Last Preparations Before Escape

After securing the lightning launcher, Zuo Si quickly turned his gaze to the pile of bottles and jars arranged along the wall to his right.

The twenty-odd colorful bottles on the top shelf clearly emitted magical fluctuations.

Needless to say, they were all genuine Potions.

Those shimmering with life-like green light were generally Healing Potions.

The darker the color, the stronger their healing effects.

Even a low-grade Lesser Healing Potion could instantly stop bleeding and pull someone on the verge of death back from the brink.

Of course, that only applied to external wounds.

If the internal organs were injured, more advanced Potions were needed.

As life-saving items that could quickly restore combat strength after an injury, Zuo Si did not hesitate to sweep up six bottles and place them in the satchel he carried with him.

He then took two Antidote Potions, one Protection from Fire Potion, and three Speed Potions for emergencies.

As for the rest, which he had no immediate use for, he directly converted them into energy and stored it in his Mana Pool.

Once the energy in the Potions had been drained, the liquid in the bottles quickly turned murky dark brown or translucent white.

After dealing with the Potions, Zuo Si cautiously opened a hidden compartment in the wall of his room and took out a black rectangular wooden box the size of a lunchbox.

In an instant!

A neat stack of more than a dozen scrolls made from magical ink and parchment lay quietly inside.

This was a Scroll Case made through special craftsmanship and magic.

In theory, it could hold no more than twenty-five Spell Scrolls, along with notes, maps, sticky notes, and similar items.

Not only was it waterproof, but it could also be fastened to a belt like a tool pouch, making it easy to access during battle.

However, due to the restrictions of his class preventing him from casting spells, Zuo Si could not copy scrolls himself.

Scrolls containing low-level magic were not much of a problem. He could trade Magic Items and Potions he made himself with other apprentices for them.

But for high-level scrolls, he could only wait and see when the Archlich—Astar—was in a good mood and casually rewarded him with one or two.

Moreover, copying Spell Scrolls was an extremely troublesome task.

Copying a single high-level scroll often left mages utterly exhausted and unable to cast any other spells for the entire day.

Therefore, most mages did not make a habit of copying scrolls.

After all, they themselves could cast magic, so there was no need to go through all that trouble.

Furthermore, these Spell Scrolls were indispensable consumables for Zuo Si when crafting powerful Magic Items and Wondrous Items. Having more than a dozen left already counted as quite frugal.

One had to know that the spellcasting classes created by the Ael, whether mages or anything else, were typical "Mana Pool" casters.

In other words, once they mastered a spell, they could cast it anytime and anywhere as long as they had enough magic power.

Theoretically, if an LV1 mage could learn and cast first-level spells, then an LV9 mage could cast Ninth-level spells, though only one per day.

The prerequisite was having a high enough Intelligence attribute to learn them.

The Forgotten Realms—Faerûn—on the other side of the Teleportation Gate, which possessed the Weave, used an entirely different system.

Although its Spell Slot system had been optimized by the Weave and allowed for more spells each day, one still needed to reach at least level seventeen to learn and master Ninth-level spells.

And extensive preparation was required before casting.

Through repeated reading and chanting, the entire spell had to be forcibly memorized in the mind in an abstract manner that even mages themselves did not know how to describe.

Once cast, the spell would instantly be forgotten.

The former system, however, required no such complicated process.

As long as one had sufficient mana, any magic one had learned could be cast at any time. It was extremely simple and convenient.

The two magical systems each had their own advantages and disadvantages.

But overall, the Aer Magic Civilization system was friendlier to low-level casters, while Faerûn's magical system was friendlier to high-level casters.

As for the Teleportation Gate hidden on the very top floor of the tower, it was something Astar had created to make better use of Zuo Si's "talent."

It was a gigantic doorframe five meters tall and three meters wide, forged from magical metal.

The frame was covered with intricate magical patterns and large quantities of expensive, rare gemstones.

The instant energy was poured into it, it would forcibly tear open space and create a rift leading somewhere unknown.

Zuo Si only needed to activate the teleportation ability granted by his Spark toward the rift to establish a relatively stable passage to other Magical worlds in a short time.

Since the Ael had neither invented nor discovered a way to make themselves immortal, even the most powerful casters here could generally only live to between three hundred and fifty and four hundred years old with life-extending Potions.

Astar was already over three hundred and twenty years old.

Without any surprises, in a few decades at most, he would become a withered, lifeless corpse like the other dead Great Mages.

But Zuo Si's appearance allowed him to see hope for immortality.

Through their conversations, the Necromancer learned of the existence of the Forgotten Realms—Faerûn.

He also learned that Faerûn possessed more than one method of attaining immortality.

For example, transforming into undead such as liches or vampires.

Or using legendary magic to strip away the lifespans of tens of thousands of people at once and Enchant himself with them.

Or transforming into special lifeforms without a lifespan limit, such as other elements, fey, extraplanar creatures, and so on.

However, among all those choices, Astar most desired to become a lich.

To achieve that goal, he first ordered Zuo Si to use his "talent" to help locate the Forgotten Realms.

After completing the location process, he would open the Teleportation Gate at intervals.

He would then place treasures and rare Magic Items on this side of the gate, luring adventurers, travelers, merchant caravans, intelligent humanoid and non-humanoid creatures, and even powerful, terrifying monsters from the Faerun Continent.

Once those unlucky people crossed the Teleportation Gate, drawn in by the treasure and Magic Items, they would immediately be transported to a dungeon or special rooms Covered with binding runes and imprisoned.

Through threats, inducements, torture, memory reading, and a series of other methods, Astar soon obtained a vast amount of Magical Knowledge from the other world.

As for Vermes, the newly adult female red dragon in the Binding Chambers, who was specifically used to extract the precious magical material known as dragon blood, she was the only survivor among the many unlucky victims.

After the others had been drained of the knowledge and experiences in their minds, they would be sent to the dissection table to contribute to necromantic research.

In Zuo Si's eyes, Astar was undoubtedly a typical evil Archlich.

Not only did he possess formidable power, but he was also exceptionally intelligent and incomparably cautious.

He had not rushed to explore another Magical world that was completely unfamiliar to him.

Instead, he first captured prisoners through enticement to learn about the situation on the other side of the interdimensional gate and gather information.

From beginning to end, he had not left even the slightest opening.

At the very beginning, Zuo Si had considered launching a surprise attack the instant Astar first crossed that gate and arrived in Faerûn, taking advantage of the sudden change in the Magical Environment and the momentary loss of his ability to cast spells.

Unfortunately, the Necromancer had not given him that opportunity at all. The plan had died before it could even be carried out.

Later, as Astar learned more and more about Faerûn and even figured out how to convert his "Mana Pool" into "Spell Slots" by touching the Weave, Zuo Si realized that he had lost his chance.

But now, Astar had vanished without a trace.

What he needed to do was go to the Binding Chambers and "talk" with Vermes, the imprisoned adult female red dragon.

Only with the help of that powerful dragon could Zuo Si be confident of dealing with the golems and other constructs guarding the upper passage.

Given the evil, greedy, and brutal nature of Faerûn's red dragons, he had prepared the necessary "bargaining chips" for the "negotiation" several months ago, as well as backup "measures" in case the negotiations broke down.