Wizard: I'm leveling up by AFK in another world

Looking at the sweet smile on his lover's face in his arms, Elian couldn't feel happy at all.

A heavy responsibility? A promotion?

No, that's not the feeling.

The will that the teacher just conveyed through the natural connection was straightforward and simple, but he inexplicably sensed a strange emotion from it.

What happened?

"Anna..."

Elian took a deep breath, suppressing his unease, and forced a gentle smile as he reached out to stroke the princess's silver hair.

"I promise you, once this matter is over, I will propose marriage to His Majesty."

"Really?" Anastasia felt like she'd been struck by happiness, looking up in disbelief. "You swear!"

I swear.

Elian lowered his head and gently kissed the princess's smooth forehead.

But his gaze went beyond his lover's shoulder, through the dense branches, and toward the Bridge of Sighs in the distant sky that connected to the lower world.

For some reason, the originally dazzling beam of light seemed to be shrouded in a faint blood-red hue in his eyes.

He clearly remembered that the last time his teacher left the seclusion early without any warning was five hundred years ago.

On that day, the brutal orc named Grom raised his battle axe of slaughter against the silver tree elves.

The teacher intervened with all his might, saving the Silvermoon Knights and completely thwarting Grom's ambitions.

And this time...

"Could it be that the Orc Empire has finally lost its patience and is about to launch an invasion?" Elian murmured to himself.

Peace lasted only a few hundred years before these filthy creatures, whose minds were consumed by killing and destruction, were about to reveal their true nature once again.

This time, the elves will not repeat the same mistake!

Elian clenched his fists, his unease replaced by a surge of fighting spirit.

Just then, at the distant horizon, the eternally unchanging pillar of light suddenly trembled violently.

Elian blinked, and the pillar of light returned to its usual calm.

……

……

Silver Tree Island, in the far north.

Far from the glory of the World Tree, this place is perpetually blanketed in biting snow and ice.

And atop that eternally frozen glacier stands a solitary tower.

Every time Ellian sees this building, besides marveling at its beautiful design, he also has a question that he can never find the answer to.

Why would his teacher, hailed as the most powerful elven saint in all of history, choose to leave the World Tree and live in this desolate place?

Whenever Elian couldn't help but ask a question, the teacher would just smile and say that he liked stargazing.

He said that only by distancing oneself from the glory of the World Tree can one glimpse the true starry sky.

-

The loud cry of an eagle tore through the cold wind, waking Elian from his memories.

The massive silver-winged griffin flapped its wings, circling laboriously in the wind and snow, before finally landing on the terrace extending from the tower.

Elian leaped off the griffin's back, not even bothering to soothe his weary mount, and staggered toward the tower's gate.

"Teacher! Elian requests an audience!"

He pounded on the mithril door, which was engraved with countless star runes.

The warmth in his palm was instantly absorbed by the cold metal, but the anxiety in his heart burned like fire.

The unease I felt in the royal meditation room was actually buried deep within my own heart. As I approached the tower, it resurfaced and grew stronger.

As the gate remained closed, Elian grew increasingly anxious, unconsciously gathering magic power in his hands.

boom!

Suddenly, the mithril gate seemed to be smashed open from the inside by a huge shockwave.

Caught off guard, Elian was knocked to the ground by the blast wave.

"teacher?!"

Ignoring the pain, he scrambled and crawled into the tower.

However, the scene before him left him frozen in place, his mind going completely blank.

What greets you are books flying everywhere, some of the pages even burning, emitting a pungent, acrid smell.

These books are all treasured by the teacher; some are even rare ancient copies that record lost magical knowledge.

The collapsed bookshelf landed against the wall, knocking down the shelves that held precious magical materials as well.

Broken crystal test tubes were everywhere, their contents spilling out and forming eerie, colorful puddles on the ground.

Some of the chemicals reacted when mixed, producing corrosive fumes that corroded the exquisite white jade floor, creating numerous pits.

What made Elian's heart stop was the star globe in the center of the tower, which was almost as tall as the tower itself.

It consists of nine concentric mithril rings, each inlaid with hundreds of specially treated meteorite gems.

As the mithril ring rotates, these gems emit energy waves of different frequencies, which resonate to form a telescope capable of traversing the vast expanse of space.

This was the culmination of a thousand years of effort and countless rare materials, crafted by the teacher. To collect enough meteorite gems, he traveled to every corner of the Ironblood Continent.

As his teacher's most valued disciple, Elian knew that, apart from Grom, the thing his teacher valued most in the past thousand years was this star globe.

He once said that this was the future hope of the Silver Tree Elf race.

But now, it's completely shattered.

Those bright meteorite gems turned into dull powder, piling up on the ground like ashes.

The mithril rings that should have been hovering and rotating along a specific trajectory were twisted into a pile of scrap metal and fell helplessly to the ground.

"How could this happen..."

Elian muttered to himself, his voice trembling, his eyes searching the hall.

Finally, in the shadow of a pile of ruins, he found that familiar figure.

"teacher!"

He rushed over, trampling countless precious materials and books underfoot, completely disregarding everything else.

That great guardian who has protected Silvertree Island for thousands of years and is regarded as a pillar of strength by all elves,

He was slumped on the ground at that moment.

Elian will never forget this scene.

His teacher, the elven saint who was always elegant, composed, and wise in his heart, was now no different from those crazed orc warlocks.

The saint's usually meticulously groomed long hair was now disheveled and stuck together in various places, and his ever-white, crescent-moon-like robe was covered with unknown stains.

His hands gripped the ground tightly, blood seeping from under his fingernails.

"No... the star trails have changed! Everything has changed!"

The saint's lips moved incessantly, his eyes were empty, and he stared blankly at a certain point.

"I can't see... I can't see anymore... I can't see anymore..."

"Teacher! Please calm down! It's me, Elian!"

Elian knelt on the ground, grasped the saint's shoulders, and tried to cast a spell to calm his teacher down.

He was immediately stunned.

The saint stopped chanting, slowly turned his head, and stared intently at Elian with bloodshot eyes, as if confirming whether the person in front of him was real.

"Elian..." the saint finally spoke, "you've come..."

"I've been here all along, teacher," Elian said, looking at the saint with a panic.

With that press, he discovered for the first time that the great guardian of the silver tree elf's soul was showing obvious signs of decay.

"Teacher, what happened? Why is the star projector destroyed? What did you see?" he asked anxiously.

To his disappointment, upon hearing the question, the saint's eyes, which had regained a sliver of clarity, were once again shrouded in confusion.

"Yes... what did I see..." the old elf murmured, "I only glanced at it, just once..."

Suddenly, the saint grabbed Elian's wrist with a swift backhand.

His strength was astonishing; his fingernails dug deep into Elian's flesh, drawing blood.

A blood-stained face drew near, and Elian realized his teacher seemed to have regained his senses: "Now! Immediately! Back to the royal court!"

"Have Elrond assemble the army, all the armies! The Silvermoon Knights, the Mystic Mages, the Windwalkers... assemble them all!"

"Tell him that all the deployments must be completed within three days, and the army must be stationed at the Bridge of Sighs. Any later and it will be too late!"

Elian thought to himself, "Just as I suspected: Are the orcs finally going to invade?"

"No, it's a war of gods!"

boom!

These words exploded in Elian's mind like a thunderclap.

A war of gods?

The word was so unfamiliar that Elian's first reaction was that he must have misheard it.

Even in the comprehensive scriptures on the sacred tree, this word appears only twice.

The Silver Tree Elves only experienced the cruelty of divine wars in ancient times.

That is a war that even the highest gods must personally participate in; once it begins, it cannot be stopped until one side is completely defeated.

Those races far more powerful than the Silver Tree Elves in ancient times perished in the war of the gods.

Even though the orc army was unstoppable five hundred years ago and a host of gods were born, they did not launch a divine war against the Silver Tree Spirits, who had only one father god.

After all, in such a war, it is perfectly normal for gods to fall.

"Have the orcs gone mad along with their gods?" Elian asked instinctively.

"Orcs? Ha, their fate is even more tragic..."

The saint released his grip but did not answer Elian's question.

He struggled to his feet and walked up the steps leading to the top of the tower.

Elian quickly followed, saying, "Teacher, where are you going? Since a divine war is about to break out, you should return to the royal court to oversee the situation!"

"Go back, Elian, time is running out." The saint didn't turn around. "I have my own matters to attend to."

Elian could hardly believe that the Great Guardian, who had dedicated most of his life to the Silver Tree Elves, would say such a thing.

He wanted to chase after him, but strangely, he couldn't move his legs. He opened his mouth to speak, but the saint's figure had already disappeared at the end of the stairs.

Elian then realized that the floor-to-ceiling windows around the tower had been shattered and were wide open.

The biting wind howled in, and the tower was filled with thick snow, burying everything that had once been there.

He slowly turned around, looking at the mithril gate that had been destroyed by the heavy snow, and remained silent for a long time.

……

……

Silvermoon Royal Court, Council of Elders.

This is the power center of the entire Elf Kingdom.

The dome is carved from a single piece of crystal into the shape of Silver Tree Island. Natural light shines through the crystal, refracting into a seven-colored yellow halo that falls on the white jade seats below.

At this moment, the atmosphere inside this beautiful parliament was heavy, even tense.

"Absurd! Utterly absurd!"

An elven elder with a white beard slammed his fist on the table, spitting as he spoke: "All troops must be stationed at the Bridge of Sighs within three days! Do you know what that means?!"

"This means a nationwide mobilization, the entire nation's resources serving a misguided war!"

"The kingdom has only enjoyed peace for a little over four hundred years, and you're already pushing it back into the vortex of war?"

The elder's finger almost poked Elian's face, who was standing in the center of the hall.

Ignoring the immediate situation, Elian anxiously looked at the Elf King on the main throne: "This is not just my word, but a warning from the Saint! My teacher said it himself: a divine war is about to break out!"

"A war of gods?"

Another female elder sneered, "May I ask where Your Majesty received this divine decree? The Church has yet to receive any message from the Father!"

Elder Whitebeard chimed in, "Since His Holiness says he has received a divine decree, why not let him personally come to the royal court to oversee the situation?"

"The teacher... has something important to take care of," Elian said through gritted teeth.

"Important matters? What could be more important than a divine war?" the female elder pressed. "Or are you saying there's no divine war at all?"

"His Holiness the Saint has suddenly ordered the mobilization of an army to the Bridge of Sighs. What exactly is he planning to do?"

"shut up!"

An elf in a silver mage's robe stepped forward, glaring angrily at the female elder: "Avira, how dare you question His Holiness the Holy One!"

"For the past five hundred years, if it weren't for the Sage's constant presence at the Bridge of Sighs, defeating numerous legendary orc warriors, we would have collapsed long ago!"

"Hmph! The Sage certainly has merit, but he is only repaying a debt he owed. Five hundred years ago, if he hadn't secluded himself and allowed Grom to rise to power, we wouldn't have lost the continent!"

"Avira, how dare you twist the truth..."

"I merely said what you dare not say," Avira retorted defiantly, "Unless His Holiness the Holy One himself descends, or the Father God issues a divine decree, I resolutely oppose the mobilization of the army today!"

"You're gambling with the lives of your entire clan!"

"You're the one trying to drag the Silver Tree Spirit into an abyss of no return!"

An argument erupted instantly. The once elegant and noble elven elders were now red-faced and blushing, blaming each other like vendors in a market.

On his high throne, the Elf King looked down at the noisy council below, his brow furrowed, but he remained silent.

Elian watched all this, his heart filled with sorrow.

This is the current Silver Tree Elf race.

Arrogance, ignorance, and stagnation.

Too much peace fostered arrogance and eroded their fighting spirit.

They were so engrossed in pleasure and internal power struggles that they turned a blind eye to the crises raging outside.

Five hundred years ago, the orcs rebelled, dealing a heavy blow to the Silver Tree Elves, but the race remained arrogant and unrepentant.

Do these two opposing groups really heed the saint's warning?

No.

Ellian knew very well that his teacher was old and that his current state was very strange.

Once a saint falls from grace or abdicates, his position will become vacant.

Those who support sending troops are looking to use military achievements in war to advance their own careers.

The faction that opposes sending troops wants to take the opportunity to suppress the prestige of the Saints' lineage and support their own candidate.

The saint's warning about the war of the gods can be an excuse, a conspiracy, or an opportunity, but it is never a reality.

Ultimately, none of the representatives of the silver tree elves present believed that their great race was doomed!

"The Silver Tree Elves can no longer remain stagnant. They must step out of the comfort zone provided by the World Tree and reach out to the vast starry sky... Otherwise, when the real storm comes, we will have nowhere to escape."

The teacher's teachings echoed in my ears once again.

Previously, Ellian only thought that this was the teacher's foresight.

But now, looking at the group of elders who only focused on their own little corner of the world, he finally understood his teacher's situation.

I understand now why the teacher valued that "star globe" more than his own life.

But it was too late.