593: Chapter 391 ‘Difficult’ Road to Rebuilding the Magic Tower 593: Chapter 391 ‘Difficult’ Road to Rebuilding the Magic Tower Hill sighed, “What’s his name?”
“Santos Bawudong, a 17th-level mage.
He just became a Magister,” List replied, “According to the memory of the Tower Spirit, the Bawudong is a minor noble family.
But Mr.
Santos is the son of a second son.
This world doesn’t have such high demands for nobility, possibly because most people of noble birth, even if they can’t become knights, can still find their way into the Church to work.
As long as they offer enough faith, those with even slight aptitude can become priests.
However, the status of a paladin is a bit higher than that of an ordinary priest, after all, the deities of this world still need to enforce their interests with violence.
It is normal for nations under the rule of hostile deities to be at odds with each other, and if the power of a deity is strong enough, some countries have even been enemies for thousands of years.”
“Thousands of years?”
“Yes, so far, aside from the most powerful deities who no one dares to provoke, the others are almost never the same ones they started with.
Mr.
Hill, this is a world of god wars.
The Kind and Evil Factions, of course, fight even more fiercely.
Every thousand years, they trigger what is called the battle between good and evil.
The Evil Faction seeks to destroy the world, while the Kind Faction seeks to save the world from evil’s grasp.
Although the Tower Spirit knows little, the legend of the apocalypse has always been mainstream in this world.
But every time such a terrible evil god appears, there is a just deity who sacrifices themselves, perishing together with the evil god.”
“Which one?
The same one every time?” Hill asked sensitively.
“Not the same one, but it seems that divinity can be accumulated,” List explained.
“Those great world deities have many divine roles, usually a dozen or more.”
Hill nodded, “It seems we have a lot of reading to do.
Please continue about Mr.
Santos.”
“With Mr.
Santos’s status, he should have become a priest, relying on his family power to become the chief priest of a small city’s church.
However, the Bawudong family faced a financial crisis at that time, so they had Santos’ father, the Bawudong Knight, marry the daughter of a wealthy merchant.
Unfortunately, once the crisis had passed, the honored knight felt he had been wronged.”
Hill frowned, noting the inherent vice of nobility is similar across different worlds.
“He gave the enrollment qualification meant for Santos to a supposedly very talented illegitimate child of his own,” List’s face showed a hint of disdain, Santos is a Magister!
Had he joined the Temple, with his talents, becoming an archbishop would certainly have been no problem, and he might even have reached the level of a cardinal, which is roughly equivalent to that of a Legendary Knight.
“This world allows such a high status for illegitimate children?” Hill was surprised.
“The Church, sir!” List sighed, “Isn’t that the realm of illegitimate children?
Think of those guys from the Noble Church!
Each and every one of them proclaims to have dedicated everything to their deity, and they cannot possibly marry and have children.
Even if the deities do not care whether their priests have their own families, in general, only priests of priest rank marry.
Only by severing all lesser loves can they devote their greater love to their Main God!
However, each of the Grand Temples has a peculiar kind of priest, who lives in the temple from a young age and is said to be greatly favored by the deities, taking up the role of church chief priest upon reaching adulthood.
This has become an accepted reality in this world.
The inheritance rights of nobility are not in the hands of the male head, but whether the female head has enough ability to hold back all challengers.”
Hill couldn’t help but exclaim, “Huh?
Doesn’t that lead to chaos?”
“Therefore, the noble women of this world all marry ‘below’ themselves.
And many of them choose to become followers of the Church, all adept in divine arts.
Especially those that purify and detoxify.
Healing Divine Arts, however, can only be used by formal priests.”
Hill immediately understood why Santos was so unfortunate.
No matter how wealthy the merchant’s daughter was, she couldn’t suppress her shameless husband.
“Mr.
Santos’s mother was very wise, she always knew her husband was forced to marry her.
But her family needed the reputation of the Bawudong family, and she still wanted the title of a noble lady.
In the end, she sent her son to learn magic.”
“What kind of logic is that?” Hill asked helplessly, “If Mr.
Santos is talented, the Temple wouldn’t refuse to accept him, would they?”
“A position in the Church, how easy do you think they come by?
Without the help of a family, it means starting from the lowest rank and slowly climbing up, even possibly serving under that illegitimate child,” List said with a smile, “Mr.
Santos and his mother could never accept that.”
Hill sighed, “Alright, nobody could accept that.”
“Although Mr.
Santos’s maternal family provided him with the initial resources, as his level got higher and he needed more, the merchants from his minor noble family simply could not supply enough,” List finished tallying up the great warehouse, turning his head to speak to Hill, “So his later resources all came from working as a bodyguard for those trans-national merchants.”
He was a battle mage, not much for side businesses.
Moreover, in this world, divine arts were so advanced that alchemy simply couldn’t take off.
Alchemy blacksmiths were quite popular, though; most mages didn’t have the physical strength for that line of work.
“Is there anything good?” Hill still asked.
“It’s all the most ordinary stuff, but it’s quite suitable for the gentleman to familiarize himself with the ores of this world.
As for the rest, the Tower Spirit has probably lost consciousness a long time ago; the food and cloth can no longer be recognized for what they were.
But I do remember some of the better cloth materials and weaving techniques, enough to have the life golems weave some based on that.”
Hill nodded and followed List out.
“Let’s go straight to the fifth floor!
That’s where the Great Library and the small laboratory are, for apprentices to use.
The fourth and third floors are the apprentices’ living quarters.
The second floor is their dining hall and small kitchen.”
“Seventh floor?” Hill hesitantly asked.
“Without elemental power, all the magical plants are dead.” List shook his head, “Those plants’ seeds are stored in the seed bank; we’ll replant them later!”
Hill scratched his head, “Then why did he choose to build his tower here?”
“Because this is the only land deed he could afford.” List replied, “With so many countries in this world, it’s impossible to find a place that isn’t owned by someone.
Even the deserts have nations, as do the oceans.
Every corner is clearly priced.
Fortunately, no matter how many countries have changed, they all still recognize the original land deeds.”
“The land deed?” Hill asked vaguely.
“That obsidian box, it’s inscribed inside.” List answered, “As long as you have this box, this place is officially yours!”
Hill couldn’t say anything else; he felt that his worldview had been greatly shaken.
Teraxil is really a wonderful place!
Silently, he followed List down to collect those dozens of bookshelves.
Compared to the very top study room and the Tower Master’s own library, the Great Library had sufficiently many volumes.
Probably because regular books were also stored here.
Fortunately, this Magister was somewhat conscious as a mage; all the bookshelves were alchemy bookshelves, not only dust-proof but also waterproof and resistant to fire and pests.
Only after Hill felt grateful did he realize that his standards had become so low.
Regrettably flying back to the ground, just as Hill was about to start demolishing the tower, List stopped him, “Sir, please dismantle those obsidian bricks.
We need them to construct auxiliary buildings.”
Hill looked at List with a blank expression, “I can convert obsidian myself.”
“Your obsidian is too pure to be used for the outer walls of buildings outside the Magic Tower,” List said regretfully, “Sir, even the most extravagant mage in this world wouldn’t dare use such pure obsidian for regular buildings.
This kind of obsidian, mixed with many other materials and clearly reused, is already a luxury only a powerful legendary mage could afford.
There is no Goddess of the Earth in this world; the divinities of the earth are divided into finer distinctions, even the Goddess of Seasons is split into four entities.
In this world, even legendary mages cannot directly convert soil to obsidian, sir.
In Teraxil, actually, no one can really do that.
Mr.
Fran used an alchemy conversion method; that’s an array.
Sir, you can’t even use obsidian for your own home’s walls because it would be obvious something is wrong without even having to see you.”
Hill remained silent for a long time before he reluctantly lifted his hand, allowing the tower to collapse slowly from the topmost layer, floating the outermost obsidian bricks to the corner to be stored neatly.
“You can make the basement a bit nicer.
It’s the most valuable part of a tower, so, of course, the highest protection is needed.
For other areas, please make sure not to use Space Crystals as though they’re something you bought wholesale,” List said leisurely, floating slightly to one side, a joyful smile on his face.
Hill, focusing intently on dismantling the tower, pretended not to hear the Tower Spirit’s jibe.
He wasn’t a fool; a temporary dwelling, not meant to be a permanent residence, didn’t need any Space Crystals!
He didn’t need to store many items in a storehouse; he had enough space in his pendant!
He wouldn’t be entertaining any guests to stay either, at most just meeting some people.
“List, since he would take on merchants’ commissions, there should be many people aware of this Magic Tower, right?” Hill was a bit puzzled, “Why, after he’s been dead so long, has nobody come here?
By your words, even the land should be worth something.”
“It seems he only accepted commissions from a few large trade associations.
In this world, there is no one without faith.
He would only take on merchants whose commissions didn’t conflict with his own church,” List replied, “So I think no one coming can only have two possibilities.
One is that the major mission he took swept up all those familiar with him, and the other is that he didn’t die on the spot, but escaped with severe injuries.
So even if someone came looking, upon finding no response, they wouldn’t barge in.
A severely injured Magister, if sensing danger, would definitely not hold back.
His possessions were not worth such a risk.”
Hill shook his head helplessly, “I hope it’s the first option.”