Volume 5: If you are poor, you should be alone Chapter 134: Too Popular, What to Do
"How is this possible?"
Balk turned over and over in his hands a piece of sandwich steel sheet the size of half his palm with an incredible look on his face. The steel sheet was a synthetic steel sheet formed by cold rolling by the gray dwarves. A layer of magic array made of copper wire was sandwiched between the two steel sheets. The white gelatinous substance on the surface of the steel sheet was plated by Balk himself. From the appearance, it was just an extremely thin and small double-layer steel sheet.
This is what puzzled Balk the most. This piece of steel, which seemed to have nothing to do with alchemical creations and magical knowledge, actually miraculously possessed the performance of a magic amplifier and was exactly the same as the magic wands used by spellcasters!
"...It's a waste of time." Xiao Yun's mouth twitched, and he slapped the thick experimental notes in his hand on Balk's forehead. "What's impossible? Magic is energy radiation. The process of using magic is the process of artificially interfering with the frequency and continuity of magic radiation energy. Therefore, the magic wand and magic amplifier used in the casting process focus on the magic magnetic wave resonance medium."
"Silicon steel (silicon alloy steel with extremely low carbon content) and magnesium oxide (made from brine after salt drying) both have good magnetic conductivity. Silicon steel has a large resistivity and small hysteresis loss and eddy current loss. As a magic energy resonance medium, its performance is of course superior to traditional copper, magic minerals, and wooden wands. In addition, magnesium chloride is used as an insulating layer, and the inner layer is made of copper wire to form a magic array. If such a magic amplifier is still not as good as a traditional magic wand, then what the hell is the point of our hard research over the past few years?"
"..." Balk couldn't find a point to refute, but he looked down at the square sandwich steel sheet in his hand. As a magical creature, he still instinctively rejected this thing, even if it was his contribution to the appearance of this thing - copper wire, steel sheets made by gray dwarves, and the things he extracted from the brine blocks left over from drying salt can actually be used as a magic amplifier? If the goddess of magic knew about this, would she punish him with divine punishment and blast him into ashes? !
"...Even if you say so, Ayun, can't we make 'it' look better?" Balk was very entangled, "Who would be willing to accept that such a piece of steel is actually a magic amplifier?"
Xiao Yun spread his hands and said, "There's nothing we can do about it. In order to improve magnetic induction performance, reduce hysteresis loss, and maintain the performance of the radiation energy resonance medium, the steel sheet must be flat and the surface quality must be absolutely smooth. If you want to make it into a beautiful shape, you will destroy its performance. Which one is more important, performance or shape?"
"..." Balke's facial features were almost wrinkled in confusion.
Xiao Yun knew that the cooler and more classy the magic amplifier, the better it was, and only in this way could it be sold at a high price. Two spellcasters were fighting, one of them pulled out a low-key, gorgeous and classy magic wand, and the other pulled out a flat steel plate. What the hell was going on? Did they want to make the other person laugh to death and win without doing anything?
"How about this? We can add a leather case to the steel sheet and make it into a wrist guard to wear on the hand. Although it is not as impressive as a wand, it at least has the advantage of being highly concealed. What do you think, Balk?"
Balk's face turned a little green when he imagined the high-class spellcaster stretching out his hand with the leather and steel cuffs that only warriors wore on his wrists .
"Or make an iron fist glove with a steel plate embedded on the back of the hand..."
"Let's just wear a wristband." Balk said with dead eyes.
Xiao Yun put his arm on the green dragon's shoulder, saying, "If you think about it this way, at least what we have developed is a new type of magic amplifier. No matter how awkward its shape is, it is still something used by spellcasters. It can be mass-produced and is cheap and good. It is much better than a magic staff or wand that a master craftsman has to work hard for several months to grind."
Balk squinted at him and said, "Ayun, you are not giving up aesthetics in pursuit of mass production—"
"How can that be possible? Would I not want to sell our magic amplifier at a high price? Isn't this a technical limitation?"
"You sound like you're telling the truth, but given your past behavior, I always feel like you're not being sincere..."
"That's your illusion! Illusion!"
The fact that Evelyn was sent away to secretly develop the magic amplifier made Balk believe in Xiao Yun's importance to him again. In view of Xiao Yun's "repentance", Balk gave up his pride as a dragon (mainly aesthetics) and cooperated with Xiao Yun to produce the first batch of mass-produced "magic steel wrists". Facing a box of neatly arranged magic leather wrists, Xiao Yun felt a sense of accomplishment, and Balk covered his face with his hands... Fortunately, this batch of magic leather wrists did not have the manufacturer's mark, otherwise he would not be able to face going out in his life.
"Ayun, will you sell these things to the forest elves?" Balk asked nervously. If Xiao Yun really planned to do so, he would definitely try his best to stop him - those green-skinned and pointy-eared guys would definitely die of laughter if they saw this kind of magic amplifier. Our proud dragon clan can't afford to lose face.
Xiao Yun turned around and looked over: "Which strand of my hair do you think looks stupid?"
Balk stared at Xiao Yun's short white hair: "Uh..."
"What are you thinking!" Xiao Yun rolled his eyes. "Even the enemy can't afford this much. This batch of stuff can only be sold to the human kingdom."
Balk immediately smiled, he liked the word "aiding the enemy", which meant that Xiao Yun didn't like those green-skinned guys with pointy ears. How happy he was!
He had just been secretly happy for two days when Evelyn, who had been working with the engineering team to build roads and canals and had been working hard for more than a month, was transferred back to Xiao Yun... Balk was so angry that he bit the corner of his blanket when he slept at night.
Evelyn, who finally didn't have to eat ashes, returned to the tribe and before she could catch her breath, Xiao Yun stuffed a dozen cat warriors into her hands...
"——Magic apprentice?" Evelyn asked blankly.
"Yes~ Aren't you a second-level spellcaster? You can accept disciples, so please help me, your teacher, and bring out a few people who can perform magic." Xiao Yun nodded.
“Teacher, why don’t you do it yourself?” Evelin asked puzzled.
Xiao Yun said nothing and just looked at her silently.
After a moment, Evelin clenched her right fist into the palm of her left hand. Teacher Ayun was a snow wolf. He had theories and could guide basic spellcasters, but it would be too difficult for a teacher to teach an apprentice...
The teacher asked her to take an apprentice, which obviously recognized her progress in magic. Evelyn was very excited and nodded in agreement immediately. She happily took these cats to do the crystal ball test. In theory, except for the snow wolves, centaurs, barbarians and humans, other races have more or less affinity with magic (including goblins), but the degree of this affinity also varies from person to person, and if it is too low, it will not work. In addition, there is a limit on mental strength. If the initial mental strength is below the standard, it will be difficult to get started, so it is better to give up the path of magic and choose another way.
Fortunately, these cat warriors that Xiao Yun carefully selected were all very competitive. None of them were eliminated by the entry test, and all of them embarked on the path of job transfer...
While Evelyn was ready to train cat apprentices, the Snow Wolf warriors were also preparing to set off - a large number of Snow Wolf tribe still lived in the central part, and Xiao Yun couldn't just watch so many of his fellow tribesmen fall into crisis without knowing it, so he had to salvage everything he could.
After seeing off the team led by Yu and Xiaohua, there were not many things in the tribe that needed Xiao Yun to deal with personally. Calculating the time, Xiao Yun organized a group of people to load the goods onto the ship and sail downstream to the Elf Port.
"It's time to give this artificial river a name..." Sitting on a raft made of logs, admiring the scenery on both sides of the river that kept receding, Xiao Yun touched his chin, "Hmm... It's too shameless to call such a small canal the Yangtze River or the Yellow River. Let's just call it Jinjiang!"
"Jinjiang?" The grassroots tribe leader did not join the warrior team this year, so Xiao Yun called her on the raft as well.
"Jin for promotion, Jiang for river." Xiao Yun said casually.
The grassroots chief nodded indifferently, and it was okay to use "jiang" to distinguish between artificial rivers and natural rivers.
Last year's snow was not heavy, and this year's rain is not expected to be as heavy as last year. This is good for farming, but the Jinjiang Canal will have to stop without sufficient water flow. So Xiao Yun mobilized the work team for a few days after the spring plowing to build a dam at the junction of the upper reaches of the Jinjiang River and the river, giving priority to ensuring the water transportation of this canal. Anyway, there is no problem of competing for water in this area, so Xiao Yun can do whatever he wants.
It took a whole day of drifting downstream for several hundred miles in a straight line to reach the destination. Last year, the Snow Wolf Tribe had driven a row of wooden stakes into the canyon at the mouth of the sea for rafts and wooden boats to dock. The goods were unloaded overnight and transported to the Elf Port. At daybreak, everyone, who had been busy and sweating, could finally lie down on the beds in the wooden cabin to rest.
When Hailin heard that Xiao Yun was here, she rushed to him to exchange feelings, but was chased out by Xiao Yun before she could say a few words - this guy was just here to show off that he was in a relationship with that super beautiful elf warrior girl, and it would be strange if Xiao Yun, who was so sleepy, was in the mood to listen to his nonsense.
I slept until noon, and just as I got up and washed up, Hailin's irritatingly happy face came over again: "Ayun, Sabrina agreed to my proposal!"
"Then you are awesome." Xiao Yun rolled his eyes, put on his clothes and walked towards Ashu's food store.
"Don't you want to say something? I'm getting married!" Hailin's big face continued to come up tirelessly.
"You elves also like to give gifts?" Xiao Yun asked puzzledly.
"ah?"
"Nothing. What about your good friend Kai now that you're married?" As a single man, Xiao Yuncai had no interest in celebrating other people's weddings and decided to just brush the matter off.
"What do you mean, what should we do with Kai?" Hailin asked puzzledly.
"You're married, but I'm still single, young man~"
"What does that have to do with me?"
"That's right, what does your marriage have to do with me?"
“…”
"After such a long time, Ayun, you are still so cold. I thought you would be happy for me. After all, it was you who taught me the barbecue skills that helped me win Sabrina's heart..." Hailin said with a melancholy look on her face.
Xiao Yun paused, and glared at him even more coldly: "If you have something to say, just say it. If you don't have anything to say, just keep it to yourself. I'm so hungry that my chest is sticking to my back, do you know that?"
Hailin immediately turned her big face towards him eagerly: "How can I cut the spicy and sour potato shreds in the third episode of "Gourmet Hunter" evenly? Look at my hands, they are all scarred from cutting, but I still can't reach the level of Gourmet Hunter!!"
Xiao Yun took a closer look and found that this guy's hands really caused him a lot of trouble. The corner of his mouth twitched: "What kind of knife do you use to cut the potatoes?"
"This one." Hailin quickly pulled out the dagger from her waist.
"…It is clearly written in the travel notes that the food hunters use square kitchen knives that are slightly wider than the palm and one and a half palms long. How did you mistakenly think that you could achieve the same effect as the professional knives used by food hunters with this kind of knife?"
"But I can't find that kind of rectangular knife at all?"
"Find a blacksmith to make it for you, silly bird. The back of the knife is slightly thicker and the blade is thinner. Just add a handle and you're done!"
“…Why didn’t I think of that!”
“Stupid!”
Hailin and I walked to Ashu's food store, chatting casually. Business here was still good. It was past dinner time and there were still many people queuing up.
"There are a lot more adventurers this year?" Xiao Yun was cheered up when he saw that they were all paying customers.
"It's a lot more than last year. The Adventurer's Association's fleet has come here three times." Hailin said honestly.
Xiao Yun chuckled and lowered his voice: "You Ananas must have made a fortune. I heard that General Kleist received a lot of dividends. Given the general's personality, he must have given you some benefits, right?"
Hailin smiled proudly, gestured, and lowered her voice: "That's right, each soldier on duty at the port will get 20 gold coins... Did Evelyn tell you? She got more, Elder Gwendolyn only has her as a disciple. You also asked Evelyn to write a travel journal with you, and the Bards Association gave her a lot of gifts." At the end, his tone was a little sour, it was obviously Ayun who he met first...
Xiao Yun seemed to be gossiping: "Oh? Who got the biggest dividend, Elder Gwendolyn or General Crest?"
"Of course it's the elders~" Hailin said enviously, "Elder Gwendolyn is in charge of most of the business with the Adventurer's Association. Everyone who follows her is assigned good jobs. Even if you convert your home into a family hotel, you can make a lot of money."
Xiao Yun nodded silently. It turned out that Gwendolyn, the airborne faction, had the local faction firmly under control... This was an opportunity for him. As long as General Crest had a little bit of determination, it would not be difficult to secretly bring this elven general aboard.
The two stood aside and waited for a while before a seat became available. Xiao Yun quickly grabbed a seat and sat down, instructing Hailin to queue up.
Just as he took off the leather bag from his waist and took a sip of water, several adventurers came to Xiao Yun.
Xiao Yun: “???”
"Hello, friend, I don't think I've seen you. Are you new here?" The golden-haired young man who came up first was about to speak, but a bearded adventurer with a face full of flesh reached out and pushed the golden-haired young man away, then thrust his big face towards him with a bright smile, scaring Xiao Yun so much that he stretched his neck back.
"Theodore! I was here first!" the blond-haired young man said angrily.
The bearded man looked back, and several more adventurers rushed up and carried the golden-haired young man and his skinny companion away... These people were smiling the whole time, as if they were trying to prove that they were not causing trouble, but just joking among friends...
"..." Xiao Yun looked at Big Beard's overly attentive attitude, and then looked at the surrounding adventurers' envy, jealousy and hatred towards Big Beard and others, and he almost knew what the situation was.
"No appointment." Xiao Yun said in a deep voice, and pointed at Ah Shu and others who were standing on tiptoe to look over here, "I am with them. The Snow Wolf Tribe in the port are all from the same tribe."
The bearded adventurer was immediately disappointed. He glanced at Xiao Yun's ear reluctantly, then led his men away with a downcast look.
"These adventurers haven't given up yet." Xiao Yun was both angry and amused. The adventurer team that did not enter the Elf Forest and stayed in the West Coast were quite keen on developing Snow Wolf companions. He had heard Mumu mention this last year; Mumu and Ashu had refused all the way until this year. He didn't expect that these guys were still so persistent.
However... this enthusiasm is not a bad thing. Xiao Yun looked around at the adventurers of various tribes who loved the Snow Wolf Tribe's delicacies and felt that he could make use of these guys...
Just as he was secretly thinking about it, Nanfeng ran towards him happily with a big bowl of stewed meat: "Ayun, Ayun!"
Xiao Yun's eyelids twitched.
"Eat braised pork, Ah Yun. I cooked it!" Nan Feng happily placed the big bowl in front of Xiao Yun. "What I cook now tastes better than what Ah Shu cooks!"
The golden-haired young man and his skinny companion, who had stepped aside and were bickering with the bearded man, looked over in astonishment. The bearded man and his gang of younger brothers cast fierce glances at him without any concealment.
"Ayun from the Snow Wolf Clan?!" The adventurer who was sitting at the same table with Xiao Yun and slurping noodles suddenly looked up, pointed at Xiao Yun with chopsticks (yes, more people have learned to use chopsticks), and spoke in an extremely excited tone.
Xiao Yun answered immediately: " No !"
The cute cub Nanfeng didn't understand the situation yet: "Ayun, what are you talking about?"
"You——" Xiao Yun was so choked up that he couldn't breathe, but it was too late to say anything now. The next moment, he was drowned by the vast sea of people...
“Hey, hey?! What are you doing?!” Ashu, Xiaoyu and the others were all shocked. They quickly dropped the colander and ran out to save people…
Hailin who was waiting in line: "Fuck, you adventurers are going to rebel?!"
"Be careful, you bastards!" An adventurer who was hit was furious.
"Don't eat it, you idiot. Ayun from the Snow Wolf Clan is there! That's where the most people are!"
"Which Snow Wolf Clan Ayun?"
"Ayun, the Snow Wolf Clan of the Gourmet Hunter!"
“@#￥%……&*()——!!”
About half an hour later.
In the hotel where General Kleist usually stays, no one in the port dares to mess around.
Xiao Yun sat on the sofa in the living room in a mess, his nose not a nose and his face not a face. Most of the buttons on his homemade suncloth uniform were torn off, the water bag around his waist and the waist bag containing a roll of blank bark paper and charcoal pencils were gone, and there was a big hole in his cuff.
The elf general opposite him leaned on the armrest, covered the lower half of his face with his hands, and looked away with an empty look in his eyes... Even if Xiao Yun was blind, he would not think that he was pretending to be deep. He was just trying his best to hold back his laughter! !
"Ayun, you can stay here with me before the merchant ship arrives." After trying to suppress his smile for a long time, Crest removed his hand that was blocking his face and said with a steady smile... If his hands had not been shaking slightly, Xiao Yun would have believed him.
How come this guy's face is rounder than last year...
"I didn't expect that the travelogue co-authored by Evelin and I would be so popular." Xiao Yun nodded with a thick face, and pretended to be embarrassed, "We borrowed the general's name without permission. Did it cause any trouble to the general?"
Crest smiled indifferently: "The vigorous energy and curiosity of adventurers sometimes do cause trouble."
Xiao Yun looked dead in the eyes and said, "Okay, you are the boss and no one can harass you no matter how much I harass you."
Xiao Yun came to the Elf Port this time not only to find an opportunity to interact with the sea creatures following the Saint Bridge Fleet, but also to establish a relationship with Crest. However... now is not the right time, and the situation of meeting again is too weird; Xiao Yun couldn't say anything, and the Elf General arranged a place for him to stay and he settled down honestly.
As soon as he entered the room to take a breath, a considerate elf girl brought needles and thread, towels and food. Xiao Yun took the things and thanked her politely, but the elf girl refused to leave. With shining eyes, she put her face in front of Xiao Yun's nose and said, "Ayun...Mr., who is the food hunter?"
Xiao Yun: "..." Is today so toxic? I've been scolded by others since I woke up...
The elf girl held her hands to her heart, her eyes sparkling, and said, "If the prototype of the ranger is the general, then the gourmet hunter also has a prototype, right? Mr. Ayun, who is the prototype of the gourmet hunter?"
Xiao Yun stared at the elf girl who was trying to act cute for a few seconds with his dead eyes, then he rushed out of the door and ran towards the room where Crest lived - he couldn't live like this anymore!
When Xiao Yun shamelessly seized the opportunity to squeeze into the same room with the elf general, the grassroots chief and others who had just woken up from a good sleep in the eastern area of the port rented by the Snow Wolf Tribe were blocked by a group of adventurers as soon as they went out.
Grassroots tribe leaders and tribesmen: “???”
The golden-haired youth Isaac and the bearded Theodore, with their sharp eyes, swept over a group of barbarians among the orcs, the snow werewolves, and at the same time, they all set their sights on the grassroots chieftain - these snow werewolves were all about the same size, but the grassroots chieftain had a more stable temperament, and if you look closely, you can tell that she looks older.
Isaac and Theodore took a step forward at the same time... The next second, countless black hands stretched out obscenely, hugged Isaac's waist and covered his mouth, and dragged him back.
Having suffered a loss in the food store just now, Isaac called all the members of the group this time. The tall and strong orc Melken and the newly recruited strong members immediately rushed forward to rescue their leader, while the dwarf Arnold and the thief Alex relied on their agile and compact bodies to sneak attack Theodore.
The next second, the two groups of adventurers started fighting each other...
Grassroots tribe leaders and tribesmen: “?!”
"What are they doing?" a snow werewolf asked confusedly.
"I don't know..." The Grassroots Chieftain shook her head blankly. Her understanding of the adventurer group was limited to Mumu and Ashu's experience in running a food store. She nervously stared at the two groups of adventurers fighting and cursing at each other for a while, and said uncertainly, "Well... they didn't hold weapons, and they didn't hit vital parts. They were gentle... Maybe they were just playing?"
The tribe members were even more confused: "Ah? You came all the way to our door to play? Why?"
"Do they want to play with us, so they play for us?" another member of the tribe speculated.
“It’s possible!”
"Ugh - they're fighting so hard that their noses are bleeding and their faces are swollen. I don't want to play with them." One of the tribesmen said with disgust.
"Neither do I."
"Me too."
The Grassroots Chieftain didn't dislike the adventurers who took the initiative to "show their goodwill", but she instinctively felt that these people were a little weird, so she suggested : "If they want to play here, let them play. Let's go around and go to Ashu's place to eat first."
Everyone nodded, and then, led by the grassroots chief, they lined up to leave through the empty space next to them...
Because they were closer to the front and were constantly competing with each other to squeeze forward and to hold each other back, Isaac and Theodore, who were fighting fiercely, heard the entire conversation of the group of snow werewolves; the two men, with their four arms twisted together, stared blankly at the figures of the group going away, completely unable to recover...
A dark hand came out of nowhere and punched Isaac and kicked Theodore in the butt.
“——Oh oh oh oh oh!” The two self-destructive captains started to fight even more fiercely.
