Chapter 42 – The Blueprint of the Underground Palace

The hierarchy of Mages is clearly defined.

Magic Apprentices perceive elements, Intermediate Mages manipulate elements, High Mages communicate with elements, and Archmages comprehend and utilize the laws of magic.

The greatest advantage of a High Mage over an Intermediate Mage, as far as Lin Wei knew, was that communicating with elements was far easier than manipulating them. The consumption of mental energy was minimized, preventing the situation where a Mage would exhaust their mental energy after casting a large spell and thus be unable to continue attacking. When chanting incantations, they could fully unleash the spell’s power rather than being led by the spell itself—this made the combat strength of a High Mage exponentially greater than that of an Intermediate Mage.

As for other benefits, there was also the ability to mobilize and control elements. It was said that during the process of communicating with elements, one could vaguely touch the laws of magic elements… but these advantages were not something a Summoner could experience.

Lin Wei wasn’t entirely sure of the level of Duan Yu’s strength within the Intermediate Mage tier, but that didn’t stop him from being convinced that Duan Yu would soon advance in rank—a Mage who had donned the white robes at such a young age certainly wouldn’t remain an Intermediate Mage for long.

Even if this timeline was earlier than Duan Yu’s previous estimate—he had once said he would advance the following year.

However, advancing in rank was one thing; the process of advancement was another. Naturally progressing as one’s strength grew was the best scenario. Forcing a breakthrough under the current circumstances might hinder the Mage’s future progress.

Would it really be okay to advance in this way, by forcing a breakthrough?

After pondering this for a while, Lin Wei felt at ease—that guy was never lacking in elemental affinity. The threshold of talent that had stumped so many Intermediate Mages had never existed for him. Even a forced breakthrough would yield results nearly identical to a natural progression.

What Lin Wei needed to do was spar with Duan Yu in the coming days so that Duan Yu could gradually change and adapt his method of using magic—from forcibly controlling elements with mental energy to directly communicating with them.

Once complete communication with the magical elements was established, allowing them to move according to his will, the advancement would be considered successful.

“A perfect plan,” Lin Wei said. “But I’ve realized there’s another urgent and serious issue that needs to be addressed.”

He felt the desolate atmosphere around him. The elemental spirit Jerald had solidified the swamp where they stood into firm ground, and the foul stench of the marsh had gradually dissipated.

However, this didn’t change the fact that they were now in the middle of an empty swamp!

There were no houses, no beds, and the damp wind blew coldly past them.

“I’m just an ordinary human. I don’t have the stamina and energy of a Giant Dragon. I need sleep…”

The withered trees began to move again, brought to Lin Wei’s side.

He looked at the oddly shaped dead trees and said, “Alright, now I have a patch of empty land and a few broken pieces of wood.”

The spirit, feeling slighted, puffed out its cheeks—making an angry expression—and fluttered its small, translucent wings to perch on Duan Yu’s shoulder—the wings made it look like a fat, gray dragonfly.

“You want a house—maybe it’s offering you materials.”

“In that case… the master isn’t all-powerful. I can’t turn these oddly shaped things into a house,” Lin Wei poked the spirit’s cool, soft skin again. “But you deserve praise—it makes me think having an Earth Elemental little thing is quite useful.”

It would indeed be very difficult to build a house from withered trees, but the house didn’t necessarily have to be built above ground!

Especially when one had a powerful spirit capable of freely manipulating soil and rock as their summoned creature.

Lin Wei recalled the underground structures he had seen, such as the underground passages and treasure vaults of the Duke Tidis’s residence, and the underground treasury of the Imperial Family… things built beneath the ground always gave people a sense of security.

A simple architectural shape gradually formed in his mind, which he then transmitted to the spirit through soul communication.

The spirit, still not forgiving its master for the earlier slight, made another pouting expression before reluctantly sinking into the ground.

Lin Wei smiled at Duan Yu and said, “Summoners are indeed very useful—we don’t have to sleep in a muddy swamp anymore.”

Soon, the ground split open, revealing a dark hole. From the hole, a series of steps extended downward. At the beginning, one had to crouch to enter, but as the steps descended, the space gradually widened—further down, the steps led to a long corridor, at the end of which was an empty, circular cave, resembling a room.

The poor, light-loving Unicorn—for it, simply being in the dim swamp was already a great torment, let alone this pitch-black hole. It reluctantly followed Lin Wei into the corridor, step by step, using its horn, charged with Light Magic, to illuminate the area.

Jerald fluttered its wings, circling around Lin Wei to show off its magical handiwork.

“Well done…” Lin Wei looked into the spirit’s small, black eyes. “Although you took the liberty of shaping my room like your own head.”

It was a circular room, still quite empty for now, but it wouldn’t be difficult to furnish it with the necessities.

Jerald and Lin Wei maintained constant soul communication, and a wide stone bed formed on the floor of the room.

The Flame Beast emerged from the Gate of Contracts, and a space roughly its size appeared in the wall—this Flame Lion would, in the coming days, dedicate its magical power to serve as the Young Duke’s fireplace.

The warm aura of the flames soon filled the air, and Lin Wei squinted contentedly, saying with enthusiasm, “This is a fantastic place, even though it’s still quite rudimentary—I’ll gradually build it into an underground palace! Jerald’s memory is very reliable. No matter where we go, as long as we don’t leave the ground, it can dig out an identical palace! In the future, when we graduate from the academy and go on adventures across the continent, we won’t have to stay in crude tents or caves!”

Lin Wei’s wish was a beautiful one—the records said that the founding leaders of the Magic Association traveled the continent with their Magic Wheels, but he would bring an entire underground palace!

“There will be a hall, a banquet hall, a meditation room, Haitie’s room, and maybe even one for Daniel… this place will be very safe and comfortable. No matter where we go on the continent, we can enter this place at any time. And when we finally die, or grow as old as Old Anuo and can no longer travel, or when we’ve finally explored the entire continent and want to visit places of no return—like the Endless Ocean and the Far North—we’ll leave it on Siren Island,” Lin Wei’s eyes gleamed, as if he could see a very promising future through the dark walls. “Every year, when new Magic Apprentices come to the academy, they’ll not only ride the Magic Wheel to commemorate it… but also take a tour of our underground palace!”

This was a perfect, Mage-like wish—Mages always looked toward the vast, uninhabited edges of the continent. Even though they would often return to the Floating Sky Capital, they would eventually set out on their journeys again. Each generation of peers at the Magic Academy would become lifelong companions. Together, they would traverse the entire continent, leave their names behind, and bring back all that was known and unknown, adding a small corner to the maps compiled by the Magic Academy and the Astrology Tower, or adding a book recording their experiences to the library, and adding a few new pages to the Bestiary of Magical Beasts.

“We often lament that there are too few Mages, the continent is too vast, and there are too many hidden secrets—and our lives are always short, even Archmages must one day come to an end,” Old Anuo had once said.