Wizard World

The Library was located on the fiftieth floor of the Central Black Tower. Without Levitation, Richard climbed from the first floor all the way up, and by the time he reached the fiftieth, his legs had gone weak from exhaustion.

Standing before the Library doors, Richard straightened his appearance, then strode inside.

The Library was enormous. Countless bookshelves over ten meters tall stretched from before Richard's eyes all the way to the end of his vision.

Suddenly, a palm-sized fairy with two wings on her back appeared out of thin air before Richard.

The little fairy was exquisitely beautiful. Aside from the wings on her back, she looked like a flawlessly scaled-down beauty.

The fairy flew a circle around Richard.

"You're a new student, aren't you? Hurry and take out your Crystal Ball."

At her words, Richard took the Crystal Ball from his bag. The fairy lightly tapped it, and a faint glimmer flashed across its surface.

Having received Richard's information, the fairy floated before him, her adorable expression carrying a hint of solemnity.

"New student Richard, I am Fenna, the Librarian. If you wish to borrow books, press your Crystal Ball against the book's catalog number, and I will record the loan. Also, fighting, loud noise, and the use of any spells other than Levitation are forbidden in the Library. If you violate the rules, I will remove you. If the circumstances are serious, I will bar you from entering the Library."

"Mm, I understand. Then how do I find the books I want?"

The Library's collection was as vast as the sea. Without something like an index, Richard could search himself to death and still fail to find what he wanted.

The little fairy pointed at Richard's Crystal Ball.

"I've already put all the books you are permitted to borrow into it. If you want access to more books, improve your strength. Every time an apprentice advances a rank, they can read an additional portion of the collection. Once you become a wizard, you will be able to borrow every book in the Library."

Richard probed the Crystal Ball with his spiritual power, and the information of one book after another instantly appeared before his eyes.

"Do you have any other questions?" Fenna asked.

Richard came back to his senses. "Oh, no. Thank you."

"If there are no questions, I'll be leaving."

With that, Fenna drew a Teleportation Gate made of glowing dust in the air with her arm, then flew straight into it.

"What a marvelous spell."

Richard sighed, then began searching the sea-vast library for the books he wanted.

Following the information's guidance, Richard quickly found what he was looking for—Chronicles of the Wizard World.

Unlike those spell books that required Magic Stones to borrow, this book introducing the Wizard World could be borrowed without Magic Stones. And what Richard needed most right now was an understanding of the Wizard World.

Finding a corner of the Library to sit in, Richard began lifting the veil over the Wizard World.

The Wizard World was far larger than Earth from his previous life. Nearly a thousand Wizard Academies stood across its vast continent, and the Dean of every Wizard Academy was at least a Level Four great wizard.

The Gale Belt in the far east, the great desert in the southwest, the Magnetite Sky Island at the heart of the continent, the Sky-Piercing Ice Wall at the edge of the world... As he turned the pages, a dazzling and magnificent Wizard World slowly unfolded before Richard.

But as he continued reading, Richard discovered patches of uninhabited land of varying sizes on the map of the wizard continent. According to the map's markings, not only were there no Wizard Academies in these places, there were not even any ordinary people.

"What's going on?" Richard began searching the book for an answer.

In the end, he found it in the section introducing the history of the Wizard World.

The Wizard World's history was divided into three stages: the earliest Age of Ignorance, followed by the Enlightenment Period, and finally the current Age of Exploration.

During the Age of Ignorance, wizards fought alone, carving out territories for themselves in the wilderness of knowledge. In that era, wizards had not yet become the rulers of the Wizard World. Whether it was the colossal beasts in the sea or the dragons soaring through the skies, they were all far stronger than wizards.

The second stage was the Enlightenment Period. During this phase, wizards began to unite. Wizards with similar research directions contacted one another, eventually forming societies and schools. Wizard Families also began to rise during this period, as wizards intermarried and used bloodlines and contracts to cement their relationships.

It was also during this period that wizards replaced dragons as the rulers of the Wizard World's lands and reached an agreement with the colossal beasts of the sea.

By the end of the Enlightenment Period, the Wizard World had been fully explored by wizards. Aside from the seabed filled with undercurrents of magic power and the Elemental Pole ravaged by elemental storms, the entire Wizard World had been carved up cleanly among them.

The world was limited, but the number of wizards kept growing. Under this nearly unsolvable problem, the Wizard War began.

Wizards of every school began using all they had learned in their lives to grind enemy wizards into pulp. The Shaping School's elemental torrents annihilated and disintegrated Wizard Towers one after another; the Necromancy School's undead were as numerous as grains of sand in the sea; the Soul School summoned one colossal soul-sea beast after another; the Alchemy School's Golem Legion marched endlessly out of its workshops; and the Mysticism School's vicious Curses created countless cursed objects that killed without leaving a trace.

This war turned one-third of the wizard continent into wasteland, while also creating the Circumcontinental Archipelago Belt.

In the end, the leaders of the five great schools reached an agreement to end the war and formed the Truth Council to govern the entire Wizard World. These five leaders later came to be known as Truth Wizards.

Thus, the Wizard World entered its third stage: the Age of Exploration.

The war had caused the loss of countless pieces of knowledge, but it had also given birth to many unprecedented new technologies.

The maturation of Astral Realm navigation technology allowed wizards to ride Floating Cities on cross-world expeditions. Yet plane wars required a ceaseless stream of wizards to fill the front lines. The old family model produced wizards far too slowly, often yielding only dozens of wizards over several centuries, nowhere near enough to meet the needs of plane wars.

Thus, Wizard Academies arose in response to the times.

Richard closed the book. At this moment, he understood the purpose behind the Academy's cruel rules.

"So all Wizard Academies are military academies in essence, and every academy wizard is born for plane wars."

Plane wars and Astral Realm voyages stirred Richard's heart.

In his previous life, Richard had been obsessed with the stars, dreaming of humanity living in harmony and exploring the endless starry sky.

Things he had never seen in his previous life, he had instead encountered after transmigrating.

"I must become a wizard."

Richard's gaze was firm. Before this, he had merely lived for the sake of staying alive.

But now, he had a dream!

By the time he left the Library, it was already dark.

Outside the dormitory, he ran into Ellie. Her hair and burns had completely recovered, and she had changed into a fitted women's outfit.

The Academy had a hospital. From minor colds and fevers to missing limbs, the Academy Hospital could cure it all. Even if you died, they could hire wizards from the Necromancy School to turn you into a Necromancer—as long as you had enough Magic Stones.

"Hi, Richard. Where did you go? Want to try some freshly baked bread?"

Ellie greeted Richard while holding a bag of baguettes fresh from the oven, still warm and fragrant with the scent of bread, and casually handed him one.

Richard took the bread, and its rich aroma instantly awakened his stomach.

Grrrumble!

There seemed to be quite a few Restaurants and bakeries in the Living District.

"I just went to the Library. You should go too. There's a book called Chronicles of the Wizard World; it's pretty interesting." Richard spoke indistinctly as he ate the bread.

"Okay, I'll go take a look tomorrow."

Ellie looked at Richard, and her cheeks inexplicably flushed red.

As the saying went, clothes make the man, saddle makes the horse. Richard was now wearing new clothes, and the malnourished look he had once carried had mostly recovered over these past days.

Looking at Richard now, his black hair, handsome face, and slightly slender frame gave him an added air of scholarly refinement.

Every bit of it landed right in Ellie's strike zone.

What was more, Richard had put on a whole hero-saves-the-beauty act for her aboard the airship.

Remembering the figure she had glimpsed through the crack in the door, Ellie's cheeks could not help growing hot.

"Mm, remember to read the history section." Richard swallowed the bread in his mouth and patted Ellie with a firm gaze.

Ellie gave a start.

"Okay! I'll definitely read it."

Returning to his room, Richard impatiently took out that Novice Meditation Method.

One indispensable condition for becoming a wizard was spiritual power, and meditation methods were the most common and widespread means of increasing it.

[Material: Novice Meditation Method]

[Extractable Information: Novice Meditation Method]

[Extraction Cost: 10 Spiritual Power]

[Extract?]

"Yes!"

Please keep reading. (.ω.)