He happily arrived at Winterhold, first going to the tavern, then to the general store. He commissioned the shopkeeper, Birna, to procure a huge amount of grain seeds, including wheat, flax, ramie, potatoes, leeks, cabbage, rapeseed, soybeans, apples, and beets. These all needed to be sourced from southern Skyrim, and some were acquired from East Empire Company cargo ships.
Simon spent an entire thick gold bar for these, making Birna beam with joy.
Jonas was very reliable, bringing Simon the Alteration spells he needed, including Hawkeye Technique, Detect Life, Detect Dead, Waterbreathing, Insect Vision, Undead Vision, Vampire Vision, and so on. With these, virtually nothing could escape a mage's notice.
Simon planned to re-forge a helmet and enchant all these onto the faceguard. With layers of spells stacked, even if the helmet was fully enclosed, he would still have an excellent observational view.
Also, he planned to go back and upgrade his External Armor. Compared to steel, gold and silver offered better enchantment bonuses. He intended to update the inner skeleton, and furthermore, he had grown much taller recently, so the armor needed to be enlarged.
Additionally, Jonas himself had started making money with Transmute, so pocket money was no longer an issue.
A day passed quickly. After giving Jonas a few customary instructions, Simon returned to the Wolf Pack Resting Place.
Initially, the land in the Pure Land was all planted with potatoes because there were no other seeds; these potatoes were even scrounged from rations. Later, some cabbage seeds were purchased, but not much land could be planted. This time, however, there was enough to fill hundreds of acres of land.
The Pure Land's farmland had been expanded several times and now covered an area of tens of acres. This scale was already quite impressive, perhaps even larger than some well-known farms in Skyrim.
To cultivate such a vast area, relying on Simon alone was, of course, insufficient. However, he now had four tireless laborers. After enchanting their farming tools with Soul Attunement, they could clear and plant an acre in a day and a night. Their speed was very fast, like machines.
However, this was still not fast enough, so much so that Simon wanted to develop fully automatic farming machines.
As soon as this idea emerged, it took root and wouldn't go away. So, Simon eagerly began to research the feasibility of this topic.
To be honest, Simon's technological literacy was actually quite ordinary. He hadn't studied engineering on Earth, and then, during his hurried travels in the Hollow Knight world, he didn't have time to learn their technology. Later, he became a Bodhisattva, able to observe the changes of the three realms, and naturally knew everything. But now he was just an avatar, with no knowledge in his mind, so he had to research it himself.
In the world of the elder scrolls, if one were to talk about engineering technology, then the Dwemer were very powerful. They built vast underground cities, and their remaining steam systems and mechanical guardians still operated to this day.
Simon really wanted to understand Dwemer technology, but, as the saying goes, he couldn't leave.
He was still too weak; otherwise, he could just open an Oblivion Gate for teleportation. With the world so vast, where could he not go?
Fortunately, it was just building a farming machine, and Simon could figure it out himself.
It needed a power core. Use a steam engine?
That's not impossible.
Enchanting with fire magic could heat the boiler, using Necromancy as the starting mechanism. The result would be an undead steam engine?
That's quite exciting too!
Simon eagerly began forging a steam engine.
Although he had never made one himself, he generally understood the structure: a boiler for heating water, then cylinders, pistons, flywheels, and so on. Controlling the steam to make the pistons move was relatively difficult. Simon pondered for a long time and decided that pistons were a bit redundant, so he made a steam turbine instead, where high-pressure steam directly blew onto the blades, driving the shaft to rotate at high speed.
The cooled steam returned to the boiler through a condenser pipe to be reheated. It took six days, designing and manufacturing simultaneously, and after several failed prototypes, a simple steam turbine product was finally completed.
He went to Winterhold again, and this time Jonas had prepared the Alteration spell Ironflesh for him, which was much better than Oakflesh.
Simon asked him to pay more attention to books on Dwemer technology, then hurried back to the Tundra.
Recently, he planned to change his residence, but the Wolf Pack Resting Place had one advantage: it was close to the mine, making it very convenient for him to acquire iron ore.
Besides, even if he wanted to move, the only existing residence was the Nord ruin southeast of the Tundra, which was even more remote.
Simon had become quite accustomed to this stone dugout buried in the hillside and planned to live there for a few years.
With the successful development of the steam turbine, Simon began to delve into the main body of the agricultural machine. Time unknowingly arrived at Rain's Hand, and the temperature in the north had significantly increased, yet it still hadn't broken zero degrees. Plants in the south should have already started enjoying abundant rainfall.
Simon planned to make a deep-tilling machine, which resulted in a tractor followed by an iron plow. It was quite good, at least more efficient than four Necromancers with hoes.
He built four such machines for the human Necromancers to use. After their deaths, they had become simple-minded fools. Now, every day, they would climb onto a tractor, their glowing blue heads visible, and gallop across the farmland amidst the roar, with an indescribable excitement and happiness on their faces, plowing and howling all the way.
Simon's armor upgrade plan was repeatedly postponed because his mind had opened up, and he intended to venture into the industrial field, creating a steam hammer to facilitate his blacksmithing.
To solve the problem of unstable steam power, his designed steam hammer was very crude: simply having the steam turbine lift a heavy hammer to a certain height and then drop it. Very straightforward.
Furthermore, perhaps he could build a Necromancer furnace, automatically casting steel ingots, so he wouldn't have to supervise it.
But if he did that, the number of human Necromancers wouldn't be enough.
The number of Necromancers a Necromancer can control is limited, depending on their mental fortitude. Simon, however, didn't care about this problem. For him, controlling Necromancers was even easier than splitting his consciousness back then, and he couldn't see his limits yet.
The only thing restricting the number of Necromancers under his command was people.
Simon really wanted to go to the Soul Cairn; the number of ghosts there was enormous.
For him, there were two ways to go to the Soul Cairn: one was to teleport himself using Necromancy combined with Conjuration spells, and the second was to find the Vampire Serana.
Again, he couldn't leave.
Simon temporarily suppressed his ambition and still planned to honestly improve his strength.
Hard Qi Gong could be practiced now.
For Simon, Hard Qi Gong wasn't that useful right now. Without the nourishment of vital energy, one couldn't reach profound realms, but it was still physical exercise, and a good body was always very important.
Ordinary martial artists, when practicing Hard Qi Gong, needed to take medicine for recuperation, fearing that they might damage their bodies. Simon, however, was not afraid of these things. With bloodline magic and rapid regeneration, all injuries to his body could be repaired.
Let's start with Lion's Visage Iron Head Skill, and also cultivate the secret fifth-rank Lion's Visage Golden Sand Palm, to train all the tendons and bones of the body, and even more, to develop a pair of fists as hard as gold and iron.
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