After leaving the storeroom, Raymond quickly inspected the various rooms in the upper level and soon confirmed his suspicion.
Without a doubt, this mage tower had been abandoned by its owner.
Although he had no idea why Astar had given up his immense power and lofty social status within the Magic Council of the Floating City to vanish without a trace,
the vanished gems, rare spellcasting materials, high-grade magical items, equipment, scrolls, potions, and the long-dead magical pet in the bedroom that had become a dried corpse all proved that the Necromancer Archmage had truly left.
In particular, abandoning his magical pet and leaving it to fend for itself was absolutely not something a normal mage would do.
Perhaps he had truly found a way to transform into a Lich, which was why he had decisively cut ties with everything from his life and embraced death and immortality.
Of course, that no longer had anything to do with Raymond.
He was already standing at the entrance to the room containing the spatial gate, staring at the enormous gem-studded metal doorframe in the center.
"Is this our destination?"
Vermees widened her eyes and stared fixedly at the precious metal coins piled around the room, glittering with gold and silver light.
For an evil Chromatic Dragon, nothing could stir the greed buried deep within her soul more than such a sight.
Clearly, to Astar, who had already decided to turn himself into an undead creature, these treasures that ordinary people considered priceless were far less important than useful things such as gems, spellcasting materials, and magical items.
Not to mention that once he successfully transformed into a Lich, he would likely hide away for quite some time to adapt to his new identity.
As for gold and silver currency, a general equivalent, if it could not be spent and exchanged for things he needed, it was nothing more than a pile of cold, useless precious metal.
Having figured that out, Raymond immediately slapped his cheeks, forcing himself to snap out of his mad obsession with gold and silver. Then he pointed at the beast-shaped statues in the room and said, "Did you notice those black statues? They're all Gargoyles in disguise. Quite a few adventurers and merchants drawn in by the treasures piled on the ground fell to their surprise attacks."
"Gargoyles?"
The Red Dragon glanced at the scattered black statues near the piles of gold and silver coins and immediately curled her lip in disdain.
"They're nothing but little bugs I can crush with a casual swipe."
"Maybe that's true for you! But they're still quite lethal to me. Those things are fast, and they can fly and jump. So clear them out for me." Raymond gave the order directly.
Although he still had several protective scrolls in his scroll case to deal with this situation, he did not want to waste them on something so unimportant.
After all, the Forgotten Realms—Faerûn—was a typically dangerous world where Red Wizards were everywhere, and Liches, dragons, and all kinds of monsters roamed freely.
Controlling an Adult Red Dragon did not give Raymond much of a sense of security.
So he needed to save whatever he could and keep it for critical moments when his life was on the line.
"As you wish!"
With a bang, Vermees smashed through the doorframe. Like a speeding freight truck, she charged recklessly forward, crushing every black statue in her path into fragments.
The remaining Gargoyles realized they had been exposed and broke out of their motionless state, transforming into creatures that looked somewhat like winged Demons as they launched a siege.
Unfortunately, their attacks were little more than scratching an itch to an Adult Dragon.
In less than a minute, mangled wings, limbs, heads, and torsos were scattered all over the floor.
Since Gargoyles were a typical Earth Elemental subspecies, their shattered limbs soon turned into hard chunks of stone.
Once the last one had been dealt with, Raymond immediately led the summoned human soldier guarding his side to the enormous doorframe and connected it to the mage tower's energy reserves with practiced movements.
Not only that, he also released the power of his Spark at the center of the gate.
In an instant!
A gray, chaotic vortex appeared within the empty doorframe.
Then, before long, the chaos gradually became clearer, revealing a hazy, blurred image.
Although Raymond tried his best to stabilize the passage,
the binding magic surrounding the Floating City was simply too powerful, constantly interfering with and sabotaging it without pause.
Left with no choice, he shouted at the Red Dragon, who was frantically stuffing gold and silver coins into wooden crates and sacks, "Forget those damned gold and silver coins! Get over here now! The mage tower's energy reserves are nearly exhausted. It can't hold on much longer."
"Damn it! Give me one more minute! Just one minute!"
Vermees had clearly lost her mind, displaying an attitude of valuing money over her life. She opened her jaws and spewed a deadly torrent of fire at the ground ahead, melting all the remaining gold and silver coins that had not yet been packed into containers into scorching liquid.
Then she dug several grooves into the ground with her claws, allowing the molten precious metals to flow down them and eventually into a large jar she had found somewhere.
Only after finishing all that did she contentedly carry the sacks, crates, and ceramic jar full of gold and silver coins and plunge headfirst into the portal.
The moment the Red Dragon left, violent tremors rose from beneath the mage tower.
There was no need to ask. Activating and maintaining the portal had accelerated the depletion of the tower's energy reserves.
If nothing unexpected happened, the undead outside would soon break in.
At the same time, the portal became extremely unstable due to the lack of energy, as though it could close at any moment.
The wildly flickering white light was the best proof of that.
"Let's go!"
At a time like this, Raymond did not dare linger any longer. He had the summoned human soldier beside him grab him and rush into the portal.
The next second...
His vision was swallowed by white light, and he could see nothing at all.
He could only vaguely feel his body being squeezed and warped by an invisible force, then spun madly as though he had been thrown into a washing machine.
The instant his feet felt solid ground again, he immediately lost his balance and crashed onto the ground, vomiting stomach acid and bile in great heaving gulps.
"Master, are you all right?"
The human soldier in chainmail hurriedly removed the waterskin hanging from his waist and handed it over.
Dizzy and disoriented, Raymond instinctively accepted the waterskin. He first rinsed his mouth with fresh water, then drank a little, finally recovering bit by bit.
The moment he raised his head, he saw a white beach and an endless blue sea, and his mind went completely blank.
"Where are we? And where's Vermees?"
"Judging from the surrounding temperature, climate, and vegetation, this should be an uninhabited island somewhere near the south. Clearly, that dragon's landing point after passing through the portal was different from ours."
The soldier briefly surveyed the surroundings and quickly gave his assessment.
Though he was merely a summoned creature, he possessed intelligence no different from that of an ordinary human, along with a certain amount of common sense and survival skills.
Damn it!
Realizing his current predicament, Raymond immediately sent heartfelt greetings in his mind to every female member of the Red Dragon's family and her ancestors for eight generations.
If that bastard had not valued money over her life and wasted that precious minute, this accident would not have happened due to the portal's insufficient energy supply.
And now, after escaping the Floating City that was about to be destroyed, he had immediately been thrown into survival-on-a-deserted-island mode.
The only fortunate thing was that this island lay in relatively warm waters, so it probably would not lack food or drinkable fresh water.
Before you continue