Apprentice Town No. 8 Underground Market, Sky Tower First Floor.
Angel and his friends went to the Underground Market, and the first place they wanted to go was Sky Tower. Both Angel and Nausica are interested in partic.i.p.ating in the compet.i.tion. The purpose of their visit this time was wanting to get a closer look at the atmosphere of Sky Tower. They also wanted to scope out the compet.i.tors they are about to face.
Sky Tower has a total of 15 floors. Each level has a score limit, and once the score limit is reached. One can apply for promotion to the next level. Of course, one can also choose not to advance. But if one chooses not to advance, the next time they beat their opponent, they can only get a limited amount of contribution point as a reward. This is a kind of protective mechanism for compet.i.tors in the Sky Tower battle arena.
The Sky Tower is painted with a s.p.a.ce extension magic pattern inside, so the s.p.a.ce on each floor is vast. There are ten battle arenas on the first floor, all of which are 40 × 40 (unit: meters), and there are auditoriums for spectators beside all the battle arenas.
Because the auditorium on the first floor is free admission, almost every battle arena on the first floor is surrounded by spectators. Most of whom are mortal who are basically people at the bottom working in the Underground Market. These people usually have no recreational time during the weekdays, so Sky Tower is their only form of entertainment.
“There are more people on the first floor, and all the seats at the top have to be booked. Those mortal don’t have magic crystals and can’t go upstairs to watch the battle. So upstairs is a lot more deserted. But from the 13th to the 15th floor, there are more spectators. And these spectators are basically all Wizard Apprentices.” After Shalem was promoted to Wizard Apprentice, he also came to Sky Tower with curiosity in the past few months, so he knew a lot about it.
“Instead of thinking about what’s going on upstairs, let’s look at the level of the compet.i.tors on the first floor.” When Angel said so, the three found a smaller battle arena and sat with the audience in the auditorium.
The compet.i.tion has not yet started, so the compet.i.tors have not appeared on the arena stage. The three chatted casually. After their short chat, a slump old man with a box on his back came up to them.
The old man was a mortal. While Angel was wondering why this man stood in front of them. He saw Shalem graciously take out a silver coin. He bought a few cups of juice and fried golden dough from the box on the old man’s back.
Angel: “…” Turns out he was peddling snacks.
“These mortals are also quite financially intelligent. A silver coin is enough for a mortal to live for a month in other places. Here they only need to sell a few drinks to make money.” As Shalem handed the juice and fried dough to his two friends. He recalled the hardships of life in the Princ.i.p.ality of Versailles.
Angel took a bite of the fried dough. It had a soft texture with a hint of milk. That said, he was very satisfied with the snack.
“It’s delicious, isn’t it? I knew you’d liked it.” Seeing the “happy” expression on Angel’s face, Shalem immediately raised his little face and asked for credit.
Angel was about to answer when he heard Nausica say—
“The milk taste is too heavy. It’s more suitable for your childish tastes. I actually prefer salty snacks.” Nausica took one bite and put it aside.
Angel listened, and his expression was sluggish: “It tastes normal. My taste is actually somewhat similar to Nausica.”
The trio ate and drank, waiting for the compet.i.tion to begin.
It wasn’t long before one of the two compet.i.tors came out of their corridor. They both wore wide robes, covering their faces and figures.
At this time, Angel is now directly above the battle arena. There is a large gla.s.s transparent frame, he did not notice at first, until the compet.i.tors on both sides came on the stage. He was surprised the transparent box actually flashed a countdown with the names and avatars of the compet.i.tors on both sides.
[Countdown 3:39]
[King of Beasts Vs Immortal Ice Emperor]
Angel was still surprised. This transparent box was very similar to the Holographic Tablet to some extent. Sky Machinery City is worthy of being the mecca of mechanical alchemy. One can see the inside story of any alchemy product there. But he had not finished his musings when he saw the names of the battle arena compet.i.tors. He could not help but spray out the juice he had just drunk. Come on, what is with these names.
—It’s a good thing the seat in front of him was empty.
“What is this?! King of Beasts, Immortal Ice Emperor, why are their names so powerful?” Angel’s face was astonished. Did he enter the wrong battle arena and accidentally cross the training ground for Legendary Wizards?
At this time, the two men on the battle arena pulled off their robes in an extremely flashy manner, revealing their true faces.
King of Beasts is a dark-skinned man with a huge bow and arrow, colourful totem on his face, colourful feather headband, and only a tiger skin skirt. He was dressed a bit like the original Hooked.i.c.k, as a primitive aboriginal. But the colourful totems and feather headband on his head made him more grandiose and exaggerated than Hooked.i.c.k.
Immortal Ice Emperor is also a man. And in order to highlight the name “Ice”, his clothes on his whole body is snow-white. Along with the clothes hung a variety of exquisitely carved accessories, most importantly, his hair is also white.
However, from his scattered mid-drift, one can vaguely see the dark roots of his natural hair colour. Needless to say, his white hair must have been dyed.
“Such pompous dresses, such big names, their strength should be good, right?” Angel thought.
At this point, the countdown becomes zero.
The two men began moving in an instant, and Immortal Ice Emperor shouted, “Ice and Snow!”
As the voice fell, he stood still and seemed to build a spell model in his mind. Three seconds later, within a distance of about two or three meters in front of him, white frost marks began appearing on the ground.
King of Beasts did not show any weakness either, he turned and somersaulted in place, puzzling everyone’s eyes. He then put one hand to support his crouching posture on the ground.
“Come out, my King!”
After a long time, a light smoke burst out from King of Beasts, and then a pure white kitten came out from the smoke.
“Come on, King! Break his Ice and Snow!” King of Beasts pointed a finger full of momentum as if thousands of soldiers and horses were about to charge into battle.
The pure white kitten is very cooperative and opens its mouth: “Meow~”
A loud, crisp, shy and timid cry rang out.
Angel and his friends: “…”
After a long time, Shalem twitches at the corners of his mouth: “This cat feels so unreliable. Shall we go to the other battle arenas to see what’s going on?”
Nausica raised her eyebrow: “Actually, this cat is kind of cute.”
Angel: “When did Frost Fall change its name to Ice and Snow? Frost Fall is a level 0 magic, whose effect is similar to “Oil Slick,” summoning a small range of Frost Fall to hinder the progress of others. Between the two similar low-level magic, most Wizard Apprentices choose Oil Slick because Oil Slick can at least be ignited, causing fire damage.
The three of them had their own complaints in their hearts. But the ordinary onlookers applauded, and others shouted cooperatively. “Go, King. Tear up that arrogant Ice Emperor. Pull him down from his high throne!”
No one objected to the shameful words, but the atmosphere became even more enthusiastic.
“Shall we leave?” Shalem asked again.
“Whatever. With the strength of these two men, I can knock them down with my fists and feet alone, and I can bring them down without weapons.” Nausica rubbed the short sword around her waist.
Shalem looked at Angel, but Angel shook his head. “Wait a minute.” Then he continued focusing on the battle arena.
At this time, the white kitten has broken through the scope of “Ice and Snow.” Immortal Ice Emperor snorted coldly but also began chanting words for a while before a slow ice knife broke through the air.
The white kitten was fast and dodged the ice knife. At this time the Immortal Ice Emperor suddenly rushed out, and the white kitten was still in mid-air could not turn around. Ice Emperor suddenly kicked it down, and the kitten fell in the “Ice and Snow” while constantly wailing.
“Ah! My King!” King of Beasts rushed to the side of the white kitten with a cry of an almost three folds increase in a falsetto voice. Affectionately he picked up the kitten with a distressed colour on his face.
The audience was also enamoured by this scene. Someone even silently wiped away their tears.
King of Beasts burst into tears: “I concede defeat. Immortal Ice Emperor’s strength is indeed remarkable.”
Immortal Ice Emperor grunted, “Know your place.” Then he turned away with his head held high.
The hanging gla.s.s screen also shows a line of words in time: [Immortal Ice Emperor, Victor!]
Angel and his friends: “…”
Angel: “I regret watching it to the end. Let’s go.”
Shalem put his hand over his face. “Let’s go somewhere else. I feel like I’m going to lose all my face when I stay here. Fortunately, no one knows us.”
…
The trio changed to view several more battle arenas on the first floor of Sky Tower.
They saw “Spell King Vs Dragon Flame”, “Undefeated King of Battle Vs Thunder G.o.d”, “Eternal Sage Vs Sword Sage”…
Angel now understands these apprentices, even though each had a shocking name, their ability seemed to be at the level of an ordinary First Level Apprentice. Even some mortals who have practised martial arts can fight against them.
“I think we came into the fake Sky Tower.” After watching the battles, Shalem said in silence.
“The last time I came to watch the compet.i.tion. The compet.i.tors didn’t seem to be so limp. Why did the level suddenly drop so much?” Nausica said in doubt.
Angel: “Have you forgotten what happened on Phantom Island?”
With Angel’s reminder, it suddenly made sense to them. This time, the vast majority of Wizard Apprentices went to Phantom Island for an opportunity. So, Sky Tower was only left to pick only a remaining handful of crooked melons and crack jujubes.
Moreover, after the Phantom Island incident. This led to the fall of hundreds of elite apprentices. It is estimated that the Sky Tower’s compet.i.tors will be a mixture of good and bad seedlings for a short period.
Thinking of this, Nausica’s eyes suddenly lit up: “I think this is an opportunity.”
“Opportunity?” Shalem looked over and saw Nausica rubbing her hands and was surprised and said, “Miss Nausica, do you want to…?”
Nausica nodded: “Yes, I want to climb the tower now! I think I can try to rush to the top during these days. How much I can fight will save a lot of cost for magic pattern leather scrolls.” She had originally planned to spill money to open her way, but how could she not have thought of taking advantage of such a great opportunity?
Angel agrees: “I think this is a good idea, with Nausica’s strength, at least the first floor will have no rivals.”
As a result, they did not continue watching the battles but accompanied Nausica to the first floor of the Sky Tower staff office. Asking a staff member to register Nausica.