Wu Yao nodded, opened her building list, and found several workshops that could be used to process Moon-Silver Wood. She clicked on them one by one to check their material lists. “Since that's the case, we can build the processing workshops now too.”
She listed off the materials as she scrolled down. “Extraction Workshop: forty Wood, twenty Iron Ingots, one set of extraction pots... Actually, let's get a few sets. Grinding Workshop: thirty Wood, fifteen Iron Ingots, and we'll need a few sets of grinding machines too. Refinement Workshop: sixty Wood, thirty Iron Ingots, and a tempering platform.”
Wu Yao finished reading the list from the system interface and casually closed the panel. “I'm not short on Wood, and I still have some Iron Ingots left. The main issue is that we don't have the specialized equipment.”
Tongque quickly took notes in her notebook, while Tiechui nodded repeatedly.
After finishing with the list, Wu Yao suddenly sighed.
“However, these are all magical buildings. I plan to save the rest of the Moon Well's energy for the Magic Farm, so these workshops can only be run when there are people in the territory.”
She propped up her head, her voice tinged with genuine distress. “If only I could abduct a few little witches to come and work for me...”
If she had initially wanted to save witches just to complete a quest, she had now clearly realized just how useful of a labor force they were.
Witches, who could sense elements, could operate magical equipment without needing a Moon Well. Their natural affinity also made them far more adept at handling magic-conducting materials like Moon-Silver Wood than ordinary craftsmen.
They were practically born to be model workers!
The two goblins didn't dare chime in on this. Lady Wu Yao could use the word “abduct,” but if they dared to take it seriously, they would be seeking their own deaths.
Tongque steered the conversation back to a safe topic she could handle. “Rest assured, Your Ladyship. We will prioritize purchasing these three types of equipment—the extraction pots, grinding machines, and tempering platforms. We will definitely gather them all without missing a single one.”
Tiechui quickly scanned the list and added, “The tempering platform has to be of dwarven craftsmanship. You need at least a Tier Three refinement platform to process magic-conducting materials with the density of Moon-Silver Wood. The market price for a Tier Three refinement platform is about twice that of a Tier Two, but we can get it twenty percent cheaper if we source it directly from the Dwarf Mountains. Topaz Trading Company has a long-term supply agreement with the dwarves.”
“Just do whatever you think is best.” Wu Yao was already quite confident in the professional competence of these two goblins. “What are your plans next?”
Tiechui and Tongque exchanged a glance, and Tongque spoke first. “Our current task is to stay in the territory and wait to meet up with the vice president. According to the previous voice transmission, the vice president is already on the way with a guide from the Path of the Silver Moon. They should reach the edge of the Moonlight Forest in three days at the latest.”
“Alright.” Wu Yao scooped Xuanmiao down from the nook of her shoulder. The kitten was fast asleep and, suddenly being scooped up, kicked its four paws weakly in the air, its tail brushing against her wrist.
“Then go do whatever you want. I'm going to study the barrier arrays first. I need to make the Mana Storage Array for the Moon Well.”
Tiechui immediately stood up straight, her two large ears perking up energetically. “Your Ladyship, we want to go dig the underground warehouse!”
Tongque's eyes also shone brightly. Her and Tiechui's enthusiasm for this matter reached a surprising consensus. “We guarantee we'll be faster than any human construction crew!”
Their Mole Type III Tunneling Machine was still parked in the tunnel. They could start working immediately once they drove it over.
Wu Yao waved her hand, signaling that they could do as they pleased.
She tucked Xuanmiao into her arms, turned, and walked toward the bedroom, the corner of her robe vanishing past the doorframe in a flash.
The two goblins stood in place and watched her enter the room. Tongque's voice was airy, as if she had just woken up from a long dream. “I'm not dreaming, am I? Have we really joined a witch's territory? And she's really letting us do whatever we want?”
Tiechui pinched her hard without any hesitation, causing Tongque to almost cry out.
Tiechui chuckled, completely ignoring the glare Tongque gave her. “Let's go. We'll drive the tunneling machine over first.”
Wu Yao lay down on her Moon-Silver Wood Bed with Xuanmiao in her arms.
The mattress was neither too hard nor too soft, and the cotton quilt still carried the cozy warmth of having been dried in the sun.
Xuanmiao squirmed out of her embrace, spun around a couple of times in the pile of blankets, and finally curled herself into a tiny black ball, resting against the edge of the pillow.
The last time she had lain in bed reading like this was when she was flipping through the apprentice's notebook.
Back then, she had just entered the game and had very few spells at her disposal, so she had treasured that tattered notebook, flipping through it from cover to cover.
The one in her hands now was completely different.
Wu Yao held the barrier array notes before her eyes. The crescent moon indentation on the parchment cover shimmered with a very faint silver glow under the moonlight, and fine silver threads could be seen along the edges of the pages.
What Topaz Trading Company had given her was an authentic manuscript left behind by a dwarven craftsman more than six hundred years ago. This was a bona-fide, genuine book.
With a heart full of reverence, she turned to the first page.
And then she realized that this thing was absolutely impossible to read while lying down.
The barrier array diagrams in the notebook were entirely composed of nested geometric structures.
The most basic amplification array consisted of nested rings, with nodes distributed at various angles along the rings, connected by lines of varying thicknesses.
The thick lines were main conduction lines, while the thin ones were shunt circuits. Buffer junctions had to be drawn at the intersections, and arc radii had to be marked at the corners. All of these lines and nodes were squeezed onto a single flat diagram.
Reading it while lying down resulted in those lines flying wildly before her eyes, making it impossible to tell which line was on top and which was on the bottom.
She tried tracing down a main conduction line with her finger, but by the time she reached the fourth intersection, she had completely lost track of it.
Wu Yao sat up with a start.
She propped the pillow upright behind her lower back, leaned against the headboard with her legs crossed, and spread the notebook across her lap. The morning light streaming through the bedroom window made the page she was reading much clearer.
This time, she held the notebook in her left hand and traced the lines on the diagram with her right index finger, but she still couldn't get a proper grasp of it.
Wu Yao muttered under her breath and had no choice but to pull out a pen and paper from her Inventory.
Xuanmiao's ears twitched, and the tip of her tail tapped gently against the pillow, but she did not open her eyes.
Starting with the simplest amplification array: nested rings, twelve nodes, connected by main conduction lines, with shunt circuits radiating outward from the nodes.
Wu Yao replicated the diagram from the notebook stroke by stroke, but when she got to the outer ring, she found that the angle was still off.
Starting over, she worked her way outward layer by layer from the center, checking her work step-by-step against the notebook. Finally, after half an hour, she completed the replication.
Simple arrays had at most double nesting, with clear line paths, and the angles and spacing were well within her spatial reasoning abilities.
As she drew more, her hand grew steadier, and she had no trouble replicating seventy to eighty percent of the simple-structured arrays.
The annotations in the notebook could be considered extremely beginner-friendly. Beside each module was an individual disassembled demonstration diagram, breaking down the complete array into separate units. Red ink was used to mark notes on which units were easy to draw incorrectly and where to watch out for angular deviations.
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