A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 643 Who is the Target?

Nearly a month after enrolling, Alek decided to write a letter to Vogel. He sat at his desk in his dormitory, carefully selected a clean sheet of paper, and began to write.

To Vogel:

"How is your life on the ground? Have you been to the ruins lately? If it's too dangerous for you to go alone, it's best not to. I've discovered that there are quite a few part-time jobs inside the tower that allow apprentices to earn money, such as research assistants, and the pay is much better than on the ground."

"Of course, prices here aren't cheap either; you have to pay a price to eat bread. Fortunately, the Earl generously sponsored my living expenses, but I will decline any further assistance once I find a part-time job."

"Here, I heard from a mage who studies the Prime Material Plane that the ground is becoming increasingly unstable, and a new wave of disasters may erupt. I will save up money as soon as possible to bring you to the Astral Plane. If it's too late, I'll have to ask Earl Vog for help. It's time to say goodbye to the earth. The Astral Dwarves are very happy. They are doing very well in the Fire Elemental Plane. They are all rich from mining and drink dynamite every day."

Alek wrote a long and detailed letter, and also prepared dynamite liquor and a set of fine tools to send to Vogel.

"I advise you to just send a letter, and keep it concise. Messages are charged by the letter count." Jonas couldn't help but remind Alec, seeing the huge fuss he was making. "As for mailing, don't even think about it now. The postage will far exceed the value of what you're planning to send. You can wait until Father comes to pick me up and take these things with you on the boat."

Alex hadn't considered the postage. After getting the pricing information from Jonas, he immediately packed up the things he had prepared for Vogel and started writing again.

"Have you finished writing? Hurry up, come with me to a workshop."

"what?"

"I found a really interesting club, don't you want to check it out?"

"You changed your mind?" Alex was a little worried. Jonas was now being watched by the Imperial faction, and it wouldn't be good for him to be too active. Although the scarred man hadn't appeared since that day, and there was no sign of anyone causing them trouble, this was Alex's last precaution.

Jonas was completely unconcerned about that incident: "It's said that the workshop passed down a lot of magic tricks that you can't learn in the classroom. The teachers are too lazy to teach these things, especially for newcomers like us."

A few days after enrolling, they finally began to learn spellcasting, but even first-circle spells were not easy for these two acquired students, and there was a limit to the number of uses. Jonas's drive gauge had already been reset to zero and was waiting to be restored.

Since there is no limit to the number of times a magic trick can be performed, the young master learned that every study group exchanges this kind of introductory magic, and the largest study group also possesses secret zero-ring spells, which is very attractive to him.

The "Night Owl Society" he found didn't have any complicated assessments or interviews; joining only required passing a "ritual test."

Alec found the idea increasingly dubious and tried to dissuade Jonas for safety reasons, but Jonas had already made up his mind: "If we want to be safe, we need to stick together and find some brothers, right?"

You didn't say that when we first started school! Alex remembered that Jonas initially followed his father's words, but these days, after getting used to the environment, he seemed to have "revealed his true nature."

Unable to dissuade him, Alek had no choice but to go with him, following the trail provided by the Night Owl Society's leaflets. When they arrived, both were stunned.

The Night Owl Society occupied an open grassy area, which was quite rare in the Tower of Ten Thousand Arts. It was surrounded by buildings and corridors, with permanent air bubbles fixed above the grass. From the sky, they appeared to be on the air elemental plane.

The meadow was divided into grids and numbered, with a pack animal commonly found in the air elemental plane slowly floating on top of it. Inside and outside the corridor, and at the edge of the meadow, were onlookers, shouting and yelling, their faces flushed, each holding a ticket and a bottle of wine.

Seeing the new students arrive, a member walked over, waving a wad of bills: "Come and choose your grid."

"what?"

"If that beast poops in the square you chose, you'll win money. I see the current prize pool is over 1300 alliance tickets. The middle squares are shared by twelve people, and the edge squares have even fewer bets, so the odds are lower but the winnings are higher."

"Since you're freshmen, you can choose one spot for free. If you have money, you can cast a wide net."

Jonas carefully selected a card and even added 60 coins to buy an extra slot, which Alek found absurd, so he randomly drew one.

Just as the draw was finished and the invoices were being tallied, the onlookers gasped in surprise: "It's a mess! It's a mess!" "My God, it's in the corner! The most out-of-the-way section!"

"Theta-8! Who bought this slot?"

Everyone was just sighing and complaining, but Alek shakily raised the randomly drawn ticket in his hand.

He won and pocketed the huge sum of over a thousand alliance coupons.

"Damn it!" Jonas couldn't help but swear. The other members swarmed over: "Newbie? Haven't joined our study group yet? That won't do, you're our great prophet."

Alek's incredible luck drove Jonas a little crazy: "What about me? I want to join too!"

"You, let me see if you want to join. You need to undergo a test." This roughly means that Jonas needs to bring back something rare from the abandoned area of ​​the magic tower: "Anything will do, whether it's valuable or qualified is up to us."

"Bullshit, you're probably just messing with me," Jonas was about to give up when the senior student stepped forward and said, "You have other options, you freshman, like throwing away all your clothes and kissing that beast, or blowing up the attendance record office."

But Alek took on the task: "Let's go treasure hunting. Give us a rough map and directions."

He became interested as soon as he heard this, because back in the Earl's territory, Alek was one of the two strongest scavengers, the other being Vog, of course.

The employee who made the offer from the "two people" hesitated for a moment, but when the president nodded, he agreed.

"The abandoned area is located in a subplane near the Fire Elemental Plane. The mages later abandoned the complex after discovering the presence of a decay field. But don't worry, staying there for a few hours or even a day or two is fine."

The two accepted with some skepticism. Tomorrow was also a day off, and they agreed to meet at the designated area.

Upon receiving the news, the Imperial faction member could hardly believe such a good thing had happened. He quickly summoned a "mercenary"—a Star Mage who had stayed at the Tower of Ten Thousand Arts under the guise of academic exchange.

"Only one night? That's too rushed. Tampering with the magic circle is very complicated, and you're demanding extra money for the teleporter's 100% safety." Even though they were known for their spatial magic, the mercenaries still found it difficult.

"Alright, alright, you'll definitely get your share. How could you miss such a great opportunity?"

The next morning, the members of the Night Owl Society unusually woke up early on their day off, not wanting to miss the event. The leader told the two newcomers, "Go through this door and you'll enter the abandoned area. We don't know how many floors there are. Let me make it clear, the outermost three floors have already been looted; you'll have to go deeper inside to find the good stuff."

"Understood." After hastily collecting the scavenger's equipment, Alek left a sentence, turned around stylishly, and pulled Jonas into the abandoned area. There weren't even any magic lamps lit up here, but luckily Alek had brought a headlamp from Devourer City.

After the first cross-shaped corridor, which led to a maze of winding passages, Alek still asked, "Are you really sure? There's a risk in going any further."

"The history of magic professor is close to my dad. I told him that if I didn't come back by noon, he should try to get me out," Jonas said smugly.

"If those members find out you told on the teacher, they definitely won't stand for it."

"If we're fine, no one else will know. But if something happens to us, will we even care about the research club?"

"That makes some sense," Alek thought to himself with envy. It's so nice to have a father to back you up and do whatever stupid things you want.

After making their final mental preparations, the two set off. Just as they were about to open the third door, Alek suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong?"

Alek reached out to open the door, but then pulled back and rubbed his fingertips together, finding them perfectly clean. "The doorknob isn't dusty at all. Someone's been here recently." He then turned on his headlamp, wanting to get a better look.

Unexpectedly, the door opened on its own, and the circuitry on the door frame malfunctioned, sending sparks flying. A hand reached out from behind the door and grabbed them; two people had appeared out of nowhere and shoved them aside.

Alex wanted to protect Jonas, but he quickly realized that all the attackers seemed to be targeting him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jonas being stunned by magic and then tossed aside, while he was surrounded by a group of masked men, wrapped in a thick wool blanket, unable to move.

(End of this chapter)