Chess Mage of Faerûn

Chapter 487 How to get stronger without spending money?

"The teacher's considerations are thorough, and I have no further objections."

After scrutinizing the situation for a while, the person ultimately didn't have the guts to make demands like "colorful black" in his capacity as the client.

"alright."

Once the decision was made, Tyrantir acted without the slightest delay, quickly drawing a somewhat complex magic circle in front of him, then taking a few steps back before beginning to chant incantations and cast spells.

After a full ten seconds, a considerable amount of time for a great mage, the magical light shone brightly, illuminating the pre-arranged magic circle array.

“Suedeboden, come forth at the call of the supplicant, mortal spellcaster, state your request.”

"Prince of the Earth, Son of the Earth, Crafter of Mountains and Rocks, in the name of Tyrandeur, I beseech you to reshape these peaks."

Before the master and apprentice appeared a giant that had crawled out of the soil. It was over nine meters tall, its body made of boulders, and its brown body appeared a deep, dark color under the shadow of the moon.

His face, sculpted like granite, was rugged and hard, and his deep-set eyes, like large topaz, radiated a bright light.

An elemental prince, or elemental lord, from another world answered the archmage's call and came to this plane.

Tyrantir tossed the scroll in his hand to his opponent, then pointed, and a beam of light struck the scroll flying towards the giant earth elemental in mid-air, freezing it in mid-air.

Like a lit lamp, bright light burst forth from the parchment, projecting an image onto the giant's face.

Sueed Boden stretched out his enormous, house-sized hand and held the scroll, which was as small as a grain of rice in his palm. The projection of spiritual light spun and circulated in his hand like a carousel.

After gazing intently at his palm for a while, the Elemental Prince looked up at the mountain where the castle was located, his eyes shining brightly, like two searchlights illuminating the distance ahead.

Under the dim moonlight, two bright but not dazzling yellow beams of light enveloped the mountain, scanning the entire peak as if they had penetrating power.

"Although it is not the main plane, the mountain structure is simple and stable, so this matter is not difficult."

The Elemental Prince, having withdrawn his gaze, looked at the Archmage and gave a similar reply.

"This is just raising your hand... Oh, cough! Actually, it's quite strenuous and consumes a lot of energy. It would be good if you could get some replenishment."

The elemental giant's tone took a complete 180-degree turn, and when you looked at the other party's eyes, they were staring straight at the archmage, or rather, at the several gems floating in the archmage's hand.

Is there a shortage of gems in the Earth element realm?

This question sounds ridiculous. As something that has existed since the beginning of creation, all the mountains, rivers, and other earth-related creations in the prime plane originated from it. Theoretically, it contains almost infinite mineral veins and gold.

Do Saudi Arabia's big dog owners need to travel abroad specifically to refuel their cars?
However, the reality is far from the theoretical one. One of the reasons why magic gems are considered rare treasures is that their abundance varies across different planes. There is no such thing as a treasure from the main plane becoming a common pebble in another world. At most, it is just a matter of finding a needle in a haystack instead of finding a seashell.

Otherwise, interdimensional magic isn't some lost art, and mages would have already set up countless interdimensional mining companies to enthusiastically start a gold rush, helping those earth elementals who lie around doing nothing all day to improve themselves and experience the bliss of 007.

These mages are old slave owners; how could they not be familiar with this trick?

The reason it didn't happen has absolutely nothing to do with their nonexistent conscience; it's simply because the returns weren't proportional to the investment.

Moreover, while the reserves may be unlimited, the territories and mobility of the elemental princes are limited, especially the latter. For the earth elementals, who are relatively inert compared to other elements, it would be impossible to make them mine day and night.
Are you kidding me? Wouldn't it be better to just sleep soundly, eat dirt, and live a life of utter misery?
Suedeborden was no exception; despite being called the Prince of the Elements, well…
The gap between princes is sometimes greater than the gap between elementary elementals and elemental elders. Powerful ones, like the wind elemental princes of Aiqua, were once able to lead an army of an entire realm into the abyss, sweep across planes, and shatter the demonic atmosphere, completely destroying any wishful thinking they had after the chaos.

As for some princes, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they were just loafing around doing nothing, since they could become stronger without even lying down. The slow-moving earth elementals weren't as restless and active as their distant relatives from the wind and fire realms. But no matter how lazy they were, they wouldn't be indifferent to food offered to them. The elemental giant took the gem with unusual speed and swallowed it in one gulp, his face showing a hint of satisfaction and seriousness.

"Kasaya Gemstone, Tears of Heaven, Fire Opal Tomb, Yellow Diamond..."

Master Zhang muttered to himself, somewhat astonished by the cost of this summoning spell.

"What? You think it's too expensive?"

Tyrandeur, who had overheard his disciple's ramblings, turned around and asked with a half-smile:
"Among all kinds of otherworldly creatures, earth elementals are considered to be honest and loyal. As long as there is an agreement or oath, they will not break their promise even without reward."

"There... there must be some other explanation behind this, right?"

Zhang Yuan guessed, but he didn't think his teacher was some kind of pushover or a sucker.

"There are certainly different explanations."

The Grand Master replied leisurely:
"Since you're going to take advantage of the earth elementals' dutiful nature, you'll have to tolerate their efficiency and sense of time. Well, hmph."

Goodness, that makes sense. Earth elementals don't have much of a sense of time as dragons. They're slow and leisurely even when it comes to their own affairs, let alone working for you for free.

It's not that we're targeting anyone in particular; it's just a characteristic of our race. What do you think we should do about it?

If you dare to cut corners, he'll dare to procrastinate; in the most extreme case, it might turn into a stalemate like a game of Go.

Elements have an infinite lifespan; how can a mortal with a lifespan of a hundred years afford to play such a game?

So the only option is to spend money to level up. Is that reasonable?
That makes so damn sense!

"Thank you for spending money, teacher."

Zhang Yuan quickly thanked them. Each of these gems was quite valuable, and if he were to take them out, it would immediately make his already quite full purse lose weight.

Consider it rent payment to you.

The Grand Master didn't care about such a trivial matter and spoke in a calm tone.

That being said, the accounts cannot be calculated in this way. If we really want to talk about it, how should we account for the time he spent studying in Gaolibao?
It would be a bit pretentious to dwell on these things now, so I'll just keep them to myself and not mention them.

"Such a massive project, I wonder how long it will take?"

Zhang Yuan steered the conversation in a roundabout way, asking about the current situation.

"It'll be in the next couple of days, after all, they've already paid me."

"What if there's no payment?"

"This year, I guess."

The archmage took out a small bottle of smelling salts, placed it under his nose, shook it slightly, and casually gave a surprising answer.

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(End of this chapter)