140 The First Story Part 1 (1/2)

The place where Saleen and the team were resting was in fact a pathway in the magic tower, and there was a staircase leading to the next story between two doors. Even if the magic array on the ground floor had been broken, the path to the next level would not be fully opened yet. It was possible that there would be another magic array waiting for them just beyond the staircase. However, that flight of stairs would have only been used by disciples. The Grade 10 mage would have most likely used a personal staircase or a transportation array.

This type of magic tower with a double layered structure was unusually strong. The walls were at least three meters thick, and even a magic trebuchet might not have been able to destroy it.

When Saleen woke up, he saw Lex standing at the entrance of the staircase to the left, looking upwards. Nailisi laid next to him, sound asleep. Sika, on the other hand, was seated on the ground, and was using her boomerang to cut a piece of black bread.

”Saleen, you are awake!” When Sika saw that Saleen had woken up, she felt more assured. Nailisi raised one of her eyelids and took a look around before going back to sleep.

”Mm, I am awake.” Saleen rubbed the back of his neck and stood up before doing some stretching. He had thought that Lex would ascend the magic tower alone, but it turned out that she had been waiting for Saleen to wake up.

Saleen silently put away his clan badge. By now, Saleen had built an ambiguous relationship with the clan badge that was similar to the soul contract between him and Nailisi. Words could not accurately describe this relationship.

Saleen could only feel that the clan badge possessed tremendous power. This power would not hurt him, but he was unable to tap into it as well. Even with Saleen’s current immense mental power, he still did not have the capabilities of exploring the secrets of the clan badge.

”Lex,” Saleen called. Lex looked back and smiled. Saleen might have belonged to a different grade than Lex, but he was also a mage master now, and according to the traditions of the Qin Empire, they would enjoy the same status. Right now, the combined powers of Saleen, Nailisi, and Sika were not any weaker that of a Grade 5 mage. Once Saleen mastered Grade 4 and Grade 5 magic, the combat power of the three of them would be close to that of a Grade 6 mage.

”Let’s head in. I can’t wait any longer,” Lex said, pointing to the door leading to the next story.

Sika quickly stuffed the black bread into her mouth and clapped her hands, saying unclearly, ”Saleen, let’s go.”

Nailisi opened her eyes and reluctantly dragged herself up. Getting a good rest was a rare opportunity for her, and now she was going into battle again. Nailisi did not believe that the next level would be any safer. Setting a second trap behind the first was something that little demons like her loved to do.

Lex came before the door. This door was small. Lex pushed, and although the door opened lightly, it felt heavy. Beyond the door was pure darkness, and Lex felt more at ease seeing that. She cast an Illumination spell, and the place lit up.

The floor was bigger than expected. It was a hexagonal hall, and each side was nearly twenty meters wide. In the center of the hall was a metallic instrument. This instrument was about twelve meters tall and reached the ceiling. In the center of this instrument was a cylinder with a diameter of less than two meters. This bronze cylinder was filled with magic patterns. Additionally, there was a ring-shaped alchemy bench at the base of the bronze cylinder.

With the bronze cylinder as the main part, six mechanical arms extended out from it to its surroundings. Each arm had three joints, allowing them to twist and move freely. At the top of the cylinder, there were hollow metal cabinets of various sizes. A mage could control the mechanical arms using the alchemy bench and could use them to take items from the cabinets.

Building an alchemy laboratory in a magic tower was a common thing for mages to do. But to use the entire floor to house an alchemy machine such as this was unheard of.

Lex continued to cast the Illumination spell and glanced upwards. At a height of roughly six meters, metallic branches extended from the bronze cylinder, and on those branches were minute platforms. On the platforms were sealed rooms of various sizes, and all of these rooms were transparent and mosaicked with giant crystals. There were mini alchemy platforms inside of those rooms.

The rooms of different sizes occupied all of the space in the upper part of the room. Saleen was astounded and a term came to his mind – mechanical alchemy tree.

This had been a common installation during the Second Dynasty. A mechanical alchemy tree allowed numerous mages to work together at the same time and carry out large scale alchemy experiments. However, this installation had a strict operating requirement, which was that every mage had to be a sorcerer at minimum. This empty alchemy laboratory was a testament to how lively things had been in the past.

At least ten sorcerers had once worked in this place, and they must have carried out many terrifying alchemy experiments.

On four of the walls, there were crystal cabinets which were six meters tall. The arrangement of the compartments inside of the cabinets was unknown, but Saleen knew that it would just be another complex magic formula. In fact, those compartments could be moved around at anytime, not being fixed to the spot.

On this story, the entire area was an alchemy laboratory filled with machines.

Various magic materials and alchemical products were displayed in the crystal cabinets, and Saleen even saw a fully constructed puppet that was over three meters tall in one. The fully constructed puppet was the true danger. Compared to a war puppet, a fully constructed puppet was over one thousand times more expensive to build. Additionally, the difference in their combat power was comparable to that between a swordsman and a grand swordmaster.

Above all, the fully constructed puppet did not require a mage to control it. As long as a mage cast a magic imprint on a target, the puppet would automatically launch attacks against that target.

Furthermore, magic arrays could be set in the body of the fully constructed puppet. Through mosaicked magic nuclei within the magic arrays, this puppet could even cast spells. Magic nuclei that were Grade 7 or below were not able to activate such a monster. In the entire Myers Mainland, such puppets were only found in the Cloudflow Empire, and they were all hidden inside of the palace.