Rising Light Island

Compared to ten days ago, the twelve children were clearly in much better spirits, with a little more color in their faces.

These half-grown children had never been valued in the Shadow Guild. After all, few people bought those with Inferior Mage Talent.

The main reason they were worth over five hundred gold coins was that the Shadow Guild had needed to send mages to test their Mental Power, which was a massive undertaking.

Although people with Inferior Mage Talent were the most numerous among the five mage talent grades, they were hardly so common that everyone possessed it.

Roughly one person in every thirty or forty had it. In other words, to gather these twelve children, the Shadow Guild had tested the Mental Power of four to five hundred children.

That was why Jon had only hurriedly delivered these twelve children when Roland was about to depart.

At that moment, on the shore of the island, the twelve half-grown children watched Roland remain silent. Unease appeared on their faces, and their bodies stiffened as straight as boards. They did not dare make the slightest movement, afraid of displeasing him.

"Young Master..." Seeing the children's nervous expressions, Alice could not help feeling a trace of sympathy. She gently tugged Roland's sleeve and reminded him in a low voice.

Prompted by Alice, Roland finally came back to his senses. Looking at the twelve somewhat reserved children before him, he smiled gently. "From now on, this will be your new home. Here, you will not suffer oppression or bullying. You will also learn much new knowledge, and may even become free people, marry, and have children."

Roland's promise immediately stunned the twelve children. Hope appeared in their eyes, but it soon gradually dimmed again. Their past experiences told them that this was merely a beautiful hope their new master had given them so they would work harder.

Roland did not make any further promises. Time would slowly prove whether his promises could be fulfilled.

"From now on, you will be under Alice's command. Her orders are the same as mine." Roland pointed at Alice beside him and spoke to the twelve children.

"Yes, Master." The twelve children bowed again.

"Alice, for the time being, teach them the Common Tongue and Elemental Language," Roland instructed.

Although she was also a slave, she was a slave from the Elf race. Before being captured by the Fantasy Guild, Alice had even been a High-level Mage of the Elf race.

However, after the Fantasy Guild captured her, they had crippled all her Mana as a High Mage. Recovering would be extremely difficult, but although her strength was gone, the magical knowledge stored in her mind still far surpassed Roland's.

Therefore, teaching such elementary magical knowledge was no difficulty for her at all.

Otherwise, an Elf race girl alone would not have been worth five thousand gold coins.

"Alright, Young Master." Alice did not refuse. Although this might reveal some magical knowledge of the Elf race, the fear and control the Fantasy Guild had inflicted upon her made her unable to refuse any order from her new master.

After dealing with the twelve half-grown children, the sky gradually darkened. Cold winds howled all around, and the temperature had fallen below freezing. It was no longer suitable to continue working.

Seeing this, Roland immediately gave the order to stop work and gathered everyone on the beach.

With more than two hundred people working, including over forty professional warriors, a small settlement had already begun to take shape in less than a day.

Dozens of wooden house frames stood in neat rows along the edge of the plains on the eastern side of the island. However, they were not yet fit for habitation. The houses were still empty, without any furniture, and the weather was too cold. Stoves still needed to be built inside for warmth.

Therefore, Roland still chose to lead everyone back to the merchant ship to stay there, avoiding any accidents among the slaves due to the cold.

After returning to the merchant ship, Roland gathered O'Neal, James, and the other two once more.

Once the four arrived, Roland did not waste any time. He directly asked James, "Steward James, Commander O'Neal, at our current pace, when will the settlement roughly be completed?"

"We need another two days. But it will take five days before it can truly be lived in, otherwise it will not withstand the cold weather at night," James immediately replied.

O'Neal nodded in agreement but did not speak.

"Mm, then five days." Roland nodded lightly, then turned to Fili again. "Captain Fili, in your experience, how long will it take to build a dock capable of berthing three-masted merchant ships?"

"With our current manpower, it will take at least a month. The main issue is that clearing the submerged reefs will take a long time."

"The weather is too cold now. Even professional warriors cannot stay in the seawater for long," Fili analyzed after considering it for a moment.

"That is acceptable. As long as it does not affect this year's spring planting, the pace can be slowed appropriately. But everyone's safety must be ensured," Roland said seriously.

His words warmed the hearts of the four men. After all, encountering a leader who cherished the lives of his subordinates was certainly a fortunate thing.

However, their thoughts were somewhat one-sided. Roland did not feel much affection for them. He was merely worried about his gold coins.

Most of the people in the territory now, especially the slaves, were his assets. Losing even one meant a reduction in his assets.

"Captain Artur, for the next few days, you and your squad members will not take part in the house construction work," Roland said, turning to Artur.

"Yes, Apothecary Roland." Artur hurriedly replied, a flash of delight crossing his face.

After all, they were guards. Their duty was to protect Roland's safety, not to be mercenaries, much less slaves.

However, his delight did not last long before Roland continued, "Tomorrow, take some men with Captain Fili and go into the sea first to determine the distribution of the reefs near the eastern side of our island, so we can proceed with later work."

After receiving Roland's further orders, Artur's face immediately fell. Going into the sea at this time of year was undoubtedly more miserable than building houses, not to mention how dangerous it would be if they encountered sea magical beasts.

But upon seeing Roland's serious expression, Artur swallowed and still nodded with difficulty, agreeing to it.

After Artur agreed, Roland's expression eased slightly. He knew this job would certainly be difficult, but that was precisely why he assigned it to Artur. Artur's earlier performance against Scarface Henry had greatly disappointed Roland.

Thus, even if Artur and his men suffered casualties while clearing the reefs, Roland would not feel the slightest heartache. They belonged to Leslie anyway, so there was no reason not to use them.

"Commander O'Neal, tomorrow morning, have someone make a stone monument and carve Rising Light Island on it. From now on, this island of mine will be called Rising Light Island."

"Rising Light Island... Alright, Apothecary Roland." O'Neal repeated the name to himself. Although he did not quite understand its meaning, he immediately agreed.

Roland said nothing more afterward. That was all the work for the next few days, and there was no need for a lengthy speech.

After the meeting ended, Roland began his daily meditation.

Because the rolling sea was so unstable, Roland could not brew potions at all. Thus, during these past dozen days, he had devoted nearly all his spare time to meditation and studying magical knowledge.

"Nuwa, open my status panel."

"Received, Master."

Strength 1.2

Constitution 1.1

Agility 1.3

Mental Power 7.353/8.512

Mana 8.1/8.1

Level 5 Mage

More than a month had passed since he advanced to a Level 5 Mage. During that time, Roland had consumed more than a dozen bottles of Tier 4 Spirit Agility Potion and Tier 3 Fire Element Resonance Potion.

However, after Roland became a Level 5 Mage, the Tier 4 Spirit Agility Potion was far less effective than before. The last time he took one, it had only increased his Mental Power by 0.08 points, so he was still far from reaching Level 6 Mage.

Compared to the Tier 4 Spirit Agility Potion, the Tier 3 Fire Element Resonance Potion had weakened even more drastically in its effect on Roland, causing his Mana growth rate to lag far behind his Mental Power.

That was why Roland was so eager to move to Rising Light Island and resume brewing potions. After all, every day of delay now cost him several hundred gold coins.

"Nuwa, have the Tier 5 Spirit Agility Potion and Tier 5 Element Resonance Potion both been fully analyzed?"

"Master, both have been fully analyzed."

A trace of satisfaction appeared on Roland's face.

In truth, this task was not difficult. Nuwa merely used the potion formulas and magical materials currently available to analyze the most reasonable potion-brewing steps for Roland.

It was equivalent to drafting a plan before brewing a potion. As for whether it was correct, that still needed to be verified through repeated experiments.

Only after success would Nuwa record it completely. Then, during future potion brewing, Roland merely needed to reproduce the process of the first successful brew under Nuwa's guidance.

That was why, as long as Roland successfully brewed a new potion once, his success rate would increase dramatically afterward.

The only issue was that Nuwa currently had too little stored knowledge. Otherwise, with her computing power, she could have simplified potion-brewing steps or even optimized potion formulas.

However, Roland clearly had no good way at present to replenish Nuwa's knowledge reserves.

"Good. In a few days, I'll begin brewing Level 5 Potions." Roland silently made up his mind.

Then Roland slowly closed his eyes and entered a meditative state.