"Damn!" he cursed and cast 'Illusion shield.' Fortunately, he was quick, so he cast his spell immediately without any delay before any of the contaminated illusion water had the time to splash on him.
With everything upside down, the direction that was 'up' before is now down, and he was falling toward it. He used the 'Fly' spell and accelerated his descent to avoid letting contaminated illusion water be poured on him; even with the Illusion shield, it's best not to allow contact with that water.
His shield is, after all, not all-powerful; it breaks if too much water falls on it; the best way is to fall faster, as the illusion water droplets fall slower.
What is illusion water? It is a precious resource that can be used as currency, but only when carefully poured into specialized storage. If one is splashed with illusion water, they could be turned into an illusion; now, contaminated illusion water is even worse; it could turn one into a twisted illusion monster.
Some droplets contacted Miles's illusion shield, but fortunately, with his descent much faster than the fall of the illusion droplets, he managed to avoid being turned into an illusion monster.
Looking up while descending, he saw the 'sky' was like a continent made of black soil and trees, while the ground was a big ocean.
"There is no sky here!" He felt his survival would be tough here.
Looking in all directions, he saw half of the world, the 'sky', was made of black soil with trees, while the other half, 'The ground', was a big ocean. There was nowhere he could go except …
"The intersection where the ocean and the forest connect! That should be my best shot at getting out!" he thought. While it was still not a sure thing, it was his best shot.
At the same time as all these horrible events were happening, he clearly felt that his understanding of illusion was improving by leaps and bounds.
The greater the risk, the greater the reward; while this saying is not true in all situations, it is generally true that dangerous roads reward more.
That is because safe roads are always packed, and one cannot get ahead using them; only risky ways that deter many remain open, and one can get ahead if one chooses those.
It is like a very safe and straight road that all ordinary people who want a safe trip pass through, compared with a shortcut through dangerous forests, but can get to the destination much faster.
While the safe road has fewer accidents, one will reach one's destination much later.
In reality, many mages who chose the safe road die while trying to reach their destination, immortality. In fact, with few exceptions, all those who can reach immortality choose the dangerous road.
His life is in danger every moment he remains here, but his concept of illusion improves simultaneously. That's why, with all the dangers, coming here is still life-changing.
What are the chances of mortals becoming immortal? Even among the most talented people, the chances are so small that it can be said to be impossible.
Coming here, to this illusion world increases chances of becoming immortals by millions of times. After all, if one gains a master concept in illusions, they will have a lot easier job reaching rank 9, and their academy would provide all help it can to help them reach rank 10.
If lucky, they can even gain a grandmaster concept! It must be said not even all rank 11 immortals have a single grandmaster concept!
Miles started moving toward the intersection of the land and ocean. But, even though he was moving very quickly, it was just as if he wasn't even moving.
"It's so vast!" he sighed. He clearly felt he was indeed getting closer, but it was so far away it would take a long time to reach there. Fortunately, he had many resources, so he wouldn't have any problem staying here even for a hundred thousand years.
Normal rank three mages would die long before that.
The longevity of mortals is determined by the law of their home world. In the Clocks Academy's headquarters, where his home world is, rank one mages could live up to 200 years, rank two mages up to 500, and rank three mages up to 2,500 years.
But Miles was handpicked to travel to the illusion world; it would be ridiculous to let a valuable talent die in the illusion world out of old age. Therefore, before coming here, the academy's dean changed the world's laws and increased Miles's lifespan to an absurd number of years.
Increasing the lifespans of talented mages is not unheard of; it is, in fact, common practice. But, the bar is very high; the academy only does it for the absolute best. Even Miles, before being chosen to be sent to this illusion world, could not get lifespan expansion.
One way to get lifespan expansion from the academy is to reach a master level in any concept. Once a master in any concept, the academy would expand their lifespan to a billion years, increasing their chances of becoming immortal by a huge percentage.
Even if they cannot become an immortal in a billion years, it's doubtful the academy would let a mortal who is a master in a concept die, so it would most likely further increase the lifespan of that mortal.
Lifespans are nothing special; they are governed by the world's rules and can be easily manipulated.
It may cause issues if the world does not have prebuilt settings to manipulate lifespans, but a well-built world like Clocks Academy has those tools.
...
Miles rode for a thousand years before reaching the intersection.
Looking at the gap between the black soil and the ocean, Miles observed it doubtfully. He knew he had flown for 1,000 years because of the rank nine equipment given to him by the academy, and the fact that a lot of resources in his storage have been depleted.
But, he has no memory of 1,000 years of flying.
As someone under 200 years old, flying for that long should be beyond boring; he cannot forget all those years.
But, he feels that he just reached here after a few hours of flying; it was ridiculous.
"I feel like time is behaving strangely!" Most worlds have time, but not all worlds have consistent time. In worlds such as illusion worlds, it's not unheard of that one moment may be a million years from an outside perspective.
In general, a world can have two types of time. One relies on complete law related to the concept of time; powerful and well-built worlds are like this. The concept of time is the most suitable equipment to keep track of time. But it is not the only way.
The other way is to use different concepts to form time artificially. Using any concept to copy the effect of other concepts is possible. Some concepts are more convertible, while some are less convertible.
For example, it is possible to use the complete law of cold water to create ice; it takes more energy, but it is possible. It is also possible to use the complete law of water to create fire; it will take much more energy, but it is still possible.
Therefore, creating an entire rank ten world is possible, with all things working perfectly, only with a single complete law. But worlds like that are very inefficient and inflexible; for a world to work well, it's best to have at least two complete laws compatible with many concepts.
Time and space are common choices because they are compatible with other concepts.
Bigger worlds always have many different complete laws; in big worlds, they never use inefficient ways, such as using the complete law of ice to make fire.
Laws related to illusion are also extremely compatible with other concepts; they are even more compatible than time and space.
But there is a reason nobody uses illusions: Illusions are wild cards; even with perfect coding, they are not entirely stable and may behave strangely. The concepts of illusion and randomness are extremely compatible with each other for this reason.
One can create a stable world using only illusion, but that would require a very high mastery of illusions, masterful and perfect coding, and luck; if one uses the concept of luck on illusions, any deviation would only be helpful and not harmful.
However, only the strongest rank 11s and 12s can do those; Clocks civilization cannot achieve those feats.
There are also worlds made purely from the concept of randomness; those worlds are strange and experimental; in those worlds, everything is unreliable and is completely unsuitable for mortals.
Still, in big worlds, they add illusion laws and randomness laws, but illusion laws in those worlds are restrained by reality laws, while randomness laws are restrained by certainty concept laws; if unstable concepts like randomness and illusions are left unrestrained, they will cause problems.
Time made from the concept of illusion is unreliable, even with perfect coding. Not to count this illusion world, which has only wild codes.
Wild codes are codes not arranged by intelligent beings. Chaos worlds, made from chaos complete laws, dream worlds that appear naturally, and illusion worlds such as the one Miles traveled to have wild codes.
Looking at the passage between the ocean and the black soil, Miles sighed with relief. There was a possibility that the soil and the ocean were fused together with no passage, in which case he would have been trapped.
As it turned out, they weren't a perfect circuit, and there was a passage.
Looking from one side to another, he could see a bright light but nothing else on the other side. Having no choice, he flew through the passage carefully.
...
Opening his eyes, Miles woke up! Looking around, he nodded.
"I'm in another illusion." He found out immediately with one look.
"And I am already a master of illusions!" he smiled.
When passing through the passage, he passed out, and when he woke up, he was already on the other side. If it were before, he would have been confused as to what happened, but now, as a master of illusion, he knew exactly what was going on.
"The ocean was the shell of the illusion world; when I passed through the passage, I finally reached the inside!" he thought confidently.
He knew it just by intuition, even though he didn't study much about advanced illusion worlds in the academy.
Scratching his head, he looked at the room he was in; it was a Chinese-style room with skinny walls, which the sun could penetrate through.
There was a table with a pen and paper and many papers and books on the ground.
Miles stood up. Opening the door and going out, he saw a man practicing swordsmanship outside.
"The man there… he is an immortal!" Miles thought. He could feel it through his intuition.
With closed eyes, the man in white clothes danced with a sword; after a few minutes, he looked at Miles and said,
"How did you get in?" the man, whose face was blurry, said to him.
Miles would have been stunned if it had been before, but now, he calmly responded, "I came here to learn from a senior!"
He knew the man before him was a real immortal cultivator living in this illusion world. While rare, illusion people who could become immortal are not unheard of.
Illusions are the dream of the universe; this man likely is an immortal who died long ago.
Somehow, the illusion of the immortal that died managed to become immortal again.
Is it actually mind-boggling; an illusion of an immortal cultivator became immortal in an illusion world.
The man closed his eyes and said, "If you answer my questions, I will teach you! My question is this: Where did the room you just came out of go?"
This time, Miles was confused; he looked back and realized the room he was in just now was nowhere to be found. In its place was a cage bound by gray, cloudy chains.
Thinking deeply, Miles responded to what his intuition told him, "The room is in the universe but is inaccessible!"
The cultivator nodded and said, "What is it called?" Miles said,
"The room? Does it have a name?" The cultivator said, "Yes! It is quite famous! It was originally just one room floating in the endless space; later, they took advantage of it and used it to advance their goals! They even killed me, its original owner! Now, I have been reduced to an illusion immortal hiding here! Where is it now, and what is it called?"
Racking his brain, Miles ignored that the illusion immortal's 'one' question has become two, recalled several famous immortal civilizations from the past, and decided to go with ...
"The office," Miles said.