Magic Tower

Suye was immersed in the joy of learning. The end-of-class bell failed to shatter that joy, but Teacher Niedern's voice did.

"Suye, come outside with me."

Suye became the focus of the class once again, and Horton and the others once again burst into malicious laughter.

Suye glanced at Horton and found that he was still grinning, utterly unafraid.

Something's wrong with his attitude... Suye pondered as he followed Niedern outside.

Niedern kept walking forward, even entering the woods. Suye had no idea what he wanted, so he could only follow.

After a long while, Niedern finally turned around.

"Do you know why I called you here?" Niedern's expression was extremely serious.

"Teacher, don't worry. I definitely won't be late tomorrow! I really wasn't slacking off this time. I was late because I was studying." Suye's expression was utterly earnest.

The seriousness on Niedern's face slowly melted away. "You really don't know?"

Suye had a bad feeling. No matter how he heard it, there was something wrong with what Niedern was saying.

"You've already become a Magic Apprentice!" Niedern said irritably. He had guessed from Suye's expression that Suye had misunderstood him.

"Huh? You must have seen wrong." Suye refused to believe it.

The books had explained it clearly. After entering the Divine Light for the first time, one would only absorb part of its power, and one's body would receive only a partial enhancement.

Only after a long period of cultivation could one advance to become a Magic Apprentice or Warrior Apprentice, giving birth to magical power or divine power.

Although people often mocked Hote for being stupid because he had cultivated for five years without becoming an apprentice, in reality, even if everyone in All of Greece cultivated every day, at most one percent of them could become a Warrior Apprentice or Magic Apprentice within five years.

Most people cultivated for more than a decade, or even longer, before making their first advancement.

There were also people who advanced to become Magic Apprentices upon first coming into contact with the Divine Light, but such people either possessed powerful talent or had undergone a long period of study and accumulation.

Suye knew himself well. He had always thought he was ordinary. At most, he had studied magic for one day... No, he had only attended one Meditation Study class. How could he have directly become a Magic Apprentice? He wasn't a genius.

Having figured it out, Suye firmly shook his head. "Teacher, you must have seen wrong. If even I could advance to become a Magic Apprentice after one meditation session, would everyone else be idiots?"

Niedern was rendered speechless. After a long while, he said, "You haven't read the second chapter of Meditation Study, have you?"

"I only previewed the first chapter," Suye replied.

Niedern said, "For several hours after every advancement, we give off a trace of aura. Only people of a higher rank than you can sense it. So I can confirm that you've already advanced to become a Magic Apprentice. The second chapter explains it very clearly. After first entering the Divine Light, you must perform a second meditation as soon as possible. If you haven't advanced to become a Magic Apprentice, you'll enter the Divine Light directly. If you have advanced, you'll discover that you're inside an illusory, unreal building, hazy and dreamlike, as though separated by a translucent Water Screen."

"That is the Magic Tower of our Greek mages. Of course, the Magic Tower isn't illusory. Your level is simply too low. Even I can't see the Magic Tower clearly. It's said that only mages who have reached the highest realm of meditation can see it clearly. This realm is called inner observation, meaning that one can observe the Magic Tower from within."

Inner observation? That feels different from my understanding. Inner observation can be understood as observing one's inner self, one's true self. In the magical world, does inner observation mean being able to observe the Magic Tower from within? Suye thought.

Niedern continued, "Next, perform a second meditation. However, you're too weak, so don't waste your energy on the Magic Tower. No matter how hard you try, you won't be able to see it clearly. You only need to know that you have a Magic Tower and have become a Magic Apprentice, then you can withdraw."

"Here?" Suye looked around.

"Here." Niedern waved his right hand, and a blanket slowly emerged from midair, floating half a meter above the ground.

The blanket was a finger-thick and covered in vivid patterns. Its colors were clearly rather gaudy, but combined with the elegant designs and symmetrical arrangement, they possessed considerable artistic beauty.

"Is this the Flying Carpet of the Persian mages?" Suye asked curiously as he stroked it with his hand. It felt just as soft as an ordinary blanket.

"No. It's merely an ordinary little Magic Artifact. It can only replace a bed. Sit on it properly." Niedern gestured.

Suye lowered his head and looked at his feet, which were covered in dirt and grass. He was filled with helplessness.

"It's fine. Magic Artifacts aren't afraid of getting dirty." Niedern raised one equally filthy foot.

"Thank you, Teacher!" Suye sat on the Flying Carpet and immediately began meditating.

Since this was merely a quick meditation, Suye did not use the time-consuming Scanning Meditation method this time. Instead, he focused directly on his breathing and quickly entered a state of inner observation.

It took only one minute.

Niedern stared blankly at Suye, his eyes filled with indescribable colors, as though all the colors of the carpet had been poured into them.

He had not expected that although Suye's grades were poor, he would actually be a meditation genius.

Although he did not know what level Suye's meditation had currently reached, being able to enter deep meditation so quickly was already at the level of a Golden Mage.

This meant that Suye lacked talent in other areas, but in meditation, he possessed at least the talent of the Holy Domain.

"This boy..." A faint smile touched the corners of Niedern's mouth.

Outside, Niedern stood in a daze. In the spiritual world, Suye was also standing in a daze.

After entering deep meditation, Suye had indeed entered the Magic Tower, just as Teacher Niedern had said.

But Niedern had only been half right.

Suye discovered that the building he was in was not blurry at all. Instead, it was exceptionally clear—clear enough for him to see the texture of the floor, the unevenness of the rocks in the walls, and even feel that the Magic Tower was somewhat cold.

"What the hell is this? Did I come to the wrong place? Did I accidentally break into someone else's Magic Tower?"

Suye observed the Magic Tower in disbelief.

Unlike the tower he had imagined, this so-called Magic Tower looked at first glance like a circular room, roughly thirty meters in diameter and extremely spacious.

But upon closer inspection, the black granite floor of the room was not circular. It was a regular polygon, though there were so many polygons that he could not count them all at once.

The white marble walls were not curved, either. They were not a single wall, but countless isosceles trapezoidal walls, wider at the bottom and narrower at the top, joined together.

The whole structure was wider at the bottom and narrower at the top, indeed resembling a tower, but it had only one level.

There was no dome above the tower. Instead, there was a regular polygonal skylight slightly smaller than the floor. Above it, a rich, pure-white Divine Light descended, with red, golden, and gray Light Spots swirling within it.

The Divine Light fell in the exact center of the Magic Tower's room.

There, a one-meter-tall sapling stood upright.

The sapling was entirely like Black Crystal, but its surface was covered in numerous yellow, red, blue, and white Light Spots.

The sapling had only one branch and only one Black Crystal leaf.

Strangely, the sapling had four roots. Part of each root lay above the ground, and each was neatly aligned with one of the four directions—east, west, north, and south. They were yellow, red, blue, and white, respectively.

Suye faintly sensed that every root was embedded deep within the Magic Tower, absorbing power from some unknown space.