After diving into some heavy stuff, Zack and Fannie got onto discussing their future plans. Zack dropped a bombshell, admitting he's a wizard from one of those magic towers. He kept it vague, though, and didn't spill which tower he's from. But judging by the magic he's throwing around, Fannie could easily guess.
Zack mentioned all the official wizards from his tower are being called back in. No clue when he'll get out again.
Fannie's face fell for a sec, but she quickly plastered on a bright smile. "Sounds good, I'll be here in the Dorzaal for a while. Just promise you'll come see me when you're able to get away. Okay?"
Zack pulled her in for another hug, mulling over the idea of using his tablet to keep in touch from inside the tower. Unsure if it'd even work for contacting folks inside, but pretty certain it's a no-go for reaching the outside world. Otherwise, apprentices would've been blabbing secrets left and right.
As much as he wanted to bring up the chance they could still chat using their tablets, Zack held back. He didn't want to get Fannie's hopes up for nothing. So, he kept that tidbit to himself.
He spent the next few days copying more books from the library and handing them over to Fannie. Plus, they hit up the market and chowed down at some local joints. But time's ticking, and Zack's gotta haul it back to the tower, like, now.
The tower was strict about their deadlines, giving only half a month for wizards to return. Fail to show up, and it's considered betrayal, with the contract ready to snuff them out. Zack, though, had a bit of a cheat code with his [Thousand Faces] ability, dodging some of those contract consequences. Still, he wasn't planning on ducking out just yet. He had his eyes set on soaking up more of that advanced knowledge.
On the final day, Zack said his goodbyes to Fannie, who couldn't help but burst into tears. Zack teased her in his mind, thinking he'd raised a crybaby, only to realize his own eyes were getting misty. Weird, right? It's not like he won't see her again.
Zack chuckled to himself, admitting he's pretty rubbish at this whole emotions thing. With a flick of his wrist, he activated his [Body Enhancement III] and vanished into thin air. Yeah, he totally made up that name. It's just a combination of [Body Enhancement II
and [Hermes' Shoes - Talaria].
***
Making his way to the teleportation circle, Zack went through the usual routine and activated it to zip back to the tower.
Once there, he checked in at the mission hall and grilled the staff about how to leave the tower. Turns out, they're not letting him out unless he hits at least peak level 1 wizard status.
The tower figures those wizards stand a better chance against the Holy Empire's goons, plus they need someone to mediate between their businesses and the Empire. They're not just handing over the keys to the kingdom without a fight.
It makes sense, especially considering how much cash flows in from the Fulminar Empire, especially through lightning magic. With the Holy Empire taking over, they're not just sending in soldiers but also aiming to control the finances and culture.
They're planning to bankrupt Fulminar's businesses, replacing them with their own. But it's not a walk in the park. These bigwig businesses are backed by noble families and the magic towers, with branches all over the place. Smashing one doesn't do much when another branch is ready to pick up the slack.
That's where the peak level 1 wizards come in, swooping in to save the day before the whole system collapses like a house of cards.
So, the plan is for these peak level 1 wizards to hold off the Holy Empire's fighters and keep the big businesses alive as long as possible. Sure, the Holy Empire might have more level 3 and level 2 fighters, but they're spread thin across thousands of cities in the Fulminar Empire. I mean, the Fulminar Empire practically owns a third of the whole continent! So, even though the Holy Empire won the war, taking over is gonna be a marathon, not a sprint.
The staff sent Zack a bunch of info straight to his badge, detailing all this stuff. Seems like he's not the only one asking. They've got it all neatly packed into a handbook for anyone who wants the scoop. Pretty nifty, he thought.
Next up, Zack asked about using his tablet to reach the outside world. As expected, no dice there. But hey, the tower's got its own communication setup for wizards inside to chat with their families. There's this thing called a communication hall, linked to those monoliths he's seen around. Send a message through one of those, and bam, your family gets it.
Only catch is, folks on the outside need to know the location of the tower branch to access the monolith, and Zack's gotta cough up some contribution points to use the service. Plus, it's only for level 1 wizards or approved apprentices with soul contracts. No wonder he never heard about it back in his apprentice days.
But hey, At that time Zack figures he doesn't really have anyone he wants to talk to outside anyway.
Once again, those restrictions are there to keep wizards from spilling the beans on classified info outside the tower. Even if you've got a soul contract, like level 1 wizards and some apprentices, the tower's still gonna snoop on your messages before they go out.
It's thorough, sure, but at least he got a way to contact outside. But it still leaves Zack scratching his head real hard. "How the heck am I supposed to let Fannie know to head to the lightning magic tower branch if I can't step outside?" He kicked himself for not asking this stuff the moment he hit level 1.
After getting all the info he could, Zack turned back to the staff with another burning question: when can a regular ol' level 1 wizard like him finally hit the streets? Their answer? Whenever things chill out, which they've got zero intel on right now.
With a heavy sigh, Zack thought, 'Well, wasn't expecting much else.' At least he didn't lead Fannie on with false hope about getting in touch soon.
He trudged back to his room, a sweet upgrade he snagged when he "advanced" to level 1. Way nicer and roomier than his old digs as an apprentice.
Shutting the door behind him, Zack flopped onto his bed. Man, this thing's comfier than his spot back in Mossley, where he had this posh place in the high end part of the city.
Sinking into the plush mattress, he felt sleep creeping up on him, lured in by the sheer coziness of the bed.
First day back at the tower and he figured, hey, might as well enjoy a little downtime. So, he let himself drift off into dreamland.
***
The next day, Zack hit up the mission hall to check out what kind of gigs were up for grabs. Dude needs points if he wants to score some library books, especially those level 2 ones that cost an arm and a leg. And with his current stash of points and mana stones running low, he's gotta hustle.
Gone are the days of easy points from the war. Now, he's gotta figure out how to earn 'em on his own. That's why he's scouting the mission hall. Even though wizards are stuck inside the tower, there's still plenty of missions to choose from.
One of the hottest gigs in town? Doing lectures. See, for those super niche topics nobody's into, the tower dishes out rewards to wizards willing to give talks on 'em. They hook you up with a classroom and advertise your lecture for free. But, they'll grill you on your knowledge first to make sure you're legit.
Every month, they quiz the lecturers to make sure they're still on top of their game. And if some other wizard thinks they can do better, they can apply to take over the lecture gig.
Sure, it's a steady paycheck, but the downside is, your pay stays the same no matter how many apprentices sign up for your lecture.
Then there's the other type of lecture gig for popular topics. This one's on you to set up. You gotta rent the classroom, pick your topic, and fork over some cash to the tower to advertise your class. There's a whole section in the mission hall dedicated to browsing and applying for these gigs.
For every book or topic, there's a ton of lectures floating around. The ones at the top? Super popular. And get this, the tower doesn't even skim off the top of the lecturer's earnings when apprentices sign up for their lectures.
In fact, for those top-tier lectures, not only do they waive the fee in the mission hall, they even toss some extra points to the lecturer's stash.
Assigned lecturers can rake in around 50 points for basic level 0 knowledge and a cool 200 for level 1 stuff per lecture. But for the popular indie lecturers, they're looking at a sweet 300 to 500 points per session, sometimes even hitting 3000 to 10,000 points. Meanwhile, the less popular ones might be lucky to scrape together 10 points for level 0 knowledge and 30 for level 1.
You can find all this juicy info in the lectures section of the mission hall, meant to tempt wizards into giving lecturing a shot.
Zack's eyes nearly popped out at the thought of all those points mentioned for the popular lectures. His mind raced. Starting his own lecture on hot topics would be slow going at first, he needed some backup plans to cover the classroom fees and get his class put on the mission hall.
His thoughts drifted to arrays and spell patterns, his bread and butter. Sure, he dabbled in enchantments, but without the whole blacksmithing side of things, he couldn't cash in much on that. Plus, he wasn't planning on diving deeper into enchantments anyway. He only learned 'em because he couldn't level up his formation and spell pattern game at the time, and he needed to craft an artifact for Fannie to channel his mana.
Anyway, Zack's game plan was to hustle in the tower market with his formation and spell patterns, rake in some points, and use that dough to bankroll his lectures. It'd eat up a chunk of his study time at first, but once those lectures took off, he could dial it back to just a couple sessions a day and still cover his library expenses.
Once he had the idea brewing, he decided to make it happen. But first things first, dude needed breakfast. Man, that tower chocolate cake hit different! He'd tried all sorts of cakes outside, but none could hold a candle to the tower's.
After savoring his grub, he hit up the tower market to snag some materials for his arrays. Zack stocked up big time, planning to churn out 50 arrays to sell throughout the week. Back in his room, he whipped together a makeshift workshop. See, the cool thing about being an array master is you don't need some fancy setup like the potion masters do. Sure, they might rake in more cash, but the barrier to entry for array mastery is way lower. Plus, diving into formations and arrays helps Zack's spell pattern game, which is where his heart's at.
He spent the whole day crafting arrays, taking a breather for lunch in the middle and grabbing dinner once he hit his target number. He might just be the only wizard in the tower with a rock-solid three-meals-a-day schedule. Ahem...
Anyway, with his arrays ready to roll, Zack was all set to kickstart his lecture business. Time to hustle and make those points!