At the center of the hall was an altar-like table with a head-sized blue crystal on it. It looked spooky and filled everyone with a sense of unease.
'It should be the Map Crystal. Kid, go ahead and touch it.' Azolla suddenly spoke in his head.
Meanwhile, Abium got stunned by the new term and furrowed.
'Map Crystal?'
Although he was curious to learn more about it, he decided to ask questions later and walked toward it. Within a few seconds, he arrived in front of the crystal, extended his right hand, and touched it.
After a moment, Abium noticed that the surroundings started changing and soon revealed a large projection of stars and strange clouds.
The twinkling of the stars was enchanting; they blinked and flickered away and always returned like rogues hiding away in the shadows.
'It is the map of the Explored Universe, kid. Planar teleportation isn't an easy matter. Anyway, zoom in towards the left side Hydra-like cloud. It's called Hydra Attractor. That's where our galaxy is located.' Azolla spoke like a guide.
'This one?' Asking, Abium raised his hand and touched a particular spiral galaxy. In truth, he didn't understand a single word and quietly did as she told him to do.
Later, he saw the projection start to zoom towards a particular area.
Clusters of stars also appeared in many shapes. They had curved arms, making them look like a pinwheel. Other groups of stars were smooth and oval-shaped.
There were also a few irregular shapes that looked more like blobs. Soon, the projection zoomed towards a particular spiral galaxy and stopped at the outer ring.
'It's our galaxy. It's called Reverend Cloud. Zoom in towards the brightest star on the right.'
As Azolla spoke, Abium hurriedly moved his hand and zoomed-in towards one giant ball of fire.
A second later, he noticed that the whole projection started to flicker and soon replaced it with a new three-dimensional image. A giant ball of fire hovered at the center of the hall and surrounding it were small sphere-shaped objects.
'Choose the fourth blue ball. It's our Easica World.' Azolla added.
'Finally.' Abium breathed a sigh of relief and touched it with his right hand.
A second later, a few mysterious runic circles appeared out of nowhere, started to float around that blue object, and soon dispersed.
Following that, the virtual projection also became illusionary and disappeared.
As Abium finished his work, he gazed at Nicolaus and others and looked at them in silence.
Nobody made a sound.
Fennelis and Nicolaus stood dumbly in silence for a few seconds and then let out a deep sigh.
"What the hell was that? Moreover, how do you even know about these things?" Nicolaus asked with a shocked look.
After staying with Abium for a month, he thought he had already figured out much about this half-elf. But Abium's current action made him realize that he knew only a little about him!
On the other hand, Fennelis shook her head, walked closer to the crystal, and asked.
"Is this some kind of map?"
"Yes, My Lady." Abium paused for a moment and gave her a short explanation.
While doing so, he glanced around and started examining the surrounding walls and ceiling.
There were thirteen stone pillars surrounding the planar Teleportation magic circle, which appeared mysterious.
After a deep look at those mysterious stone pillars, he shifted his attention toward the inscribed magic circle.
All the characters were written in Runic and another foreign language and looked more mysterious. He also saw similar small circles all over the walls and ceiling.
'These pillars and the small magic circles are for stabilizing the portal. First, go to the top floor quickly and see if you can take control of the tower core. Only then will we be able to search all the hidden places and get the spatial-elemental crystals for travel.' Azolla spoke.
'Elemental Crystals? Do we need those to travel to Easica World?' Abium knew of these crystals but had no idea where to use them and their purpose.
'Yes. The spatial elemental crystals act as fuel to open and close the portal. Let's go.' Azolla urged him.
Meanwhile, Abium nodded his head and turned towards Nicolaus and others. However, he soon realized that all of them were looking outside through the opened window.
He followed their gaze and soon saw a few monsters and Magical Beasts running towards the Magic Tower!
"Monsters found out about our presence? Wait, I'll head over and take control of the Tower Core first." Saying so, he dashed towards the left-side spiral staircase.
Abium arrived at a metal gate within a minute, pushed the door open, and walked in.
Suddenly, the room started to glow red!
The entire Magic Tower quivered a bit!
"What was that?" He asked out loud.
It must be the alchemical self-destruction mechanism. If an intruder invades the core room without the tower master's approval, it will activate on its own and destroy the Magic Tower within thirty seconds. It is pretty common for mages to use such mechanisms. Now, go and put your palm on that tower core.' Azolla said calmly.
'You seem to know everything.'
Abium hastened his footsteps toward the center of the room and immediately noticed a head-sized red orb on a metallic table-like structure.
He hurriedly raised his hand and put his palm on the core.
The next instant, the dragon mark on Abium's wrist suddenly turned into a streak of light, entered the Tower Core, and created a change in it.
'Imprint your spirit power.' Azolla spoke in his head.
Nodding, Abium sent his spirit power and created an imprint in the core. A second later, he noticed that his mind was linked to the Tower and soon realized that he could see in and out. He felt that the whole Magic Tower was within his grasp.
Suddenly, he recalled the Ancient Mage Runeth's words and asked solemnly.
"Are there any options to destroy the Tower once we leave this plane?"
'Oh? Runeth told you guys to destroy it, right?' Azolla paused for a moment and added.
'We'll do that once we activate the planar teleportation circle.'
Abium nodded his head, scanned the whole Tower through the map-like function, and soon noticed that Nicolaus was shouting while pointing his fingers in the direction of the Bone Tree.
'It seems more monsters are coming this way.'
Furrowing, he continued to search other floors and soon found a hidden door on the first floor!
'It's our target. Mages usually put some important valuables or emergency materials in the backup tower room. Let's go; we might find some treasures.' Azolla said in a hurry.
On the other hand, Abium touched the tower core again and clicked a particular blue dot.
A second later, a blue screen materialized before his face and showed many options.
'Oh? You are good at learning.' While Azolla was commenting, Abium looked at the Tower Core's options and soon found the Tower Master option.
'I learned this during my stay in the Star Tower.' Abium responded with a smile, clicked on that option, and muttered.
"Send me to the first floor."
But to his surprise, nothing happened!
'You still need to learn more. Say it in Rune Language, kid.' Azolla's voice echoed in his head.
Smiling wryly, Abium opened his mouth and spoke again.
A second later, his figure turned blurry and disappeared from the core room!
Abium appeared on the first floor in a flash and soon frowned as he heard roaring noises from the outside.
Turning his gaze to the outside area, he saw many undead skeletons and Undead Magical Beasts smashing against the protective layer.
'These low-level skeletons and undead Magical Beasts won't be able to break this protective shield soon. But if a Tier-3 or above creature appears, we are done for.' Azolla analyzed the situation and explained it to him.
Meanwhile, Abium hurriedly ran in a particular direction, arrived in front of the wall, and kicked it with full force.
The concrete-like wall broke into many rubbles a second later, leaving a banging sound, and soon revealed a small metal door within.
The door was solid metal, and nothing seemed to move it. The surface was flat and shiny, like the outside of steel. There was no handle, no lock, and no hinges, nothing to get a grip on.
'It's an Alchemic lock. Put your palm on the metal.' Azolla said solemnly.
Abium didn't say a word and hurriedly placed his palm on it.
Once he did that, the door unlocked with a clicking sound and unveiled an entrance to a small room.
There were two treasure chests placed at the center of the small room and nothing more. One was silver in color, while the other was a wooden chest. After a swift glance, Abium took a step forward and walked towards the silver-colored treasure chest.
He soon arrived in front of it, bent down, and opened it.
A big relief sigh came out of Abium's mouth as he noticed that the silver chest was filled with many pebble-sized crystals and a few fist-sized crystals.
'This is indeed a good start, kid. Hmm, let's see; there are a total of 15 Tier-1 spatial-elemental crystals, 8 nether-elemental crystals, 3 Tier-1 earth-elemental crystals, 5 Tier-1 Fire-elemental crystals, 4 Tier-1 ice-elemental crystals, 3 Tier-1 wind-elemental crystals, and even 2 Tier-1 darkness-elemental crystals. You have all other main elementals except for Light, Nature, and Time elemental crystals. But that's not the main reward. Those 7 Tier-2 Crystals are the real deal.' She paused for a moment and added.
'Hmm, there are two nether-elemental crystals, three spatial-elemental crystals, 1 Ice-elemental crystal, and one fire-elemental crystal. It's not a bad reward for this mission, lad.'