It was a tall stone tower, over a hundred meters in height.
Its foundation was made entirely of obsidian, so when the darkness of the night fell, the entire tower would radiate a cold, silent glow, making it especially attractive to malevolent spirits and ghosts.
Perhaps due to a lack of maintenance and basic care, the lower part of the tower was completely intertwined with the ever-growing vines of a Demonic Rattan, making its surface appear full of wooden thorns that gleamed like metal. If any ordinary man got entangled in these vines, all the blood in his body would be drained. Eventually, his corpse would join the others in the huge pile of bones lining the tower's base.
The sky darkened as night arrived, and a candle was lit inside the tower.
The candlelight flickered through the narrow window on the side of the tower. Not only did the light fail to bring any warmth, but instead, it sent a tremendous chill down the spine and heart.
Leon, who was fifteen years old, sat before a worn wooden desk. There was a thick magic book spread open in front of him, from which he was silently copying. Although he had arrived in this world two years ago, the discomfort in his soul still gave him frequent headaches.
His mind was distracted, scenes of what had happened back on Earth continually flashing before his eyes. In his distraction, the tip of his writing pen paused for a moment, causing a large blot of ink to form on the parchment, ruining it.
"Damn! I failed again!"
Leon's brows tightened. He couldn't help himself and clenched his fists. He wanted to scream in anger, but he took a deep breath and remained motionless for a while. After a long time, he finally managed to suppress the urge.
This world was no longer the Earth he was familiar with, and the body he now inhabited was not his original body. It once belonged to an Apprentice Mage named Leon. In short, he was just a wandering soul who managed to take over this body at the moment the original Leon died.
Retaining nothing from his original life, he had traveled from Earth, where magic did not exist, and arrived in this world of advanced magic, where demons and mindless creatures roamed freely. This world was a place where Mages stood at the top.
The adaptation process nearly overwhelmed Lucas Tesla to the point where it almost ended there, but fortunately, after merging the memory fragments left in the body, Lucas Tesla gained basic language skills. Otherwise, just the strange pronunciations and grammar in this world, along with the completely different alphabet, which looked like swimming tadpoles, would have been enough to torture him to death.
Even so, the headaches that frequently struck him deeply disturbed him.
Here, he never dared to reveal his true identity. He could only use the name Leon, trying his best to fight for survival in this tall tower.
Although he was simply an Apprentice Mage living under the Great Master Eclivel, his glorious status would attract the envy of most people living in this world. However, only those who truly lived in this tall tower would know that not only was this not an enviable position, but it could be considered a terrifying form of torture and punishment.
The basic work of an Apprentice Mage was to work diligently and conscientiously, attending to the daily life of their Great Master, in this case, Great Master Eclivel. They were also tasked with cleaning magical experiment equipment, keeping the tower's interior clean, tending to the demonic creatures outside the tower, and… becoming part of Great Master Eclivel's experiments.
Although the last task was rare, when the wagons that brought slaves or prison convicts arrived several days late, the easily frustrated Great Master Eclivel, who lacked test subjects for his experiments, would order a random apprentice to become his temporary lab rat.
It was said that Bleia, who came from Ante Province and lived next to Leon, was "fortunate" enough to become the experimental "partner" for Great Master Eclivel last month. She did not die from the magical experiment, though her body was seriously "contaminated," and she now had some horrible mutation. Since she came out of the lab wearing a thick cloak that covered her entire body, she ended up hiding in her room and never came out again.
Many Apprentice Mages thought that Bleia might have died in her room.
But Leon knew the truth: Bleia was still alive.
At night, in the unnatural stillness of that tower, he could hear the sounds of agonized groans scratching against the wall. Because of this, while everyone was sleeping, he would sneak out of his room and throw some food, which he had brought into his room, into Bleia's room through the tower's small windows.
Moreover, Leon would occasionally talk to her, calling her little princess, telling her she was beautiful, and promising that when she overcame whatever she was suffering, he would invite her to his room so they could have fun together.
Although Leon had his own problems to deal with, he still felt fear deep inside. After all, if Bleia lost control, the first door she would break down in her complete madness would be Leon's room. That's why he invented all this, and to protect himself, he was capable of telling the sweetest lies.
After all, even the most beastly creature would feel pain attacking someone who had a special place in their heart, even if that heart were made of stone; there were still ways to carve Leon's name on the top of it with sweet lies.
Today, the headache came at the wrong time. It chose to strike just when he was making a copy of the book. He was low on money, but he had wasted another piece of goatskin paper.
Although it was just a crumpled, rough piece of goatskin paper, it was worth about two silver coins. In this world, the most commonly used currency was the gold coin. One gold coin could be exchanged for ten silver coins, and one silver coin could be exchanged for ten copper coins. Five copper coins were what most people in this world earned in a day.
Therefore, to most, a common piece of goatskin paper was considered a huge fortune. But in this place, it was just trash that an Apprentice Mage could simply throw away.
However, inside the Mage's high tower, nothing was truly free.
Leon had to pay for a room, food, and counsel, in addition to the cost of learning through his own efforts. The only ways to earn money required going outside the high magical tower to feed those brutal and ferocious demonic creatures, tending to those horrible and strange demonic plants, or searching for and gathering the magical materials specified by the Grand Master Eclivel. One could also earn money by cleaning some of the dangerous areas within the tower.
While performing these tasks, they would use a magical talisman made by the Mage himself, which would allow them safe passage through the magical formation around the tower. But in this mysterious and strange world, no mere talisman could guarantee absolute safety. Every two months, there was always an incident where some unfortunate people were devoured by creatures or demonic plants when tending to them. Sometimes, people were struck down by magical energy while cleaning up one of the Great Mage's experiments.
Therefore, most of the safer tasks were taken by senior Apprentice Mages, and as a result, the weaker Apprentice Mages could only choose more dangerous tasks to earn their money and knowledge points so they could continue their magical training.
The money was, naturally, used to buy daily necessities, while the knowledge points were used to purchase knowledge. It was a monetary system created by the Mage himself. In the library within the tower, each magic book was labeled with different knowledge point values. Books to be borrowed required knowledge points, not money.
Apprentices had to work hard to earn knowledge points, but those points only allowed them to borrow the book for a very short period. The time was so short that it was not enough for an apprentice to master all the knowledge within the book. Therefore, most apprentices had made it a habit to copy the books themselves.
Whenever they borrowed a magic book, the apprentice would put all their effort into copying the knowledge they needed so they could continue studying in the future. Copying books required goatskin paper and ink. Obviously, these were not free either, so Apprentice Mages needed more money.
Of course, if an Apprentice Mage came from a wealthy family, they could spend a large amount of money in exchange for knowledge points. The exchange rate between them was one knowledge point for a hundred gold coins.
For example, the "Glossary of Demonic Creatures," which Leon had borrowed today, cost him three knowledge points. He could only borrow it for half a day. Based on Leon's best estimate, with his copying speed, he would need to borrow it three times to make a complete copy of this book.
That would cost him a total of nine knowledge points. Leon would have to leave the tower for two consecutive weeks to earn those nine knowledge points.
So, he did not feel so upset about wasting a piece of goatskin paper, but he was furious for having wasted two hours of his precious time copying the book.
Leon took a deep breath and did his best to hold back his anger, as it would help when copying his book later. However, in the next moment, a beeping sound suddenly echoed in his brain.
"Beep!"
"Biological energy has reached the required amount."
"Biological Assistance Chip, initializing..."
Leon let out a gasp of surprise.
"Biological Assistance Chip!"
Some time ago, when he had just arrived in this new world, Leon indulged in fantasies where he became a powerful immortal who traveled to a new world with a divine weapon. But to his misfortune, aside from giving him frequent headaches, the chip had shown no signs of activation. Surprise, surprise... it finally decided to work today!
After the chip finished adjusting to its new state, a graceful, emotionless female voice sounded in Leon's brain.
"Host detected!"
"Establishing database..."
"please wait..."
Eh? It can still identify its new owner? That was unexpected.
After all, this was a world of advanced magic. The entire dimension was filled with a mystical material called Elementium. Based on the differences of these basic "elements," the Elementium was classified into types such as Earth, Fire, Wind, Light, Darkness, etc.
Mages would have different levels of affinity with these types of Elementium, and therefore, there were different variables among Mages. Since this system was completely different from Earth's workings, Leon was worried about how to standardize data in this world, so having the chip here to try to quantify these things brought hope.
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1952 Words
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