Chapter 13: The Mage’s Invitation

“I think I should remind you, this little one is somewhat unreliable… with your current strength, you cannot fully control her. Even if you offer a high price, once she learns the truth, do you think she would let you go on so leisurely…” Perhaps it was truly boring inside the Soul Amulet. Hartdiel rarely gave his opinion on matters Constantine didn’t ask about.

“It’s just adding a bit of fun to life. As long as she is smart enough, she should know that this current state is beneficial for herself… As long as she stays within the Duke’s Mansion, those idiots from the Law Enforcement Office have no way of finding her. As for control… I don’t need her to do anything for now. Matters of control can wait until my power grows stronger. There will always be a way…” Constantine chuckled lightly. “Having a beauty around is always pleasant, isn’t it… And you probably don’t understand the meaning of the word ‘cultivation’.”

While conversing with his magic advisor, the youth was not idle—at the tip of his finger, a droplet of water was quietly gliding, forming different patterns on the smooth wooden tabletop.

This was not some child’s game, although it looked a bit like one… Controlling tiny dancing lights or deforming water droplets required minimal magic power, but it was the best training for precise magical control. This was a training course set for Constantine by the Lich who held the qualifications of an Archmage. Every time he used up his daily Spell Slots, he would practice this exercise.

A flower, clouds, a pentagram… a window logo… Perhaps because Constantine was in a good mood. The speed of the water droplet’s transformations also grew faster.

…This wasn’t because he had some strange fetish, deriving pleasure from quarreling with a beauty. He was in a good mood because he felt he had recently turned his luck around.

That headache which had been pressing on him more and more tightly had not bothered him for two days. He even tried to induce it using his old methods, but it didn’t have much effect—although that peculiar feeling still existed, it had completely returned to the level before the outbreak… A slight dizziness, then it vanished without a trace. Thanks to this, his sleep quality had improved greatly recently. Those two almost signature dark circles under his eyes had faded considerably.

This might be due to his Sorcerer abilities being triggered… According to the Lich, Sorcerers often have strange signs before awakening. Even their first spell might be cast inadvertently. Sometimes, young Sorcerers’ houses are filled with strange sounds and lights, looking like haunted places. Compared to them, his own commotion couldn’t be considered big, just longer.

Other happy matters mostly came from the Blood Elf…

One thing was, Constantine came into some ill-gotten wealth.

Although he was the legitimate eldest son of a Duke, Constantine had never received extra pocket money from that father. This was probably setting an example based on the military’s consistent tough and hardworking character… although from what the youth knew, only the military in the Western Frontier of the entire Phoenix Empire maintained this austere habit.

Of course, normally the youth had no room for spending either… Actually, according to the consumption level of this Plane, for ordinary people, ten gold coins a month was quite a large sum, enough for a family of three to eat well and stay warm… It’s just that Constantine was now a Sorcerer, and there would absolutely be many places requiring money in the future… Although it’s said Sorcerers can forgo those strange materials when casting spells, to make up for their limited spell variety, Scrolls became indispensable.

The lamb’s blood and parchment currently used for drawing Scrolls cost him several gold coins, and this was only for beginner Scroll materials. In the future, with things like magical beast skins and blood, he probably wouldn’t have the chance to hunt and replenish them himself.

But now, the spoils collected from the Blood Elf had relieved this worry… over a dozen gemstone accessories of quite good quality, rings and necklaces, each looked very valuable. That Count Feesman apparently didn’t hesitate to exploit commoners in his daily dealings. Who would have thought it would all benefit Constantine now.

Of course, the premise was he had the opportunity to exchange them. These items had already been registered as stolen goods. In Hayton, no respectable person would accept them.

But the youth wasn’t very worried about this point—given a bit of time, he could figure out a way to modify these crude pieces of jewelry himself. And he dared guarantee, things from his hands would absolutely have higher value than the originals.

It was just a pity that as a thief, the Elf lady obviously didn’t have much interest in hard-to-sell things like various deeds. Otherwise, Constantine would probably have made a huge fortune.

Besides, the Blood Elf lady’s black soft armor and two daggers were not common goods either. According to the Lich’s identification, they carried some low-level magic effects. Although simple, in ordinary people’s eyes, they were quite valuable.

“What is that?”

Constantine in the middle of practice suddenly looked up, shifting his gaze to the center of the room—although there was nothing unusual in his sight, the youth seemed to feel a special kind of vibration suddenly generating from the air there!

“Dimensional tremor, that’s a sign of spatial magic… Remember this feeling, you might encounter it often in the future.” The Lich’s voice still echoed in Constantine’s mind when the light in the air before him suddenly intensified, forming two rings of white light. As these light arcs shifted up and down, a figure stepped out of the distorted space from within the rings, forming a slender silhouette in the center of the room.

Constantine noticed this uninvited guest was draped in a pale blue, silver-edged cloak. Only the symbol representing a Mage was clearly visible; the deeply pulled hood covered most of the face, also hiding the eyes and nose bridge entirely in shadow. Only a few strands of light-colored hair could be seen hanging down from the ears, brushing against the neck, a sharp and petite chin, thin, but almost utterly bloodless, delicate lips… Only the corners of the mouth were slightly upturned, revealing a somewhat lively, elegant curve.

“Good day. Constantine di Friedrich Connarivis, sir…” this mysterious individual spoke. The voice was soft and elegant, actually female. It just seemed to carry little emotion, making one feel inexplicably chilled inside: “My teacher, Archmage Nikolai, asks you to come to his laboratory. There is a matter for discussion. If you have no urgent business, we hope you can set off immediately.”

Archmage Nikolai? The youth was taken aback, then remembered this person was the one the Duke invited earlier to assess his abilities. He was said to be one of the few Archmages in Hayton City. But the Mage Association having follow-up services for his newly acquired abilities was something the youth hadn’t expected—because the Lich had told him before, regarding Sorcerers, the Mage Association generally took a laissez-faire attitude. If the Sorcerer themselves had no intention of approaching the Association, the Mage Guild wouldn’t actively contact them either.

“Young master, Archmage Nikolai invites you to his Mage Tower. The master has agreed. Do you need to prepare for the trip immediately?”

Walter appeared silently at the door, asking in his still rigid tone, seeming completely unconcerned about the person who had suddenly appeared in the room.

“Now? Alright, I’ll change clothes.” The youth hesitated. His first thought went to his Amulet, which wasn’t suitable to bring to places where Mages, particularly sensitive to Arcane Arts power, gathered.

“If you have no urgent business, we hope you can set off immediately.” The Sorceress spoke at this moment, simply repeating her previous sentence, but the urging intent was more than clear.

“Then… I…” The helpless Constantine tried hard to buy a little time. But at that instant, the Mage in the blue cloak came to the table and grabbed his hand.

The youth was slightly stunned… This action caused her hood to lift slightly, revealing a delicate face.

Delicate features, a high nose bridge, quite beautiful. Just the skin seemed so white it was almost transparent—different from the Blood Elf’s fineness, this whiteness was a bloodless pallor, so thin the subtle veins beneath could almost be seen, beautiful like tranquil spring water.

And the youth also noticed the immature proportions of her facial features, which even her haughty expression couldn’t hide—although girls of the same age always grow faster than boys, Constantine was enough to judge that this young lady before him was at most three or four years older than his current self. But looking carefully, a clear, transparent, cold air like winter wind added a touch of world-weariness to the girl’s innocent face.

Even the slender hand carried a non-living kind of coldness, yet the feeling of being boneless and soft was stronger. The youth couldn’t help but tighten his grip slightly.

Then before Constantine could fully react, a dizzying sensation occurred—it wasn’t the sensory confusion from the brain’s balance organs malfunctioning, but the surrounding scenery truly began to distort. In just a blink, the surroundings had completely changed. When the youth looked around, he was already standing on a street.

The youth shook his head in disbelief, then judged from the distant scenery that this was the southeast corner of Hayton City, the location of the Imperial Mage Tower.

“Spatial Teleportation… Wasn’t she worried at all about any accidents? Like missing something… or turning into a fly or something else?”

Constantine’s smile was somewhat bitter—no wonder some said Mages were strange folks. They never seemed to consider what trouble their actions might cause others. To put it nicely, this was called being self-willed; to put it harshly, it was being completely self-centered—what he was wearing now, although a rather well-made Hunting Attire, was essentially his casual wear within the Duke’s Mansion. For going out, it was somewhat inappropriate for general etiquette.

“Being able to use the Teleportation Spell, she should at least be a formal High-Rank Mage. Achieving this at this age wasn’t common even in our time… It seems peaceful times make it easier to select talented apprentices…” The Lich’s voice echoed in Constantine’s mind, unusually carrying a hint of admiration.

“High-Rank Mage? Are you sure?”

Constantine gazed with some surprise at this young lady not much older than himself. He knew a bit about the evaluation standards among Mages—the Mages of this world weren’t divided into ranks like in the novels he read in his previous life. They could only roughly gauge ability by how deeply they touched the Weave of Magic… Being able to touch the fifth layer of the magical weave meant one could be considered a so-called “High-Rank” Mage. If not, then one was only considered “Low-Rank.”

But the number of High-Rank Mages was quite scarce.

Compared to Constantine’s original Plane, the population of this Continent could only be described as sparse. The total human population was only around 180 to 190 million, not even one-seventh of the total population of the country in the youth’s memory. And Hayton, hailed as a first-class powerful nation, only had a population of just over nine million. The total number of Mages across the entire Continent was only a little over ten thousand, not exceeding twenty thousand. That meant, on average, only one in ten to fifteen thousand people could potentially become a Formal Mage.

But among these, those who earned the title of High-Rank Mage were less than thirty percent—although by common saying, the fifth layer of the magical weave was just one step away from the fourth, for Mages it was a major barrier. If one could cross it, it was a qualitative breakthrough and leap, opening up vast possibilities from then on; but most Wizards couldn’t break through, stopping here, remaining unknown for their entire lives.

Someone who could reach this level in their teens could obviously be described as a genius.

“Feeling some kind of pressure? Actually, it’s no big deal. For a Mage, what’s more important is flexibly manipulating spells and using them effectively. Power isn’t our goal, and casting spells doesn’t represent a Mage’s full strength. What’s more important is your application of magic, your knowledge!” Whether sensing the youth’s thoughts or not, the Lich rarely spoke some encouraging words.

“Whenever you encounter any problem, thinking first to solve it with magic is what a fool does. What we pursue should be not using any magic—and certainly not brute force—just using our clever minds to solve all problems that even magic cannot solve. If you can flawlessly remember the properties of hundreds of potions and an equal number of various formulas, that is far more useful than having the magic power to summon one or two medium-scale spells.”

“Hartdiel… right now you really do sound like an Archmage. But, could you please not make me feel a chill when you speak?” The youth impatiently interrupted this lecture.

At this moment, this Archmage had left the Amulet, existing somewhere within the youth’s body. Thus, the speed of transmitting thoughts seemed faster than usual. Although this state made the youth lose some of the spell-related alertness brought by the Amulet, it could fool most Mages’ detection. It was a decent disguise.

But Constantine didn’t like this state… If it were some beauty, that would be one thing. Playing a two-souls-in-one-body trick with a centuries-old Skeleton—just thinking about it gave him the creeps. But at this stage, it could only be so—Hayton was not like those empires in the north with relatively free attitudes towards magic types. If people discovered a Lich’s Soul resided in his Amulet, even if Constantine could clear himself due to his status, the Lich would definitely be taken by the Church folks for purification. The youth didn’t want to lose this free encyclopedia he had worked so hard to obtain.

“Truly spectacular…” Gazing at the huge magic symbols flickering on the towering stone structure that pierced the clouds, Constantine murmured.

The Mage Tower was hundreds of feet tall, the tallest building in all of Hayton. Beneath the slender tower body, an exquisitely carved gate almost occupied one entire side. There were no heavily guarded sentries like at the palace gates, only a few massive stone-carved monsters crouching nearby, and a faint, barely visible, pale blue layer, swirling within the space inside the walls—only discernible upon careful observation. Of course, this didn’t mean it lacked defensive power. Not to mention that blue force field barrier, which any intruder other than a Mage would find difficult to pass through, those stone carvings were not ordinary things either. They were so-called animated Golems. Even if a strong person forced their way through the force field’s protection, they would be torn to pieces by the ensuing Golems and magical pets.

The youth remembered a passage from a biography he had read: “It is not impossible to capture a Mage Tower. It just requires the lives of a thousand soldiers and enough high-quality equipment. Moreover, the attackers better be prepared to face the wrath of the Mage Guild. That supernatural great power, for ordinary people, is no different from gods and Demons.”

These words from a famous General in this Plane’s history might be somewhat exaggerated, but they sufficiently reflected the awe people in this world held for Mages.

Although the periphery of the Mage Tower wasn’t some enclosed space, because there were no buildings related to people’s livelihoods around, ordinary citizens rarely came to this place, let alone Constantine who had only been here a few days—in fact, this was his first time seeing a Mage Tower in this world.

“You should visit the capital of the Mil Empire. Clinton’s Mage Tower has an external diameter exceeding three hundred feet, a structure thirteen stories high. Each floor is nine meters high, and the internal space is more than ten times its external size.” The youth’s pointless sigh drew a response. The young Sorceress pulling him suddenly answered coldly. Then a strength completely unlike what a young girl should possess came from that icy little hand, dragging him forward without question.