A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 639 Situation in the City

"Father!" Alex could hear the resentment in Jonas's voice.

"That's a fact, we have to admit it. Magical talent cannot be stably inherited, it's a universal law that people have long recognized. Even if your mother and I are both special, you couldn't have been born a powerful spellcaster."

Jonas pursed his lips, curled up on the sofa, and stopped talking.

Alek smiled awkwardly, somewhat envious of the father and son's interaction. At that moment, he really wanted to write to Vogel.

Richard continued to Alec, "You'll probably be assigned to the same cohort this time. Alec, you seem very composed. Could you please look after Jonas? Most importantly, don't let him reveal that he's my child in the Magic Tower."

"I can try my best to do as you say, but why?"

Richard hesitated for a moment, but still treated the boy as an adult: "Do you have any understanding of the current state of the Astral Plane and the forces in other planes?"

".No."

"The most powerful nation in the Astral Plane is undoubtedly the Alliance. It has the support of the Magic Guild and was the first country to fully enter the Astral Plane, controlling the Air Elemental Plane. By the way, you are now a citizen of the Alliance."

The count flipped his hand, and after the ring flashed, a metal card embedded with a crystal appeared in his hand and was handed to Alek. It was engraved with "Alek Vog" and his birth date, and the name of his country was "Northern Ferroan Interstellar Alliance".

"Secondly, there are several major powers. There is a combination of elves and humans, formerly known as the Inter-Sea Alliance of Istani. In addition to some fleets patrolling the Prime Material Plane, they also have outposts on the Water Elemental Plane;

"Our allies, the Interstellar Dwarf Confederation, primarily operate in the Fire Elemental Plane and several subplanar planes."

"The Eternal Kingdom, the only nation whose core remains in the material plane, but also the one with the furthest reach, launched the Astral Sacred Expedition, claiming to seek the end of the world to meet the Lord according to God's will."

Richard muttered, "People who see them should stay far away."

"And what about the empire?"

"This is a rather complicated issue. The Empire abandoned the technology to access the astral plane. Here, when we say 'Empire,' we often mean the 'Valuava Empire.'" Richard shook his head.

"Originally the Republic of Valuva, they experienced turmoil during their large-scale migration, and a spellcaster general seized power, who was said to be Master Rorschach's junior brother. He then proclaimed himself emperor."

"The Valois Empire and its allies have had many frictions and disputes, but things have become somewhat more peaceful in recent years."

"Within the Alliance, there are also lurking 'Imperial Faction' members who are trying to restore our homeland from within the Alliance and elevate the descendants of the royal family to the position of emperors in the Astral Realm. And I am still a border count, so what I am worried about is that Jonas will be targeted by the so-called 'Imperial Faction' after he enrolls."

After Richard finished speaking, he joked, "Little Alek, are you from the Imperial faction?"

Alek was taken aback, then said decisively, "Sir, I don't fully understand what you're saying. I only know that you've helped me so much, and I will only listen to you and will definitely complete your orders."

Jonas was very satisfied with Alek's statement. He jumped up from the sofa, changed his lukewarm attitude, and patted Alek on the shoulder: "Not bad, not bad. I'll protect you after school starts."

That answer... really precocious for a little adult. Then look at Jonas, who wants to be the "big brother," Richard is speechless. Have he and Libs spoiled him too much?

However, he didn't entirely appreciate Alek's smooth-talking: "Fine. But in the Astral Plane, I'm not some earl, and you don't need to call anyone 'Sir.' Jonas, Alek is older than you; you should call him 'brother.'"

"Oh—" Reluctantly, very reluctantly.

Richard left for a while, leaving Alex and Jonas alone. Fortunately, the two were close in age and quickly struck up a conversation. Jonas was particularly fascinated by Alex's experience exploring the ruins of the dwarf city with old Vog.

"My dad said you guys are here to preserve the cultural memory of the dwarves and dig up the history buried underground. The scavenger team was founded by the Gold Adventurer and the Silver Dragon Knight, Singhlev. I don't care about any of that, I just think the underground city ruins must be really fun." Jonas leaned back on the sofa, lost in reverie.

No, that's not it. We're just a bunch of peddlers who dig everywhere for money. Alec couldn't bear to tell the other side of the truth. When he told the story, he carefully selected his material, and all the thrills were just to show how hard-won the treasure was.

This wasn't because he was naturally eloquent; it was simply that every scavenger needed to be able to tell stories to raise prices and get more money from the wealthy people from the astral plane.

As for the terrifying surface cold, the stench of rotting corpses deep within, and the constant threat of death, no matter how much he described it, how could the count's only son possibly understand? And those scavengers, driven by profit, deceitful and treacherous, showing no regard for the dead, only seeing the value of their belongings, and only indulging in drunkenness during their rest time.

As he pondered, Alek thought of Voge again, and his mood for telling the story soured.

When Richard returned, they had undergone another celestial ladder teleportation and arrived at the surface of the air elemental plane.

"We've arrived at a member state of the Alliance, the Kingdom of the Devourer Clan." The Countess was feeling unwell, so Richard introduced them and led them off the spaceship, completing the final leg of their journey. The three of them were now in a massive floating city. Compared to the well-coordinated layout of the "Kepler" space station, this city was more like a jumbled mess, with wooden, metal, and even stone blocks pieced together.

The patchwork architecture lies nestled among the clouds, the thick clouds displaying a variety of colors, but beneath the deepest and thickest layers, a flowing orange hue is revealed. Further in the distance lie overlapping "plots of land," said to be the source of the raw materials for "Astral Rations."

The races inside are equally diverse. You can see residents from the main plane, as well as many smaller blue humanoid creatures. Moreover, they are often accompanied by air elemental creatures, and if you look closely, you can see that they are "different shades of blue".

The city's core area is resplendent with gold and white colors, centered around a plaza with statues of a male and female spellcaster at its core.

The face of the magnificent statue is sculpted in an abstract and simplified manner, making it impossible to discern who it represents. The golden body is also draped in a bright red robe, seemingly to suggest that the subject of the sculpture is a high priest.

"who are they?"

"Hmm," Richard stroked his chin with amusement. "Who are they? The statues were built by the natives, those little blue men, and their language isn't entirely consistent with the common language; there are at least many incomprehensible accent remnants. Plus, no one claims them. In short, we don't know. Yes, everyone pretends not to know."

"Oh." Alek gave up thinking. They strolled to the branch of the Magic Guild and then came to the new hall through a portal.

The sheer number of people coming and going at the branch was already surprising enough, but now there were even more people in the main hall, especially young people around the same age as Alek.

When they arrived, it was lunchtime, and the young men were eating bread. Vogel would try to get some for Alek to try on his birthday, so he recognized them at a glance. However, there seemed to be something else inside the bread, some green and some pink slices, and some sauce.

Alek swallowed hard, and Richard caught it: "Before the report, I thought we could have a Rorschach meal together; it won't take up too much time."

It was that name again. Alex had heard "Rorschach" more than once, but he had never met this legendary mage who lived on in the mouths of others. They walked toward the dining hall window, past the gilded banner hanging high in the hall.

The banner bears the emblem of the Tower of Ten Thousand Arts: a giant, leafy tree within a perfect hexagon.

(End of this chapter)