A mage's journey begins with a battle mage.

Chapter 155 Digging Demonic Insect

Ultimately, Jiang Shuzhou entrusted the matter to Pierre and Dvalin, with Dvalin acting as a go-between and Pierre handling the negotiations.

Jiang Shuzhou originally planned to negotiate on his own, but considering that this underground world might be under the control of other mages, he handed it over to Pierre.

Even if problems do arise, it won't be a big deal.

When the time comes, just say it was all done by your subordinates.

For technically skilled individuals like Dvalin, reprimands are less important; clear rewards and punishments are sufficient.

After all, dwarves have terrible tempers and aren't very bright; they believe whatever they're told and are hard to reason with.

"Once this is settled, I'll cover your drinks."

"What?!"

Upon hearing this, Dwarin's face lit up with ecstatic joy.

"My lord, is this true?"

"Of course, when have I ever lied to anyone?"

Jiang Shuzhou said with a smile.

Dvalin thought for a moment with his not-so-bright mind, and it seemed, perhaps...

My lord has never lied to anyone?!

So Dwarin happily set off to find his fellow countrymen, to reconnect with them, and to sound out their opinions.

That's easy. After a few bottles of wine, whatever was said, it's not a secret.

"Clean this up."

After giving instructions to the waiter, Jiang Shuzhou left the tavern.

"Faster, faster, even faster!"

Inside the military camp, Hayes was still giving the soldiers extra training.

Jiang Shuzhou nodded and left.

He's going to the laboratory to make his mark.

His tasks were numerous, the first being to compile the experiments that could be made public into papers for submission.

This way you can earn academic credits.

This is a recent development, and it's a system spearheaded by the legendary alchemist Napamela, who is currently in charge of the Alchemists' League.

It was probably inspired by some player on Earth.

Academic credits serve many purposes. First, they can unlock previously secret knowledge, and second, they can be exchanged for resources.

The method to obtain it is by writing a paper.

Each paper will receive a certain number of academic points based on its value. Other mages can then pay academic points to view the paper. The platform takes 20% and the rest goes to the author.

Overall, it's a bit better than before, since they're actually offering incentives to entice the mages to publish their research.

This is much better than relying entirely on self-discipline and sharing from experts.

Jiang Shuzhou wasn't the type to keep things to himself; he would naturally share his knowledge as long as there was benefit to be gained.

For example, this piece he was preparing to write.

On the Effects of Abyssal Contamination on Flesh and Blood: Flesh and Blood Knowledge in the Mahabraith Contamination Incident

Besides these, there are several other articles, such as those about flesh and blood weapons.

Although he can write them all together, wouldn't that mean he can only charge for one copy?

For this kind of product, it's best to sell it at a low profit margin and in large quantities.

Soon, Jiang Shuzhou sent out the manuscripts through the Dharma Master's mark. The rest was up to the editors who would recognize their value.

However, with a legendary figure involved, they should know their stuff.

After sending the message, Jiang Shuzhou immediately went into the laboratory.

He hadn't forgotten that the most important thing now was to place the Mother Tree of Flesh and Blood.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The laboratory on the back mountain stood tall once more. This time, there were no animal carcasses to transport, but a large number of giant-mouthed worms and all sorts of magical creatures skilled in digging were sent over.

And then he never went out again.

Starting from scratch is a bit difficult, so in order to save as much time as possible, Jiang Shuzhou chose to dissect and study a large number of magical creatures.

This is also to keep the life templates as simple as possible in the future. After all, the more complex the life template, the more difficult it is to produce and the more likely it is to produce defective products.

The demon was alright, after all, it was just raw material, so it was just crippled. But what he was going to do next was dig, and he had to dig a full 256 kilometers.

This might be difficult on Earth, but in the Prime Material Plane, it's only average.

As long as you have money, there are plenty of monks who can take on this kind of business.

But Jiang Shuzhou couldn't possibly hire anyone. He dug the tunnel to the underground world precisely to keep it a secret. How could he keep it a secret if he hired someone else?

Are you suggesting we silence them?

Isn't it obvious to anyone that there's a problem?

Inside the cold laboratory, a meter-long worm wriggled its body, its mouthparts filled with sharp teeth that could easily crush iron and stone.

This is the new product that Jiang Shuzhou developed.

Digging Demon Worm.

Although he looks very small now, it's only because he hasn't grown up yet.

According to Jiang Shuzhou's personal estimate, the adult form of the burrowing worm is about 300 meters long and more than 4 meters tall.

This was the result of Jiang Shuzhou's meticulous design, which was perfectly suited to be used by the tunnel boring machine to directly open up the underground tunnel.

In addition, one of the peculiar things about the burrowing worm is that it can survive by eating soil. It grows by consuming minerals in the soil and can also refine minerals, which it then excretes through excretion.

It can be said that just a few of them can completely deplete ordinary mineral veins.

Of course, in order to ensure the speed of drilling, Jiang Shuzhou still sacrificed some other aspects.

For example, the rock-breaking mechanism can effectively block the burrowing worms because their bodies are too soft, preventing them from quickly carving large holes in the rock face.

However, this did not stump Jiang Shuzhou. He created a new creature and made it coexist with the burrowing demon worm, thus perfectly solving its shortcomings.

Rock-breaking ants are a type of ant that specializes in breaking apart hard rocks or minerals.

It lives inside the mouth of the burrowing worm, its body covered with a hard carapace, and its huge mouthparts and hard head allow it to easily smash any stubborn rock.

Of course, this was still a bit risky. As a mage, Jiang Shuzhou still gave the burrowing demon a few spell slots, namely Turn Mud into Stone and Turn Fossil into Mud.

Even if all the ants die, the burrowing worm can still easily use its spell-like abilities to dig.

The only less appealing aspect is the cost of the Burrowing Bug.

Requires intermediate-level extraordinary flesh and blood.

However, it didn't matter to Jiang Shuzhou, as the Blood and Flesh Mother Tree could produce it directly, but the price was the Abyss Pus.

If Jiang Shuzhou wanted to, he could mass-produce demons, and after processing, even reverse the electricity meter.

The amount of abyssal pus produced is more than the amount of abyssal pus consumed, which can be considered as fleecing the abyss.

But why not take advantage of it? Anyway, the Abyss has no objections.

Looking at the burrowing demon insect in front of him, Jiang Shuzhou roughly estimated the time it would take to reach the eighth floor.

It will take about half a year to get ten together.

That's not slow.

Place the burrowing worms into the Mother Tree of Flesh and let them dissolve.

Soon, the life template of the burrowing worm was parsed out. Although there were many errors, it was an automatic parsing process after all, and the parsing was pretty good.

In the future, Jiang Shuzhou can also buy other people's flesh and blood creations, such as the island turtle, and let the flesh and blood mother tree devour them to learn from other people's ideas.

After manually adjusting the life template, Jiang Shuzhou allowed the flesh and blood mother tree to produce life on its own.

He had other things to do.

Not long ago, his old friend Alger found him.