After a year of construction, the Hot Spring Mountain Academy had transformed the once-irregular mountain into a unified structure. At its center, atop the 300-meter-high peak, stood a marble Dragon Perch over a hundred meters in diameter. A serpentine dragon carved from Black Jade coiled around the top of its pillar, signifying that a True God of the Dragon Race had once alighted there.
In the middle of the mountain, dozens of meters below the dragon sculpture, a Magic Furnace Emblem in the shape of a regular hexagon glowed amid reliefs of beluga whales, finless porpoises, humans, and sea beasts.
With the New Year approaching, the Human Race students had long since gone home for the holidays. Most of the Sea Beastmen and Merfolk had also returned to the Iron Mine Lake town. The classrooms and magic laboratories alike stood nearly empty.
At the end of the corridor on the main building's thirty-second floor, the Magic Lift doors opened, and a man and a woman stepped into the office area reserved for High-Rank Archmages.
"Mentor Tierney, is this the Water School? I think it's every bit as impressive as the five High-level Magic Schools under the Tower of Purity." The woman looked around and couldn't help exclaiming in admiration.
"Yes. His Excellency Klein said the same thing," Tierney replied. "It's a shame you came straight from the teleportation room downstairs. The building looks much more magnificent from outside."
"Really?"
Tierney led Milady to his office and pointed out the window at the sculptures dozens of meters below. "The marble statues at the foot of the mountain and inside the Teaching Building were all specially sent over by Breyak.
"I remember the day the main building opened. His Majesty the God Emperor and His Majesty Jinghe appeared at the same time