Gale stayed in Nasalas for a few days, partly to assess Nalarex's skill level.
Even genius Mages have varying degrees of talent. Among the current genius Mages in the Mage Tower, Metri possesses the highest talent, followed by Nalarex. Meijia and his two companions come next, with Sethonis being the least talented.
In addition to these genius Mages, Gale recruited ten ordinary Mages. He transferred these ten ordinary Mages to the Forging Factory and, in turn, moved ten Mages from the Forging Factory who were in the same graduating class as him into the Mage Tower's ranks.
These ten classmates all came from commoner families and were honest, making them completely trustworthy for Gale. After all, Gale needed them to mine ore, and such a secret could not be entrusted to anyone not fully trusted.
As the saying goes, 'secrecy is the key to success,' Gale also took precautions: he cut off their contact with the outside world, ensuring they would live in Gale's Tower until the War of the Ancients.
Gale would not force them; before the transfers, all signed confidentiality agreements. Only those who signed would be transferred to the Mage Tower; those who didn't would remain in the Forging Factory. These Mages had been waiting for a chance to advance for a long time, so they signed the agreement without a second thought.
Gale was not harsh on them and allowed them to bring their families to live in the Mage Tower. His stay in Nasalas for a few days was also to wait for these Mages to bring their families over.
During these days, he was not idle either.
He handed some foundational spell theory books to Rielly, encouraging him to follow his own casting path even during his time at school. He then authorized Rielly to withdraw half of the Forging Factory's monthly profits to purchase magical materials and develop his interests.
Influenced by his family, the boy was surprisingly very interested in alchemy. This was also a good thing; Gale had developed forging and enchanting, and other secondary professions also needed people to develop them. Moreover, alchemy and spells have many commonalities, and developing alchemy well would also help Rielly's understanding of spells.
After arranging all matters, Gale plunged into an independent workshop in the Forging Factory.
Maiev's birthday was approaching, and Gale decided to give her a special birthday gift.
Currently, Maiev's appearance differs slightly from the game; she wears armor instead of the cloak seen in the game. However, her Moon Glaives and the mask she wears are identical to those in the game.
This is also one of the reasons Gale calls her Iron Lady; besides her cold personality, all items she wears are made of metal.
The gift Gale prepared for her was a cloak.
Actually, Gale wanted to reforge a Moon Glaive, but he lacked any good plans on such short notice. However, for a cloak, there was a similar item in King's Glory—the witch's cloak.
Based on the witch's cloak's attributes, combining dual defenses with a shield formed the basic cloak design. Adding Maiev's cloak design from the game, a batch of darts could be attached to the cloak, which could be used in conjunction with Maiev's Blade Dance.
He dyed linen cloth green, then cut it into a cloak shape, and used truesilver to create accessories in the shape of protective runes. After setting up the magic-conducting circuit, a magical shield appeared on the cloak, capable of protecting the wearer.
Originally, Gale wanted to make the accessories into titan runes, but after experimenting, he found that linen cloth could not carry that much energy. He could only settle for the next best option.
Gale took out the previously prepared straight shadra spikes and mixed them with obsidian to create eighteen darts. Because the crafting process was the same as the Shadow Walker Blade, all eighteen darts were epic-grade.
If Kana Darkwalker knew that his excitedly exclusive dagger had become wholesale darts for Maiev, he would probably cry himself unconscious in the restroom.
Soon, the cloak was finished. Gale frowned slightly; according to his estimation, even without titan runes, a combination of an epic-grade cloak and eighteen epic-grade darts should have reached legendary-grade. But this cloak was still epic-grade, which puzzled him a bit.
There was nothing he could do; making a cloak was a tailor's job, and his true impact would only come during the enchanting phase.
Being able to complete this cloak was already a success. Gale didn't ask for too much; epic-grade it was! The combination of nineteen epic-grade items, even if it didn't reach legendary-grade, would not perform any less effectively than a legendary-grade item.
He had that much confidence.
Soon, the ten Mages returned with their families. Seizing this opportunity, they not only brought their parents or wives but also many talented children from their families.
Due to limited family resources, it was impossible to send all children to Nasalas to study Arcane. They took advantage of this opportunity to bring them all to Gale's Mage Tower. They didn't expect them to be outstanding in the future; just becoming qualified Mages would be enough.
Although these children exceeded the scope Gale had set, Gale didn't say much. If nurtured from a young age, these children would all become his staunch loyalists in the future. Even if their talent was poor, Gale could push them to the Archmage realm through sheer force.
Dozens of Archmages would also be a formidable force in the future.
Gale opened a portal and led them directly back to Gale's Tower.
The Mages' families were entrusted to Lu'anna for settlement, and then he told the ten Mages, "Everything you see next, you must keep absolutely silent about, not even telling your families. From now on, your lives, studies, and work will all be within this Mage Tower. Your families will also receive the best resources, especially the children; I will arrange for someone to teach them."
Then Gale led them into the basement, and they were all stunned to see a continuous stream of Earth Elements transporting ore through a portal.
"Don't be surprised; this will be your future work: summoning Earth Elements to excavate ore."
After a brief explanation, Gale handed these Mages over to Metri. With these Mages, eight mines could be exploited simultaneously. The Elemental Spell Codex they had copied could solve the difficulty of these Mages not knowing how to cast Summon Earth Element.
Metri and the other three could be released from work and return to the library to study. Nalarex, being new, still needed to study with the four for a period.
Gale once again went to Zul'Saroth to see Maiev.
Maiev held a bit of resentment towards Gale; after not seeing him for several months, Gale had surprisingly rushed back to Sin'dorei immediately after the military meeting, only greeting her briefly throughout.
Now, seeing him again, she immediately said with dissatisfaction, "I thought you had forgotten about me, your friend!"
Gale offered an apologetic smile, knowing he was in the wrong, and quickly pulled out the witch's cloak. "It's my fault; I was also busy. I was too busy when I was in the Mage Tower and almost forgot your birthday. I rushed back to Sin'dorei precisely because I wanted to make you a cloak as a birthday gift."
"Really?" Maiev looked at him suspiciously.
"Of course, it's true!" Gale said earnestly.
"Alright then!" Maiev happily accepted the cloak. She loved the style of the cloak and eagerly put it on.
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