In the middle of the garden, he gazed out at the illusion of the vast prairie conjured by the magic formation and felt at ease, so much so that he ended up yawning. It wasn't like he couldn't stifle a yawn; being a level 3 wizard, his body and mind were nourished by his vast mana reserves, allowing him to control his bodily functions like yawning, sleeping, and eating. It was just that the current moment seemed to call for a yawn, you know?
Lost in the scenery, he drifted into a daze until suddenly a pair of soft, fragrant palms covered his eyes. That was the downside of being a wizard with super perception; no surprises, no playful moments with loved ones.
"Guess who I aaam?" the voice behind him teased, drawing out the words in a cute, playful manner.
'What a ridiculously cute prank,' Zack thought, smiling inwardly as he played along.
"Hmm... I don't know, could you kindly tell me who you are, pleasee?" he responded, mimicking Fannie's tone.
"Hmm... I'll tell you if you say 'Fannie is the most beautiful girl in the world,'" Fannie teased.
"Alright, Fannie is the most beautiful girl in the world," Zack played along.
"Heheh, surprise surprise, it's me!" Fannie spun around to face Zack, striking a pose with a wide smile.
Seeing Fannie's radiant smile, he couldn't help but smile back. 'Eh, who cares about mana perception? Let's just ignore it and have fun. Ah, what a great day.'
Fannie jumped into his embrace, calling out, "Teacher! Don't just ignore me, say something." They proceeded to chat about trivial things, enjoying each other's company.
It had been five years since he acquired his [Cosmic Weed] ability. Fate just wouldn't quit trying to lure him out of the tower. He constantly felt the itch to strut his stuff outside or engage in battles for no reason. Sometimes, the urge would catch him off guard, spiking unexpectedly.
Other times, materials for his formation studies or Fannie's research suddenly ran out, forcing a wizard of his caliber to venture outside to sort it out, which of course he wouldn't go out. The most absurd incident was when a level 3 magical beast, a draconic lizard, accidentally damaged the tower's mana gathering formation.
Fixing the formation required a level 3 formation master. The only wizards at the Lightning Magic Tower who had reached that level were Sir Cedric and himself. But Sir Cedric was unavailable at the time, so the job fell to him.
"Sir Zack, we're really sorry to bother you. We even got instructions from Sir Cedric himself not to bother you under any circumstances unless it was truly dire. But we have no choice now. If the formation isn't fixed within six hours, the entire tower's operations might grind to a halt! Please, Sir Zack, help us!" The person in charge of monitoring the formation pleaded with him, their face pale, bowing deeply for assistance.
He also got a warning from his badge, being one of the department heads, meaning he could receive crucial updates about the tower's status anytime. Initially, he was inclined to ignore it. But he hadn't expected the node damaged by the lizard to be a critical one. With the desperate look in front of him and the urgent situation, he had no choice but to step in.
"Sigh, okay okay, just give me the coordinates to the node."
Naturally, he planned to send his clone to handle the task. Dividing his focus, he directed one of his clones to emerge from its storage chamber. Swiftly swapping places with his clone, he stepped out of the teleportation circle only to find himself enclosed in a vast gray dome.
As per the technician's explanation, every node linked to the tower's magic formations was shielded by a high-level illusion barrier, preventing outsiders from seeing the node and vice versa. It was a security measure to prevent the node's location from leaking.
The node wasn't heavily fortified with defensive formations to avoid drawing attention. Besides the illusion formations, there was just a barrier directly above it, designed to withstand attacks from level 3 entities. Unfortunately, this draconic lizard was one of the magical beasts that understood the law of wind compression, enabling it to compress its draconic breath sufficiently to breach the barrier.
What made it all amusing was that it was all just one big "coincidence". The lizard happened to wander into the vicinity of the node, coincidentally blasting its breath toward it. And, by another stroke of luck, the lizard was one of the rare beings capable of breaking through the barrier. And wouldn't you know it, the node happened to be a crucial piece of the tower's formation.
Apparently, occurrences like this were rare. In fact, they hadn't happened in the past 200 years. Other times, when nodes were damaged, they weren't critical, so they could wait for Sir Cedric to come and fix them. And even then, non-critical nodes were only damaged about once every 20 years.
Was it really just a coincidence that this happened just 5 years after the last non-critical damage and 200 years since the last critical node was damaged? Zack didn't buy it. Especially when he looked at the lizard, which somehow managed to slip through the illusion barrier—a feat he was pretty certain no one else could pull off. He was convinced that the illusion barrier surrounding the node was even more advanced than ones he could create. 'I mean, come on, it has been perfected by countless level 3 formation masters over thousands of years'.
Even if something stumbled blindly toward the node, the formation would somehow divert its path around it while making it believe it was still going straight. It was only a one-in-a-million chance that something could navigate the twists and turns just right to bypass the formation.
Here we go again, the draconic wizard was there, looking around all confused. Picture a magic beast resembling a western dragon, covered in shimmering emerald scales. Its body was sleek and elegant, yet radiated pure power. It lazily flapped its massive two pairs of wings. This creature boasted a wingspan of 100 meters and stood 50 meters tall—a true apex predator of the forest of death.
Was this just a damn coincidence? Hell no! "Damned fate," Zack muttered under his breath. But he wasn't panicking; in fact, he wore a smug, mocking smirk. After all, nothing could happen to him, right? I mean, he had [Hidden Strength], for crying out loud. His [Stealth] was top-notch; no mere level 3 could see through it.
So, he went ahead and fixed the formation while keeping an eye on the lizard, which seemed to be searching for something. He was pretty damn sure fate had lured the lizard here. Tough luck, buddy! His system abilities weren't to be trifled with. Fate couldn't just drag him out like that. Once the lizard skedaddled without doing anything, he headed back to the tower.
Honestly, he wasn't scared to throw down with the lizard. Heck, he could probably kick its butt no problem. But what he feared was being dragged into some other mess by fate. So, he let the lizard do its thing and got the heck out of there.
Anyway, he'd managed to hole up in the tower for the past five years. But don't go thinking he was just a lazy bum leeching off the tower's resources. Nope, Zack was always busy. He often maintained various formations in the tower on behalf of Sir Cedric while the latter was out and about. Plus, he'd swing by the spell pattern department to share his insights and help push the boundaries of wizardry. And hey, it wasn't about the paycheck for him; he genuinely wanted to advance the field.
He'd devoured all the level 3 spell patterns and formations knowledge in the library, even those related to concepts beyond the concept of "fast." It was great that he'd gleaned some insights from them too. So, you could say his spell pattern and formation game had leveled up big time.
He kept up with his meditation routine, diligently gathering mana. And whenever his cores got filled up, he just whipped up a new one. Now, he had four cores, since the previous three were brimming with mana. With each passing day, his mana reserves grew. He was practically a walking nuke, packing enough energy in his small frame to blow your mind.
Running his fingers through Fannie's hair, she quieted down, enjoying his gentle pats. He glanced at Fannie, who had closed her eyes and leaned against his chest. And, of course, he didn't forget to have his clone circulating mana through Fannie's body during her meditation. He could tell that Fannie's vitality was improving faster with the added mana boost.
He stopped stroking her head and said, "Alright, time's up. It's meditation time."
"Aww, just five more minutes," Fannie grumbled, giving him puppy-dog eyes.
'Ugh, she knows how to get me,' he thought, clutching his heart melodramatically. 'But I'm not giving in. There'll be other times.' Zack turned his head away from Fannie's pleading gaze and walked out of the artificial garden.
Suddenly, he felt a weight on his back as Fannie's slender arms wrapped around his neck and her legs around his waist.
"Hmph, take me to the meditation room then," Fannie declared right by his ear. Zack smiled helplessly, sliding his arm under Fannie's knees to keep her from slipping, and carried her to her meditation room.
After settling Fannie in her meditation room, he made his way to his practice room before heading to the deepest room on his floor. Like many "rooms" in the tower, it was more like a hall the size of a football field, with towering steel shelves lining the space. As he entered, the room's lights flickered to life automatically.
Closing the door behind him, he made his way to one of the shelves. The temperature in the hall was kept low, so every time he exhaled, a puff of vapor escaped his lips. As he pulled out one of the slots in the shelves, a pale face with silver hair and closed eyes came into view—it was his own face. Well, technically, it was a clone.
If someone stumbled into the room without any context, they might have mistaken it for a morgue. For the past five years, he hadn't stopped creating a clone every day and storing them here. Now, there were around 1800 clones, each containing over 110,000 mana.
He checked his previous clone for no particular reason before closing the shelf and opening an empty slot. Behind him, a person silently followed from his meditation room—it was his clone for today. The clone climbed into the slot with a blank expression and closed its eyes. He shut the slot and then left the room.
He walked slowly at first, but then picked up speed until he reached his meditation room. Closing the door behind him, he breathed a sigh of relief. As usual, putting the clone in the room was downright terrifying. It felt like something out of a horror movie.
Even though he knew the clone couldn't fight back, just the thought of thousands of bodies lying there, technically not dead but not alive either, sent shivers down his spine. He wiped his brow, realizing his Fanniometer had instantly depleted from the session. 'Definitely need some cuddle time with Fannie tomorrow,' he thought, making a mental note.
Then, he went to the center of the room to do his daily meditation session.
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Name: Zack
Age: 30/300 (3000)
Occupation: Official Wizard - Level 2
Contract: [Lightning Magic Tower - Official Member]
Hidden Contract: -
Mana: 3600/3600 (198,360/198,360)
Overt Talent: [Low Mana Manipulation Correction], [Low Mana Sensory Correction]
Hidden Talent: [Limitless Mana Well], [Advanced Mana Manipulation Correction], [Advanced Mana Sensory Correction], [Advanced Intelligence Correction], [Enhanced Computation Power]
Hidden Boss Abilities: [Hidden Strength], [Thousand Faces], NEW [Cosmic Weed]
HBP: 0
HB Progress Bar: 80/100%
Expand Hidden Boss abilities Store? yes/no
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