After Jeming delved further, he casually chose a relatively spacious cave.

After having a heartfelt conversation with the cave owner, he successfully moved in and set up a campfire to roast meat.

Watching the warming cave owner, Jeming lowered his head and took out the previously used Talisman Witchcraft from his bag to carefully inspect it with Alchemy.

“Hmm… as expected, there are quite some damages on the Rune circuit, although the foundation isn’t heavily damaged. It seems that even with increased Rune redundancy, excessive release still puts a lot of pressure on the main body,” Jeming shook his head regretfully.

He had thought of many ways to solve the issue of Talisman Witchcraft getting damaged from excessive release, but none were particularly effective.

Such issues are rare in the Wizard Civilization, after all, ordinary Witchcraft Artifacts have limited daily releases. Overheating and damage from excessive release usually occur in some Floating Cities or large stable facility framework Arrays.

But because these items can have a large number of Runes etched, they don’t require much technical content and can entirely solve the problem with excessive redundancy.

Even more straightforward, Arrays can be designed with modularity, replacing parts as they break.

But this doesn’t work well for Talisman Witchcraft.

“Make the Talisman Witchcraft bigger? Then there would be no point in designing Talisman Witchcraft…”

As for engraving Runes more finely…

Engraving more finely would require stronger Spiritual Power, but for a Wizard, stronger Spiritual Power means more powerful Witchcraft, hence requiring heightened Witchcraft intensity.

And stronger Witchcraft requires more complex Runes and higher engraving precision…

“A pure death Cycle!”

Frustrated for a while and having no good solutions, Jeming shifted to contemplate the issues discovered during the recent combat.

“Although that Fire Elemental Magical Beast was quite strong, it withstood so many of my bombardments. It seems that thing has significant damage mitigation against attacks of the same attribute. Next time I can produce more attacks with different attributes… no, wait!”

A flash of inspiration struck Jeming, suddenly realizing.

Why insist on attribute attacks?

The greatest advantage of his Talisman Witchcraft is its ability to continuously and quickly release without consuming too much Spiritual Power from the user.

Since it already wins by quantity, there’s no need to focus solely on the damage the restraint brings.

“Almost got stuck in a dead-end… I can completely choose pure Energy Bullets as the main attack method!”

The Wizard Civilization doesn’t have special attributes like “Arcane,” but they do possess pure Energy attack-type Witchcraft without any attributes.

Jeming noted down this idea: “Secondly… for enemies who can mobilize Elemental Powers to fight, the Elemental Vacuum caused by the Talisman Witchcraft’s rapid casting isn’t solely negative, in some sense, it might even become my advantage.”

Like that Fire Elemental Magical Beast; because Jeming moved too fast, when it prepared to counterattack, most of the surrounding Fire Elemental Power had been absorbed, causing a significant decrease in the destructive nature of its counterattack.

“In some sense, this also amounts to a kind of artificial Forbidden Magic, although I’m not sure what use this trick has for now.”

…

…

After resting, Jeming continued to delve into the area enriched with Elemental Powers on this Plane.

The previous combat test was substantial enough, and now he planned to focus on searching for higher-grade material samples.

Since entering the wasteland composed of red ore, he encountered Magical Beasts with increasing frequency.

The Thorny Lizard capable of spitting toxic mist, the Ice Crystal Wolf releasing Ice Shock, or the Rock Giant hidden within stones and possessing formidable physical defense.

Each encounter increased Jeming’s collection, to the point where he had to discard earlier collected materials from ordinary beasts.

Jeming also noticed that as he delved deeper, the Magical Beasts encountered, although not necessarily stronger, became more cunning.

They no longer charge recklessly like the ones he met earlier but rather assess both sides’ strength and strategically retreat, sometimes even employing tactics to ambush.

However, these didn’t threaten Jeming much and only caused him to spend a little more time on his material gathering journey.

Yet, amidst these encounters with Magical Beasts, Jeming began noticing some unusual traces.

Initially, these were subtle.

He found some large stones with scratches on the surface, the wear seemed more regular than naturally formed.

In a seemingly natural rock forest, there would occasionally be odd grooves on the ground, which didn’t seem like the tramping of a Barbaric Beast, but more like the tracks of a moving tool.

“Man-made traces?”

Jeming stopped and crouched beside a groove, reaching out to touch.

The edges of the groove had been smoothed over time, but the residual Energy flow within differed subtly from the surrounding Elemental Power.

He activated his Deciphering Skill, sending his Spiritual Power into these grooves.

A mixed flow of information surged into his mind, showing a more organized and restrained power wave, clearly not belonging to the power-expressive Magical Beasts.

Confirming this, Jeming moved cautiously, consciously looking for such traces.

Soon, he had more discoveries.

At a concealed cave entrance, he found a pile of beast bones neatly stacked together, with some even roughly polished.

From deep within the cave came a faint burnt aroma, not a natural Fire Elemental remnant, but a sign left by some artificial flame.

However, judging by the surrounding, this cave had already been abandoned.

Further on, Jeming saw a clearing in a forest; trees had been freshly cut, with neat cuts, clearly done by some sharp tool.

He even discovered a cleverly disguised trap—not targeting large Barbaric Beasts, but smaller creatures, or… humans?

Jeming studied the trap carefully.

The structure was simple yet effective, composed of twisted vines and sharp stone spikes, emitting a piercing sound when triggered.

“There are Indigenous People here.” Jeming made a confirmed judgment in his heart.

This time Jeming wasn’t particularly surprised, seeing as this Plane’s environment was quite suitable for biological survival. It was not unimaginable for intelligent life or civilization to develop.

But…

“When the Wizards took over this Plane, they should have already cleared out the local civilization once… are these remnants deliberately left behind?”

This explanation seemed more plausible than the world’s natives having special abilities to hide and evade Wizard detection.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep