Fran had long known that, despite Lina calling her "little cute" every day, she thought that Fran's excessive softness would make it difficult for her to survive in the future.
Fran's behavior of teaching her close servant spells made people think that she was easily tempted.
Lina, benefiting from this, couldn't and didn't want to stop it, but Melanie believed that this behavior would make her reliant on Fran for survival, so she didn't pay much attention to her.
If it weren't for the fact that in the last period they discovered Fran's powerful soul and well-honed magic power, Melanie wouldn't have spent so much time teaching her.
Fran didn't really care about these things. Knowledge was indeed precious and needed to be cherished, but it didn't require being stingy.
She didn't have the desire to cultivate Boen into a talent, but she hoped her playmate could receive the most basic education.
Boen was the one who benefited the most in this chaos. He had decided to follow Fran from then on.
Fran didn't know when she would kill her first person, but she still hoped it would be as late as possible.
The longer she stayed in this world, the more she missed her previous life. She always knew that once she started killing, she would lose all the beliefs instilled in her in modern society.
In her previous life, she had lived until her thirties and died with her parents in an earthquake. She felt regret but no hatred. Fran didn't know why she was the one reincarnated, but she hoped she was still her parents' precious beloved child and not a heartless killer.
During her four years at Perast Castle, Fran always treated people coldly. With the backdrop of her mother's huge fire, no one dared to provoke her.
She had always hidden everything about herself, and now she could finally leave.
Fran's profession allowed her to survive well, but she still wanted to live comfortably.
She let Boen take most of the storage rings and use them to purchase many supplies.
After leaving the safe zone, the threats became the magical beasts in the wilderness.
But the Wood Elementals Fran summoned could emit a natural aura that made the magical beasts in the wilderness ignore her group.
The Wood Elementals appeared as little fairies, small and cute, with delicate wings that allowed them to fly around inside the carriage.
Fran placed a large pot of green vines in the corner of each carriage roof, and the dense vine leaves allowed the Wood Spirits that didn't want to be seen to hide inside.
Four carriages skirted the forest, heading straight towards the distant mountains.
After munching on dry rations for eight days, Fran reached her destination.
It was a rare triangular gorge. The entrance was a narrow path, with towering stone walls a kilometer high on both sides and rushing river water flowing out. No one knew how the Grand Knight of Perast thought of entering along the river. The narrow, mud-slick path beside the river barely allowed a single carriage, and only a few animal tracks were visible.
Fran summoned several Water Elementals, connected the carriages with ropes, and slowly led the horses in front. The Water Elementals quickly swam ahead in the river, bringing back reports of safety.
Fran, holding her magic wand, walked in front while Boen, carrying a magic scroll and accompanied by the Water Elementals, walked at the back.
After walking about 3,000 meters, the stone wall on the left suddenly slanted open. After extending at a 30-degree angle for tens of kilometers, it was firmly blocked by a transverse mountain range.
Inside the valley, forests were dense along the mountain range, but there were vast grasslands by the riverside, where groups of herbivores leisurely grazed. It seemed like a perfect territory for Fran.
Fran turned back with a smile, "We've arrived! Let's go find a good spot in the middle of the valley!"
The carriages sped towards the middle of the valley and finally stopped beside a small hill.
The straight, hundred-meter-high rocky hill beside the vast grassland had river water flowing past its cliff face, and the riverbank was made of rock as well.
Fran summoned the Earth Elementals, ordering them to dig down a hundred meters below the rocky hilltop and reshape the hill into a circular tower.
The Earth Elementals liked to absorb the excavated rocks into themselves to enhance their strength, soon turning into dozens of ten-meter-tall giants.
After finishing a twenty-meter-thick rock roof on top of the tower, the thirty-meter-radius high tower was divided by the giants into nine floors of equal height.
The center of the tower was a five-meter-radius vertical shaft. Fran built a nine-layer spiral staircase along the edge, turning it into sturdy stone stairs with the Mud into Stone spell.
Fran continuously reinforced the tower's structure with magic, slowly descending to the underground level through the hollow shaft.
The Earth Elementals eagerly followed her down. This was one of the reasons Fran thought she had the bloodline of the Earth Bear.
These Earth Elementals had signed a summoning contract with her as soon as she first summoned them after becoming a Magician.
Although the Wood Elementals and Water Elementals also liked her, they didn't show the same enthusiasm to follow her with their entire clan.
Fran promised them that after establishing a Magic Tower, she would keep them by her side. But everyone knew that for so many Earth Elementals to have a safe place to stay, Fran would at least need to reach the Archmage Level.
Although they wanted to enter the Prime Material Plane, they were also very picky! To encounter someone with Fran's earth-resonating bloodline was a miracle in itself, and the Earth Elementals thought waiting for a few decades was worth it. Surprisingly, Fran was already so accomplished!
They gleefully excavated the bottom layer. After twenty meters of rock, Fran allocated them a sixty-meter-high ground, enough for them to use.
A hundred meters underground, Fran left a five-meter-high hall.
Standing in the middle of the underground hall, Fran opened the Pioneering Decree and called loudly, "Great God of Justice, Fran Perast Polanio requests your attention! I hereby swear by my soul: I willingly open up my territory in the wilderness and strive for it all my life! With the Pantheon as my witness, I'll die with no regrets!"
Fran felt a dignified gaze sweep over her from above. The Pioneering Decree in her hand floated and emitted layers of invisible waves. Fran quickly opened the Alchemy Map, where a new location lit up five hundred kilometers outside the Saral Border: the Barony of Polanio.
Fran's territory indeed included the three mountain ranges surrounding the gorge. She breathed a sigh of relief.
Although the Alchemy Map could only mark places she had been, it might be a Divine Artifact, as its marking was very realistic. If Fran awakened the Tower Spirit of the Magic Tower first, the map would probably show Polanio Sorcerer Tower.
Once the map recorded a place, it would not change unless Fran reported it to the Temple or the All Gods intervened.
Fran hoped that nobody would know she was a Magician until she at least reached the Archmage Level.
Beside a stele, Fran carved a Pentagram Magic Circle and arranged the five elemental pools of gold, wood, water, fire, and earth at its edges. She placed the core of the Magic Tower in the middle of the array, a glowing sixteen-sided crystal. Dropping a drip of fingertip blood and using spiritual power to connect with the core, the floating crystal slowly merged into the ground array.
She closed her eyes and connected with the array using her entire magic power, and a towering light burst forth.
The Tower Spirit woke, controlling the dispersed magic, integrating the entire tower and the underground into obsidian. This might be the hardest and most magic-conductive stone material. The thirty-meter-radius, two-hundred-meter-tall obsidian Magic Tower finally gave Fran the confidence to survive.
Fran looked at the Tower Spirit floating before her. He appeared as a black-haired, black-eyed grown man, dignified yet gentle, with kind eyes reminiscent of her mother's. She couldn't help feeling sad. Even though she hadn't forgotten her own appearance for sixteen years, when creating the Tower Spirit, she unexpectedly gave him her mother's eyes.
She softly said to the Tower Spirit, "Your name will be List!"
"At your command, my master!" List bowed deeply.
Fran sealed that layer. From then on, only List could enter.
Back on the first floor, Fran handed over all the Alchemy Golems to List. List, having absorbed her soul power and all her knowledge, and able to command the elements contracted with her, was already an excellent construction worker. Fran felt confident she could be a carefree supervisor.
As dusk fell, Fran instructed List to complete the elevator and prepare a residential space, then leisurely walked out of the tower.
Locke had already let the horses graze nearby, while Boen directed the servants to unload the supplies from the carriages into the Mage Tower.
Fran took Boen and his family to List to record their soul information. As for the servants, they could only stay below the second floor until the farm was built.
Fran stood by the water and began summoning Water Elementals. Some Water Elementals were willing to make a contract with agreeable individuals and remain in the Prime Material Plane. After all, the Elemental Plane was unchanged for millions of years, and some elements desired to see the outside world. In this regard, Magicians had a distinct advantage. There were always elements fond of them; living by their charm certainly had its perks.
One by one, Water Elementals responded to the summons. However, not all of them chose to stay. When Fran exhausted her magic power and stopped, 7 or 8 remained.
The Water Elementals played in the river, patrolling along its course.
With the river secured and the Earth Elementals guarding around the Magic Tower, Fran's home was now built.