Barbarossa Empire

Don't laugh at the two Shadow Dancers fawning over him. If it were other high-level powerhouses, they might have fawned even harder.

Mages are different from melee classes.

High-level melee fighters aren't exactly everywhere, but before the Age of Silence, their numbers far exceeded those of magic users.

In Chaos World, almost every melee class has obvious weaknesses or critical flaws. Mages, on the other hand, are different. A Mage's strength lies in their ability to always find a spell to deal with enemies, much like criminal law for offenders—there's always a suitable punishment for 'you'.

The problem is, Mages not only require talent but also have an extremely low success rate.

Before the Age of Magic, there were incomplete statistics: the ratio of melee class users to Mages among high-level powerhouses averaged ten to one.

If you compared legendary physical class users to magic users, this ratio reached an astonishing fifty to one.

Interestingly, Mages are a peculiar class that can simultaneously embody the labels of [powerful] and [fragile].

Don't be fooled by legendary or even demigod Mages who can casually cast world-ending spells. Once their magic shields and protective items are stripped away, their frail bodies often can't withstand a beating from a strong male servant.

This leads to high-level Mages often bringing a group of followers to protect themselves.

Coincidentally, Mages pursue knowledge far more than material possessions, and they don't use physical equipment. This creates a phenomenon: even before a Mage has fully trained, let alone after, a group of physical powerhouses will be surrounding them.

Nobles, in particular, like to bet on young magic apprentices.

Everyone is gambling on which magic apprentice will succeed.

Currently, in the Age of Silence, Mages are nearly extinct. Even the divine arts of the major churches' priests are unreliable. Sanders deeply understands how valuable a powerful Mage who can cast spells stably is.

Mages cannot wear leather armor. Dragonhide, which held little value for Rayne, is priceless to Sanders.

This isn't flattery; a Shadow Dancer who has just reached Master Level truly doesn't have the qualifications to obtain a set of dragonhide armor from the Emperor.

For the next few days, Old Narton and Sanders obediently stayed in the blacksmith shop. Besides going to the adjacent house to eat and sleep, they spent almost all their waking hours hammering metal.

They didn't look like rogues at all.

It's just that they didn't want to attract any trouble.

With Firebats acting as sentries, the effect was incredibly good.

They had no intention of opposing Rayne, so they were as well-behaved as possible.

Rayne naturally couldn't forge the perfect Tesla Tower from his imagination. The real one was a staggering 187 feet tall, over sixty meters.

With the limited iron ingots in that abandoned blacksmith shop, it was impossible.

Rayne planned to make a simplified version, about three stories high, around 9 meters, with a hemispherical metal dome 3 meters in diameter.

He didn't know if he could still unleash the 'magic' that could instantly kill a White Dragon.

In the eyes of outsiders, a magic tower is something that Mages might not use, but they must have it.

Having two hardworking individuals laboring for him was a rare opportunity, and Rayne intended to make the most of it.

A week later, the master and disciple, after being instructed by Rayne, finished assembling the electric tower and left with profuse thanks.

Watching them nimbly leap down the mountain with a few bounds, Rayne couldn't help but feel envious.

Yet, he couldn't bring himself to say, "Take me with you."

Perhaps this was what they called suffering for the sake of pride.

Five days later, the master and disciple, having traveled day and night, finally breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the iconic white imperial city walls of the Barbarossa Empire.

In the clear sky, the crisp neighing of horses occasionally echoed from the clouds.

Amidst the rolling white clouds, three golden lights descended. Three golden-armored Knights, riding flying horses, formed a triangular formation and streaked across the sky, heading towards the pure white imperial city.

The master and disciple could clearly hear the envious praises from the citizens lining the emperor's grand avenue. The citizens respectfully removed their hats to the Knights in the sky.

"Praise the Pegasus Knights!"

"Long live the Barbarossa Empire!"

Old Narton remarked with some emotion, "This is the great Barbarossa Empire, which supports all of humanity in this Age of Silence!"

As Chaos World entered the Age of Silence, humanity was the most directly impacted. Among so many races, humans were jacks-of-all-trades, masters of none.

They couldn't match elves in agility, nor orcs and various half-dragons in strength. They couldn't compare to half-demons and half-devils in magic, and they couldn't even outnumber goblins and kobolds. In almost every individual aspect, humans were at the bottom.

Humans only held a place in this world due to their all-around capabilities.

It was precisely because of their well-rounded nature that when the world's version abruptly changed, with a focus on physical classes, Barbarossa, one of the two great human empires, decisively transformed into a Knight nation. They invested heavily in cultivating Pegasus Knights and other Knight units like rhino Knights to resist the attacks of various races.

The most revered among them were, naturally, the Pegasus Knights.

Indeed, owning a flying horse was the ultimate symbol of wealth, strength, success, and luck for its master.

Even if a Knight tried to bond with a flying horse from its foal stage, the flying horse foal would stubbornly choose its master based on its own standards.

Evil beings were the first to be disliked by flying horses, followed by a test of spiritual dialogue. Only sufficiently powerful and kind Knights could become masters of a flying horse.

Flying horses were far more powerful and faster than the strongest warhorses in the world. They could easily crush an ogre's skull with a flick of their hooves and travel great distances in a short time.

As a result, over the centuries, flying horses had become a symbol of the Barbarossa Empire.

Every Pegasus Knight was a living battle standard!

As Old Narton and his disciple gradually approached the exaggerated eight-story city walls, he couldn't help but marvel once again at the grandeur of the imperial city. Naturally, he also noticed the twelve-story, magnificent Mage Tower not far from the main gate of the imperial city.

Even though this Mage Tower, adorned with blue crystals and resembling a scepter, had been without its master for over a hundred years, it still exuded a unique arcane radiance.

Its former owner, the Legendary Archmage Antonio, perished due to the collapse of the magic net, which was an absolute tragedy for the empire.

Worse still, his and his disciples' collective demise did not stop the Mage Tower from exerting its power. The stubborn tower spirit faithfully continued its mission to guard the Mage Tower, obliterating anything that dared approach it, including members of the Barbarossa royal family.

The Mage Tower, which was built with ten years of the empire's treasury, had become a malignant tumor that attacked indiscriminately, regardless of friend or foe. It had long been an unspeakable pain for the imperial royal family.