Chapter 133: Library
2015-11-28
Author: Floating Tower (诸生浮屠)
There were no enemies.
Soren carefully observed his surroundings, pushing his divine-level perception to the limit, but it seemed there were no enemies on this level either.
He quietly approached one of the bookshelves. When he reached out to touch a book, the power of time seemed to be triggered, and the book before him instantly crumbled into dust, creating a cloud of dust everywhere. All the books inside the bookshelf turned to dust, and even most of the books on the adjacent shelf disintegrated. However, after a large number of books turned to powder, some books that remained unaffected became very noticeable.
These were all magical books or books enhanced with spells.
Even a wizard would not have enough energy to imbue every single book with spells. They would arrange a large magic circle in the library to prevent damage to the books, but time still erased these protections, and only those important books that had been specifically enhanced by spells were preserved. Many books had completely deteriorated, turning to dust with just a light touch; the intact books emitted a faint spell light.
It seemed there were no enemies left.
Soren breathed a slight sigh of relief and signaled to the others below. Soon Gloria and the others all came up.
Meanwhile, at the top of the wizard tower, three constructs made of strange metal were observing everything.
“Tower Spirit No. 1!”
One of the tower spirits, whose lower body resembled an elemental giant made of flowing air, said in a deep voice, “The intruder has reached the fifth level. Why not activate the arcane guardians?”
Tower Spirit No. 1 looked ordinary, but it was this very ordinariness that made it extraordinary. In front of it was a virtual image showing Soren and the others entering the fifth level. After pondering for a moment, it slowly said, “The fifth level is the master’s library; it’s all very important.”
“If a battle occurs, it could likely destroy everything here.”
“I believe the master would not want to destroy these precious books. Time has passed for so long; if the master were still alive, he would have returned long ago.”
“Let’s just wait and see.”
Upon hearing Tower Spirit No. 1’s words, the other tower spirits fell silent. As a type of higher construct life, they possessed great power but were strictly bound by their limitations.
They faithfully executed the commands given by their master when he left, but after such a long time, even they began to feel weary.
Construct life is not immortal.
Some of the tower spirits among them had already disappeared over the long river of time; a thousand years can wear down even the soul. Therefore, Tower Spirit No. 1 might have considered fulfilling the master’s commands in other ways.
It had changed its body three times already.
As the oldest tower spirit in the wizard tower, over three thousand years had made it weaker, not in terms of power, but in the weakness of its soul.
Since construct life is also called life, it naturally has a time for its end.
They are not liches, just a form of artificial life. The essence of their soul cannot match that of humanity; the weakness caused by a lich changing bodies can be compensated through various methods, but they cannot do that at all. As a type of higher construct life, tower spirits can maintain their bodies for hundreds or even thousands of years. However, it has been far too long since the Arcane Empire era, and repeated body changes have brought them closer to death.
If it weren’t for Soren’s arrival, all tower spirits here might have vanished within a hundred years.
No, perhaps there is another one—Tower Spirit No. 13 from the chess dimension. It possesses a special divinity; perhaps it is the only tower spirit close to immortality.
A thousand years. Two thousand years…
Even they ultimately cannot escape death; all planes have their moment of death, let alone these construct lives.
Perhaps only the gods across the multiverse can truly be immortal…
………………
The fifth level of the wizard tower.
The collection of books here is immense, but less than one-thousandth of them are well-preserved; nonetheless, without exception, they are all extremely valuable.
After flipping through a few books, Gloria immediately said, “We need to move all these books back.”
The wizard tower hasn’t been taken down yet.
Leaving these books here clearly isn’t wise; it’s better to bring them all back first.
Vivian, clearly not very interested in these books, as a divinely favored sorcerer, casts most of her spells based on talent, so after briefly glancing around, her big eyes turned with thoughts about the higher level.
“Brother!”
The little girl ran to Soren’s side and said in a clear voice, “Why don’t we go up further? It seems like there are no guards on these two levels; maybe it’s the same above.”
Soren hesitated for a moment.
But he didn’t hesitate for long; he planned to take a look at the situation above. Since there are no enemies on two continuous levels, there might not be any guards above either.
Soren cautiously approached the sixth level of the wizard tower.
But before he could see everything inside, suddenly a strange beam of light appeared, moving too fast to dodge. It exceeded the speed of normal objects and directly shot toward Soren’s body.
In a critical moment!
Soren’s near-top-tier evasive ability in the material plane finally came into play. Relying on his powerful intuition, he twisted his body 360 degrees ahead of time, narrowly avoiding a fatal injury.
Crack!
Half of his hand fell to the ground.
Soren quickly jumped back, raising his hand, with his left hand now only half remaining. There was no blood at the wound because the flesh was already burned and charred, the cut unnaturally neat, occurring in an instant. Only when he retreated back to the fifth level did he feel the severe pain from his hand.
“Brother!?”
Vivian’s voice of concern rang out as she rushed over, worry evident on her face, “Are you okay?”
Soren’s face was slightly pale as he shook his head, “I’m fine. This injury is nothing!…”
——”Severed Limb Regeneration!”
——”Restoration Spell!”
Soren gritted his teeth, sliced off part of his hand, and then divine light appeared, healing his injury with the severed limb regeneration combined with the restoration spell.
What on earth was that?
A laser?
Soren wasn’t sure what it was because that beam had appeared in an instant. It seemed somewhat similar to a laser, possessing terrifying destructive power on a physical level, but he couldn’t determine whether energy protection was effective against it.
“Are you alright?”
The situation alerted Gloria, who was tidying up the books, and she quickly rushed over, concerned, “Is the injury serious?”
Soren shook his head and raised his hand to show them. He then said, “Be careful!”
“Don’t come near the front.”
“It seems there are some powerful traps above.”
Is it really a laser?
Soren could not yet confirm, but felt it should be a similar thing.
If it really is a laser, then there must be a triggering device; destroying that would allow access to the sixth level. Considering the level of civilization during the Arcane Empire, it probably is not much lower than that of the interstellar age, and their exploration of the astral realm and multiverse has lasted a long time, making the existence of such things within Soren’s comprehension.
He could manage to figure this out!
“Why don’t we stop here for today?”
Gloria checked Soren’s injury and then looked at the severed hand on the ground. Her expression turned serious, “I’m studying a ninth-level spell called [Spirit Travel]; perhaps we can wait until I’ve completed my research and directly pass through in spirit form.”
Soren nodded upon hearing this.
This thing is slightly dangerous; losing a hand isn’t too much of a deal, but if he lost his head… then that would be truly over.
Such traps probably wouldn’t even protect against spirit forms; returning after Gloria mastered the spell would undoubtedly be safer.
However!
Before leaving, Soren wanted to test a bit more, so he quickly took out two pieces of metal and tossed them toward the staircase in front of him.
One to the left and one to the right.
In an instant, strange beams of light appeared again, but this time there were two. Moving too fast to capture, he then saw the two pieces of metal neatly sliced into four pieces.
“It seems the physical body won’t withstand it.”
A thought suddenly popped into Soren’s mind as a small black stone appeared in his palm.
This was the Demon Pearl.
The annihilation material appearing in the border regions of the Bottomless Abyss, its size, comparable to a fingernail, could weigh several kilograms or more.
Soren carefully tossed it out.
In an instant!
The strange beam of light reappeared. Then came the sound of it landing with a thud.
——”Mage Hand!”
Soren cast the spell to retrieve the Demon Pearl; it had not been split in two and only had a very shallow mark on its surface, suggesting that these beams were not powerful enough to cut through it.
One object meant one beam; two objects meant two beams.
Soren seemed to understand something.
It’s not very difficult to pass through it; he actually had another method, which was to charge through using a divine power shield.
This thing is similar to a magic energy crystal pulse cannon.
After all, they are both a form of highly concentrated energy attack, understandable as a low-level magic energy pulse attack. If he activated a divine power shield, he could rush through, though it would definitely consume a lot of divine power.
Back then, the Godslayer nearly broke the Spider Queen’s divine shield with a single magic energy pulse cannon.
Though the Spider Queen is remarkably powerful, the divine power consumption must also be astonishing!
Soren thought about it and felt it was better to hold off for now. The Saint’s Cataclysm is approaching, and divine power is more precious than killing experience; there’s no need to waste it like this.
The group quickly exited the wizard tower.
Gloria and the Fallen Witch needed to digest today’s gains, and Vivian needed to further integrate the power of the divinity.
The little girl still has no solid foundation for her divine profession.
Soren currently has no clue; he doesn’t know what kind of divine profession suits Vivian, nor what kind of help he can provide.
Fear is temporarily impossible!
………………(To be continued ~^~)
