Four Split Personalities

Though only possessing the intelligence of a small animal, Mourning’s tower spirit "Dola Mei" preemptively cast a set of images before its master could "check" its condition. This was a feedback arcane linked with hundreds of surveillance arrays throughout the Mage Tower, akin to a convenient, real-time monitor that could reveal every area of the Mage Tower at the user’s will with just a minimal amount of magic power and no blind spots.

Other than Mourning himself, the tower spirit was the only other being with such access. Thus, when it judged that its master had underestimated the potential danger, the loyal "Dola Mei" chose to speak directly with facts, presenting the ’anomalies’ it had detected squarely in front of Mourning.

"Don’t be too willful, even though I leave you here for decades or centuries every so often, I’m not... Huh!"

Mourning didn’t finish his sentence because as soon as he saw the content on the screen in front of him, he immediately realized that Little Mei hadn’t deceived him. Although it seemed illogical, at this very moment, he indeed saw his current room through the feedback arcane, and it drastically differed from ’here’ now!

"Little Mei! Activate all the permanent and additional surveillance magic on the second layer, increase the daily output threshold of the mana pool by two hundred percent, and link these arcane eyes and feedback arrays!"

After a brief shock, Mourning howled and swiftly waved the Black Magic Wand embedded with eleven different gemstones in his hand, sketching out two three-meter diameter magic arrays. The next moment, dozens of crystal-clear arcane eyes swarmed out and rapidly dispersed in a meticulously calculated route across the entire room, flashing at an exceedingly fast rate.

The tower spirit responded swiftly, illuminating the two mana pools inside the leisure workshop. The tangible magic power within these pools surged along countless newly-emerged translucent paths, pouring into each arcane eye, stabilizing the low-rank arcane that had almost been overloaded to the point of explosion.

"Pictures, pictures from all angles!"

Not a computer nor boasting a brain like a calculator, Mourning disconnected the direct mental link after summoning those Eyes of the Mage and relayed them to the feedback arcane within the tower. Seeing that the tower spirit had stabilized the densely packed large orbs, he immediately commanded, "Project all around me, centered on the ’anomaly’ you detected; I need a God’s Eye View!"

[Dola Mei understands.]

The tower spirit’s voice rang directly in Mourning’s head. At the same time, numerous images, equal to the total number of arcane eyes plus room’s permanent surveillance magic, quickly surrounded Mourning, nearly encasing him in a cocoon of flowing light.

"Right here, just here! A half-dragon male and a winged female who appears to be of the half-beast people; they’re in this workshop but..."

Mourning stared intently at the three screens in the center of his vision, then scanned other magic screens with a furrowed brow, seeing a drastically different scene.

The latter had high resolution, synched perfectly with the current leisure workshop. Mourning tried forming brilliant ice crystal petals in mid-air, and without the slightest delay, he observed the same image from multiple angles on most screens.

However, only the three screens in front, controlled by the tower spirit, showed content starkly different from ’the present’.

No dancing ice crystals, no dazzling mana pools, not himself surrounded by numerous screens; just those two ’uninvited guests’, wandering around the now dusty workshop even holding torches!

"Little Mei, can the image resolution be any higher? I need to see it more clearly!"

Mourning almost pressed his face against the screens, unblinkingly watching those three screens while loudly calling out to his assistant.

This time, the tower spirit’s voice was delayed for a long while before it resonated again...

[I am powerless, Master; I am unable to adjust the three broad surveillance techniques that observed the ’intruders’, capable only of simple retrieval operations.]

"Three... just three... why only three..."

Mourning raked through his hair with force, deeply pondering. He already had a suspicion, but due to the bizarre nature of the circumstances, even he, as the owner of the Mage Tower, couldn’t immediately judge.

But time waits for no one, and those two were about to leave ’this room’!

"Ah, my stomach hurts so much, why is this sudden, when I was just ordinarily pondering how to pull the Dragon Clan along, damn, where exactly is the problem...?"

He abruptly smacked his head and waved his Magic Wand to dismiss all the screens broadcasting him on the spot, leaving only those three detecting the anomaly. He then closed his eyes and let his magic power dissipate.

Three seconds later...

[Found it!!]

Mourning jolted, snapped open his eyes, and stared straight into the center of the room.

A set of Dola seven little stone sculptures were circulating with a hazy, dim glow, signaling a distortion almost unperceivable by the naked eye with no elemental or rune energy fluctuations.