Chapter 196
A giant tower floated alone above the city of Oxford.
It hadn’t been long since England’s pride, the 「Magic Tower」, had appeared.
About five years, perhaps?
So who in the world had built such an unbelievably mysterious structure?
Even if it was a tower symbolizing magic, could something that massive really float in midair?
Many people wondered, but there was only one thing they knew for certain.
The one who built the Magic Tower.
That’s right. She built the Magic Tower by herself.
Surprisingly, the Magic Tower had been created by a single person.
By the hands of the world’s 4th-ranked player, Sophia Silverstone, the Oxford’s Sage.
– I will not reveal how I was able to build it.
However, this was done in agreement with Oxford and the British Association.
– We will write a new chapter in the history of prestigious Oxford.
– So if you are interested…
– In relation to ‘magic.’
– I am confident we can cultivate talent more exceptional than anywhere else.
===
A tower veiled in mystery.
“Whew.”
Leaving my lodgings, I read through the pamphlet and familiarized myself with the tower’s layout.
[1st Floor: Entrance]
[Floors 2-10: Lodgings]
[Floors 11-15: Lecture Halls]
[Floors 16-20: Community Center]
[Floors 21-22: Magic Library]
[Floors 23-24: Training Room]
…
[Floors 36-40: Professor Research Labs]
It was only the information provided to guests.
Just as Olena had said, it only went up to the 40th floor.
》Heh heh, where are you thinking of going first?
The Elder looked at me with curiosity.
》Judging by how your eyes are locked on the 23rd floor, you must be planning to head to the training room first.
‘Are you a psychic?’
Honestly, there wasn’t anywhere else worth going.
The community center was literally just a convenience facility, with cafés, restaurants, and bathhouses.
Everything else was for the Magic Tower’s students and professors.
From the look of it, there were about five different schools of thought.
It seemed they had divided things up accordingly.
But none of that interested me.
‘How do the mages of the Magic Tower train?’
If their methods were truly novel,
I should actively incorporate them into the Bone Five training grounds that would soon be built in Peach Blossom Land.
》I am curious as well. This master’s Ten Thousand Arts does not include magic, after all.
‘I know.’
Even the Elder, who seemed capable of teaching me anything,
couldn’t teach me about Bone Five.
Because he didn’t know much about it either.
…
I returned to the entrance on the 1st floor.
More precisely, to the 1st-floor elevator Magic Circle.
– Which floor would you like to ascend to?
As I approached, an attendant in uniform politely greeted me.
How had that person gotten a job inside the Magic Tower?
Were they working part-time?
Or were they an actual member of the Magic Tower?
“Please take me to the 23rd floor.”
– 23rd floor, Training Room. Request received.
The guide’s voice echoed.
At the same time, the Magic Circle lit up.
Fzzzzt!
At the sound, I opened my eyes.
The bustling plaza had vanished, replaced by a quiet, spacious hall.
“This is incredibly convenient.”
I let out a genuine admiring remark.
If there was any way to implement this, I really wanted to steal it.
‘And on top of that…’
The training room itself was no joke.
》Indeed, this exceeds even my expectations.
The Elder looked around as he surveyed the area.
I too kept darting my eyes around like a country bumpkin visiting the city for the first time.
“This is on a completely different level from the modern architecture I knew.”
Each floor was a space that felt magical in itself.
When I looked up, I couldn’t see the end of the ceiling, and the walls that should have been wrapped in stairways were nowhere to be found.
The place was well over a thousand meters wide, with marble tiles stretching endlessly across the floor.
And between them stood dome-shaped rooms whose purpose I couldn’t identify.
Boom! Crash! Whoooosh!
From a few rooms with their lights on, strange explosions could be heard.
Were those mages in training?
I also chose an empty room and stood in front of it.
[Magic Training Room]
What is this?
Am I supposed to go inside here?
“By the way, how do I get in?”
Tap, tap.
I tried knocking on the door.
I also looked around for a switch or a handle.
But I couldn’t find any way to use it.
What is this thing?
》Tsk, tsk. A young whelp like you can’t even manage that one thing and is just standing there dumbfounded?
“No, I genuinely don’t know what to do.”
Is this how it feels?
As human society changes drastically and time moves faster and faster, the feeling elderly people must have when they can’t quite keep up with modern devices.
No, even so.
Doesn’t this feel like it skipped way too many steps?
》Hmph, you brat.
The Elder snorted and opened his mouth.
》Do you know what to do when you don’t know how to use something?
“What should I do?”
》You just have to break it. Whether it’s a person or a tool, once you hit it, it listens.
…
It was my fault for expecting anything.
This training room wasn’t mine, and he was telling me, a mere guest, to break it?
I might be somewhat lacking in common sense, but I wasn’t that ill-mannered.
‘No, before that.’
That thing.
Can I even break it?
It looks sturdy.
Thud! Thud!
I struck the training room with my fist.
It was hard. It seemed like it would take quite a bit of force to do any damage…
Should I try hitting it a little harder?
Swoosh.
Was it just as I raised my fist higher?
“Hey, hey?”
That was when someone approached.
“Excuse me! What exactly are you doing right now?!”
It was a female mage dripping with sweat, as if she had just finished training in one of the rooms.
She didn’t seem like a professor, but rather a student.
》Heh heh, see? Hitting it solves everything, does it not?
Ignoring the Elder, who was laughing in amusement, I looked at the mage.
I still hadn’t taken off my Black Fox Mask.
“What are you doing, hitting it like that? Do you know how expensive that is?!”
“Ah, I’m sorry. I didn’t know how to use it…”
Haha.
This had become awkward.
When I apologized right away, the mage, having calmed down a little, let out a sigh.
“Hoo, are you a first-time guest?”
“Ah, yes.”
“Do you know how inconvenient it is for us when every guest who comes here starts fiddling with the machines? That’s why I heard the inviter is supposed to give proper instructions… Didn’t you get an explanation?”
My inviter…
Olena?
Or the Magic Tower Lord?
“That friend… is a little busy.”
Let’s just say it was Olena for now.
She was the one who had given me the badge.
“Honestly, this device is more delicate than it looks. It’s a Magic Machine that provides consulting by comprehensively calculating things like destructive power, application, skill, speed, and more. So many guests have been kicked out by the Tower Lord for handling it carelessly… If you’re a guest, let me see your badge.”
“My badge?”
I took the badge out of my pocket and held it out.
A glittering golden badge.
“Oh my!”
Her eyes widened.
“You’re a VIP…? Are you a professor’s guest?”
And then, she looked at me with sparkling eyes.
What was with the sudden change?
》Heh heh, she must be wracking her brain.
The Elder laughed.
》It’s obvious you’re a professor’s guest, so she’s thinking if she acts polite enough, some crumbs might fall her way.
In other words, was this like a new employee running into the chairman’s mother carrying heavy luggage on the street?
Somehow, her gaze felt exactly like that.
“Let me properly introduce myself. I am a fire-attribute mage of the Magic Tower! My name is Sonya!”
“No, you really don’t have to formally introduce yourself…”
“Ahahaha! You’re an honored guest of the Magic Tower, so of course I should greet you! Let’s see…! You wanted to use that training room, right?”
Her voice, which had been so sharp moments ago, had become absurdly sweet.
Is this the power of the badge…?
“Come to think of it, you’re absolutely right! If the machine breaks down so often, they should kindly post instructions in front of it! Of course first-time guests wouldn’t know, so naturally they’d tap it like this. Hahaha.”
“…I see.”
This person.
She really knew how to switch attitudes fast.
“Actually, the entrance is right here. Look.”
As she placed her hand against the dome-shaped machine,
rumble!
the door opened anticlimactically.
“It opens easily as long as you know how to use magic. By any chance, do you have a magic-type Unique Ability?”
“I don’t have anything like that, but.”
Fwoosh!
I brought down my weapon, transformed into a staff, onto the floor. Thud!
Then,
rattle, rattle!
White bones burst from the marble floor and took shape.
[Using skill, ‘Summon Skeleton Lord’ (S-Rank).]
[Using 10 Energy.]
[‘Bone Five’ has appeared.]
The appearance of Bone Five, the only mage I possessed.
“A s-skeleton?!”
Sonya’s eyes widened.
“Ah, so you were a Necromancer! Isn’t that an incredibly rare class?”
“Yes, well. It is. This guy will be the one using the magic.”
“Huh? What does that…?”
When I pointed at Bone Five, she made a dumbfounded face.
“A skeleton can use magic?”
“Don’t say that so carelessly. These guys are very sensitive.”
“Ah… S-Sorry. But…”
Soon,
Sonya pointed a finger at Bone Five.
“Where are you sending her?”
‘Huh?’
Where?
When I turned my head,
creak, creak!
Bone Five was moving on her own.
“Huh?”
That skeleton.
Where was she going without any orders?
…?
The feeling was strange.
As I’ve said before, I share a certain degree of emotion with my skeletons.
I can feel their joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure.
And they, too, read my emotions and act accordingly.
‘But that one…’
Somehow.
She’s feeling nostalgic.
As if she’s in a familiar place.
As if she’s returned to her hometown.
‘Don’t tell me…’
Could it be that she knows the Magic Tower?
“W-Wait a minute! Where are you going?! You can’t go that way…!”
As I unconsciously started following Bone Five, Sonya hurried after me, chattering all the while.
“The Magic Tower is vast and complicated! Even if this floor is permitted, you’re only supposed to use this area. You can’t wander too far!”
“Is that so?”
“Yes! It’s dangerous! Did you know? There are people who’ve gone missing in the Magic Tower. If you wander around recklessly like that… Aaah?! What are you doing now?!”
“…Hmm?”
Creak!
Bone Five, who had moved into a corner,
poke! poke! poke!
was jabbing the tip of his staff into a crack in the marble.
》Hooh?
The Elder, seeing that, smiled with interest.
》I can feel the flow of air coming from underneath.
‘The flow of air?’
》Yes, it means there’s a gap.
‘A gap…’
My eyes widened.
‘This is…’
One hundred percent.
Bone Five.
She knew the structure of this Magic Tower well.
Perhaps even better than the Magic Tower student chattering beside me.
“A N-Necromancer is destroying the Magic Tower! He’s destroying the Magic Tower!”
“Hoo…”
Letting out a sigh, I lightly waved my hand.
Rattle, rattle, rattle!
Then my reliable subordinate appeared.
“My Lord.”
Sunny, understanding my intention immediately, covered Sonya’s mouth.
His ice-cold palm pressed against her lips.
“Mmph! Mmph, mmph!”
Her eyes went wide like a rabbit’s as she struggled.
But against Sunnie’s unmoving grip, all she could do was
“Mmm… mph!”
…go limp and give up.
“For now, please don’t be loud. I have no ill will, nor any intention of harming you.”
I was merely curious.
And
I simply didn’t want to stop Bone Five’s actions when she so clearly seemed to know something.
Perhaps even the Magic Tower Lord would be curious, no?
“Mmph!”
“However, if you keep being uncooperative, I think I might start developing some ill will. I’m an imperfect person too, so from time to time I may commit acts that aren’t exactly humane.”
“Mmph, mmph!”
“Cooperate, deal?”
“Mmmph!”
She nodded furiously.
She should have just done that from the start.
At my glance, Sunny released his grip.
“Huaaahk, huaaahk!”
Sonya, gasping for breath, immediately scrubbed at her lips with the back of her hand.
“Uwaaah, gross! A bony hand is disgusting! Ew!”
…
What the.
I stared at her blankly.
The reason she had struggled so much wasn’t because of whatever is Bone Five doing, but because of Sunny?
Somehow,
I didn’t think this student was normal either.