Chapter 18 - Dean's Mage Tower
By the time Zwei woke up the next day, it was already late in the morning.
In a daze, he walked to the bathroom and washed up. Only then did his mind clear up a little bit.
Yesterday, although Zwei had made it seem as if he had agreed to participate in the banquet because of Alyssa, that hadn't actually been the case. In reality, he had gotten tired of his monotonous meals and wanted a change of pace. However, it wasn't long before he started regretting his decision.
Before his transmigration, Zwei had been an introvert. Although his transmigration had gained him memories of visiting many places, he hadn't actually done so himself. Hence, for Zwei, the villagers' warm enthusiasm was incredibly difficult to handle.
Given a choice, Zwei would rather challenge the Level 9 Saberwolf in battle again than be surrounded by the enthusiastic villagers. At the very least, he could easily stop the saberwolf from opening its mouth by using magic. Meanwhile, he couldn't possibly beat up the smiling villagers, right?
As for Alyssa, the little girl had relied on her petite body to worm her way out of the crowd… Damn it! She actually slipped away by herself! Didn't you see that your teacher was also in deep suffering?!
In short, it wasn't until midnight that Zwei managed to drag his devastated body back to his mage tower.
The whole day had simply been a train wreck. First, he had sustained mental damage from over-meditation. Afterward, he had fought the saberwolf. Lastly, he had suffered at the hands of a group of enthusiastic villagers. Hence, as soon as he returned home, he threw himself onto his hard bed and fell asleep.
Due to all this, along with the fact that he had finally managed to remove the worries burdening him, he got the best sleep he had in the past few days. As a result, he ended up oversleeping.
"I should think twice about these banquets in the future." As Zwei massaged his forehead, he discovered that his comfortable sleep had actually partly cured his mental damage, and his mood brightened at this discovery.
After doing some light stretches, Zwei sat back on his bed.
Yesterday had truly exhausted him, so he had fallen asleep without doing his daily dungeon run. In addition, the construction of the Dean's Mage Tower should be completed by now.
Although the Magic Academy System had always been rather fraudulent, he had indeed received a lot of benefits from it. Hence, even if it really was only a browser game, the Dean's Mage Tower might bring him some surprises.
While clinging to such hopes, Zwei immersed his mental power into his tattoo.
However, before he arrived at the Construction Panel, he noticed something different.
Originally, after entering the Magic Academy System, the first thing he would see was just the "Establish the world's number one magic academy" goal. Now, however, new text appeared below it.
…
Quest: Taking Shape
Quest content: You have begun building your own academy. Once you have constructed all the basic infrastructure, you will have taken your first step toward your goal. Stride toward that goal!
Requirements: Build the Level 1 version of each of the following constructions:
-Dean's Mage Tower (Completed)
-Teaching Block (Incomplete)
-Hall (Incomplete)
-Training Field (Incomplete)
-Dormitory (Incomplete)
-Mana Lake (Incomplete)
-Protection Barrier (Incomplete)
…
"So, this system has quests as well." Zwei nodded. Compared to poking around blindly, it was obviously much more convenient for him to progress toward the system's goal with such a quest. "However, just the first quest already requires so many things to be built. If I rely solely on raid rewards, how long would I need to collect all the necessary blueprints?"
To make matters worse, Zwei's stockpile was now impoverished. When he turned toward the Academy Resources panel and saw this, he faltered momentarily.
Just the Dean's Mage Tower alone had already depleted all of the starting resources he received. If he relied on his daily dungeon harvests, who knew how long it would take for him to collect the resources necessary to build all of those structures?
"I can only hope that high-level dungeons will drop items that can be exchanged for more resources." The poor dean of a certain academy sighed. Afterward, he switched to the Construction panel that recently appeared.
The Construction panel currently displayed a 3D layout of an island covered with trees and rocks, a big improvement over the previous green screen.
Meanwhile, located at the center of the island was the Dean's Mage Tower.
In the display, the Dean's Mage Tower looked very magical. It resembled the Karin Tower found in Dragon Ball.
Firstly, there was an extremely tall, white pillar rising from the ground, with many engravings decorating the pillar. Unfortunately, as the 3D model was too small, Zwei couldn't see the engravings in detail. As for the tower's size, although he couldn't determine its exact size based on the 3D model, he could still get a rough idea using the surrounding trees as reference and judged that the tower should be close to 100 meters tall.
Secondly, there was a white, circular disk that resembled a hamburger seated on the pillar. The disk's radius should exceed 10 meters, and there were no doors or windows on the construction. This disk should be the main body of the Dean's Mage Tower.
When Zwei tapped on the Dean's Mage Tower, a new interface appeared before him.
This was the Dean's Mage Tower's operating interface.
The Level 1 Dean's Mage Tower only had three abilities. The first was the ability to use Money to purchase construction blueprints. The second was the ability to purchase student IDs. The third was the ability to open a Bronze Storage Box with a 20-slot capacity.
The Purchase Blueprint section had the construction blueprints for all the constructions listed in the quest; however, they were all Level 1 versions.
The Purchase Student Identification section provided a card resembling a bank card in exchange for Money. The card started out as a blank Admission Notice. Once a person injected their mana into the card, however, the card would record the person's mana, and the person in question would become a student identification holder. And aside from the owner, nobody else could use the ID.
When a holder died, their student ID would record their cause of death, and the Dean's Mage Tower would automatically collect the ID.
Meanwhile, only if a person possessed a student ID would the academy acknowledge them as a student. Also, depending on the rank of their ID, their authority level would vary.
Access to the magic academy's benefits depended on the student's authority level.
Take the Teaching Block (Level 1) meant for attending classes for example. Grade 1 students would receive only an "Active Mana" effect, while Grade 2 students would have their memory enhanced and their meditation effects improved.
In short, the higher one's authority was, the more benefits they would enjoy.
One thing worth mentioning was that Zwei's authority was listed as the highest Grade NT, which was meant for the academy's dean.
If he paid the corresponding resources, he could elevate the grade of a student ID. However, the Level 1 Dean's Mage Tower could only support up to Grade 3 IDs. The authority for the five subsequent grades, as well as for the teaching assistants and professors, was still unavailable and grayed out.
"Whatever. There aren't any other facilities available right now anyway." When Zwei considered the long list of construction blueprints and his empty resources, he couldn't help shedding a tear.
Finally, there was the Bronze Storage Box. In Zwei's opinion, this was the best reward for constructing the Dean's Mage Tower.
In short, this was an upgraded version of the Temporary Pocket he received in the Trial Gate. Aside from its inaccessibility while inside the Trial Gate, the storage box had no real flaws to complain about.
Although he had expended a lot of resources to build the Dean's Mage Tower, the cost was negligible compared to the conveniences he got in return.