Alximi City, birthplace of the Alchemy School.
Inside the Craid Mage Tower.
The Teleportation Array lit up.
A moment later, the Tower Spirit's voice echoed through the underground chamber.
"Welcome back to the Craid Mage Tower, esteemed Mr. Soreno."
After arriving, Soreno took the dedicated suspended stairway straight upstairs to find Grand Mage Shagengs.
At that moment, Grand Mage Shagengs was in the magic laboratory. Before him stood several unusual monsters shaped like tigers and leopards, their bodies covered in intricate markings.
They were all powerfully built, with eerie red light gleaming in their eyes. They resembled undead such as zombies, yet possessed a living aura utterly unlike that of undead corpses saturated with negative energy.
But the most striking feature was undoubtedly their fur.
Most of their fur was deep black or charcoal gray, covered in strange, intricate markings of red, blue, and green. At first glance, they looked like mysterious runes.
Rune after rune linked together to form unusual patterns, resembling some sort of magical inscriptions and restrictive seals.
They began at the monsters' foreheads, extended down their necks, backs, and limbs, and finally converged on their tails. The overall arrangement was complex yet orderly, like an ancient scroll containing mysterious witchcraft.
Grand Mage Shagengs knew these patterns held powerful magic, much like the Seris Battle Tattoos Roland had created, granting them combat prowess far beyond that of ordinary creatures.
More important than these, however, were undoubtedly the special marks resembling the letter "M" on each monster's forehead.
Those were the magical inscriptions that controlled the monsters' central nervous systems, using illusions to hypnotize their brains directly and bring them under control.
Under the Tower Spirit's direction, a new round of testing began.
The rune beasts fought one another before Grand Mage Shagengs, unleashing combat techniques and spells