Chapter 840: Underground s.p.a.ce (Three in one)
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Abel put the high-level gem mine aside. He did not explore the magic tower. Instead, he began to look around.
This place was huge, and the old man did not waste it. There were countless valuable herbs exclusive in a mana dense environment growing on the ground.
Even Abel would need it if he wanted to purchase them from the elves alchemy union.
It seemed like the old man had spent a lot of effort on this place. One needed to alter a land drastically to ma.s.s-produce those high-level herbs. It was impossible without corresponding knowledge.
Agriculture knowledge needed to be inherited, just like rune cards and magic circle making. They were the lifesavers of wizards.
Although growing herbs might bring profit, they were hard to take care of. You needed to invest alot of magic resources.
The second was safety. If another wizard realized the value of the herbs, they could steal them.
Last was a mana dense environment. Mana was normally only produced in magic towers, and they were not enough to grow herbs.
A land like this would need a giant mana gathering circle and large amounts of gems to ignite them.
However, those things weren’t a problem underground. Illumination circles illuminated the whole place, and safety was the least they should be concerned about.
The high-level gem mine supported the mana environment. Its energy was almost endless.
Although Abel still hadn’t broken the magic tower’s defense in the center, he already saw everything as his.
“Commander spirit, can you take over the spirit of this magic tower?” Abel asked.
“Headmaster. Too many protection circles surround it. I can not invade it!” The commander spirit replied.
Abel glanced at the magic tower and took out the old man’s portal bag. There were no ident.i.ty cards, which made everything even harder.
Since the commander spirit could not invade the magic tower’s spirit, how could he break its defense?
There were only 2 ways of breaking the defense of a magic tower. One was to attack until all the magic tower’s energy was drained, but since this was supported by seemingly endless energy, it was not really an option.
Also, Abel didn’t want to damage the magic tower too badly. It could be very nice to put it in his magic circle outside of Harry Castle.
If a magic tower was damaged too badly, it might be unrepairable.
“What a ha.s.sle!” Abel mumbled.
“Johnson, come out!” Abel tapped his chest with his monster ring, and a black hole emerged.
Johnson stepped out and did a bow.
“Johnson, careful where you step. The herbs here are costly. If you damage them, I will take it from your resources!” Abel pointed at the gra.s.s on the ground.
Johnson gazed at the tightly spread herbs on the ground and its giant metal feet. It tilted its head and thought for a bit. Afterward, its body began to s.h.i.+ft from a human form to a spider with 8 long legs.
The holy armor on its body automatically retracted into its bracelet.
Johnson’s spider legs let it walk freely without stepping on the herbs.
“Johnson, see if you can dig up this magic tower!” Abel commanded.
Johnson arrived in front of the magic tower. It was 18 stories high, 2 stories higher than the one tower Spirit Flora was in. Its shape-s.h.i.+fted again and spread its iron b.a.l.l.s around the magic tower.
The 8 legs of that spider turned into 16 legs, and they grabbed ahold of the magic tower along with the iron b.a.l.l.s.
When Johnson began to use force, the ear-piercing sound of metal grinding erupted.
If those iron b.a.l.l.s were made out of condensed iron, they would be damaged under this force.
However, despite Johnson’s tremendous force, it was still lacking when it came to lifting an 18 stories magic tower.
Luckily the old man was dead. This magic tower could only defend, not attack, which was why Johnson was still safe after all of this.
It was the normal behavior of a magic tower after losing its owner. Attacking took a lot of energy, which would dramatically reduce the defense of a magic tower, and the defense was the main priority after losing the owner.
Abel saw that Johnson having a hard time, so he summoned the 400 little war puppets from his ring. Each of those things was powered by a perfect gem.
The 400 little war puppets wrapped around the magic tower, the ones closest to Johnson held on to its body while the ones far away held each othersarms. Therefore Johnson remained as the center force.
“Johnson, again!” Abel said after the commander spirit had organized the puppets.
Luckily he had the commander spirit. If he didn’t, those puppets could complicate things.
Johnson began to unleash its force again. That ear-piercing emerged once again from Johnson and the puppets.
As the force intensified, the 18 stories magic tower began to shake left and right.
“Headmaster, I have successfully connected with the spirit of this magic tower. Invasion in progress!” The commander spirit suddenly notified Abel while Johnson was still pulling on the magic tower.
This was because when the magic tower was shaking left and right, a small gap was exposed in its defense. Although the gap was so small no human or animal could go in, it was enough for the commander spirit.
The commander spirit was one of the most advanced spirits Abel had. He urged Johnson and the puppets to maintain their position and try to increase the gap.
“Headmaster, the invasion was successful. I have now taken over the spirit of that magic tower. The protection circles are now defused!” After a minute, the commander spirit replied.
A magic tower without defense circles was like a city without guards.
Abel suddenly felt his heart drop. “Johnson, stop!” He yelled.
Since the tower was in his control, they were his a.s.sets. Any damage to the magic tower would be his loss.
Johnson shrugged its shoulders like a human and asked to return to the monster ring. It no longer wanted to dwell any longer. It was not as precise as those war puppets with the control of the commander’s spirit. He would eventually damage the valuable herbs if he continued to stay.
Abel opened the portal, and Johnson returned to the monster ring. Afterward, the 400 little war puppets returned to the Varaya’s ring.
Ever since he got that Holy Varaya’s ring, he could carry around large amounts of war machines with him.
If those puppets were more effective against h.e.l.l creatures and could withstand the corrosion of h.e.l.l, he would love to bring them to the Dark World.
Under the guidance of the commander spirit’s guidance, the first floor swung open. Abel stepped in, and it was the most advanced magic tower he had ever seen.
The first thing he felt was the density of mana. It was almost neck to neck with the Dark World. It was denser than any magic tower Abel saw in the Holy Continent.
There were no giant mana gathering circles in this place, only countless small ones on the surface of the tower. It seemed like the old man had done that for his herbs outside. For a kingdom, a giant mana gathering circle was impossible to obtain.
There was a giant teleportation circle in the center of the first floor. Abel was shocked. Those things were not cheap, but it made sense considering the old man’s status.
A giant teleportation circle was very useful to Abel. This way, the royal palace could connect to Harry castle or other long distance teleportation circle. He no longer needed to transfer.
He connected with the giant teleportation circle with his power of will. There was no data regarding this teleportation circle, which meant it was an illegal one in the wizard world. The wizard union could not connect with it or spot it.
This could be troubling, but there were also many benefits. If Abel just used it to teleport to his teleportation circle, the wizard union would not be able to notice.
He connected this teleportation circle with the one he had outside of the Harry castle magic tower through his power of the will. He then retracted and continued to explore.
There were 50 wooden boxes neatly laid out on the floor. They were all decorated with gold, so you could just guess how expensive the things inside might be.
However, Abel was disappointed when he broke them open. They were filled with intermediate gems of all kinds. Still, the number was beyond impressive.
Abel had no use for intermediate gems. He had unlimited amounts of them anyway.
He recalled the treasury of the royal palace. Its wealth was shocking, but its wizard resource, on the other hand, was lacking. Suddenly he realized, those resources were all stored here!
It made sense. This was the safest place anyway.
Abel had claimed the throne for 6 months, and he had only discovered this place.
“Let’s save those gems for my wizards!” Abel gazed at those 50 boxes.
That was all for the first floor. There was no lounge or office like a normal magic tower.
He climbed up a wooden staircase filled with embroidery and arrived at the second floor. Maybe this magic tower was made for storing wizard resources and wizard training. There were countless little mana gathering circles pasted across every inch of the walls, the floor, and the stairs.
It seemed like the old man was crazy for mana.
The second floor was also filled with large amounts of wizard resources, including potions, gems, and all kinds of valuables, just like a giant wizard inventory.
Things only started to change until the 16th floor. It was an office. There were rows of neatly organized luxury bookshelves tightly packed with books.
They were all divided carefully.
They included books about Fire wizards, ice wizards, and lightning wizards. They took up almost one-third of the room.
Abel also saw some books about druids. Although there were only 10 of them, they were the secrets of elves.
Abel had undergone Druid training. He looked through those books, and almost everything there is to know was included. The only thing lacking was that they did not expand on the special seed required for their enlightenment.
Abel then noticed the books about knights. There were thousands of special techniques. No need to speculate where they came from. They were most likely stolen from countless knights’ families throughout the years.
Those secret techniques were very useful to the kingdom. If anyone wanted to learn, a negotiation could be hard.
Afterward, Abel notices the books about wizard inheritance. It included Magic pattern drawing, rune card making, and magic circle. There were even some about alchemy. As long as a wizard specialized in one type of inheritance, he would be able to have the skills to keep him alive in the wizard world.
The amounts of stuff gathered by a thousand-year-old kingdom was scary, and they were fully on display in these bookshelves. They basically had everything.
Abel arrived at the corner of the room and spotted a bookshelf with thousands of books without any tags. However, he was caught off guard for a moment when he saw the t.i.tle of those books.
They were about priests. Abel had killed countless priests, but he had never gotten a full set of their spell patterns. These books had every spell he could think of as well as a detailed explanation.
The ones about spells only took up a small portion of those thousand books. All the other ones were the research doc.u.mentation of priests.
What were the priests researching?
Abel could almost imagine it. Dead bodies, torture, all kinds of horrific scenes. This was how the skeleton resurrection spell was done.
Afterward, he pulled the priest’s spell books in his Varaya’s ring and left the floor with confusion.
He was shocked again when he arrived on the 17th floor. It was just like h.e.l.l. There were human parts and organs stored in giant crystal gla.s.s. He smelled the horrific smell of rotten flesh and herbs.
Abel pa.s.sed through those crystal gla.s.ses and came across an alchemy bench, or more like a surgery bench.
There was a turn apart rotten corpse on the bench giving out a horrific smell. Maybe the old man was doing some research before he left, and he did not put away his stuff properly.
Human research!
Abel felt a chill running down his spine. A kingdom was supporting a rank 18 wizard, and he was doing human research deemed illegal by the wizard union in this magic tower.
This would not be a surprise if it were happening in the orc empire, but this was the human world.
Abel noticed a magic robe thrown to the grown by the side of the bench, so he scanned the corpse with his power of the will. From its characteristic, this corpse most likely belonged to a wizard.
The old man was researching a wizard’s body?
Abel was confused; the old man had resources, why would he do something like this?
Abel didn’t know the old man before entering his magic tower, but now he had gotten a brief idea. He was a wizard crazy for training.
A magic tower underground had almost cut off any connection with the outer world. Wizards had a high tolerance to loneliness, but something like this was too much for most.
The old man would not do any unnecessary thing, so why was he researching a wizard’s dead body. It was too bad that the old man was already dead.
Just when Abel felt the urge to sigh, he noticed a lambskin parchment by the side of the bench.
He s.n.a.t.c.hed the parchment. It was a hundred years old wizard experiment. The goal was immortality.
He advanced on orc priests’ research to obtain a substance that replaced one’s body to achieve immortality.
“Crazy!” Abel wanted to burn the parchment immediately, but something stopped him. Although these records were filled with the stink of blood, it was the first detailed doc.u.mentation on a wizard body. Abel had never heard of most of that information.
After a bit of hesitation, he put the parchment in his ring. Afterward, he threw out a fireball towards the corpse on the bench and burned it clean.
This explained why there were so many books on the 16th floor, especially about orc priests. If the old man had more time, he might have made progress.
Abel was not interested in continuing the research, at least not at the moment. He was still young. All he had was time. Maybe he would pick up that knowledge again when he reached the age of the old man.
He left the 17th floor. When he arrived at the 18th floor, all he saw were luxurious articles of clothing and art pieces plastered on the wall. The floor was covered in sheep fur, and the furniture were the ones of the royals.
This was the most lively place of the tower. There was a cup of water on a small table and countless luxurious pieces of jewelry on a large table.
Maybe the old man had decorated this place like the common world to keep himself from going fully insane.
The old man did not have any wizard followers. He had decorated everything by himself.
The lonely still had hobbies, and the old man’s hobby was the luxuries of the common world.
Abel walked into a room on the side and found the core of this magic tower’s spirit.
Since its owner was dead and the commander spirit had taken control, Abel could easily be recognized as the new owner.
The tower began to glow, and a voice emerged like it had just woken up from a long sleep “Master, tower spirit is here to serve you!”
Abel quickly swapped out the intermediate gems in the magic tower’s energy box into top quality ones. It was his habit since he couldn’t use it anywhere else.
“Tower spiral ignite all the magic circles!” Abel added.
“Yes, master!” Afterward, the sound of energy running through filled the magic tower. It was reborn once again.
A magic tower with a dead owner was like a tomb, burying its owner’s wealth until eternity.
The magic circle of a magic tower would only reignite once it had a new owner. Suddenly, the magic tower was lit up. Even the dim illumination circles began to work their magic.
Abel felt like the magic tower had become a part of him. He could clearly sense every magic circle within it, even the small numbers that Johnson damaged.
His senses were amplified a few times all of a sudden. The entire underground s.p.a.ce, as well as the garden above, emerged in front of his eyes. He then zoomed out to the palace and then the entire Denan City.
“It’s a giant protection circle!” Abel mumbled.
What Abel was seeing was the giant protection circle of Denan City. It was not ignited when Abel entered Denan City, and most royals never heard about it.
Abel sighed as he looked through the circle. Although it was only a normal giant protection circle with a good amount of defense and attack, it could fight off almost any elite wizard with a rank 18 wizard surveilling in an 18 stories magic tower underground.
Just imagine, if a wizard invaded Denan City, this giant protection circle could quickly lockdown that wizard and limit his ability to move in a flash.
Afterward, the old man could utilize his magic tower to amplify his spell and land upon the wizard through the giant protection circle.
“It’s the perfect protection system!” Abel sighed.
Abel knew the kingdom’s final card was underground, but he was not expecting it to be so powerful. This could not only attack anyone in the city, but it could also spy on anyone in the city without a protection circle.
A person who took over this place could perfectly see anything that was happening in Denan City. Maybe this was the actual reason the old man had set up this giant protection circle.
“Tower spirit, how do I take care of those herbs outside?” Abel looked outside and felt a little confused.
The old man took care of those herbs all by himself, but if Abel were to do the same, he wouldn’t have any time left for training. He was not planning to keep this place free from all wizard followers anyway.
“Master, will you allow me to use puppets?” The tower spirit asked.
“Yes, I’ll give you the permission to use puppets!” Abel replied.
After Abel said his words, a cabinet in the operation was triggered, and its doors slowly swung open. 2 human shape puppets walked out from within.
These puppets were extremely simple compared to Abel’s little war puppets. They only had some simple mechanics, and the tower spirit fully controlled them. They probably couldn’t even stand if they went beyond the magic tower.
Maybe you could think of those puppets as the body of the tower spirit.
In a flash of white light, those 2 puppets disappeared and reappeared outside. Soon, they began to work without holding back.
Those herbs had been growing for a long time without anyone taking care of them. Although it wouldn’t affect their power, a clean up was long overdue.
Abel knew these herbs were the main income of the old man. A valuable herb could exchange potions even money couldn’t buy in the Wizard union.
However, all of those herbs were now Abel’s resources. No one’s alchemy was better than him in the Holy Continent anyway.
This tower spirit had been set to grow herbs automatically, making it a level more valuable again.
However, a perfectionist like Abel just couldn’t accept those ugly puppets, so he took out 4 little war puppets from the Varaya’s ring and gave them to the tower spirit.
Simultaneously, he installed 10 lightning spirals on the 18th floor of the magic tower, so this tower could have the attack of an elite wizard even when no elite wizard was around.
All he needed to do was to send a few trusted wizards here, and the entire Denan city would be under the attack range of those lightning spirals.
Afterward, Abel left and went back to where Steward Burbridge was waiting.
“Steward Burbridge, pa.s.s down the order that no one can talk about and enter this place. It is the secret of the kingdom!” Abel lowered his voice.
“Yes, your majesty!” Steward Burbridge bowed without question,
After Abel placed 5 more lightning spirals at the entrance, he placed Steward Burbridge’s hand on his shoulder and flashed out of the underground structure.
Steward Burbridge had seen the power of those spirals from the military parade. They had stunned the Holy Continent, so he understood what Abel meant by not letting anyone enter.
Abel didn’t know if there was anyone in the Kingdom who knew about this entrance. Greed might bring the worse out of people, but with those lightning spirals, no one would come out alive.