After experimenting with the two spells, Li De didn't hesitate. Upon returning to the Mage Tower, he immediately taught both spells to Emi and Harrison.
He even drew the entire magic model and nodes onto the massive blackboard and explained in detail the logic behind constructing the magic nodes.
Emi and Harrison absorbed the knowledge as if they had just obtained a priceless treasure. Li De's conceptual ideas on magic nodes stunned them beyond belief.
So magic nodes could function like this? The 'perfect' magic they had believed in all along only possessed the most basic magical framework.
Grote, watching from the side, was green with envy. He very much wanted to learn the powerful Dragonscale Shield spell as well, but…
His background as a Northern warrior forced him to abandon that idea. Even though becoming a vampire had granted him the talent to cast spells, asking him to learn these obscure and complex magic models was basically asking for his life.
It was like asking a sports student to compete in the International Mathematical Olympiad, truly difficult.
So while the Northern warrior was envious, there was nothing he could do. It wasn't that he lacked the talent; it was just that his brain simply refused to cooperate.
Although both spells had magic nodes reaching the threshold of Tier 3 Spells, one requiring 500, the other 550, at their core, they were still Tier 2 Spells.
As a Level 15 Shadow High Priest, Emi had mastered dual casting and was a top-tier professional. Learning a Tier 2 Spell would not take him much time at all. Harrison took slightly longer, but constructing the spell still only required about ten sun-hours.
Li De didn't bother the two who were engrossed in studying the magic nodes on the blackboard. While they focused on constructing the magic models, he took Grote down to the first-floor lobby of the Mage Tower.
He had noticed when Grote returned to Dawn City's City Hall that the man seemed to have something to say. But since Li De had been about to experiment with spells, he hadn't bothered to ask.
After all, if it were urgent, Grote would've reported it immediately. Since he hadn't, that meant it wasn't time-sensitive enough to be worth interrupting a single spellcasting experiment.
"Grote, did you return to Dawn City because of some information you acquired?"
Grote nodded. "Your Majesty, we've obtained intel on the goblins."
Oh??
Li De's interest was immediately piqued. The deployment had only been set up for a few days, and they already had results?
"That fast?"
Grote nodded again. "That's because this was a targeted investigation of Risel City, so the progress was much faster than our earlier wide-net probe of the Dwarven Valley."
The Dwarven Valley operation had been like casting a wide net and catching fish randomly. This time, they had a precise target and a focused plan.
The efficiency was entirely different.
Plus, with support from the Crimson Mage Tower, Dark Pact was flush with Gold Pucks. The price they offered was nearly irresistible for most mercenaries, so wave after wave had charged into Risel City, risking their lives. Naturally, information poured in.
"Three days ago, Risel City officially entered into combat with the beastmen. However, due to the communication lockdown enforced by the beastmen, we were unable to confirm this until now.
This information came from a group of adventurers from the Lost Planes who were revived in the Temple of Life."
The war started three days ago??
Li De's eyes narrowed slightly. It looked like the beastmen's timeline was aligning more and more closely with their projections.
As for the players, he didn't pay them much attention. Those guys still didn't have the power to impact the bigger picture. In a war involving hundreds of thousands of troops along the border, the role those players could play was limited.
After all, players like Broken Sword Knight were still very much in the minority.
Crimson Moon's Data Analysis Division had set up a dedicated data collection team for the Glory forums, so he knew the true cause behind the undead invasion.
But since he had been anchored in Dawn City to oversee the critical task of seizing population, he hadn't had the time to manage other matters. Plus, the undead invasion was quite distant from him, so he hadn't bothered to pay much attention to it.
Right now, the forums had practically crowned Broken Sword Knight as the number one player. Many players who had been suppressed or mistreated by NPCs felt a deep sense of satisfaction because of this. Reportedly, quite a few players had already pledged loyalty to this Level 4 Undead Emperor.
"The fighting between the two sides is incredibly fierce. The beastmen deployed over two hundred thousand troops to lay siege to Risel City and launched an overwhelming offensive. What's more, the critical blow was that the city's alchemical explosives depot was destroyed by the beastmen.
This part of their plan has placed Risel City in dire straits. In previous years, the city had managed to fend off the beastmen thanks to their alchemical bombs."
Grote's eyes shimmered with awe. "Risel City, once the core city of the South, has an incredibly deep foundation.
Even without the alchemical bombs, and after enduring nonstop assaults from two hundred thousand beastmen over three straight days, including several successful breaches of the city walls, the city still hasn't fallen.
There are fewer than two hundred thousand professionals inside, and most of them are Level 4 and below. The actual combat-effective force is under one hundred thousand.
In contrast, the beastmen deployed over five thousand wyverns, more than a hundred massive siege towers, and over two hundred thousand mid-level warriors at Level 5 or higher. There are tens of thousands of dire wolf cavalry, and even a squad of shaman spellcasters.
And within the beastmen's army... a Level 19 Golden Lifeform has appeared, a Behemoth."
"Behemoth??"
Li De's eyes narrowed slightly at the name. It was a very familiar title, mentioned in many Earth novels and films.
But most notably, the creature was described in detail in the Book of Job from the Bible. Because of that prestigious literary origin, this mythical being had been borrowed endlessly across fiction.
Of course, Earth was Earth. While Glory did feature many legendary beings similar to those in Earth's literature, there were still plenty of differences between them.
If one truly tried to face this vast and dangerous world relying only on experience drawn from Earth's novels and films, they would likely end up not even leaving a scrap behind after being devoured.
That was exactly why he had always developed Dawn City according to his own ideas, without leaning too heavily on the power of Earth. After all, this was a complex world. Without personally experiencing the customs and local dynamics, any judgment made would often lack real reference value.