Chapter 184: Deal (1)
Some wizards waited on the shore.
Word had it that this ship belonged to wizards from the Abyss Wizard Academy, but one wizard in the crowd wore a rather strange expression.
He glanced at the ship, then peered at the water beneath it.
The tide surged, churning the water upward. The once-clear surface turned murky.
It wasn't time for high tide, which meant only one thing: a massive creature was approaching the shore from the depths.
Many wizards noticed the anomaly.
On the shore, a white-robed wizard slipped a mechanical prosthetic limb from his cuff. Aiming his arm at the sea, he muttered to himself, "I happen to be short an experimental subject lately. This big guy in the water will do perfectly."
He leveled his metal arm at the water ahead. A moment later, the limb split open, releasing countless specks of light.
The dense swarm traced out a massive luminous net in the air.
The net sliced into the sea, cleaving the water. Wherever it passed, the ocean instantly vaporized from the intense heat.
When the great net woven of light particles swept over the colossal beast beneath the surface, it caught like a fishing net snagging a whale. The light particles churned wildly before stretching out...
Finally, it gave a sharp yank toward the surface.
The net of light flew out of the sea, leaving a massive, gaping hole right in its center.
The tear was glaringly obvious, mocking the wizard like a silent, open maw.
The wizard's face darkened. His net was designed to both capture and slice; not even a Tier 5 magical beast could break free. Yet the giant beast beneath the sea had somehow torn through it.
Just as he prepared to withdraw, waves surged across the surface. The turbulent swells violently tossed the ship.
Immediately after, a behemoth rose from the sea.
It looked like an island emerging from the water.
The Thousand-Eyed Demon Whale, Phil.
Some wizards recognized the deep-sea beast.
It was an ancient monster of widespread infamy.
Legends said it had once served beneath a Sea God in ancient times, a colossal beast capable of churning the ocean depths.
A deep-sea giant of this caliber was something even they would struggle against.
The white-robed wizard also recognized the Thousand-Eyed Demon Whale, and his expression shifted.
He hadn't expected the sea monster trailing the fleet to be this particular behemoth.
An eerie blue glow lit up the Thousand-Eyed Demon Whale's countless eyes. In the next instant, a dense barrage of blue light shot straight at the white-robed wizard.
A forcefield surfaced over the white-robed wizard.
It lasted only a fraction of a second before detonating with a deafening boom.
His body was blown into a pile of mangled fragments along with it.
Lynn found it amusing. At a glance, the white-robed wizard clearly followed the mechanical path and might even be affiliated with the City of Mechanics.
Was he really trying to attack the Thousand-Eyed Demon Whale? He clearly just wanted to publicly humiliate Lynn. But the stunt had failed, and his body was destroyed in the process.
He wouldn't die from this, of course. Wizards on the mechanical path had no shortage of life-saving methods.
If a body was destroyed, they merely needed to swap it out for a new one. As long as their soul remained intact, they would survive.
The Thousand-Eyed Demon Whale wasn't stupid either. Furious as it was, it only obliterated the wizard's physical form without killing him completely. Otherwise, it wouldn't be able to bear the consequences.
After all, even the god it worshipped had been sealed at the bottom of the sea by wizards.
The ship slowly pulled into shore, and the gangway lowered.
The wizard apprentices on deck disembarked one by one.
"Thank you for your protection along the way, Lord Wizard," one of the disembarking wizard apprentices said, pausing before Lynn.
Lynn didn't care for this sort of pageantry, merely offering a faint hum in acknowledgment.
Seeing Lynn respond, the remaining apprentices realized this Lord Wizard wasn't entirely unapproachable and eagerly hurried over to curry favor.
Lynn looked at the wreckage of the white-robed wizard—that mechanical, bio-engineered body gleaming with a metallic luster—deep in thought.
It looked like the craftsmanship of the City of Mechanics. Was this an intentional show of force, or just some underling acting on their own to please a superior?
Without engaging in pleasantries, Lynn saw the apprentices off and boarded a waiting airship, leaving the island to return to Demon City.
A few months later, Lynn returned to his residence in Demon City. Even though he had been gone for many years, the courtyard and the building were impeccably clean, as if someone regularly tidied the place.
Lynn glanced next door, noting that the gray spire was gone. His old neighbor, Idor, was nowhere to be seen.
Lynn didn't head straight to the Feilan Continent. Instead, he made his way to the service hall. After breaking through to become an official wizard, he was actually required to report in here.
Apprentices who broke through to become official wizards at the Abyss Wizard Academy were considered graduates.
Graduated apprentices had two choices: leave as alumni of the Abyss Wizard Academy, or join the academy as instructors.
If an apprentice came from a major faction or another world, many chose to leave once their studies bore fruit.
However, ordinary wizards without deep backgrounds almost always chose to join their affiliated wizard faction.
Wizardry itself was a civilization of interactive learning. Isolated from the collective, relying solely on individual wisdom to grow resulted in agonizingly slow progress.
Lynn, of course, wouldn't leave the Abyss Wizard Academy. Moreover, with his clean background and status as a graduate of the academy, an official wizard like him joining the ranks was considered part of the inner circle.
He had originally intended to catch up with Uncle Toby, but upon arriving at the service hall, Lynn found that Toby was gone as well.
The staff informed him that Lord Toby had left on temporary business two years ago, and the service hall was currently overseen by another wizard.
Lynn had never met this wizard. After his arrival was announced, he was received by a wizard claiming to be from the Teaching Office.
"Are there no other applications or procedures required?"
"No need. You are Wizard Harin's student. As for identity verification, there's no need for testing. Being a wizard who graduated from our academy is enough." The wizard from the Teaching Office was chubby, his face radiating affluence. Yet, Lynn could still sense a startling amount of power hidden within that seemingly ordinary body; it was as if his current appearance was merely a disguise.
This wizard led Lynn toward the Inner World.
Along the way, no wizards from other factions approached them. Observing this detail, Lynn grew thoughtful, realizing he had defaulted into the faction belonging to the Director of Teaching.
The Vice Principal's faction hadn't sent anyone to contact him at all.
"Next, you need to choose a territory." The wizard brought Lynn into a grand hall. In the center sat a massive model that resembled a sandbox. It covered a huge area, featuring miniature replicas of mountains and rivers. With his sharp eyesight, Lynn could even spot minuscule wizard towers. They were as tiny as specks of dust on the model; if scaled up to actual proportions, the area this sandbox represented would be terrifyingly vast.
"This is the sandbox for the southern region of the Inner World plane. It's best if you choose a spot here. There are plenty of familiar faces around," the wizard said with a chuckle. He didn't explain the specific reasons, but Lynn understood perfectly.
In all likelihood, this area had the highest concentration of wizards from the Teaching Office faction, whereas the other regions were gathering grounds for the academy's other factions.
"Where is Wizard Harin's territory?"
"Harin? He moved away a long time ago. His wizard tower is no longer in the Inner World," the wizard kindly pointed out.
'Did he relocate to the Artificial Abyss?'
Lynn speculated inwardly.
"Where is Lady Maybetessa's wizard tower?" Lynn asked about someone else.
He remembered he still had an ongoing deal with Lady Maybetessa. The lady had originally invested a wizard tower core in him.
And in exchange, he was required to cooperate with her.
"Right here." The wizard seemed to know the territories of every wizard on the sandbox inside out.
He pointed casually at a spot on the sandbox. The next moment, the targeted area of the model continuously expanded.
It zoomed in countless times before finally stopping on a plain.
"The spatial nodes within the Inner World vary in strength," the wizard explained.
"It is difficult to open planar gates in areas with thick spatial barriers, whereas it's much easier in areas where the barriers are thin. This leads to wizards clustering together in certain regions."
"But that's just the norm. There are a few exceptions. Some wizards dislike congregating and prefer to choose exceptionally remote locations. For instance, your teacher Harin chose a place where he was the only soul for hundreds of thousands of li around. In the end, it forced the academy to build a specific, standalone landing point right next to his wizard tower."