Chapter 49

 Bataan is very active.

 He didn't sleep much last night.

 Old John told him to rest, but he couldn't sleep and eagerly cleaned up his stone house.

 The stone house he chose was very close to the stone houses where Dumina and Old John lived.

 He worked as quietly as possible, trying not to make too much noise to disturb Dumina and Old John's rest.

 Although...

 in fact, neither of them slept.

 Dumina was busy reading, and Old John was secretly concerned about Dumina's condition while also busy with his daily prayers.

 Bataan is a half-dwarf, skilled in dark vision and bright light vision.

 He is also a fifth-level knight with exceptional abilities.

 For this reason, he spent half the night cleaning up his house.

 Then came this morning.

 Old John, with Bataan, had already familiarized themselves with the surroundings and greeted some important villagers.

 The villagers had noticed the lack of furniture in Bataan's house and made efforts to provide him with what was missing.

 When Dumina was preparing to build a school, he had asked the villagers to help prepare more daily necessities.

 When the villagers went to the town to buy some paper-making materials for Dumina, they also bought some other items.

 This morning, Old John, with Bataan, found Gus, who was in charge of storing these items.

 Now Bataan's house is fully stocked with various items.

 Bataan also felt that he had rested enough.

 When he was in the Denper Dwarf Tribe, he lived a year-round non-stop life.

 Being able to relax comfortably in the cool river water like last night, letting the river wash away all his fatigue, was already a holiday beyond his imagination! He even had a full meal! He also made new clothes! All these things made him feel that if he didn't work faster, he would be letting Dumina and Old John down.

 He already knew his job.

 He was to teach the villagers.

 According to the contract he signed with Dumina, he would be the teacher at the "Magic First School" in the Gray Rope Village.

 Currently, the students in the school are all villagers from the village.

 There are eight regular students and several non-regular students, all students.

 His knight combat skills, physical training basics, and even his livelihood forging skills could potentially be included in the school curriculum.

 He hadn't spent much time with the villagers, but he felt that the villagers were really good to him.

 Dumina and Old John cared about his life last night; Winnie helped him measure his body and asked him gently what style of clothes he liked to wear;

Gus took the initiative to ask him how big a bed he needed, whether he needed help adjusting the bed size, and whether he wanted to change the straw mattress, and he also took the initiative to move many pieces of furniture to his house...

 Most importantly, the villagers were willing to make sure he had enough to eat! In the past, whether in the Denper Dwarf Tribe or working for Count Charles, if he dared to eat a little more, a large group of people would look at him with eyes of "waste" and "gluttony," making him feel that eating more was such an unforgivable sin.

 But after coming to Gray Rope Village, no one treated him like that! Old John and Dumina cared about whether he was eating enough.

 When the villagers saw him eating a lot, they wanted to learn from him and wondered if they should prepare more food for him.

 Like Old Harper, watching him eat happily, he could hardly contain the excitement in his eyes.

 How nice.

 Everyone took care of him like this, even if he taught the most important forging skills, so what? Bataan was eager to start teaching.

 After hesitating for a moment, Dumina asked Old John to take Bataan to find Hausman, and then to discuss a suitable training time with Hausman.

 They couldn't waste Bataan's "physical training basics" and "knight combat skills," these two A-level teaching abilities.

 The villagers of Gray Rope Village were strong, but their strength came from talent and soaking in monster blood, among other things.

 Villagers have indeed developed a relatively complete exercise routine after years of training, but their main occupations in the past have always been farmers, hunters...

 Their physical training skills cannot compare to Batan's.

 Batan's forging ability should not be wasted.

 However, this ability may not necessarily be spread throughout the village, and it is not necessary for every child in the village to practice with Batan.

 Dumina is planning to ask for Batan's opinion at some point, then bring Monsent along to study weapon improvements with Batan, who has a talent for marksmanship.

 When Batan can forge the improved weapons, they can be mass-produced.

 Dumina will then assess the market prospects and decide how to find people to learn from Batan.

 During Batan's forging of improved weapons, some villagers will need to assist him.

 This period will be enough to train qualified assistants for Batan.

 If the prospects for improved weapons are mediocre and Batan's forging skills are unlikely to earn much money for the village, there is no need to rush to give Batan tasks; instead, let Batan teach a class.

 Dumina has actually talked to Batan a lot.

 He has made it clear to Batan what he will do in the future.

 However, judging from Batan's expression, Dumina is very doubtful whether Batan really understood what he said.

 But Batan said he would go talk to Hausman and Old John also said he would go with him, which reassured Dumina.

 The afternoon classes are relatively free, allowing Dumina to organize the various things he needs to do according to their importance and urgency.

 The most important and urgent task at the moment is to create a new cultivation method using meridians and successfully become a first-level magician.

 The next task is Jard's learning goal.

 Dumina pays attention to his intimacy with Jard almost every day.

 They now have an intimacy level of 83, their relationship is very good, Jard is willing to listen to him and open up to him.

 Dumina feels that he has completed more than half of Jard's task.

 However, the system has not provided him with any task progress prompts, indicating that his task completion rate has not reached 60%.

 Dumina now reviews the task description.

 He needs to find something that will trigger Jard's desire to learn and set reasonable learning goals for him.

 Jard wants to become stronger.

 But what is the triggering thing...

 is it a specific event or a particular item? Dumina is not sure, and Jard himself is not clear either.

 Dumina considered the position of "Captain of the Gray Rope Village Guard," but the vague feedback from the system confirmed that this was not the triggering thing for Jard's desire to learn.

 Rather than saying that Jard wants to become stronger to become the captain of the guard, it is more accurate to say that Jard wants to become stronger, so he sees this seemingly strongest position as a goal.

 Dumina has not forgotten that Jard's voice is different from others.

 Anyone can tell that Jard's throat has been damaged.

 Dumina asked Gus and a few others in the evening after class, but they were not very clear, only knowing that one day Jard suddenly couldn't speak normally after waking up.

 When Jard woke up that day, he opened his mouth but couldn't make any sound.

 It took several months before Jard could speak again.

 However, his voice had become hoarse and broken.

 He could only say single words, and after saying one word, he had to wait a while before saying the next one.

 Jard, who had just lost his voice, became afraid when he saw people.

 Even Jard's biological parents found it difficult to approach him at that time.

 The current Jard is doing much better in all aspects than before.

 However, Jard cannot explain what happened to him.

 Dumina and Oke have tried to guide Jard to recall the source of his changes while teaching him to train his mental strength.

 However, whenever they tried to guide him in this way, Jard's mental state became unstable, and he could no longer control his mental strength autonomously.

 Du Mingna and Oke are much stronger in spirit than him, so they were able to control him and make him rest immediately when he appeared abnormal.

 Du Mingna deeply felt that only by making Jade stronger could he face the source of the change that caused him to appear abnormal, and only then could he possibly complete Jade's side task.

 Relying solely on normal practice, Jade did not know how long it would take to cultivate enough powerful spirit.

 Du Mingna was very certain that the source of Jade's abnormality was far weaker than him, at most only one-tenth of his spiritual strength.

 Therefore, he was able to easily suppress Jade and restore him to normalcy when Jade faced internal abnormalities.

 But he was naturally strong in spirit, had taken many things that could enhance his spirit, had diligently practiced for years, and intermittently practiced for several years.

 His spiritual strength was much higher than that of a normal person.

 Even a fifth-order knight like Batan may not necessarily surpass Du Mingna in a battle of spirit.

 This was Du Mingna's talent.

 If he had not been unable to open the door to mage practice from the beginning, he would now be at least a mid-level mage, if not a high-level mage.

 One-tenth of his spiritual strength was hundreds of times that of Jade's.

 The gap was too large.

 Without using some special means, Jade would have to cultivate in seclusion for several years to face the source of his transformation.

 But did Du Mingna have that much time now? The system tasks had time limits! Du Mingna marked this matter as urgent and important.

 As for the research on the tower, it was equally important, but it had a longer time frame, and he did not need to do any work for this task until the people summoned by the random team summoning order had left.

 This period of time was perfect for him to focus on studying how to cultivate, and while completing daily teaching tasks, he could also study Jade and set growth goals for him as early as possible.

 Studying the meridians required a lot of spiritual energy.

 System recruitment also consumed spiritual energy.

 The remaining recruitment times should be reserved for a long time.

 But this was not a problem.

 The overall level of the current students was too low, and most of them were not able to be full-time students.

 Even if he hired higher-level teachers, there were limits to what the teachers could do.

 The biggest trouble his school might encounter now was the monsters coming down the mountain, but those monsters were weak, and even if the hidden Old John did nothing, Oke did not need to take action, and Batan himself could possibly deal with them completely.

 In addition, Du Mingna now vaguely had the ability to predict when the monsters would come down the mountain, so he did not think it was a major threat.

 As for the dangers hidden deep in the Sui Pu Mountains, it was not something he could think about now.

 Even if he made various preparations against the other party, it might not be useful, so he might as well put it aside for now.

 The next steps were clear.

 Find ways to study the meridians, continue to cultivate students, quickly increase the number of students who could practice within the school, and further enhance the overall strength of the school.

 Oh, yes, and also to create a timetable.

 Before Batan arrived, there were only two fixed classes, one in the morning and one in the evening.

 But Du Mingna felt it was not enough.

 Previously, there were too few teachers, and only he was responsible for teaching.

 He also had to command Old John to complete many miscellaneous tasks in addition to teaching, so he had to shorten the class time.

 Now, with him included, there were three teachers in the school, and they could each be responsible for cultural foundation courses, magic foundation courses, physical education foundation courses...

 Du Mingna finally felt that he could create a more comprehensive timetable for the children.