Chapter 12: The First of Seven Days (7)
As I stepped out of the portal, I saw a silvery building standing quietly behind the tall mountain in front of me.
"The legendary Orpheus Archmage Tower, the headquarters of the United Association of all the mages of the Divine Realm." The little potato who was following me clearly saw this strange sight and muttered.
Is this the legendary magical shrine that even heavenly punishment cannot shake? Excited, I dragged the small potatoes to the mountain bag, and immediately, the pagoda shining with white brilliance was fully revealed.
It is a quadrangular pyramid with a majestic torso that rises into the sky like a monument. The white tower body, the light halo of the moon is scattered and overflowing, and the scenery under the four places is refracting dreamlike brilliance under the milky white light. It was as smooth as a mirror, so seamless from top to bottom that there was no crack in it, and only the open doors and windows at each height let people know that it was the first floor of the tower, and at first glance, it seemed to be made of a huge and brilliant single block of marble hollowed out - there is no such material in the world.
The silver light we saw breaking through the air was the upper part of it. Looking up, it was hundreds of meters high, like a sharp sword shining with divine light piercing the clouds. With my eyesight, I couldn't tell how many layers it had, and when I counted to my forties, I could no longer tell how many of the densely packed doorways there were. In the dark night, under the moonlight, it stands majestically, soft and elegant white on the spot, silently telling the endless mysteries of the world, and squeezing out all the unattainable dreams. Looking at this awe-inspiring and inviolable sacred tower, the insignificance of my heart could not resist surging out, and I gasped.
It's definitely not going to be ordinary people.
A labyrinth of outer gardens, tall arcane guards, and finally we relied on North's letter of introduction to enter the Mage's Tower. We were greeted by a young apprentice in magic.
"Hello, guests from afar. My name is Hanny, and I'm an apprentice in magic, so how can I help you? "This extraordinarily bright-eyed apprentice of magic did not show us the arrogance and apathy inherent in a magician, and he undoubtedly had a natural affinity. Perhaps all this would only have existed when he was an apprentice in magic. We couldn't help but feel a sense of happiness. If you open the door, you will be an old magician who ignores you, and it is inconvenient to speak.
I hurriedly handed over North's letter of introduction: "We are from the Duchy of Arathi, and we have an urgent need to see Archmage Junios. This is North's letter of introduction that can be used as evidence. β
Hanni's face showed a hint of embarrassment: "I'm afraid Archmage Junios won't be able to solve any problems for you. β
"Why?" I asked, confused, as I twitched my fingers into the gold coins in my pocket.
"Uh...... It's hard to put into words. Hanni hesitated a few times, then sighed, "Archmage Junios turned himself into a mouse, which is not a problem in itself, as it is not uncommon for a mage to use his own body for magical research. But the problem is that Archmage Junios has no way to transform himself back into human form. β
"Uh......" I felt a cold sweat on my head.
"Transfiguration?" At this time, the little potato suddenly came up, and his face was full of smiles, "Maybe I can help a little." β
"Are you ......" Hanny looked the little potato up and down, and suddenly realized, "Are you a druid?" Druid! β
Little Potato nodded in affirmation. This magic apprentice was obviously new to the scene, and he was immediately excited, completely beautiful as a magician should be moody, and his voice trembled and showed us the way, "I'll take you to meet Master Exmaras." Lord God bless, you have come at a better time, Dear Druid. β
What follows is an extremely boring episode, where we help the crazy archmage relieve the boredom of metamorphosis. Because we had avoided the revered archmage from spending the rest of his life as a humble mouse, he promised to grant any of our requests and unravel the secrets of the mysterious sandalwood box I had brought with merely as an appetizer.
Sometimes I wonder if I've had too many coincidences, if I hadn't acted with Schilling, if Schilling hadn't joined the adventure party halfway, if ...... Then the chances of my series of missions dying in the middle of the series will be greatly increased, and the time it takes to continue even if they can be carried out will be greatly increased. When the time comes, I may give up on this task because of my impatience. In hindsight, these were nothing compared to my previous experiences. I was originally a person of great luck, and now I will boil down all these coincidences and other inexplicable things to one word, ikadove-like luck. The luck value has been in the MAX state, and the god blocks the god and the Buddha blocks the Buddha, ahaha.
Archmage Junios led us up the spiraling staircase to the top of the Archmage's Tower, a large circular platform the size of several football fields. The smooth ground made of massive blocks of granite reflects our blurred figures. The intricate dark golden pattern spread outward from the center, and even a magical idiot like me knew that this must be a magic array with infinite power. Of course, I guessed this from the point of view that the bigger the stronger.
Along the way, Archmage Junios had learned from me that the wise North was trying to decipher the secret of the mysterious sandalwood box in my hand. When he heard the explosion of the magic array, he immediately laughed loudly: "North is really smart and confused for a while. This kind of legendary-level item is not something that a simple small magic array can do. This level of explosion is lucky, if the forbidden spells on the items are set up to interlock, I'm afraid that the castle he is in has already ascended to heaven. β
"Is that an exaggeration?" Little Potato couldn't help but be stunned when he heard it.
"What is this?" Archmage Junios looked disappreroving, "Alchemist Aoife once wiped the island he lived on from the map. I think I'm crazy enough, I didn't think there were many people who were crazier than me. As he spoke, Archmage Junios began to shake his head again.
Archmage Junios is crazy, but that doesn't mean he's an imprudent person, and madness and caution don't conflict. He hadn't touched the sandalwood box from the very beginning until I placed it in the center of the huge magic circle, although he was sure that his test of the legendary item was nothing more than a pediatric for him, but more was better than less, and besides, he had just been freed from the transformation accident, so there was no need to take another risk, even if it was only a 1 percent chance of going wrong.
The lengthy incantation came out of Junios' mouth with the charm of singing, which was at the level of an archmage, and it was completely different from the feeling of those chanting. Suddenly, the archmage shouted and slammed the staff in his hand into the sky. The air around him seemed to tremble. In the endless darkness, there were bright spots like stars. As the archmage breathed in, the points of light gradually converged, and it spread out like a bruise in the dark night sky, flowing into the sky. It seems that it is not something on the light, but the light itself seeps out of the sky and into the wounds of darkness. The wound in the sky was wide open.
The Archmage Tower was already towering, with only a one-man high wall around the top of the tower, and there were no special sheltered buildings, and the cool midnight breeze was blowing. It's not that I feel cold, I'm just worried that the hem of the skirt that Little Potato lifts up from time to time will interfere with Junios' spell casting. The legs of the small potatoes are really white and tender, and it should feel good when you bite into two bites.
A soft light slowly fell vertically from the sky, and if the hymn had sounded at this time, I think mortals would have thought that a miracle had come, and of course it would have to be accompanied by some bare-assed and winged angels. Many bright spots with halos are like fireflies magnified several times, revolving rapidly around the pillar of light. The pillar of light fell on the sandalwood box lying quietly on the ground, and at that moment the entire huge magic array lit up, accompanied by a buzzing sound like an army of locusts, and the ground trembled slightly. At this time, Archmage Junios stopped chanting and turned his head to us: "Let's see what secrets are hidden in this box. β
The pillar of light spread out, and those countless small bright spots merged together, forming a huge ball of light with a small boundary, and there seemed to be some shaking of images in the ball of light. It's time to watch free movies again? I wanted to laugh, but I saw JΓΊneos' serious face and held back.
There were a few people inside, with black robes covering their bodies and wide hoods covering their faces, so they couldn't see their faces clearly. They were together as if they were discussing something, or arguing about something, because I saw a few of them gesturing excitedly. The argument didn't last long, and then it seemed like a unanimous opinion. They both wrote something on a piece of parchment, and it could be inferred from the time of writing that it might be a joint signature or something like that. Eventually, the group escorted a taller man out of the room. Judging by the way they walked respectfully, that person was most likely their leader.
We were amazed by what happened next. The man who suspected that he was the leader, came to the foot of an empty mountain, only to see him look up to the sky and roar, his whole body began to grow larger, many things propped up from under his black robe, and the clothes instantly turned into waste, and at the end we saw a huge and familiar creature. Huge body stretch. Scaly skin. Stout limbs. A pair of bat-like wings. Long neck. Plus a bizarre head.
"Dragons?" Little Potato was the first to scream out the answer in our hearts. I saw that lane, with a flap of wings, and soared straight into the sky, and then the illusion disappeared. All was quiet again. The sandalwood box lay there silently, as if nothing had happened.
The archmage's face was solemn at this time, maybe he was thinking about how much to charge us. I don't care about the money at all, I care about how the task will continue here, and there is no doubt that the instructions for our next move will have to be sent by this crazy archmage.
The archmage took out a silver bell from his sleeve, and with a slight shock, a crisp bell sounded out of the round bell's mouth, stretching endlessly, as if there were countless echo walls around it, realizing infinite back and forth in this space. Suddenly, a white qi erupted from the archmage's feet, and the white qi quickly condensed into a pointy-eared elf. The archmage turned to the elf and commanded, "Gather all my colleagues here, Finn." Drop everything at hand, no matter how important, and come to me. β
The elf bowed slightly, swished straight into the sky, and when it reached the top, it turned into countless meteors with a bang, flying in all directions.
As the meteors disappeared into the night sky, the archmage turned his face to us, and I saw a deep sense of worry in the middle of the wrinkles. The Archmage sighed and said, "Distinguished friends, we are in big trouble. β