'Reward for protecting the honor of the Royal Family, huh?' Abium smiled lightly.
In truth, he wanted many things as rewards, but the magic knowledge was what he most desired.
First, he wanted to know more about runes and magic array circles.
He took a deep breath and spoke.
"I want to study more about rune magic circles and the mysteries behind the runes, Teacher." As long as he learned to create rune circles, he would have an easy time exploring unknown regions.
Meanwhile, Zivior went silent for a few seconds and took a book from his spatial ring. Its outer cover was made of sheepskin and filled with multiple rune letters. From a simple glance, Abium felt some mysterious vibe from that book.
"This is...?"
"It's a book about rune circles and magic arrays. Ubius personally wrote this book long ago and explained how to create even the complex rune circles in detail. Also, I forgot to mention one thing. There is a small abandoned magic tower located in your territory. Wait," Zivior quickly pulled the drawer, took out a map of the Peral kingdom from inside, and pointed toward the coastal region of his territory.
'Oh, I didn't expect mages also knew about that tower.' Abium was truly surprised.
"It belonged to a second-tier mage. That mage was a dark arts practitioner, and he built that tower to perform all the forbidden experiments." Zivior paused for a moment and continued with a sigh.
"But he died during the last war against the Wadel Kingdom. After his death, there was no one willing to go there and reclaim it. I think his tower would still be there without any protection. If you want, you can go and reclaim it."
Abium nodded in silence and thought of something.
"What about the tower core, teacher?" He asked.
Although he knew that the necromancer was hiding in that tower, he knew nothing about him or the magic tower. So, he decided to gather as much information as possible. If the tower core were still left in that tower, his plan to reduce the necromancer's strength using the pirates would crumble into dust.
"There won't be any tower core in that tower. The tower core was on the verge of breaking down when that dark mage died. So, one of our mages went there and emptied the whole tower. If you want one, you can try and recreate one in the future." Zivior said with a smile and waved his hand.
"You can go back now."
Abium nodded his head and bowed.
"Thank you, sir."
After storing the rune book in his spatial ring, he bid farewell to his teacher and moved out of the room. Then, he went to the second layer and teleported using his academic ring.
The next second, Abium reappeared in front of a large metal gate and looked at the tall white tower.
Before Abium could glance around, he heard a creaky voice from behind.
"Kekeke, I didn't expect you to meet so soon, my friend."
'Grold!' A strange chill crept up to his spine.
Abium looked back while maintaining his cold expression and threw one red crystal toward the goblin guard.
Meanwhile, Grold caught the chaos crystal and opened the metal gate with a simple snap.
As the metal gate opened with a screech, Abium took a step forward, moved into the magic tower, and went straight to the library. He spent his time inside the library for the next three days and skimmed through all the books in areas allowed for first-tier mages.
By the end of the third day, he spent all of his remaining eight chaos crystals there.
Mostly, he spent his time memorizing everything related to divinity and the mysterious stone tablets using his eidetic memory function and started guessing the origin of the stone tablet in his space ring.
Unfortunately, the information he got from the library was nothing special.
But a single second-tier mage's book piqued his interest.
He quickly picked it up and started to read it carefully.
The book's title itself was 'Divinities and the Universe.'
In his book, that mage mentioned that countless divinities were hidden all over the universe and were the root cause of the creation and destruction. He even explained the Chaos and Law factions, the strange link between good and evil, and the mysterious divinities.
But what made Abium widen his eyes was the mage mentioned in one paragraph saying that deciphering a divinity might help one's increase his spirit power!
'Azolla, is that true?' He asked, frowning a little.
'You got the right answer, kid. But where can you get those divinities? Moreover, some divinities could alter your thoughts and turn you into a puppet. For example, the divinity of Justice has the power to influence your mind and make you tell the truth all the time. The divinity of trickery can influence your actions and cause trouble for others. Even if you find a divinity, do you have the strength to hide it from the Gods? Do you have the strength to control it?' Azolla's snorted inside his mind.
Abium finally understood why she didn't say much about this easy way.
'But getting a divinity, huh? Hmm, I will get many opportunities in the future.' Abium wasn't bothered by the side effect and decided to try it.
After all, living with restrictions was way better than dying.
But until then, he has to adjust with the one divine shard in his spatial ring and find a way to increase his strength using it.
For twenty years, gods or other higher beings wouldn't be able to enter this plane.
Although Abium still doesn't know why the necromancers broke those seals in the past, their action would help him grow stronger with his past knowledge.
Suddenly, a thought appeared in his mind.
'is this the reason Count Henry rose to become power at incredible speed? Wisdom or Knowledge Divinity?' He always felt suspicious.
'Then, what is that load of crap about knowledge artifact? Tsk, I'll find out the truth when the time comes.' He instantly made another plan to snatch the 'thing' from that guy. Abium then checked the other books to try his luck but still no use.
Everything inside the library was about ordinary stories and legends. Abium also checked anything related to the souls but got no information.
'Only second-tier mages are allowed to even study about souls, huh?' He sighed in disappointment.
'I should go and check if there is something useful in the exchange counter.'
Saying so, he walked out of the library and went to the exchange counter.
"Welcome, Sir. How can I help you?" The receptionist girl greeted him politely as Abium walked into a large hall.
From what he heard from Mage Equa, this exchange counter was under the tower master's control, and even the second-tier mages had to pay the right amount if they wanted to purchase artifacts and potions.
He glanced at the brown shade-haired girl and spoke with a smile.
"I came here to check if there is some item that could help me to increase my Spirit Power."
"Are you here for spirit potion, sir? Unfortunately, we don't have any potion at that moment. Here we have beginner potion formulas for apprentice and first-tier mages, low-tier artifacts, beginner-level magic bombs, alchemy puppets, spell models, and potion materials. If you urgently want a spirit potion for your rank up, you can make an appointment with the potion master and ask him to concoct a potion for you." The receptionist explained calmly.
'Do I have to ask Teacher Zivior's help? Forget it. And, what is an alchemic puppet?' It piqued his interest.
"Can you show me what those alchemy puppets are?" He asked.
"Yes, sir." The receptionist told him to follow after her and brought him to a separate room. Many humanoid-like puppet figures were arranged in lines, and price tags were placed near the puppets. On the puppets' outer surfaces, complicated rune characters were inscribed and looked mysterious.
The lowest price starts with 5 Chaos crystals, while the highest was around 250 chaos crystals. Those puppets look similar to humans, but all of these were made of metals, animal bones, etc.
He scanned all those puppets one by one and finally picked up two low-quality puppets for ten chaos crystals each. It has the head of a human and the body of lizard kin. Two curved daggers were attached to its hand and flashed cold light on the edges.
After he brought those two puppets, he inquired about how to operate these puppets.
"How can I control these puppets?" His question caused the receptionist girl's dark blue eyes to widen. Quickly, the receptionist girl gave an apologetic bow and explained.
"Controlling these puppets is an easy matter, sir. Once you mark it with your spirit imprint, you can control them with your simple thoughts. Each puppet's physical attributes could rival a fourth-tier warrior's strength and come in handy during battles. Although they can't produce elemental energy or skills, they can at least be used as shield materials."
'Fourth-tier warriors, huh?'
Abium listened to her explanation quietly and nodded his head.
After that, he shifted his attention to the magic bombs placed a few meters away and checked the price.
'100 abyssal crystals for one magic bomb? Isn't this a complete rip-off? Hmm, I'll think about it later.'
After that, Abium quickly bid his farewell to the receptionist girl and left the magic tower.