Chapter 107
Walking in the desert is a peculiar experience, and Sylas often experiences it in Aimekotes. On sunny days, she sometimes goes out to walk Titus. After leaving the tower, the usual sense of distance humans have becomes unreliable.
The desert stretches on endlessly, as if there is no end in sight. Ordinary people quickly lose their sense of direction and distance, thinking they have been walking for a long time when in reality they have only gone a hundred yards and wandered off course.
Now, this experience that she had already become familiar with has added rivers and oases along the river, becoming something different altogether.
Without a protective wind barrier, the strong wind kept blowing at her, making her skirt continuously dance in the wind, while most of the skirt draped over Earth Child's body.
Xerath sat beside her, with fair skin and light golden hair, almost blending into her white robe.
The gray eyes were hidden in the shadows, appearing to be the color of white sand at first glance.
Under her feet was the soil moistened by the river water and firmly held by the roots of low plants. At the edges of the plants, the sandy soil moved freely, causing the ground to be lower than the river bank. Earth Child would get stuck when stepping on it and could only continue moving with the help of a special "elemental walking" spell.
"Being a wizard is really convenient," Virgil said with the help of the water lord, who provided a shade of dark clouds, allowing him to open his eyes and see the road ahead under the scorching sun. However, the white sand was too dazzling. In the end, he chose to wear a pair of bone goggles, which startled Sylas when he turned his head to speak.
"What is this, Virgil?"
Xerath timely explained, "Walking in the white sand for a long time can blind people due to the strong light. Those goggles ensure that only a thin and narrow beam of light enters the eyes, preventing blindness."
"Wow, who came up with it?"
"It was invented by the Nuatu people who live north of Theodore. They have snow all year round in their homeland."
"Do we also need something like this?"
"If you look at me, you won't need it," said the archmage calmly, as if he didn't think there was anything wrong with the statement. But Virgil couldn't help but glance sideways.
In theory, this statement is not wrong at all: Blinding Madness occurs after prolonged staring at a monotonous and unchanged white sand. However, if the colors in one's field of vision are sufficiently rich and the brightness is not too strong, Blinding Madness won't occur. If one looks at Xerath, most of the intense light reflected by the sand would be blocked by her body, and she would also be in the shade, so she wouldn't appear too bright.
However, however.
Virgil decided not to say what came after "however," as it wouldn't change anything anyway.
The Great Waterball Butler walked shoulder to shoulder with him, carrying a waterball that made a person feel much cooler. In front of them was a green road that led to the place where the land disappeared. It looked far away, but it was actually just like what Sylas's calculations showed, about six thousand yards. It was a distance that could be walked in a day, completely different from what the poet described in their poems.
Lost in his thoughts, his vision restricted to a narrow line by the bone goggles, but the two mages behind him had already shifted their interest entirely to the earth veins.
"Do you already know why mages usually don't summon Earth Lords? 'Earth' cannot compress its volume like 'Wind,' 'Water,' and 'Fire' while materializing as a Lord. As a result, the Lords in the Earth Elemental Realm have very large forms."
Sylas asked, "Just like the Scroll of Water mentioned, Ventola tossed the mountains giants into the water, attempting to stir up the entire Endless Water Realm?"
"Yes, but the Endless Water Realm is very deep, so the mountain giants still fell down."
"Hmm, I can't imagine how big they are."
Xerath smiled and said, "I can't imagine either. But here in the mortal realm, there is a characteristic where 'earth' can be compressed and transformed into a... mysterious pure energy, known as earth energy."
"So 'crystallization' is a phenomenon that happens when 'earth' is injected into rocks?"
"Yes, that's right."
"It's a change caused by energy?"
"Exactly. Do you have any new ideas?"
"Ah, yes, actually I have... If it's a change in energy, it should show on absorbing crystals. Why don't you try my method to test the earth energy?"
Xerath looked at her approvingly and said, "Great idea, but I have never seen earth energy myself. Judging from the quality of these rocks, earth energy is actually a very weak energy and the scale of changes you can cause is different. If we want to measure earth energy using absorbing crystals, we might need a more precise measuring device."
"Oh..." So that means she has been given this task?
Xerath smiled softly and said, "You have another task, which is to come up with our measurement steps. Maybe you have understood before that similar field practices require you to write a lab report. First, you need to clarify the purpose of the experiment, and then design the experiment steps. Along the way, we have also discussed some properties of telluric currents... So, can you give it a try?"
"Of course," Sylas replied, standing up straight. She couldn't retreat in front of the archmage. Although Xerath would never force her to do something she refused, after the incident of "going to school," Sylas dare not refuse any of Xerath's requests.
Scared that she would be disappointed, scared that she would lose interest in her. Even though in reality she had never written a lab report before, nor had she systematically observed even a single one. In the past, if Xerath asked her to complete an unfamiliar assignment, she would at least provide a template for her to follow the format.
This time, there was none at all. Could it be that the archmage suddenly thought of it? Sylas looked at Xerath suspiciously, but the latter seemed oblivious and focused on flipping through the rock quick reference manual in her hand.
However, Xerath gave Sylas a chance to openly look at her, so Sylas naturally seized it. She didn't need to worry about explaining why all the attention was on her. When the teacher looked back, she just needed to smile foolishly.
White. Xerath rarely, rarely wore white. Most of her clothes were black, occasionally she would wear a gray coat. These two colors suited her stern demeanor very well. This demeanor had been cultivated so deeply that even wearing white, she still appeared stern. Sylas felt like she was being overly cute wearing white, even cuter than Titus.
"Sylas? Why are you staring at me?"
"To prevent temporary blindness, of course. Here, the teacher's colors are the most vibrant."
But the archmage always had excuses. She said coldly to her apprentice, "Sylas, think carefully about the task I have assigned to you." It was really too cold.
After passing through an area where green and white mixed, people gradually appeared on the road by the riverbank, and even smoke could be seen in the distance - it turned out to be a village.
"The camp ahead is the pioneer camp sent by Doloru Town. They are growing potato crops on sandy land, which are said to be growing well. Thorn vines are planted around the fields to stabilize the sand, so the sand won't erode over." Virgil walked to Xerath's side and pointed to the smoke in the distance.
"That sounds like a good idea. Where will we stay at night? Camping? I'm really curious if there will be an inn in a pioneer camp."
"It's hard to say. Summer is always the harvest season, so there may be migrant workers filling up the only inn. It's originally just a lounge on the second floor of a tavern. I don't think you would want to stay there. You should really get a flying castle or something, so you can go wherever you want."
"What do you take me for? A witch who grants every wish?" Xerath blinked her eyes.
"Don't we have that kind of technology? I think it should have been developed a long time ago. It would definitely sell well among mages like you, who don't want to leave their bodies but have their hearts flying to distant places every day."
"Unfortunately, we don't have it yet. There aren't even any similar conceptual designs. But I heard about a spatial mage who settled in a carriage with extremely twisted spatial dimensions. Of course, the side effects are significant, and her sense of spatial scale is also poor."
"I also wish I had a carriage like that." Virgil looked longingly at the border where blue and white mixed.
Sylas, on the other hand, was unusually quiet. She took out her small notebook and started writing and drawing. Leunen's tentacles always reached out from gaps in space, but because its power was too strong, its movement was restricted in places far from Aimekotes. Only a small tentacle could reach out, swaying around like a toy on Sylas's notebook.
"If you promise to help me write, I will let you out."
"Oh, okay, my master. I'm so bored."
"You can't complain that the sandstorm made your body dirty."
"Have I ever complained?" Leunen argued cunningly.
"You've said it five times from yesterday until today."
"So, is this the reason why you didn't greet the water lord faithfully this morning? Oh, I'm so sad." The tentacles started shedding tears, and to prevent her notebook from getting wet, Sylas quickly blew them away with the wind.
"Alright, alright, come out." Only with the permission of its master could the water lord freely enter and leave the mortal realm. The two forces merged and formed a "bridge," easily pulling Leunen out from the Elemental Realm.
"Let me breathe properly." Leunen couldn't wait and transformed into a fountain, spraying itself into the air. The tiny droplets turned into rainbows and then gathered to form a large water sphere. After bouncing twice on the ground and getting covered in dust, it made a disgusted sound, reverting back to its original form and shaking off the dirt.
Keatler is at the far west of the desert, and there is a constant breeze coming from the west above the Elemental Gate.
This is a rare phenomenon. Normally, there are no plants in the desert, and it is hot during the day and cold at night. During the day, the wind should blow outwards, and at night, it should blow inwards. But this breeze is very strong, attracting the wind element from the west to pay homage and leaving satisfied from the east. The surrounding mountains block the rainfall, and the moist air loses its ability to carry water vapor as it cools during its ascent. That's why the western side of the mountains is mild and lush grassland, while the eastern side is almost desert-like.
Only Doloru Town is slightly special. Moisture breaks through the barrier here, nourishing the Vasa River and interacting continually with the oasis, making the vegetation more abundant.
