Teyvat's land resource development is, frankly, pretty mediocre.
On one hand, Ley Line stagnation zones pop up randomly in the wild, spawning a few monsters like it's nothing. During wars, humanoid monsters might even crawl out of the Ley Lines.
On the other, Teyvat's beast population is massive, and land fertility is tied tightly to Ley Line health.
People don't pay much attention to barren Ley Line zones, so the wilds are crawling with monsters if you're not careful.
If Ley Line monsters aren't cleared early, they become full-fledged threats, even breeding on their own.
And it's not just Hilichurls or Slimes. Ley Lines have logged Beast Realm Hounds now, with these new monsters jumping out of stagnation zones.
Sure, their life energy isn't on par with true Beast Realm Hounds, but they're no pushovers. Worse, they breed, and their offspring are indistinguishable from the real deal.
Talk about monster naturalization.
Then there's Khaenri'ah's tech—soldier units and tiller machines, artificial constructs.
Reisen Riou can only give a thumbs-up to the Ley Lines and say, "Badass."
How could it not be? Khaenri'ah guarded its secrets like a vault, and even Reisen doesn't know the Chaos Core blueprints. Yet the Ley Lines don't care.
According to shrine and samurai reports from recent months, they've dug up piles of Chaos Devices—tiller joint hubs, Chaos Circuits, tiller processors, Chaos Cores, tiller energy cores.
Then there's Chaos Mechanisms, Chaos Hubs, and Chaos True Eyes—same thing, just graded by material and damage.
These are the power cores for synthetic mechanisms.
Soldier series cores and tiller series cores are completely different beasts.
It shows how insanely advanced Khaenri'ah was, running two distinct mechanical systems.
And that's without Reisen knowing the Dragonbeast series cores are a third, unique system.
If he knew, he'd probably say, "No wonder Khaenri'ah fell. Couldn't even standardize parts—logistics nightmare. Collapse was inevitable."
…
Back to Reisen's private competition.
"Doctor Dottore, your team's out."
"What? How?"
"Lack of martial support. They had the upper hand but got rushed by samurai."
"…" Dottore was speechless.
"They're all scholars, so… you know."
"Fine, I'm heading back to my experiments. Those idiots didn't even grasp the rules," Dottore grumbled, fed up.
What a bunch of losers. He just got caught up in experiments and missed the match.
What'd they tell him?
"Oh, we're elite Sumeru scholars. Inazuma's dimwits can't touch us."
And then they got steamrolled. Tell that story, and people'd laugh their teeth out.
Dottore stormed off to his lab. He coveted the rumored custom One System, Ten Thousand Minds Machine, but it wasn't a must-have. His lab's current model was good enough.
He wanted the custom version for future-proofing.
Reisen treated him well, and Inazuma respected him. Their cutting-edge tech was impressive.
But Inazuma had flaws—materials were scarce, and approvals were a pain.
More crucially, though he hadn't known Reisen long, Dottore sensed their mindsets didn't align.
Reisen's research heart wasn't pure, Dottore thought. He figured they'd part ways eventually—maybe decades from now.
First, he needed to crack his lifespan limit.
But Dottore had a niggling worry. From chats and rumors, he knew Reisen was tight with the Raiden Shogun.
If he defected, would Reisen call in Ei?
"Pfft, why overthink it?" Dottore scoffed at himself. To Reisen or Ei, he was a nobody. They wouldn't bother targeting him.
Reisen had no beef with this future "Archon-level" Fatui Harbinger.
Since awakening Raiden Makoto's soul, Reisen had slipped into retirement mode, practically aimless daily.
Having fulfilled his long-time wish, he was basically coasting.
To Reisen, Dottore could stay or go—it didn't matter.
The current Dottore wasn't worth his attention. The Harbinger Dottore, 500 years later, might be. This Dottore was overthinking it.
…
Traveler Aether was now in the most intriguing event: "The Sage's Erudition."
This event had three rounds, each a standalone challenge.
The three tasks: Identify Flora, Identify Minerals, Identify Monsters.
Reisen had collected specimens of most of Teyvat's plants, minerals, and monsters.
"The Sage's Erudition" tested raw knowledge.
Naming the origin of a plant, mineral, or monster was the baseline—one point.
Listing its uses earned another point per use. Highest score wins.
No worries about wrong answers—Reisen would test plant effects with Thunder Elixirs.
Fake answers cost points.
Aether was solid. He could tell Sumeru Mint, Snow Mountain Mint, and other mint subspecies apart.
He even knew Snow Mountain Mint had the best effects.
Not just for mental clarity and boosting morale, it was a key ingredient for Frostbite Essence.