Gravity Mage with Level-Up System

Prison Island

I saw that the Elder-Level Wizard hadn’t left the place. She was playing with her Magic Artifact. When my gaze turned toward the prison cell, I spotted the bloodied body of Lord Erwin.

A storm erupted in my heart. Lord Erwin’s face and body were covered in blood. Raging anger boiled within me.

If not for my current limitations, I would have attacked her already. As time passed, I felt myself growing increasingly furious.

I took a breath to calm myself down, knowing that anger would not solve anything.

Right now, all I could do was wait for her to leave.

Outside

”Aaahh!”

Forbidden Wizard Erwin’s scream reverberated throughout the prison cell.

The prisoners in the nearby cells heard it, and the captives imprisoned on the top floor heard it as well. A chill ran down everyone’s spine.

They knew that crazy woman would not leave easily. She had found a new toy to play with, and she wouldn’t leave until she had broken it slowly.

Elder Muriel grinned widely. The screams and the bloody scene brought her pleasure.

She wanted to see more blood, so she continued to toggle the mana restrictions on and off. Every time she activated them, blood spurted from his injuries, leaving the imprisoned wizard completely drenched.

”Ha... Ha... He...” She let out a laugh.

Satisfied with the torture for now, she used the magic artifact to shut down the restriction.

Boom!

The Elder-Level power stopped leaking from the mana restriction. Once the room returned to normal, Forbidden Wizard Erwin finally had a chance to breathe, lying in a pool of blood.

Elder Muriel stored the magic artifact away in her storage bracelet. She then looked at the imprisoned wizard and noticed some vitality remained in him; he wasn’t going to die anytime soon.

Deciding it was time to leave, her body began to ascend. In a flash, she reached the top of the prison cell.

Swoosh!

She flashed through the entrance and appeared in mid-air. Her gaze swept across the area, taking in the Magic Lords and Forbidden Wizards standing at their posts.

Her brow relaxed. She was in a good mood now.

She assumed the earlier alert must have been triggered by some other phenomenon; she didn’t believe any wizards had intruded, nor did she think the wizards stationed here had the guts to try.

Everyone averted their eyes, too terrified to meet her gaze, which only proved how frightened they were.

She then instructed all the wizards to gather before her.

Swoosh!

Within a few minutes, everyone had assembled before her, a total of one hundred wizards. Looking at the twenty Forbidden Wizards and eighty Magic Lords, she commanded:

”From now on, everyone will patrol the island as usual. No one is permitted to approach the underground prison cell.”

She paused, considering something, and looked over the ranks again. She knew their numbers were fixed; even if some were dispatched on missions or rotated out, the total count remained strictly at one hundred.

The wizards below bowed in obedience.

Swoosh!

Elder Muriel departed from the prison island. Satisfied with her session of torture, she left to attend to other business within the organization.

The Forbidden Wizards and Magic Lords dispersed from the underground prison cell, spreading out across the island to resume their usual patrols. In the blink of an eye, the area was deserted.

Meanwhile,

Back in the control room, I used the system to verify whether the Elder-Level Wizard had truly departed.

Once the system confirmed her absence, I stepped outside.

Swoosh!

Standing before the cell and looking at Lord Erwin’s battered state, I was at a loss for words.

If possible, I wanted to break in immediately, but the cell’s bars were bound by restrictions linked directly to the walls. Touching them risked triggering the defenses all over again.

A flash of hesitation crossed my mind. Refusing to make any reckless moves that might compromise my safety, I took a deep breath to steady myself.

Once composed, I turned toward Lord Erwin.

”Lord Erwin, can you hear me?” I called out in a low voice.

Erwin’s ear twitched. He was still alive and conscious, having endured the agony just to avoid provoking the madwoman any further.

He knew she had assessed his limits before walking away; had the torture continued, his foundation would have fractured.

At worst, his mana core would have ruptured, killing him on the spot. Fortunately, she had stopped just in time.

”Lord Erwin, can you hear me?”

Erwin’s heart skipped a beat.

Lord? he thought.

For a second, he assumed he was hallucinating his severe injuries made that entirely possible. Yet the voice persisted, calling to him from just outside the gate.

He knew where he was: chained inside an enemy prison, far from the Silver Tower.

Yet the voice sounded unmistakably familiar, reminding him of the young prodigy from the Tower. He couldn’t fathom why he was hearing it here.

”Lord Erwin, it’s Vincent,” I whispered.

This time, Erwin reacted. He forced his head up, squinting through blurred vision until the silhouette outside the bars sharpened into focus. Someone was truly standing there.

He slowly pushed himself up to lean against the wall behind him.

I pulled down my mask and met his gaze. Drenched in blood as he was, his eyes remained sharp, observing me from head to toe.

”Are you real?” Erwin asked.

Internally, he was reeling. The figure before him was indeed the young man, no illusion, no transformation magic.

Any other wizard’s magical signature would have set off the warding arrays immediately, leaving him baffled as to how Vincent had bypassed them undetected.

”Yes, I am real.” With that, I held up the insignia of the Silver Tower.

A faint spark flickered in Erwin’s eyes. He lifted his head higher, staring at Vincent Carey in utter disbelief.

Stunned into silence, he could only stare as a hush fell over the corridor.

He wondered briefly if this was the trickery of an Elder-Level spell, but he dismissed the thought-no one could replicate that crest without having seen it up close.

It was impossible for the powerhouses stationed here to know the details of the Silver Tower’s emblem.