Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 811 - 76 Magic Tower

Chapter 811: Chapter 76 Magic Tower

"The teacher is having lunch," Felic whispered as they made their way between the workshops on the Floating Island. "You’ve come at this time and even brought the teacher’s favorite gift. You should have been invited to join the teacher for lunch, but the teacher has recently developed a habit of preferring to eat alone, apart from a few maids, and dislikes having others around – not even us. So, unfortunately, I cannot invite you to join, and I must ask you masters to wait in the drawing room for a while until the teacher finishes lunch. However... never mind, I think it’s better to show you from a distance. Please follow me."

The normally mature, steady, and reliable Felic seemed hesitant, as if he was engaged in an internal struggle. In the end, he made up his mind and extended the bittersweet invitation with a tinge of sorrow in his voice.

Walking between the vast expanse of workshops, one could feel the difference from the Mage District in the City of Knowledge. Take the Mithril Processing Workshop as an example, while it’s also a magic-related facility, in the Mage District, it is usually craftsmen who are responsible for the mithril forging and precise processing work. Here, on the Floating Island, however, it was Lower Rank Mages manipulating magic puppets to perform the heavy mithril forging tasks before finishing the delicate processing themselves. These mages, often afflicted with the typical mage’s aloof demeanor, had solemn faces and a focused air. Dressed in dark-colored robes, they seemed to glide silently across the ground without legs, causing any passing young ladies to shiver without reason, as if they weren’t on a Floating Island at noon but wandering a century-old graveyard at midnight.

However, it was clear that these mages saw nothing unusual in this. The majority of the mages they passed were in a hurry, and a few mumbled magic formulas under their breath as they walked; one of them, after checking his timer, changed his pace from a brisk walk to a run, which to an uninformed person might seem as if he had been frightened by Pannis and his companions, but more likely, a heater just needed tending. Those passing mages, even those who were not too engrossed to ignore their surroundings, seemed to look right through the unfamiliar non-mages as if they didn’t exist. In their minds, it was better to conduct an additional experiment than to be distracted by these strangers.

"A century is indeed too long for humans, so the composition of these mages is very complex," Felic explained in a low voice. "In Teacher’s lineage, over the past hundred-plus years, there have been many students who eventually became powerful mages. Some went on to serve as governors in various places, while others stayed on this Floating Island to pursue their own topics of research. They also have their students who have mostly graduated and have their own apprentices. It is probably hard for you to imagine, but this Floating Island gathers at least five generations of mages and their apprentices. As for me, I am the luckiest, one of the teacher’s last group of students, and favored by him. I’ve never left his side and have been continuously under his tutelage, something my dispatched classmates are very envious of. They also want to return to continue learning from the Teacher, but he is very strict, believing that fledglings only learn to fly when pushed from the nest, thus forcing them to take up their positions in the cities under their control and forbidding them to come back to study."

"But since there are five generations of mages and apprentices here, that must mean some of Master Fila’s other students have stayed on the Floating Island, right?" Catherine, influenced by the setting, also spoke in a hushed tone. "Don’t they want their own cities and positions?"

"They don’t," said Felic, shaking his head. "Those who stayed on the Floating Island are the ones who are obsessed with knowledge, or should I say, the purest mages, not hybrids like me, who are both mage and politician. In their eyes, knowledge and magicians are supreme, and for the sake of studying knowledge and magic, they can ignore everything else. Teacher too doesn’t trust to send such students out. Otherwise, within a year, their domain would likely be in complete chaos. So he simply let them stay on the island, continuing their magic research as researchers. I actually envy them, for they can invest all their energy into one pursuit, undisturbed by worldly affairs. Perhaps that’s why they have achieved what they have, both in terms of strength and knowledge – unlike me, who only became Legendary at thirty-five, and who has no hope of ever crossing the Demigod threshold, not at all."

"Oh?" Pannis asked, "From what you’re saying, you had a classmate who advanced to Demigod?"

"Yes, one did, fifty years ago," Felic said. "But he passed away five years ago, and his death deeply saddened the teacher, who always reminisced that he was his best student, hoping he would inherit his lordship one day."

"He’s even more than Master Fila..." Pannis began to say but stopped halfway, coughing once before adding, "Didn’t he impart his understanding of Time magic to you?"

"Not at all," Felic grasped the hidden meaning behind Pannis’s words; Master Fila had managed to use Time magic to halve the effects of time and lived on until now. Thus, his apprentices, also being Demigods, should have had the same opportunity. But Felic shook his head, "The teacher said, Time magic cannot be conveyed through language; one must rely on their own experience. However, unfortunately, none of us were successful in learning our teacher’s Time magic, or to put it another way, none of our classmates mastered this unique magic."

"That’s a pity," Pannis suddenly paused along with Felic, standing before the Magic Tower’s black gates and bluestone frames.

Observing the Magic Tower from up close, one could better sense its towering presence. Looking up from the base of the tower, even if one craned their neck until it ached, it was impossible to see the tower’s sharp peak. Inscribed all around the spire were numerous magic runes, which, driven by magical energy, flashed in sequence, adding an air of mystery to the tower, while imposing even greater pressure on those who observed it.

Yes, pressure. Looking up at the tower, one felt waves of pressure emanating from its body, its soaring spire seemingly wanting to topple over towards the observer, compelling a desire to step back. However, the imposing height was only one reason for the pressure; the main contributor to this sensation was the Mage Tower’s inherent effects. As the rulers of Butte, the Mage lords’ Mage Towers and Floating Cities served not only for magic research and keeping up a deterrent exterior but also importantly, maintained their dominion over their territories. They required a sense of mystery and oppression to ensure the awe of their people, hence the choice to loom high for authority, while also specifically designing the aesthetic of the Magic Towers. Starting from the smallest details, the design accentuated the Majesty and solemnity of the Magic Towers, instilling fear in the common folk and psychological stress even in professionals.

"Please, this way." Magician Felic in his red robe pushed open the great door of the Magic Tower, leading everyone inside. As soon as they entered the tower, the girls saw a very unique decoration hanging in the first-floor reception hall.

The upper part of the Floating Islands is a flat plane, while the bottom is an irregular cone shape, with the most protruding part of the cone about one hundred meters below the flat surface of the Floating Island. Directly opposed to this sharpest point underneath the island, at its center, stood the Magic Tower. The one-hundred-twenty-meter tower, including its underground segments, was divided into more than twenty floors. The very bottom housed the Magic Energy Center of the tower, the most important spot and most heavily guarded; it was where the extraction, storage, and conversion of Leyline Energy took place across the void. Countless energy pipelines originated in the Magic Energy Center at the bottom, radiating upward through the interior of the tower, delivering a continuous supply of magical energy to every room and providing ample energy for all the magic machinery and Arrays.

Above the Magic Energy Center was the defense force of the Magic Tower, where a large number of magic energy combat puppets lay dormant. Should an emergency occur, these puppets would be activated, and thousands of small metal puppets, tireless within the radius of the Magic Tower, were ready to be deployed into battle at a moment’s notice.

As for how far the Magic Tower’s radiation range extended and how many nearby cities it could cover, that mattered little; the Kingdom of Mages had an abundance of Leyline Energy. Although major Leyline Energy Outbreak Points had been occupied by dozens of mage lords’ Floating Islands, numerous medium and small outbreak points were commonplace. Each lord’s Floating Island could control and use these points to reach any corner of their territory in a very short time or even fly beyond the Kingdom of Mages to strike aerially at surrounding areas. In the disaster a hundred years prior known as the Return of the Dead, the Kingdom of Mages responded to the allied forces’ call. Not only did Master Fila personally join Kyle’s squad, but the Supreme Mage Council also dispatched three Floating Islands controlled by Legendary Mages. Relying solely on these three islands, they held firmly a portion of the Sighing Desert border. Powerful strikes from the air coupled with ground forces of magic energy combat puppets made it so no Undead could cross that border, and virtually no casualties occurred. Compared to the horrific deaths and injuries of other human nations, Butte’s battle record could almost be called miraculous.

The Floating City that the girls set foot in was one of the three that participated in the war back then. It was controlled in Master Fila’s stead by one of his most powerful students, who obliterated countless Undead. To this day, the first floor’s high walls of the Magic Tower still display the battle achievements from that time—a destroyed Bone Dragon’s head, which is the unique decoration that the girls saw the moment they entered the tower. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it with recommendations and monthly tickets on Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read on m.qidian.com.)