591: Chapter 389 The Desolate Tower in the Forest 591: Chapter 389 The Desolate Tower in the Forest Hill pleasantly gave himself a thumbs up.
Indeed, when he used to play games, it wasn’t that he miscalculated but that his eyesight was just poor!
The first thing Hill did after descending was to take out the crystal ball that Agleya had given him.
The only divine art stored inside was Alignment Detection.
This crystal ball could only be used once before it would completely shatter; after all, it was the power of deities, and even the highest quality crystal ball could not withstand too much.
However, Hill had hundreds of them; Agleya would make some for him to have as spares whenever she had nothing else to do.
While a Kind Alignment didn’t necessarily mean a person had a good character, an Evil Faction was definitely bad enough.
Which side the alignment fell on would decide whether Hill could take a gamble on his luck or if he would have to take to his heels and run.
The glow of the crystal ball finally settled on a light yellow color.
Neutral, a very typical stance for a mage.
That it was light yellow didn’t mean the mage leaned toward good, more likely it was because a lot of time had passed.
Only then did Hill begin to look around within the range of the Array with ease of mind.
But truly, this was a poor mage!
He had only set up an Illusion Array on the perimeter!
Probably only because this place was remote enough did the tower remain so intact.
To Hill, this Illusion Array was pretty much like an empty field.
Of course, he could still see the faint white glow of the Magic Array buried one meter deep in the ground.
Although there were some issues with this world, Illusion Arrays capable of affecting Hill were probably quite rare unless a being even more powerful than the Goddess of the Silvermoon, Teraxil, targeted him.
But such beings wouldn’t need to bully him with an Illusion Array.
He glanced at the Magic Tower, and although he didn’t know the levels of mages in this world, the master of this tower definitely hadn’t become Legendary.
Furthermore, he was an ordinary mage without any powerful inheritance.
Apart from the tower itself, everything else around the Magic Tower was actually just ordinary stone houses.
Even though the tower appeared to be made of obsidian, it didn’t feel heavy to Hill, suggesting that the outermost layer was probably just obsidian bricks.
Hill came back to his senses and pondered over the Illusion Array for a moment.
The original owner had probably just set up a similar one according to the Magic Array Diagram handed down and then placed some Mid-level Magic Crystal Stones at some critical nodes to provide energy.
The power in the Magic Crystal Stones was already half depleted, but this seemed to be just natural wear and tear; this place probably hadn’t had any visitors in the last hundred years or so.
The Magic Array had never been officially activated.
But if Hill hadn’t discovered it, this tower could probably have been found by others in another hundred years.
Moving his fingers, Hill couldn’t help himself and started modifying the rigid and dreadful spell nodes.
Incidentally, he upgraded the High-level Illusion Array to Legendary Level.
Although Hill had some Low Rank crystals for buying miscellaneous items, he rarely had any of Mid-level.
It had been a long time since he had used such low-grade Elemental Crystals in his own Arrays!
And they weren’t even of the same element!
Hill carelessly tossed the haphazardly collected crystals aside, then quickly came to his senses and hurriedly picked them back up.
He had to observe the composition ratio of the Elemental Crystals in this world; the ones he had might be too pure and could easily give away his presence.
Hill walked around within the range of the Illusion Array.
Fortunately, this mage still needed to eat, so there was a small farm within the range of the Illusion Array.
Hill took out Windmill Jasmine and Lily of the Valley from his pendant, along with the Strangling Vine, asking them to take root within the range of the Illusion Array and look for any flaws.
Without knowing what was going on in this world, Hill couldn’t summon Elemental Spirits and could only trouble these potentially lethal but sufficiently stealthy plants.
He brought out some Life Golems to repair the dilapidated courtyard while he moved his fingers, causing the stone houses to turn to dust.
He then released Water Mist, causing all the dust and various residues in the air to settle on the ground before sweeping them into the depths of the earth.
Hill handled it decisively; he wasn’t about to check for any servants’ corpses left behind.
Hill never trusted the integrity of mages; most wouldn’t consider whether their servants could survive after their own death.
If all the servants hadn’t been sent to the Styx before the mage’s death, it meant they had encountered someone with a decent character.
Having dealt with everything outside the Magic Tower, Hill set his gaze on the Magic Tower’s main gate.
For any serious mage, they wouldn’t meddle with their own main gate, of course, that’s toward their peers.
The gate would have a puzzle made with simple magical traces that any official mage and above could easily solve.
Of course, that was also because no Magic Tower would be left so utterly bare.
Mages’ methods to refuse unwelcome guests were all outside the Magic Tower.
In fact, this form of puzzle solving was a mage’s way of knocking on the door.
Only those who consider themselves guests would knock before entering.
Even Magic Towers in the middle of nowhere would adhere to this old tradition.
Actually, Hill’s door also had one, but he never needed it since he never closed his Magic Tower’s door.
The puzzle on the door was simple, and Hill soon figured it out.
Not until then did Hill straighten out his clothes and walked through the now-opened door.
Just as he expected, the Tower Spirit of the Magic Tower had completely fallen into a deep slumber.
If the Tower Spirit were still active, those mid-level crystal stones outside couldn’t possibly appear to be naturally depleted like this.
Even a low-rank Tower Spirit would consume at least one crystal stone per day, with an additional crystal for each additional floor.
The nine-layer Magic Tower before Hill didn’t seem capable of sustaining such a consumption rate.
Hill didn’t head for the top of the tower, although that was where magicians usually conducted their daily activities.
He took a glance at the Floating Stairway in the center of the hall then walked around the outside of the hall and found the downward spiral staircase.
How should one put it?
If the staircase is built around the periphery of the Floating Stairway, it’s usually narrow, serving as an emergency exit of sorts.
It indicates that the mage had plenty of crystal stones and that even servants, among others, would use the Floating Stairway to move between floors.
But if it’s on the very outer edge of the entire Magic Tower and the staircase is both wide and sturdy, then perhaps the Floating Stairway is actually the emergency escape route, sparingly used by even the Tower Master themselves under normal circumstances.
Hill had no intention of lighting the candles in the stairwell leading down, slowly making his way step by step.
His eyes could see clearly in the darkness as well.
He was just a bit worried that this magician hadn’t even installed crystal stone illumination for the passageways.
If he really had to stay here for a while, Hill felt that, apart from its shape, he might have to replace everything about this tower.
Hill knew, even if he truly had to impersonate a person from this world, he couldn’t possibly allow himself to live a life this frugal.
Poverty cannot be concealed.
Neither can wealth.
His feel for prices could never be as sensitive as the former Tower Master of this Magic Tower.
Hill knew that his living habits had already formed and those aren’t easy to hide.
He needed to rethink his character settings.
Why would one still be so poor after building a Magic Tower?
Hill made his way down to the basement with heavy steps and easily dispelled the multiple layers of the Magic Array there.
An Obsidian box sealed tight revealed itself.
Hill looked over it helplessly a few times, surmising that the most valuable magic array here was probably the Legendary Array sealing the box—unfortunately, it was also the most widely known and simplest of the Legendary Arrays.
It took Hill at least five minutes to disarm the array.
After cautiously using the Purification Detox spell several times, Hill finally opened the box.
The Tower Spirit hadn’t shown up to stop him, which confirmed it really was in deep sleep.
Hill submerged his consciousness into the pendant, just about to retrieve a high-level Tower Spirit core, when List’s core drifted over.
“Sir, why not take me out for a look first?” List said nervously, “The Oak Spirit can handle everything here now.
Please let me accompany you outside!
And I can definitely read all the secrets in that core.
High-level Tower Spirits only have a sixty percent success rate!”
It seemed List really wanted to come out, as the tasks inside the pendant were indeed too simple for him.
Moreover, Hill glanced at Alice who was getting increasingly restless—indeed, a high-level Tower Spirit might not be capable of keeping an eye on this cat.
He decisively retrieved List’s circular crystal core and placed it atop the still, diamond-shaped crystal inside the Obsidian box.
After ten minutes, the diamond-shaped crystal turned to black ash, and List’s voice came out: “Sir, I’ve displayed the Tower Spirit Magic Array of this world for you to take a look.
Could you make some modifications?”
“It turns out that although the previous owner drew a standard Tower Spirit Array, only some of the nodes were used and need to be repainted to connect.”
Hill studied the Magic Array that emerged on the ground after the crystal ball jumped into the Obsidian box with great attention.
This world seemed to prefer using circular arrays.
The arrays spreading out in circles from the inside to the outside were connected by several beams, with various runes inscribed within each circle.
Although the array styles were different from what Hill had learned in the past, he understood the Law Runes at a glance.
After studying it for a while, he grasped the principle of this array.
It reminded him somewhat of the old computer CDs: each line held a tremendous amount of information.
While he understood it, Hill wasn’t yet skilled enough to modify such an array; he could only diligently connect all the vertical lines, placing high-level crystal stones into the nodes.
Then, he placed a great number of Elemental Crystals according to their type in each circle and directly activated the array.
List’s core instantly emitted light, and as Hill looked at the vividly colored basement, he laughed heartily—this was the meaning of voyaging.
In this world, no matter what the issue, Hill wouldn’t care too much anymore.
He was finally able to learn new knowledge, something he had long anticipated.
“Sir,” List finally reappeared beside Hill, smiling happily, “I’ve taken over all the arrays in the Magic Tower.
There’s something I’m not sure if you would consider fortunate.
The former Tower Master didn’t die in the Magic Tower.
Although most of the Magic Books are still here, the most important one was taken with him when he left.”