In a dark, oppressive swamp filled with a thick, wet fog.
Even the harshest sunlight was unable to penetrate the low clouds and gloomy fog, so anyone working through this area will fill a contant chill on their skin.
There were small, foul-smelling ponds everywhere one looked. This ponds were inhabited by a myriad of strange creatures. Whenever Wanderers visited, this desolate and silent land will become a paradise for those creatures, many of whom fed on flesh and blood. Demon Rattans, scavenger crows, Ghost Nannies, and Gaint Swamp Alligators. Each of these terrifying demonic beings made travelers avoid this place like the plague.
But, right in the centre of this swampy land, where no reasonable human being could bear to live, a dark looking tower loomed over the surrounding land.
It was a tall stone tower, with the height of over 100 m.
It's foundation was made entirely of augite, so when did darkness of night came, the entire towel would radiate a chili and silent glow, making it especially attractive to evil spirit and wraith.
Maybe it was because of the lack of basic maintenance and care, but the lower part of the towel was completely entwined with crazy growing vines of a demon rattan, making a surface look like it was filled with wooden spike that shines like metal. If any ordinary man came in tangled in this vines, all the blood in his body would be sucked out. Eventually, is cup will join the others in a huge pile of bones lining the base of the tower.
The Sky darkend with the coming night, a candle was late inside the tower.
Dim candlelight leaked through the narrow window in the side of the tower. Not only did his light not bring warmth, but, instead, will send the shivering sensation crawling down once fine and through their heart.
Greem, who are just turned 15 was sitting in front of a worn out wooden table. There was a thick magic book unfloded in front of him comma which he was silently making a copy of. Although he had arrived in this world 2 years ago, the discomfort of a soul still gave him frequent headaches.
His mind was distracted, the scene of What happened back on Earth continually flashing through his eyes. In a distraction, the tip of his writing brush paused for a moment, causing a big lump of ink to well up on the crude goat skin.
Greem's brows kintted into a tight frown. He couldn't control himself and cleansed his fist. He wanted to scream out in anger, but he took a deep breath and held still for a while. After a long time, he finally managed to suppress the urge.
This world was no longer the earth that he was familiar with, and the body he was now inhabiting was not a original body either. It won't belong to an apprentice adept, whose name was Greem. In brief, he was just a wondering soul, who manage to take over the body right at the moment when the original Greem died.
Retaining nothing form his original life, he traveled from here Earth, where magic didn't exist, and came to this world of advanced magic, where foul demons and nonsensical creature freely roamed. This world was a place where Adepts stood at the top. The process of adapting overwhelmed Li Xuan, such that you almost ended it or right there, but luckily after maraging the memory fragment that was left in this body, Li Xuan at gained a basic linguistic ability. Otherwise, just with the word pronunciation and grammar in this world, along with the completely different alphabet, which looks like swimming tadpoles, would be enough to torture him to death.
Even so, the headache that frequently struck him troubled in deeply.
In this place, he never there to expose his real identity. He could only use Greem's name, trying his best to struggle to survive in this tall tower.
Although he was simply an apprentice adept living under Grace master Anderson, his glorious status will draw envy form most people living in this world. However, only those people who actually lived in this tall tower would know that not only was this not an enviable position to be in, but could actually be considered a terrifying form of torture and punishment.
An apprentice adept basic job was to work diligently and conscientiously, taking care of the daily life of their great master in this case, great master Anderson they were also in charge of cleaning up the magic experiment equipment, keeping the inside of the tower clean, taking care of those demon creatures outside of the tower, and... being a part of the great master edison's experiments.
Although the last job was rare, when the wagons that brought salves or condemned prisoners were a few days late, great master Anderson, who easily became frustrated when there waslake of beings to experiment on, would order a random apprentice to become his temporary lab rat.
It was said that Mary, who came from ante province and live next to Greem but was 'fortunate' to become the experimental partner for great master Anderson last month. She didn't die from the magic experiment, although her body was seriously 'contaminated', and she has some horrifying mutation now. Since she came out from the laboratory, wearing a thin cloth which covered her entire body, she has just hidden in her room and never left.
Many Apprentice adept thought that Mary might have died in her room.
Ball green knew the truth, Mary 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 that, while everyone else was asleep, he will throw some food, which he has snunk back into a room, into her through those tiny windows on the tower.
Although Greem had his own problem to deal with, he still some compassion inside him, from his time back on Earth, so he felt it should try to help me Mary, as best as he could.
Today, the headache came at the wrong time. It chose to strike him right when he was making a copy of the book. He was low on money, yet he had wasted anther piece of goateskin paper.
Although it was just crumpled and crude goatskin paper, it was worth about two sliver coins. In this world, the most commonly used currency was the gold coin. A gold coin could be exchanged for ten sliver coins, and a sliver coin could be exchanged for ten copper coins. Five copper coin was about how much money making St people in this world made a day.
Hence, for most l, an ordinary looking piece of goatskin paper was considered a huge fortune. But in this place, it was just rubbish that an apprentice adept could simply throw away.
However, within the tall adept's tower, nothing was truly ever free.
Greem was required to pay for room, food, and board , along with the cost of learning with his own efforts. The only ways to earn money required one to walk out from the tall adept tower, and either feed those brutal and ferocious demon creatures, take care of those eerie and strange demon plants, or searching out and harvesting the magic materials specified by great master Anderson. One could also earn by cleaning out some of those dangerous areas within the tower.
When carrying out these tasks, they would put on a magic talisman made by the great master Anderson himself, which would allow them safe passage through to he magic formation around the tower. But in this mysterious and strange world, no mere talisman could allow one to consider themselves absolutely safe. Ever couple of months there was always an incident where a few unfortunate guys would be devoured by demon creatures or plants when taking care of them. Sometimes people were struck down by magical energy while cleaning up some experiment of the great abept.
Therefore, most of these time that silver tax would be taken by senior apprentice adept, and, as a result, the weaker Apprentice adept could only pick more dangerous tax to earn their money and their knowledge points so they could continue their magic training.
Money was, of course, used to buy one's daily need, while knowledge points were used in buying knowledge. It was the currency created by the great adept himself. In the library within the tower, each magic book was labeled with different knowledge point value. Growing books would require knowledge points, not money.
The apprentices are to work hard to end knowledge point, but those hard earned points would only allow them to borrow the book for a very short amount of time. The time was so short that was totally not enough for an apprentice no matter all the knowledge within the book. Then for most of their apprentices and to make a habit of copying table themselves.
Whenever they borrow a magic book, the apprentice put all their efforts into copying the knowledge they needed, so they could continue to study in the future. Copying book required ink and goatskin paper. Obviously, they were not free either, and thus the Apprentice adapts needed even more money.
Of course, if an apprentice adep came from a rich family could spend the huge amount of money in exchange for knowledge point. The exchange rate between one and a point cost 100 gold coins.
For example, the 'Glossary of Demon Creatures', which Greem had borrowed today, had cost him three knowledge points. He could only borrow it for half a day. With Greem copy speed, based on his best estimation, you would have to borrow it three times in order to make a complete copy of this book.
This would cause team a total of nine knowledge points. Greem would have to leave the tower 2 weeks in a row in order to earn this nine knowledge points.
So he didn't feel even the slightest bit upset for wasting a peace of goat skin paper, but he was Furious that he had wasted 2 hours of his precious time of copying that book.
Green took another deep breath, and did a best to stamp out his anger, has doing so would help him copy the book later, however, in the next moment, a familiar beeping sound suddenly resounded in his brain.
*Beep* "Biological energy has reached required amount. Biological Assistance Chip, serial number ZXJ9521 initiating..."
Greem let out a cry of surprise.
"Biological Assistance Chip"
Once upon a time, during the tough time when he had just arrived in this world, Greem and indulged himself in fantasy where he became a mighty immortal would travel to a new world with a divine weapon. But too bad for him, besides giving him a frequent migraines, the damn cheap had never shown any signs of activating. Surprise, surprise... It had finally decided to work today!
After the cheap finished making adjustment to its new state, a graceful yet emotionless female voice resounded in Greem's brain.
"Who's detected, establishing database... Please wait..."
Eh? It could still identify if nobody? That was unexpected.
After all, this was the word of advanced magic stop the entire dimension was filled with a mystical material called elementium. Based on the difference in this basic 'elements', these elementium were classified into types, like earth, fire, and, light, darkness, etc.
Adept would have different levels of affinity toward these elemental type, and thus there were different fractions among adept. Because this system was completely different from how earth operated, green was troubled and how to standalize the data in this world, so having the Chip to attempt to quatify this thing brought him hope.