Chapter 232: Storming the Wizard Tower
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 232: Storming the Wizard Tower
Over at the Wizard Academy, having lost too many members in an instant, the survivors had no choice but to retreat to the Wizard Tower and maintain a constant watch on their surroundings.
Earlier, from a distance, they had witnessed the fall of the floating holy island. Though the distance had blurred the details, they knew a terrifying power of Holy Light had erupted there.
This served as a dire warning to those in the Wizard Tower. That damned Witch Academy actually had a witch capable of bringing down a birdman’s floating island single-handedly.
By extension, what about their Wizard Tower?
Their tower couldn't fly. If no one guarded it, wouldn't it be stolen at any moment by that wandering pack of witches?
Never before had the Wizard Academy placed the threat level of the Witch Academy so high. They had seen Tan Han before; they had witnessed her combat strength during the previous defense of the Wizard Tower.
And this time, they had seen Tan Han going all out. A powerhouse like her, combined with that other witch—the one who had literally blown up the floating island—made for a nightmare duo.
If the Wizard Tower were besieged by them, wouldn't it be in grave danger?
They couldn't be blamed for such mental gymnastics.
While they knew that overthinking was a dangerous habit, the wizards had to prepare for the worst-case scenario. They could not afford to lose the Wizard Tower. Without the tower’s supplies, their predicament would be much like that of the angels.
The angels were struggling because they had lost their source of Holy Light; if the wizards lost their supply of casting catalysts, their combat effectiveness would plummet just as drastically.
"How is the battle between that witch and the birdman in the distance?"
"There hasn't been any movement for a while. It might be over," the wizard apprentice in charge of observation replied.
As the leader, Lucien had to assume the worst. The battle might not be over; moreover, that birdman named Archie hadn't died even once yet. What if they had called a truce and decided to join forces against the Wizard Academy?
Whether it was the Wizard Tower, the floating island, or even the World Tree, these were never ultimate trump cards to be relied upon. Rather, they were the most important assets that required the students to step up and protect them.
One couldn't get the logic backward. If they couldn't understand that, they deserved to end up like the elves and the birdmen.
But even though he knew this truth, the control permissions for the Wizard Tower were not in his hands. Furthermore, they had to face a hard fact: the combat power of the Wizard Tower was truly greater than that of the wizards themselves.
Moreover, their current condition was poor. While wizards were frenzied in battle, they required significant time to recover afterward. Some types of damage couldn't even be fixed by recovery potions.
The Wizard Academy was currently in a precarious position...
Looking at the state of the Three Top Academies now: the Afuhemi World Tree had been torched by a witch, sparking a massive forest fire. The Holy Angel Academy had seen its floating island crash. Even their own Wizard Academy was being driven to the brink of a nervous breakdown. No matter which incident it was, one academy was always involved: the Witch Academy.
When the Wizard Academy first decided to participate in this exchange competition at the Witch Academy, many felt the place was a joke. Why should the Three Top Academies travel all that way to compete?
Now they understood. Whether it was the so-called mana sources, the spellbooks, the terrifying strength of the Beyonder preparatory witches, or even this miraculous dream—it was all beyond anything the Wizard Academy could match.
The thought of returning to the Wizard Academy was depressing. The atmosphere there was stifling; one would spend their time doing menial chores for Transcendent Wizards in the tower, and a student might even unwittingly become experimental material for some wizard's research.
If this group of exchange students returned with such a poor performance, none of them knew what kind of fate awaited them.
Being chosen as contestants for the exchange competition was a result of both skill and luck. Even within the Wizard Academy, countless freshmen never had the chance to be noticed by a Transcendent Wizard. Even being brought into a Wizard Tower to do chores was a job others envied.
In the tower, one could come into contact with higher-level wizards. Whether it was a Transcendent Wizard mentor or a senior student, the manuscripts, scrap paper, and calculation drafts they discarded were treasures to an apprentice.
In an environment like the Wizard Academy, which emphasized equivalent exchange and using knowledge to leverage the transcendent, the value of knowledge was always paramount.
Even resources took a back seat.
After all, for a wizard, resources could always be acquired eventually, but if you missed out on knowledge, you truly lost your chance. If you relied on self-study alone, you would find no path forward. Any knowledge assigned a value was essentially built upon resources of even higher value, accompanied by a trail of failures.
In this exchange competition, the Wizard Academy's hunger for resources was on par with their hunger for knowledge. As freshmen, resources at this starting stage could rapidly elevate their foundation.
Though the wizards currently competing were strong, the Wizard Academy could pick any random student and give them the same resources, and they would reach the same height.
That was why luck played such a large part in them making it to the exchange competition.
Resources determined their current height, but the height they stood at granted them the vision to prepare for the future. For a wizard, useful knowledge was the most important thing of all.
Anything useful could be considered knowledge to a wizard, and what the Wizard Academy valued most in this exchange competition was naturally the Witch Academy's "spellbooks."
To the wizards, spellbooks were the culmination of the witches' application of knowledge. The knowledge and techniques contained within were so refined they could be used the moment they were picked up.
Even Transcendent Wizards craved spellbooks, but the number of spellbooks the witches allowed to circulate externally was minimal.
As for the so-called Real Editing Technology, it wasn't something one simply gained upon reaching the level of Real Time; it was heavily dependent on talent.
"All of you, calibrate the witchcraft turrets! Those crazed witches could attack at any moment."
"Lucien, if those witches are really being besieged by three sides like you said, then they should be at their weakest right now, shouldn't they?"
The wizard apprentices currently in the Wizard Tower still had significant grievances against their leader.
The apprentices responsible for the tower's various operations might not have high individual combat power, but from another perspective, the fact that they had mastered the techniques to operate the tower's weaponry was proof enough of their talent.
Only apprentices favored by Transcendent Wizards and brought into the tower were qualified to touch these things. Even the apprentices who just did chores in the tower had no experience using such weapons.
They were the true geniuses, carefully protected within the Wizard Tower.
"You haven't seen those witches in person; you don't understand how terrifying they are!" Lucien emphasized.
"Give it a rest. Last time, when we faced that witch and those birdmen, we held the tower. You're the ones who lost the ritual. I seriously doubt your ability to serve as leader."
Although the heckling apprentice spoke with a sharp tone, he had no intention of taking the leadership role himself.
The leader of the Wizard Academy team was essentially a scapegoat. Not only were they unable to stay safely in the Wizard Tower, but they also had to handle duels, skirmishes, resource raids, and rituals outside while being outnumbered by the other academies.
If Lucien hadn't seen that the leader position granted more resources, and if he hadn't been confident in his own strength, no one would have wanted to be the fall guy.
At this moment, Lucien was also feeding the Voodoo Gu life bug inside his body.
This was a life-saving tool for critical moments. It had been heavily depleted during his previous fight with Tan Han, causing serious strain on his body. Even after feeding it until now, the abnormal symptoms hadn't vanished.
He felt lucky that this was a dream... If it were reality, damage of this magnitude would have left him scarred for life.
Everything in the dream was fake, including this Voodoo Gu life bug, but the burden it placed on him was very real.
Even though every wizard apprentice was required to be implanted with a Voodoo Gu life bug before enrollment, he hadn't spent much time with this creature in the grand scheme of things.
The transcendent power wielded by wizards was entirely different from their beautiful fantasies. He finally understood what his teacher meant before the college entrance exams when they said that choosing a transcendent academy meant being prepared to pay a corresponding price.
But no one had the luxury of regret anymore.
"Heat source entering visual range! Everyone, heads up!"
A sudden warning instantly shattered the thoughts of Lucien and the other apprentices.
Their lingering hopes were immediately stowed away. Regardless of who it was—even if it was just a contestant who had happened to get lost—it demanded their full attention.
Even if it was a lost contestant, most of them had arrived there after dying and respawning. One could only say they were unlucky to run into the Wizard Academy; perhaps they could extract intelligence about other areas from them.
"Wearing a wide-brimmed hat... it's someone from the Witch Academy!"
As the observer's voice rang out, Lucien's heart skipped a beat.
"Everyone, look alive! Maximum alert!" Lucien shouted at the top of his lungs.
"It's just one witch. No other heat sources are showing. Watch me kill her."
This time, Lucien didn't argue with the apprentice operating the tower. He also felt that talking was useless; direct fire suppression was the best choice.
The witchcraft turrets roared, completely collapsing the area where the target was. Even so, Lucien didn't relax.
"Oh my, is this how you welcome me?"
My voice drifted out from the dust. With a wave of my wand, the dust was swept away by the wind, revealing my figure.
"It's you!"
"That's right, it's me. Surprised? Are you relieved I didn't try to steal your Wizard Tower? Even though it was the closest one to me."
"Can't you see she's still alive? Suppress her with everything we've got!" Lucien didn't give me a chance to keep talking, turning to bark orders at the apprentices in the tower.
He felt my appearance was too abnormal. To dare come here alone meant there had to be a trap. Starting a conversation was surely a tactic to stall for time.
There was no need for words.
"Oh? Is this the fire suppression that managed to pin down Tan Han?"
Facing the barrage from the tower's witchcraft turrets, I was genuinely impressed. The power of these turrets was different from the dwarves' simple use of thermal weapon principles powered by transcendent energy; these were truly troublesome.
Witchcraft turrets were named as such because they were weapons triggered by solidified witchcraft.
Generally, these turrets were loaded using evocation methods, but the attacks they fired were far more eerie.
They didn't necessarily focus on explosions or direct damage. Instead, they fired things like acid-corrosion witchcraft or searing witchcraft, which were far more terrifying than a standard explosion.
I even saw traces of curse witchcraft among them.
If one were tainted by these, they would suffer greatly. They were likely the biggest threat to the guys from the Beast Academy.
"Where's that accuracy you're always bragging about? How can you not hit a single witch? Not even the splash damage is touching her!"
"Stop barking! If you're so good, you operate it!"
The apprentice in charge of the witchcraft turrets snapped back with a curse. He truly wanted to quit right then and there, but he knew that doing so would lead to even more terrifying punishment back at the academy. Besides, aiming a witchcraft turret was never easy, especially since these were meant for area suppression. Lucien demanding precision now was just him being a nuisance and looking for trouble.
"Is that all? Is this all the Wizard Academy's tower amounts to? Can you only bully the weak and fail when you face a real enemy?"
I wove through the bombardment. Tan Han could likely do the same, but the most troublesome parts of a Wizard Tower were the Great Witchcraft charging at its peak and the massive protective shield covering the tower and its surrounding area.
Though I was already engaging the wizards, I was still quite far from the tower itself; I hadn't even reached the hemispherical shield yet.
Their so-called heat source detection witchcraft was indeed a bit of a cheat, acting like thermal imaging. However, it was an effect achieved through their own hand-crafted wizard tools combined with witchcraft, so it was within the rules.
Wizard tools really were unreasonable.
If I wanted to topple the Wizard Tower, I had to face two problems. First was breaking the outer shield. Last time Tan Han came here, it took a large group of people just to barely crack it—though that was also because Tan Han hadn't used an Over-limit Consumption Spellbook.
Ultimately, Tan Han and the others had abandoned their plan to take the tower due to the deterrent power of the Great Witchcraft at the top, choosing to target the ritual instead.
So, the second problem we had to solve was that powerful Great Witchcraft.
According to Tan Han and Lucien's descriptions, that Great Witchcraft manifested as an explosive lightning orb constructed from powerful heterogeneous lightning elements.
Upon detonating, it would rapidly create a massive lightning element anomaly zone.
Inside, one would take continuous damage from the powerful heterogeneous lightning. Lightning strikes, loss of motor control, dizziness, and body paralysis were the least of it. It also interfered with a caster's spells—for instance, a fireball being conjured would simply explode upon contact with that heterogeneous lightning.
This method didn't just target casters; it suppressed everyone. The divine arts of the holy angels would be disrupted, and anyone carrying metal or holding a weapon would become a conductor for the lightning.
If someone wanted to die, they could try walking in there with a lightning rod.
Furthermore, this heterogeneous lightning was extremely persistent. By the time it naturally dissipated, the Wizard Tower would have had more than enough time to charge a second shot.
The shockwave from the explosion was also lethal.
This was why the Wizard Tower was considered so "cheap."
The offensive capabilities of Wizard Towers varied from tower to tower. It seemed the Wizard Academy had paid a significant price to install this specific design.
It was unclear if there were limits, such as a maximum number of uses, but we couldn't gamble on that.
Our plan was actually quite simple. I would strike first to draw fire and scout their strength. Tan Han would then break their shield. If she succeeded, great; if not, I would open my Over-limit Consumption Spellbook as well, and we would break it together.
I didn't believe there was a shield in this exchange competition that could withstand two Over-limit Consumption Spellbooks, not even one powered by a Wizard Tower.
Once the shield was down, their last line of defense—that heterogeneous lightning Great Witchcraft—would be their final move.
Tan Han would primarily bait the attack. If something went wrong, I was the backup bait. As long as we tricked them into firing that Great Witchcraft and forced the tower into its recharge phase, Archie would move in for the finish.
One could say the plan lacked creativity, but our time was limited. Was there really a more effective method than a direct assault?
No. Our only advantage was the information gap.
My initial appearance would put them on guard. I would provoke them and act like a hotheaded fool launching a frontal assault, wearing down their suspicion and drawing all their fire.
Then, Tan Han would use the Ancient Remnant Ice for a sneak attack, which would be enough to catch them off guard. This was an open gambit; even if they guessed I had help, they wouldn't dare hold back against my assault, or they would be crushed by me.
This was the suppression of raw combat power. What did the wizards have? A decent leader? The Wizard Tower? Their tricks would eventually run out.
When Tan Han finally appeared, it would ironically ease their worries. Although they would be attacked from two sides, they would subconsciously assume we had no more hidden players.
That would be the moment for Archie to appear and take the tower.
The core of this plan was to keep them off-balance.
Of course, we also had to be careful of a final backstab from Archie. Although he acted like he wouldn't do it, who knew what he was really thinking?
Our contract would end the moment the Wizard Tower was destroyed, or if the plan was declared a failure.
As for the resources Archie expected to get?
Sorry, we could have negotiated before, but once Tan Han arrived, Archie lost his leverage to make outrageous demands. The resources would be split fifty-fifty; that was our agreement, and it was written into the contract.
Even if we killed Archie after the contract ended, or if he killed us, it didn't matter who held the resources. According to the contract, they had to be "returned" after the match.
The contract might be fulfilled, but that didn't mean one couldn't "seek accountability" afterward.
"Your automated turrets are absolute garbage. I heard at the tea party that these gave Tan Han a lot of trouble, but they look pretty pathetic to me!"
"Witch! Don't get cocky! If you're so tough, try crossing the line! You talk big, but you're still pinned down so hard you can't even touch our shield!"
"You said it. In that case, I'm going to get serious! I hope you're not just a bunch of cowards who only know how to hide inside a shell."
As I spoke, I activated the Fire Spirit's Blessing. I kept a recovery potion ready in my hand, waiting for Tan Han's entrance and staying alert for any possible surprises.