Surviving The Fourth Calamity

When Hill held the magic book, he felt a peculiar merger of minds.

He could sense that the magic book had developed a consciousness and was completely obedient to Hill, willing to do whatever he wanted.

He had created several Demi-God Artifacts before, able to move with his mind's will, but he had never experienced this peculiar feeling.

Hill could feel that this was similar to the accompanying Divine Artifact of Agleya.

However, this magic book, perhaps because it was only the first step, had not reached such a high level yet.

It was just turning into a Demi-God Artifact, the type without any notable Law reaction.

That's not right, Hill gazed at the persistent Elements, it seemed the reaction was divided into several parts.

Hill solemnly said, "From now on, you are Hill's magic book."

The words 'Hill's Magic Book' immediately emerged on the silver cover.

Hill quietly turned to the first page and perceived the first characteristic of the magic book.

Using the summoning spell from the magic book, one could summon Element Spirits of the same level directly from their origin with minimal mana consumption, so negligible it need not be accounted for.

This was an extremely advantageous trait for Ferun Mages! Spells that don't consume magic slots are always the most meaningful.

Each could be used once every 6 hours, and unless actively dispersed, the summoned Elemental Spirits could remain in the material world for 60 days and could even extend their stay by spending additional mana.

Hill looked up and calculated that if he found a suitable permanent residence, he could make his dwelling absolutely impregnable.

Unless attacked by a dozen Giant Dragons simultaneously, he felt he was not yet so hate-inducing.

The Chromatic Dragon Queen soon had important matters to attend to and would not come to bother him.

Additionally, there was a special ability.

The auxiliary magic Hill last added indeed had an effect; all Elemental Spirits summoned by Hill's magic book could have their attributes increased by 10% and their resistance to Banishment Spells increased by 30%, with even a chance for complete resistance.

It appeared that this magic book had only two passive abilities, but Hill was already very satisfied.

No wonder it had so easily become a Demi-God Artifact, though it lacked many functions, these two alone could make any Mage from Ferun green with envy.

Moreover, Hill felt a bit that his luck was a Soul Attribute, which had some effect no matter which world he was in.

Chances had never been his focal concern.

Moreover, this was just the first step for this magic book.

Hill looked at the 9 new pages that had appeared on the back and smiled joyfully.

This idea to create his own magic book had been absolutely correct!

Hill glanced at the Crystal Mechanical Fan hanging on his right wrist, minimized the magic book, and hung it on his left wrist with a Spell Chain.

His spiritual power was completely depleted, and he could no longer continue writing magic.

The magic book also told Hill that although the pages had appeared, nothing could be written on them for now; he needed to assimilate the recently acquired abilities before possibly continuing to the next step.

And this process would take at least 14 days.

Hill of course did not mind that the completion of the book could only come slowly; being able to create a Divine Artifact with his own abilities was an incredibly delighting surprise!

After all, what kind of spells were in the magic book, others could not discern; the appearance of the book was impressive enough.

At that time, he just had to hold the book and cast spells, remembering not to use more than 30 spells all at once.

With nothing else going on, he could make some Magic Scrolls; the magic book seemed to be absorbing the power of various elements on its own, and Hill could feel that if he stayed close to this magic book, even the success rate of Fire Element Scroll crafting would not be so low.

Hill greeted Agleya and then returned to his room, planning to rest properly.

He slept well, and when he awoke, a day and a night had already passed.

Luckily, Lynn had not come to find him during this time.

Hill looked at the outside world through the Dimensional Space and found that he had already dispatched people to clear out the camps of those non-human thieves, not sparing even the goblins.

They were now discussing military exploits and distributing spoils in the small plaza between the churches.

Hill had also distributed the Elf Wine he exchanged as a reward to the ten most meritorious participants of this battle, giving each a copper pot.

Hill thought that the flat copper pots could probably hold only about 100ML.

The recipients, however, were incredibly excited, even though only three were warriors.

Even if not consumed by themselves, this Elf Wine could sell for a good price; warriors who had just received their spoils were glaring greedily at those Rangers.

But those three who got the wine pots were already standing there, tilting their heads back and taking a big gulp.

"It's the purest Elf Wine!" exclaimed one warrior after drinking, "Not the watered-down stuff we buy from magic shops!"

"Thank you, Sheriff! I finally have hope for a promotion again!"

He was almost choked up by the end, and it seemed that although his rank was relatively high here, his journey had already begun to reach its end, otherwise, he would not have resorted to buying watered-down elf wine.

The warriors were all stirred up, judging by their excited expressions, they seemed to really hope that those black-robed thieves would come again.

Hill found it odd, as elf wine was expensive in any world, but restorative potions were definitely not that expensive.

Although not as meticulously effective in recovery as elf wine, a single potion was all it took to repair the muscles torn from training—certainly better than watered-down elf wine.

And those potions required herbs of a very low grade, something a level 5 alchemist could brew.

Why don't these warriors mention it at all?

Hill thought for a moment and then went to his study to pick up some newspapers to read.

He carefully reviewed the business news that he had previously disregarded.

He quickly understood why.

The herbs indeed were not of a high grade, but each herb's easily accessible harvesting area was occupied by a force, and ordinary people, even professionals of low rank, could only dig up some sparse herbs at the forest edges to sell to pharmacists.

Naturally, the prices of the herbs had risen.

Moreover, knowledge in this world was extremely costly, and many pharmacists would only know the most basic potion-making methods in their lifetime. For them, potions below level 3 were their foundation for living, and the proposition of learning recipes for level 5 and above could bankrupt them and might still end up unlearned; no one desired that.

Hill was momentarily bewildered; he had almost forgotten the situation in Teraxil before William became the King of Saral.

Compared to Ferun, where professionals were everywhere, the initial Teraxil did not even comprehend the value of alchemy potions, and some major nobles without enough capabilities or influence were oblivious.

They knew mages were powerful, but how powerful exactly, they could only imagine until battles began.

After all, Teraxil's nobility mostly spent their time battling magical beasts, and conflicts between nations were rare.

Even many great nobles who did not station at borders had never fought against other people in their lifetime.

Mages would never appear within districts governed by someone of, say, an earl's rank—the royal family and dukes were the entities with whom mages preferred dealings.

For the same reason, herbs were easier to obtain.

Even without refining, many herbs had some healing effects. There would be herbalists in Teraxil using them to brew medical decoctions for common folks.

Without immediate effects, the nobles also had no interest in monopolizing the market for these herbs.

However, things were different in Ferun. Every herb could become an essential component of some type of alchemy potion.

And once anything became associated with making money, it inevitably became more expensive.

Moreover, as there were no safe places in Ferun, the trade routes required a lot of effort to maintain, invariably leading to high charges.

In the end, the result was as it now stood: compared to buying restorative potions, it was somewhat hopeful to rely on the nearby Supreme Forest.

At the very least, some elf wine was produced every year, and even if one could not afford pure wine, the watered-down version still had some use.

Hill was very grateful that he had not chosen to bring out alchemy potions at the time.

He had actually considered selling some potions, as the basic herbs in his pendant were trivial, almost ubiquitous.

But thinking about his persona of someone just out of the forest, he had given up, especially since many herbs were actually products of the South.

Elves generally would not choose to disrupt the natural growth patterns of a large number of plants, even if there were structures like magic gardens, they would only cultivate some essential materials.

Moreover, some very basic effects could be achieved by some fruits in the Forest of the Elves, and there really was no need to bother.

Hill felt that his decision to stay in Quel'var Town was very correct. With his nature, entering a place like Silvermoon City, he would have been discovered in no time.

He took out a flora and fauna guide of the North that had once served as a facade and silently started memorizing.

Although not afraid of his identity being exposed, many things he wanted to learn could only be learned from the people of this world.

Not to mention that he still wanted to occupy a territory by the seaside.

In any world, it was fine for one's own people to stir trouble, but an outsider taking the slightest advantage would feel uncomfortable; they always wanted to take something back from him to be satisfied.

Hill was not afraid of these minor troubles, but if he could avoid them, why forcefully bring them upon himself?

He had always been a rational person, and it was just a matter of taking a few days to cover up some slightly out-of-place characteristics about himself; it was not something he couldn't accomplish.

When Lynn visited again three days later, Hill could already easily identify which herbs were specialties of the Silvermoon Alliance or even the entire Northern Continent.

List also began to instruct the Oak Spirit in his pendant to transplant typical herbs from the North into one fixed area.

This would prevent the herbs Hill took out from carrying scents of herbs from other regions.

As for rare herbs, Hill could bring them out at will, for having money meant nobody doubted his ability to procure them.