Chapter 317: Mage Towers
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav
There were various types of mage towers. An example was the fortress-type, constructed especially for the battlefield. These fortress-type mage towers were rather simple in design and were typically designed to be shared by many mages. There were also research laboratory-type mage towers. These would belong to an individual mage and usually contained all of the mage’s accumulated treasures. But any type of mage tower would always be a super dangerous area.
Having a personal mage tower meant having one’s own world. Not only would the mage tower massively increase the mage’s combat power, all sorts of esoteric and high-level magic spells would become much easier to cast due to the support of all the expensive magical ingredients, dimensional portals, batteries, and so on that a mage stored in their mage tower.
It could be said that possessing a personal mage tower was the life goal of most normal mages. But since it was a life goal, most people would never realize it. As for why? It was a simple reason, actually. Mage towers were far too expensive to construct.
A large battery capable of creating an energy cycle required several thousand kilograms of mithril and other expensive magical metals—and that was only for the outer layer. A water elemental pool would require a constant dimensional portal to the Water Elemental Plane. As for personal libraries that represented a mage’s accumulated wisdom? It would be considered a loss of face without at least a thousand or two thousand books inside. Meanwhile, one magical textbook cost the same as what it would cost to purchase an entire store. No ordinary merchant or domain lord would be able to even afford a single room in a mage tower. Only the rich royalty of each country would be able to afford it.
The result of mages wanting their own personal mage towers was just like people who worked and saved their salaries in my previous world, wanting to buy a house. Every day, those people calculated their own salaries and how much they should save, all to buy the house that they wanted. However, they tended to lose in the end to their consumption habits and the severe reality of society. Perhaps, three years ago, they dreamed about purchasing a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house, but it was then downgraded to wanting a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom house, and finally, by the time they were originally supposed to have bought a house, they would find that all they could afford was a three square meter birdcage.
Of course, there were also easy ways to obtain mage towers, such as scamming a rich person—cough—I meant working under a rich person, working as a personal magical consultant; something along those lines. Or, for those that were powerful but not rich enough, they could simply work for some country’s royalty and receive the nice-sounding title of “royal mage.” Or, they could join some military force, which would give the mage access to a fortress mage tower. But no matter what a mage chose, the end result would be a loss of freedom—perhaps even a change in their area of research and daily habits.
When I was at the underground base in the Auland Empire, that incredibly extravagant high-level mage tower there had truly made me jealous. Although the seven artillery-type mage towers on the Borealis were constructed of top-quality materials as well, they counted as only a half-completed product which could only improve the mages’ power levels; the energy sources weren’t self-sufficient. Performing research in those mage towers was also impossible.
“Hmm, I’d really love to have my own personal mage tower.”
Yep, even I didn’t have one, but the main reason was because I didn’t really need one. After all, undead magic focused on ingredients more than anything, and even their towers would be Soul Summoning Towers, instead. As for ice magic—cough—cough—let’s talk about something else.
[Actually, I have blueprints for some of the most powerful mage tower designs (I strongly recommend the Floating Island or Volcano types). But for you, even if you build a mage tower, wouldn’t it be useless? Even if you use a supercomputer, performing the four basic arithmetic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division will still be the same. An elementary school student like you should just obediently use an abacus.]
“You should have told me earlier! I do need those blueprints!”
As was my habit, I ignored my System’s sarcasm. The Floating Island mage tower type had long since been lost to history. A mobile mage tower would definitely be incredibly useful, while the Volcano type mage tower could absorb magma and lava as a limitless source of mana. It would even have additional power when casting fire magic. As long as one established a Volcano mage tower in a critical location and gave it a fire archmage, this single tower would be able to fend off an entire country’s army by itself.
The mage organization with the best technology in constructing mage towers was the Seven-Colored Tower. Not only were they the best at elemental magic, they were also experts in mage tower construction. Archmage Antonio from this organization even possessed a small Volcano Island mage tower, which was incredibly cool. Not even dragons dared to go anywhere close to his mage tower… but it was also incredibly costly in its upkeep. It was said that Antonio was one of the poorest archmages because he needed to use almost the entirety of his income to maintain his special mage tower.
[Even if you can’t use them, you intend to sell them to make money? No problem. You can exchange for any Legendary mage tower blueprint for 50,000 Fate Points. The blueprint on how to construct the parts that the mage towers are constructed from will cost you 10,000 Fate Points. I have Antonio’s mage tower as well if you want that one. That’s a SemiGod-rank mage tower, so it’ll cost you 500,000 Fate Points. But my advice is that even if you purchase this from me, you probably won’t be able to sell it to anyone. After all, that particular mage tower requires a ‘small fire infused half-elemental island’ as one of the materials in its construction, which is incredibly difficult to obtain.]
The System instantly saw through my intentions, but I didn’t feel embarrassed at all. Instead, I asked my System to show me a list of everything I could exchange for. The technology behind mage tower construction would always be some archmage’s personal secret or a magical mystery lost in history. How could I possibly pass up on such an opportunity?
A mobile research laboratory where one wouldn’t even need to go out for food and drink? That was the dream of every hermit mage!
“Why do you have such a function now? Aren’t all the products I can exchange for typically ridiculously expensive and extravagant or some pitfalls that specialize in making people suffer?”
[You can always exchange for new technologies from the current or previous generations. This is a technology that’s already been mass produced, hence decreasing its overall effect on karma. The previous generation’s technology’s influence on karma has also decreased due to the new generation’s technologies, so the price has decreased as well. Ten years ago, I would have charged you a minimum of 3,000,000 Fate Points for such technologies. Now, you can afford all of this. That’s why, you know?]
This time, it seemed that my System wasn’t intentionally trying to make me suffer. This “you know” was one I really understood. Basically, the System was capable of allowing me to afford this technology, which meant that this technology was already being used elsewhere? Was it some human empire or some visitors from other planes? No, this technology was already invented in the mortal plane, so it had to be local. And, only an extremely rich and ancient species would be able to use such ancient technologies and mass produce mage towers like these.
“So the most probable ones in the end are the elves? They’ve been acting quite strange as of late. No, there’s also those ancient artifacts that are coming out of the garbage piles of history. They also have the possibility of possessing such ancient mage tower technologies.”
But right now, the most important part for me was to hurriedly rifle through the System’s list of exchange options, searching for my targets. If there was an appropriate price, I wanted to create my personal mage tower as well.
“…This, this, and this one!”
[120,000 Fate Points please, thank you very much.]
“Are you joking with me? These are only common parts required for mage towers. I only want these to research the technologies first, and I haven’t even decided on what type of mage tower I want. I didn’t even purchase any mage tower blueprints. Why is the price so expensive?”
[So you don’t want them anymore?]
“I’ll buy them!”
How could I let such an excellent opportunity pass me by? I grit my teeth and accepted the exchange, which emptied my wallet. I no longer dared to look at the even more attractive and expensive options.
[You’re not going to keep looking? There are even better ones for sale.]
“Hmph, I won’t be moved if I don’t look, and I won’t buy anything if I’m not moved. As long as I don’t go outside, I won’t be spending money. Do you think I’m an idiot? I’ll have to cut off my hand if I buy anything else.”
[I also have Aso’s mage tower blueprint here. Aren’t you going there soon? Are you sure that you want to go adventuring in an S-ranked difficult dungeon without even purchasing the map first? Let me ask one last time, are you going to buy?]
“I—I—I’m an idiot. I guess I’ll just have to cut off my hand!”
A Three-Colored Tower was the mage tower type that Aso possessed on Abo Street. This was the newest technology from the Seven-Colored Tower. It was a byproduct of the Seven-Colored Tower’s research into elemental magic and goal to create the “ultimate elemental magic item.”
This Three-Colored Tower possessed two support towers and two elemental pools within. As long as the archmage had a sufficient amount of power to control the entire tower, it was the equivalent of having two additional equally powerful archmages assist him in casting spells at the same time, not to mention that the spells were of different elements. Moreover, these two additional towers acting as archmages would have almost identical mana waves to the main archmage and were also capable of receiving the magical burden of casting spells, which allowed for multi-elemental powerful attack magic.
An actual Seven-Colored Tower only existed in legends. In theory, it would be able to combine all four elemental magics, Order Divine Arts, Chaos Divine Arts, and the archmage’s own magic all into one. This was one of the Seven-Colored Tower ‘s penultimate goals, and it was why they named themselves so. However, I knew that even by the time the world ended in the game’s history, they only managed to invent a Four-colored Tower. They didn’t even successfully combine all the elemental magics together, much less add Order and Chaos Divine Arts into the mix.
The Three-Colored Tower was a typical mage tower for combat. It had an effective attack range of approximately ten street blocks. Aso had constructed and hidden such a Mage Tower right in the middle of the city of Arlo. It seemed slightly frightening if one thought about why he would construct it here and what his goal was.
Currently, we were standing in front of Aso’s mage tower which had a magical disguise as a ramshackle building. I was secretly astonished at how perfect this illusion magic was. There were many people walking on the street, but not a single person stopped here for even a second. Their gazes would automatically slide elsewhere, all an effect of the illusion magic that would keep away anyone not intentionally looking for this place.
“AXH… THF… LKK!”
I incanted Aso’s password, which removed the illusion magic in a flash of light. A tall, pitch-black mage tower appeared before us, with the large, gargoyle-adorned door opening up. The interior was pitch-dark, as if it was a void that desired to devour everything.
Of course, all the people on the street were scared by this mage tower’s sudden appearance. A bakery owner that was next door to Aso’s mage tower saw a “new building” suddenly rise into the clouds right next to his own store, which shocked him so much that he dropped his freshly baked bread all over the ground.
“This place feels like a death trap.”
From a certain standpoint, all the bystanders’ instinctive reaction to Aso’s mage tower was absolutely correct. Even I could sense that it wouldn’t be so easy to simply exit again after entering.
Since archmages were typically complete hermits that never went out from their mage towers if they could help it, all the treasures they collected over their lifetime as well as all their research results would be inside. Even for those mages who knew they were at the end of their lifespan, there were incredibly few that had a way of thinking along the lines of “It would be such a pity for all these treasures and research results to die with me; I want to give them back to society.” It was far more common to place traps in one’s own mage tower to kill off any would-be robbers.
Most mages were the selfish type. They had attitudes of “Even if I can’t use it anymore, I’d rather leave my things to gather dust instead of giving them to you” or “Even if I die and go to hell, I’m having all of my collection come with me.” They would always use all their knowledge of magic to construct all sorts of traps and defensive magic spells. Most of these spells would be the automated type that would remain active even after their deaths.
Without a map and walkthrough, entering an unfamiliar mage tower would be nigh fatal. It was the same for SemiGods; perhaps a forced teleportation trap would be unable to kill them, but it could still make a SemiGod feel like crying because it might take several decades to return home after being teleported to some random plane.
Although it was typically profitable to plunder a mage tower, very few normal adventurers would dare accept such a quest. It was practically the norm for there to be life-threatening traps inside. The few high-ranked adventurers that dared to accept such quests ended up dead very quickly.
A mage tower’s danger was directly proportional to the owner’s power level. A Saint-ranked mage’s tower would be capable of making a SemiGod have a headache, so as for an Undead Emperor’s mage tower… well, let me just put it this way: if I wanted to send any of my enemies to their doom, one method would be to tell them about this mage tower and simply hide the information and identity of the original owner.
“First squad, enter.”
I stopped Adam who was eager to head in and had a group of summoned elemental creatures enter the tower first. And then… well, there was no more and then, because in less than one minute, all the soul connections to those elemental creatures were severed.
“Oh my, there’s definitely something in there. Second squad, enter.”
“I refuse!”
Fine then, my silly cat refused to send in more fodder. My magical pet actually wasn’t giving me face, which was something that defied a mage’s common sense. Although everyone else with me had gotten used to Harloys being like this, Cher, who had come along with us by my invitation, had a look of astonishment.
“What’s the matter? All you need to do is send in some of your clones. It’s not like it’ll affect your main body.”
“Ridiculous, it won’t affect my main body? Ever since I became ‘alive,’ all of my clones are alive now as well and can feel pain. All their deaths will be instantly felt by me through their soul connections. I have no desire to repeatedly experience their deaths. I just sent three of my clones to their deaths in that first squad. Do you know what it feels like to be stomped to death, to die from falling four thousand meters, and to die of asphyxiation by teleportation to a plane without any breathable air?”
“…Then, will you also feel it if someone touches your clones? I suddenly thought of quite an improper situation.”
“You can try if you want. My clones are capable of growing teeth as well.”
And so, I exchanged glares with my cat, neither of us giving way. Finally, I used my ultimate trump card.
“You’ve been in the Mage Country for quite a while as well. How about I use the magical pet contract to force you to give me your mage tower?”
“Ptui! Just try it. I’m not afraid.”
“Hah, so your mage tower must not be here… Ah, look! There’s a large flying rat behind you!”
“…Isn’t that just a bat? I’m not a real cat so I’m not interested in such a thing at all. Also, do you really think that such a stupid way of trying to get me to look will work? You’re definitely intending on tossing me inside Aso’s mage tower the moment I turn to look. Hmph, I’m already used to this trick of yours. I saw through you long ago… Ahhh! Where did this large white bat come from!”
The silly cat waved her claws and fangs as she struggled, but the large bat still took her inside Aso’s mage tower as it flew right inside. All we could hear was an ear-piercing screech: “This is cat abuse!!”
I turned around and glanced at Beifeng who was all proud of himself and nodded in satisfaction. One of his little companions had done something for me yet again. All my other companions were laughing and chatting with each other as they listened to the silly cat’s screams, while the outsider, Cher, got quite worried for Harloys’ sake.
“Will she really be alright?”
“Relax, if Harloys the All-Knowing is unable to deal with whatever’s inside, none of us here will be able to, either. Besides, I trust her.”
“She’ll really be alright even with all the traps inside?”
“Yep. Until she can take her revenge on me, she’ll never die. As long as she’s willing to withstand some discomfort and continually use some clones to test everything before her, her main body won’t even come to any harm.”
From inside the tower, there was now a screech of “Roland, when I get out of here, just you wait to see what I’m going to do to you!” This seemed to be the best explanation for Cher. And hearing how spirited Harloys sounded, it definitely seemed like I didn’t need to worry about her at all.
“Milord, my cutie #3 has returned. He tossed Lady Harloys on the third floor of Aso’s tower.”
“Yep, we’ll wait half an hour before entering. By the way, if the silly cat leaves any messages behind that some place is absolutely safe, then that place is definitely a trap.”
“Relax, Milord. Even if you don’t say this, we all understand. Still, please don’t get us involved in your fights with each other! We’ll all die!”