Abe the Wizard

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

Wizard Hal said with a dry laugh, “I don’t think you are taking Master Bennett seriously, Cyril. He’s a big dragon druid. Forget about you. I don’t think I’d take him in a fight.”

That was a bit of an exaggeration, really. Being able to transform into a dragon was one thing, but Wizard Hal could always teleport rapidly to avoid any sort of incoming attack.

Wizard Haywood bowed respectfully, “The frontline welcomes you, Master Bennett.”

He had thought that Abel came here for an inspection, but it didn’t seem like that was the case.

“We’ll be off then, you two,” Wizard Hal responded with his bow, “This way, Master Bennett.”

Abel bowed to say goodbye to the two wizards as well. After that, he went out the door as pointed by Wizard Hal. There was a path once they headed out. The top was filled with lighting circles. They were about five meters wide and six meters tall. Inside the park, they could still see some carriages carrying goods in and out.

Wizard Hal walked and spoke, “This is the last line of defense, Master Bennett. Everything from the central continent is moved here. Of course, you can teleport straight to the lightning clan’s camp through the inside, but I can still act as your guide since it is your first time here.”

Abel didn’t really feel much for the path. There wasn’t really anything special about it. That was until he tried to do a scan with his power of the Will. He was a big druid now, but something seemed to be in the way as he was trying to do a scan.

He turned to ask Wizard Hal, “You’re not going to scan here, Wizard Hal?”

Wizard Hal introduced it quietly, “That’s called the doomsday defense wall, Master Bennett. The dwarves built it to create the strongest possible line of defense possible. There is a saying if this line of defense is broken open, the entire continent is doomed. You can see why the name came to be.”

Abel became quite curious, “What does it do, precisely?”

Wizard Hal explained, “The doomsday defense wall is not just a wall. It can also block any form of telepathic energy from passing through.”

Abel shook his head, “That doesn’t sound right to me. I thought the evil knights opened a large-sized teleportation circle right here a few days ago. They created a path connecting the nation of evil to the outside of Bay Law City.”

Wizard Hal explained, “That must’ve come at a great cost for them. It’s one thing to make an exception by calling the sky demons to help with them, but as for what they went through to make that happen, that’s only for you and me to know.”

“What about the teleportation circle, then?” Abel asked. As far as he remembered, the nation of evil deployed their teleportation gates to the second or third line.

Wizard Hal spoke, “Gates work differently than circles. The biggest difference is that although gates use divine power, they could only keep the sky demons out for a while before they, well, inevitably break-in.”

As they were speaking, they’d already come to the front of one door. Wizard Hal scanned the door with his wizard badge to open it. Abel followed him, and they came to a wide plain. There were plenty of magic towers sitting as far as one’s eyes could see. The wizards of the central continent were quite eccentric, in a way. He’d barely seen any magic towers on the Holy Continent, but here, they were all set up in a place next to each other.

That was when he turned around to see his whereabouts. He had to lean his head back since the wall behind him was too tall. It was the doomsday defense wall, a line that segregated the entire frontline from the central continent. As for its length, let’s just say it was enough to keep an entire empire from breaching through. If anyone tried to break through, the dwarves had their top military defensive tools ready.

“This, this is amazing!” Abel called out in admiration.

Wizard Hal felt the same way, “That’s the blood and sweat of countless dwarves over just two years. They pushed their abilities to the extreme for this one.”

When the central continent was at its most dangerous time, countless men defended against the nation of evil and engaged with their sacred knights. The dwarves did all they could to send their most architects, and all the forces across the continent supplied them with enough energy to provide for the construction work. In just two years, their collective effort created one of the most impenetrable things there was on the continent. For many millennia afterward, the elves and dwarves continued to put their resources into maintenance, consequently increasing its strength.

Abel pointed to a magic tower in front of him, “Is there any requirement for building magic towers here, Wizard Hal?”

Wizard Hal seemed quite envious in the way he talked, “Well, all the owners over there are law-defying wizards above rank 21. That’s, well, there you have it.”

Abel was astonished, “That’s how many law-defying wizards there are on the central continent?”

Wizard Hal sounded kind of powerless for a moment, “The law-defying wizards are usually in a constant state of hibernation. Most of them have lived long enough to reach their end, and once they did, they put themselves in a vegetated state inside their own magic towers.”

“Why?”

“For their last offense against the evil knights, basically. Once the evil knights came here, anyone in those states would wake up and use all their forces for the last strike at their nemeses.”

Abel’s eyes were full of respect as he looked towards the magic tower. These were not magic towers. These were the tombs of powerful law-defying wizards. Or, to be more precise, this was a tomb of law-defying wizards that might stay here.

Abel suddenly thought about Wizard Merton, “Is Wizard Merton going to stay in here if he doesn’t have his breakthrough?”

Wizard Hal laughed bitterly, “Master Bennett, neither Wizard Merton and I have the right to build magic towers here. We’re not going to reach rank 21 no matter how hard we try.”

On the central continent, almost all the law-defying wizards were around rank 21. The more powerful law-defying wizards would stay at the frontline, and because of how long they could live for, there would only be an increase and not a decrease of people inside each of the large organizations. Still, there would only be so many law-defying wizards around because most wizards would choose to put themselves in this area to prevent themselves from dying. They would choose their life over the risk of losing their life in a promotion attempt. It was pretty much why Abel joined the operation this time. He would still do fairly well despite having just become a big druid, and there was a great prospect for him to gain more experience on the battlefield.

Wizard Hal woke up and spoke to Abel, “There are still 50 miles to the lightning clan’s camp, Master Bennett. You just let Wizard Frankenstein take you and follow where I’m going.”

So Abel’s soul chain connected to Frankenstein as he let him put a hand on his shoulder. They all disappeared to follow Wizard Hal to the destination. Wizard Hal knew that the name was fake. He’s never heard of the name. He wanted to test Frankenstein’s real strength to see how much power’s left in him. Instead of just asking, though, he decided to test Frankenstein out by seeing how well he could follow him even with multiple “instantaneous movements.” He found the situation increasingly strange. No matter how fat he cast the “instantaneous movement, Frankenstein still moved at his pace.”

“Impossible!”

From the energy flowing out of Frankenstein, Wizard Hal could tell that he was a freezing element type. That was even stranger, especially given how lightning wizards were supposed to be the strongest ones on the central continent. He didn’t know that the gears on Frankenstein could act as a seven-level buff, which gave it a total of 27 rank. That, combined with the add-on effects of the “spirit” sword and “spirit” shield, that just helped his casting speed to be 70% more than any other law-defying wizards combined.

This pretty much showed the difference between this world and the dark world. In this world, powerful people became so by their own talents and efforts. It meant that they could reach their limits but not overcome them. Take an “instantaneous movement” staff as an example. One would have to collect the material by hunting down a powerful spiritual beast with the same ability. After doing so, they would have to let a grandmaster blacksmith perform a soul insertion. Things would get tricky if the powerful beast possessed multiple abilities, which was not rare for powerful ones. There would always be the chance that the other ability was inserted rather than the “instantaneous movement.” Of course, if one was lucky, it’d be possible to get two or just every ability. The hard part was to find a spiritual beast that was of the same level as what was demanded.

Well, there was also the part of creating the staff. Creating them was also difficult in this world. There were only so many ways of boosting its ability, especially since spell add-ins could only be done with other gears. All in all, It was quite different from the dark world, where even mediocre wizards could be capable of slaying hell creatures with the right gear. Technology seemed to have its way of advancing exponentially in the dark world. Yes, with heaven and hell constantly pressuring the people living inside.