Chapter 218: Demiplanes Warehouse
At the end of the corridor on the thirteenth floor of Holm Royal Magic Tower, there was a heavy, gray iron door. When Rodham started the gear and opened it, Lucien could see nothing clear in the shadows behind.
"This place is co-owned by the Will of Elements and Holm Royal Magic Academy, half and half," Lazar said to Lucien. "I heard that Her Excellency Hathaway’s magic tower is in this demiplane as well."
As a member of the Will of Elements, Lazar had been here before.
Even though Lucien tried to see through the mist with his sharp sight from the power of his Blessing, he still could not identify anything there.
"Please, Mr. Evans," said Rodham very respectfully pointing the way. Obviously, he was very well-trained.
Lucien nodded, and then he walked through the gate.
A starry sky was hiding behind the thick mist, and through the transparent crystal ceiling, the light of the stars lit up the very spacious warehouse, which spread out as far as Lucien’s eyes could see.
However, there was nothing there, until Lucien, Lazar and Rodham took a step forward, as the warehouse seemed to come to life.
"Rodham, what do you come here for?" A cold and emotionless voice came to them from every corner of the warehouse, making the whole atmosphere of this place serious and suffocating, as if horrible punishment for them would immediately arrive if Rodham said something wrong.
Rodham took out a piece of mysterious-looking badge drawn with signs of elements from the ancient magic empire, "Mr. Ziderman, this badge’s from Morris, and it contains his order to you. At the same time, I believe that you can easily recognize the ring on Mr. Evans’s right hand, from Holm Crown prize."
"Oh?" responded the cold voice, and the badge in Rodham’s hand disappeared all of a sudden. Lucien had no idea how Ziderman did this, but it seemed that doing anything in this warehouse was just a piece of cake for him.
Honestly speaking, Lucien, with his spiritual library and all the knowledge from Earth, sometimes had less respect toward sorcerers here, however, at this time, he suddenly found himself witnessing what was happening here in this warehouse in awe. Lucien knew that he was still new to magic, and he should never be arrogant and self-satisfied.
But, for sure, Lucien would still continue to work on turning knowledge from the Earth into arcana and magic, because, after all, this was what he was good at, and only idiots would give up their advantages. At the same time, Lucien wanted to study soul, mentality and spiritual power as well, in order to be a qualified sorcerer.
"The badge has been verified. Now, Mr. Evans, you can choose anything here including potions, materials, magic items, magic circles, precious books, etc. worth of less than two thousand arcana points." As Ziderman was explaining, the star light gradually revealed rows and rows of shelving units with numbers. And on those units, there were countless items, and among them, some were plain-looking, and some were dazzling and shining with dream-like gloss...
Lucien felt even more excited than when he was in Maskelyne’s alchemical lab, as in the lab there were only magic materials and ingredients.
Under Lazar and Rodham’s guide, Lucien tried his best to calm down and first came in front of the shelving unit where countless magic robes, cloaks and hats were.
"Davey’s Robe (duplicate): Duplicate of Davey Rodel’s legend level magic robe, level nine high rank; Reduces buffering time of spell casting by three seconds, provides the wearer with level of defence as level six radiant knight, and increases the wearer’s spell resistance level to ninth circle. Prerequisite: The wearer’s spiritual power shall be at least of the level of seventh circle, or one would turn into an idiot.
Davey Rodel: Although it is only a duplicate, it is still very valuable. The person who is able to offer enough (worth ten million arcana points or a duchy or a principality) shall deserve it."
Davey Rodel was a member of the Highest Council.
Lucien’s eyes could not move away from this black magic robe of the ancient magic empire style. This was the best magic robe he had ever seen! Reducing buffering time of spell casting by three seconds meant that one could keep casting spells under sixth circle without any stop, so the wearer could slay his or her enemy like a powerful storm. This was definitely a robe that most sorcerers would dream to have!
However, the price was beyond Lucien’s imagination. According to what Lucien knew, even the Violet family could only have a total income of eight hundred thousand Thales a year, and this robe was worth ten million arcana points.
At this time, Lucien saw another level seven magic robe which could reflect long-range and single-target attacks. However, he could not afford it either.
After quite a while, he finally found two that might suit him: one was called Nymph and the other Transformation. Other ones were either too expensive or they were not what Lucien wanted.
Lucien checked Nymph, which worth a thousand and five hundred points, enchanted with two magic effects, Gloss and Charm, and it could provide the wearer with level of defence as a level three knight.
"The wearer, no matter male or female, would be super charming, and this charm can go beyond gender. Lots of great discounts would be given to the wearer, and even free gifts! Caution, pursuers can be crazy!"
Lucien trembled a bit after reading this, and quickly put it down. Then he picked up the robe called Transformation:
"Level three middle rank magic robe, enchanted with Transformation, giving wearer’s level of defence as a level two knight and magic resistance as a third circle sorcerer. The wearer can transform into a mouse, an owl and a troll once a day for each.
Assunção Philip: the body transforms, not the heart."
This robe was worth a thousand nine hundred and sixty arcana points, and it was more expensive than other robes of the same level. However, Lucien still chose it, as he knew nothing about transformation, and he felt he was not making any progresses in studying Transformation. Despite the fact that Lucien did know a bit about Anatomy, which was the prerequisite for studying Transformation, Lucien was still having a hard time in understanding how Transformation worked.
Lucien had the feeling that this robe could be very helpful for him at some point in the future.
After telling Ziderman and Rodham his choice, Lucien cast Identification and left his spiritual power imprint in the robe, then put the robe on. After concentrating his spiritual power on the robe, Lucien turned the robe into a decent, black suit and a pair of leather shoes.
Using the rest of the forty arcana points, Lucien bought ten bottles of a dark-purple potion named Florencia’s Elixir. He planned to take one bottle for each of the following ten months to better handle the greatly improved speed of him doing meditation with the ring, Element.
So far, two thousand arcana points were gone. When Lucien was about to leave with Lazar and Rodham, Ziderman said to him, "Mr. Evans, as the winner of Holm Crown prize, and a member of honor of Holm Royal Magic Academy, you’re provided with a free gift, a book."
Then, a book with fine cover appeared in Lucien’s hand: Matching Magic Items, by Florencia Ranka Constantine.
Lucien leafed through the book quickly. The book was about how to prevent two magic items from affecting each other when they were too close. For example, if Lucien wanted to have a ring on each of his ten fingers, he needed to arrange them properly, or put buffering rings between the rings which did not agree with each other to mitigate the conflict. However, those were always expensive, and that was why most sorcerers only wore up to two rings on one hand.
After taking one more look at the warehouse, Lucien left the place with Lazar and Rodham.
...
Early the next morning, Hexagram Station.
Wearing the long double-breasted suits of the same style, Lucien and Lazar were waiting for the train on the platform, with their hands in their pockets.
Whistling, the dark blue train slowly stopped in front of them.
A decently dressed middle-aged man got off the train. After staring at Lucien for a second, he quickly walked away together with other people.
Lucien and Lazar got on the train and picked two seats beside the window.
...
After leaving the platform, the middle-aged man walked even faster. When he entered a quiet and remote valley, he took out a scroll and put his face against it.
Divine light came out from the scroll, and the man looked in great pain, but he did not make a sound. When the light disappeared, there was a transparent piece of "paper" in his hands, and Lucien’s picture was on it!
The divine spell pulled out his memory and depicted what he saw!
Then, the man went to a remote church with the piece of paper. Sitting on the chair in the front, he started praying silently.
After that, he walked out of the church, but he left the piece of paper on his seat.
A pastor walked out and took it.
The paper was delivered at various levels and finally sent to Philibell, the cardinal of Holm parish.
"Lucien Evans X, the most recent winner of Holm Crown prize, looks quite young." He murmured.
Then, he turned to the other cardinals and the leader of the Inquisition, "Improve his level to ‘To Be Wiped Out’. When there’s a chance, send the night watchers to finish him, and I’ll soon send the information to the Bright Hall."
Although Lucien was the winner of Holm Crown prize, he was not powerful and influential enough to be on the Cleansing List. Even Felipe, the winner of Immortal Throne award, did not get on the Cleansing List until he humiliated the Church right in the face.
"Your wish is our will," said Giendon humbly. "But I’m afraid finding a chance like this is not easy. First, a promising sorcerer like him would not leave Allyn easily, and second, most middle-rank night watchers would be killed by his ring, unless we can send really good ones. But if this was the case, the Will of Elements and the congress would take their bitter revenge for sure. If there’s a chance, I want to apply for using the holy relic."
The power of Holm parish was way greater than that of Violet parish, or they would have been wiped out by the congress long ago. They had enough power to resist until they could open the portal to have support from the Holy City.
Philibell nodded and sighed, "The congress never lacks young talents, even in the most recent years. We’re lucky that the popes have all been putting emphasis on improving the foundation of divine spells, so we’re not falling that behind."
Hearing that, the several cardinals and the leader of the Inquisition all nodded with some emotion. They felt both concerned and lucky.
...
Allyn, on the thirty-fifth floor of the headquarter of the Congress of Magic.
Nineteen out of the twenty-four members of the Highest Council, all the seven grand arcanists, and eight out of the eleven legendary archmages were present.
"According to the information provided by Malfurion, several druid elders won’t work with us. So, among those druids who are visiting Allyn, some are actually from Nature Rebellion, who want to disturb our project. As some of them are actually from the royal elf family, Malfurion could only pretend that he knows nothing about it, and he wants us to handle this," said an old man with white hair and clear blue eyes. The old man was tall and still in good shape, and was wearing black suit and a bow tie.
"President Douglas, you called us here just for this?"
The one who was speaking aggressively was a short, elegant-looking old man wearing a bright red robe. His hair was a mix of black and white, and his red pupils were bright and sharp.