang Lidong did use this technique to kill a lot of players, especially during guild battles. Countless players were killed by his method. Although Liang Lidong didn't have any nicknames worthy of praise among NPCs, but among the players, the titles of 'Big Ivan Beta' and 'Self-Explosive Beta' were quite a deterrent.