Chapter 447 Magic Puppet Fortress <TOC> Chapter 449 Midora's Request
Translator: SumTLMan
Three days later.
At midnight, Angel finished his meditation and stood by the window.
His room was on the sixth floor of the fortress, the highest level above ground. Through the window, illuminated by the moonlight, he could clearly see layer upon layer of magical puppet armies outside the fortress.
Perhaps sensing Angel’s gaze, the eerie magical puppets all turned their heads in unison, staring at him with cold eyes.
The pale moonlight cast upon their icy faces, making them appear even more strange and unsettling.
Their eyes were fixed on him, seemingly warning him not to make any rash moves.
The strength of these magical puppets was scattered, and Angel vaguely felt that there were at least several wizard-level magical puppets among them. When the pressure of those at the wizard-level approached, Angel endured for a while, but eventually stepped back a few steps.
With a pull of the curtain, all the pressure vanished.
This had happened countless times during these three days. Every night when he approached the window, he was forced back by these magical puppets, even standing at the window was not allowed.
Angel went from being angry at first to finding amusement in his suffering. At least, he could practice his resistance to pressure in front of these magical puppets.
However, no matter what, it was still suffocating.
When he was in the Shadow Demon City, facing Lydia, he reluctantly agreed to an unequal agreement due to the gap in strength; facing the Twilight Queen, he was even more powerless and fell into his current predicament; at Silent Hill, Isabella let him go, but Angel did not forget the anger and pain of being hunted; Bogula did nothing to him for the time being, but from the attitude of the magical puppets outside the window, he was under house arrest.
All these experiences urged Angel to realize how insignificant and trivial he was in the face of absolute power.
Even though his current strength was at an absolute leading position among his peers, sometimes the higher one stands, the further one sees, and the more one realizes how low their strength is.
He had no intention of being a king among monkeys; he just wanted to break free from the fate of being manipulated and controlled as soon as possible.
And the premise of all this… was the improvement of his own strength.
During these three days, he had been constantly perfecting his spell model. Now, the mental model in his thinking space had shown a clear “scattering” effect. If he continued to improve it, the model would metamorphose into a “web” and diffract in all directions in the thinking space.
However, Angel didn’t dare to continue perfecting the mental model. It wasn’t that he couldn’t, nor was it that he didn’t want to, but rather, he was afraid.
The —Singularity Scattering Meditation Method— was indeed the most powerful special guidance method discovered so far. As recorded, it had almost no bottleneck before reaching the wizard level.
If he continued to improve, Angel might very well touch the realm of a third-level apprentice.
This is something Angel cannot do at present, because he knows very clearly that he had only advanced to the second-level apprentice half a year ago when he fell into the spatial crevice. His foundation has not yet been solidified, and rashly raising his level again might lead to a collapse.
However…
Time waits for no one, and if he follows the normal process to wait for his foundation to be solid, it would take at least several years. This time may be short for transcendent beings but very long for mortals.
Jon is still waiting for him to return in the distance, and he cannot stop moving.
Angel fell into deep thought. Wanting to increase his strength is certainly an urgent matter right now. But ignoring the foundation and acting rashly is irresponsible for the future. How to quickly make up for the foundation? Common sense knowledge can be learned slowly in the future, but physical deficiencies… the Purification Garden should be possible.
Thinking of the Purification Garden, Angel’s mood fell to rock bottom again.
That day, Shadow’s words to him still echoed in his ears—
“Every time the Purification Garden was opened in the past, everyone fought for a spot. The rumors about plenty of slots and leniency are false. You know that the enhancement-type magic gardens have rules that will be consumed, and our Sky Mechanical City cannot even meet our own needs, let alone outsiders.” After saying this, Shadow concluded: “So, the opening of the Purification Garden this time is particularly strange. You only need to climb the Sky Tower to the top to enter. In the past, you had to climb above the 30th floor of the Infinite Battle Tower to enter the Purification Garden!”
The prerequisite for challenging the Infinite Battle Tower is to clear the 15th floor of the Sky Tower!
In the past, only the lowest 30 floors of the Infinite Battle Tower had slots for the Purification Garden. But now it has been relaxed to the entire Southern Region of the Wizarding World; anyone who passes the Sky Tower can enter. There is no need for Shadow to elaborate, as Angel himself feels something is amiss.
“So, this time, the Purification Garden is definitely not simple, and there may be hidden problems.” Shadow’s intention was actually to dissuade Angel from entering the Purification Garden.
After pondering for several days, Angel has indeed thought about accepting Shadow’s help and escaping as the primary goal.
However… the attraction of the Purification Garden to him at the moment is tremendous.
Should he choose to leave, or stay here waiting for the Purification Garden to open?
Angel was silent for a whole night, and after considering his current situation, he had already leaned towards a decision.
…
Dawn was approaching.
Just as Angel was thinking about finding Shadow to express his decision, Shadow took the initiative to come to him.
“How have these past few days been?” Shadow entered the room.
Angel pointed to the window: “Not great. Every night, passing by the window feels like facing a great enemy.”
Shadow walked to the window, glanced at the layers of magical puppets outside, and laughed: “This is the autonomous function of the defense puppets. They react like this to all strangers. Farja has also been experiencing this for the past few days.”
“You mean, Lord Bogula isn’t specifically targeting me?”
“No, Mentor’s personality is actually quite pure and wouldn’t intentionally manipulate such details.” Pausing for a moment, Shadow pulled down the curtains: “What have you decided? Are you planning to leave or…”
“I won’t be leaving Sky Mechanical City for now.”
“It seems that you’ve chosen the Purification Garden.”
Shadow was silent for a while and then suddenly laughed: “Perhaps your choice of the Purification Garden is the right one.”
Angel looked at him with a puzzled expression.
“I’ve been contacting old friends these past few days, hoping to help you smuggle out through a personal teleportation formation. Or rather, if you choose the Purification Garden, I’ll find you a safe hiding place.” Shadow casually mentioned what he had been doing during these days, and although it was only a few simple words, Angel could tell that it must have taken a lot of favors. Moreover, Shadow had even thought about the follow-up plan after choosing the Purification Garden.
Angel didn’t say any polite “thank you” words, but silently kept Shadow’s kindness in his heart.
“The reason I say your choice might be right is that I received some information. As I said, the Purification Garden may indeed have a problem. However, there might also be a great opportunity.”
“A great opportunity? What do you mean?”
“This time, our Sky Mechanical City sent ten wizard apprentices to the Purification Garden, all of them genuine geniuses.” Shadow paused: “Among them, there are even two offspring of True Knowledge Wizards.”
“These geniuses are the core seeds cultivated by the organization, all of them taught with special guidance spells, and some even have unique constitutions, with limitless potential.” Shadow thought to himself: Of course, you are even more extraordinary.
“The organization wouldn’t send them to their deaths, so there must be some path to life in this Purification Garden, and this path to life might be a great opportunity.” Shadow said and sighed to Angel: “Although I don’t know what kind of opportunity it is, it must be highly beneficial. Moreover, I also heard a rumor, but I’m not sure if it’s true.”
“All major wizard organizations have sent their talented younger generations. In these past few days, Mentor has been busy with matters related to this.”
After Shadow finished sharing the information, he hurriedly left. He had become interested himself and wanted to find out more about the Purification Garden.
Before leaving, he cautioned Angel: “I could actually provide you with a more concealed hideout in the reverse side, but with the current peculiarities within the city, I think it’s safer for you to stay inside the fortress. The mentor should be too busy to bother you these days.”
Shadow left a final “Wait for my message” before departing.
Angel pondered for a moment, then returned to the table. Regardless of the state of the Purification Garden, improving his combat capabilities was essential.
He had already researched more than half of the Fear Spell, and barring any accidents, he should be able to achieve preliminary results within the week. The Fear Spell itself varied from person to person, with strong specificity. If he could add the effects of the Nightmare Domain, his combat power should be greatly enhanced.
Time flew quickly, and a week passed.
That night, Angel completed the last bit of the Fear Spell’s written calculations. Next, he would follow the records to construct the spell model on the Universal Axis.
Just as Angel was planning to harness the Fear Spell in one fell swoop, there was a sudden knock on the door.
Knock, knock, knock—
The sound was crisp and ethereal.
Angel glanced at the wall clock instinctively. It was past midnight, precisely at dawn. Even if extraordinary people rarely rest at this time, no one would choose to visit at this hour.
“Who is it?” Angel asked, frowning.
After a long pause, a mechanical voice came through: “Honored guest, Kaza has a request.”
Kaza? Angel had heard from Shadow that Kaza was an upgraded version of the Magic Eye, loaded with a mechanical core, and currently served as the fortress’s steward.
Instead of opening the door, Angel cautiously said: “Please come in.” If it truly was Kaza the steward, he should be able to enter the room directly with his authority.
As Angel’s voice fell, a crisp sound emanated from the lock on the door.
The door opened, and floating outside was Kaza the steward, whom Angel had seen in front of the fortress.
The massive metal eye slowly floated into the room, finally hovering in front of Angel.
“Steward Kaza, what brings you to my room?”
Kaza made two “clicking” noises: “Honored guest, Lord Midora wishes to see you. The lord is already waiting in the living room.”
Chapter 447 Magic Puppet Fortress <TOC> Chapter 449 Midora's Request