Night Ranger
chapter-383

Half an hour later, 3rd floor, spiral staircase.

Marvin was panting. Behind him lay a Magic Beast corpse as well as the traces of many activated traps.

He dodged the effects of most traps, but some of them such as lightning traps couldn't be dodged because of their speed.

He could have created an endless amount of Origami Doppelgangers to trip the traps if he were better at it, but because his skill level wasn't high enough, he couldn't create an army of them like Shadow Thief Owl did.

He suffered a lot of injuries, but still managed to reach the 3rd floor.

Even though the Black Tower was very tall, it only had three floors.

The ancient casters' tower had a relatively simple structure, with an underground area filled with holding cells and a hall at the bottom. The second floor had the apprentices' dwellings and the laboratory while the highest floor was the caster's own private residence.

It didn't look as complicated as the modern Wizards' towers.

Marvin's climb up had depended somewhat on luck.

He didn't understand the secret incantations and simply had to fight his way up. If there had been more energy left in the tower, he might have already been turned into a pile of ashes.

In this field, Thieves were definitely a lot better. They had all kinds of ways to detect and disable traps. Marvin had a lot of experience but he didn't have the relevant skills.

Although he had all kinds of tools in his storage item and didn't have to remove traps with his bare hands, he still got hit quite often.

The Desolate Tower Ruins being abandoned for a long time was another reason Marvin dared to ascend this tower.

...

The Black Tower Valley was the home of the Mikenshi Wizards.

And the taller towers belonged to the Secret Garden's Protector, a relatively powerful Mikenshi Wizard.

From what Marvin knew, the 7th Black Tower was the most powerful structure among the Black Towers.

Only this tower still had any loot. The things in the others had already disappeared or turned to waste.

Marvin wasn't totally sure why that was the case.

But when he stood on the woodwork of the 3rd floor, he felt a chill.

There was a sort of evil feeling floating on his heart.

He didn't notice any monsters in the surroundings, but the six small lamps in front of him lit up automatically. The ancient caster wasn't ostentatious. Some rooms were empty and only the master bedroom and the meditation room were relatively finely built.

'What's this feeling? Could it be an illusion?'

After the previous event, Marvin kept a wary attitude.

He looked at his interface and didn't find any signs of a willpower check.

He calmly began to search every room.

Compared to the countless dangers of the staircase, these rooms were relatively safe.

After all, who would set up a pile of traps in the place where they slept?

Marvin made this trip only for the Earth Crystal fragment. If there hadn't been the opportunity to make a genuine Earth Crystal here, he would have already rushed to the 3rd area to find Ivan.

After scouring the area, he found a box in the master bedroom.

The box was hidden under the bed and a faint magic fluctuation emanated from inside.

Marvin opened the box cautiously, which turned out not to have any trap mechanisms.

But within the box, there was nothing besides some straw.

Marvin sneered, "Think you can deceive me with this little trick?

He reached inside with his hand.

Marvin felt a fluctuation in the straw and grabbed one. The next second, a yellow fragment appeared in his hand.

'Finally got it.'

Marvin impatiently took out the other two Earth Crystal fragments.

The first one came from the Hook Horror nest, the second one came from Saruha, and now he had this one from the Dead Area's Secret Garden.

Of course, there were many fragments of Earth Crystals in every corner of Feinan plane, far more than just those three.

But it hadn't been easy for Marvin to gather these three.

The Earth Crystal fragments attracted each other and didn't need any particular ritual or process to combine them. Marvin put them together and they began to fuse automatically.

This would take roughly fifteen minutes. Marvin didn't have to do anything else in the meantime, so he continued checking the bedroom.

When he was hastily rummaging through it before, he had only been focused on finding the Earth Crystal fragment and didn't pay much attention to other things.

Most of the things here had already turned to dust after so many years.

Only a simple notebook was left on the table, looking relatively undamaged.

Marvin decided to take a look at the notebook.

'Animal skin… Possibly some kind of snake-dragon…"

Marvin was a bit surprised.

Only a notebook with this kind of material would be able to still maintain its condition over so many years.

It seemed to be a diary.

'Could it have been left behind by the Tower Master?'

Marvin was a bit curious.

He began flipping through the book.

Because it wasn't a formal Magic Book, the owner of this notebook didn't leave a seal or spell on the book.

And if there were any tricks, they must have faded away over the years.

Marvin flipped the pages one by one. The handwriting was blurry and faded.

This book might have become illegible in another several decades.

With the passage of time, besides the Gods, nothing was able to last forever.

Marvin was looking through it while also paying attention to the Earth Crystal's fusion.

But the contents of the diary startled him, and not lightly!

He had guessed correctly. This was left behind by the Tower Master, who was known as Orica. He claimed to be the Black Tower Wizards' leader and one of the seven highest representatives of the Mikenshi school.

That guy was very powerful and in those days without the Universe Magic Pool, he managed to become a Legend.

He was different from most other Mikenshi Wizards because besides his knowledge of Magic Medicine, Orica had also conducted research about the soul.

There were several places in the diary where he vaguely mentioned his interest in Soul Magic.

At first he was able to restrain himself, but eventually he began to sneakily make use of his authority to start live experiments.

Until the invasion of the Astral Beast.

As the leader of the Black Tower Valley, he had to help fight the beast.

Ultimately, he defeated the beast with others and sealed it.

But the diary mentioned that he was uneasy about what happened.

'That guy actually survived by betraying his own colleagues.'

He made various justifications of his actions in the diary... Marvin felt contempt toward him.

After that fight, many people in the Mikenshi Wizards' forces were greatly injured. This wasn't unrelated to Orica's betrayal of his teammates.

He himself survived unscathed without anyone knowing what he had done, but the entire Wizard school was seriously weakened.

Thus, his authority in the council increased and he began researching immortality.

By the end of the diary, Marvin could feel that Orica was reaching the end of his lifespan and was already becoming crazy.

At that time, the enemies came.

The plan to release the Astral Beast to fight off the attack was one that Orica himself brought up.

Many people objected to this, but by that time, Orica held immense authority and influence in the council.

As they lost the last battle, the Wizards finally agreed to release the Astral Beast's main body.

This caught their enemies unprepared. The Astral Beast fell, and their opponent also suffered an immense blow.

In fact, the 3rd area was known as the [Astral Beast Remains], which Marvin was aware of.

But what made his blood run cold was the description on the last page of the diary.

[The plan has worked… They eventually agreed to release Duruna…]

[Hahahaha, tomorrow I'll be making the most crucial step on the path to immortality! I'll have more time, time, I need time! I am the most gifted genius since time immemorial! How could I lose to time?]

[The final battle, it might be like that to them, but as far as I'm concerned, it's the dawn of glory.]

The diary came to an end there.

Every page after that was blank.

Marvin guessed that the last page was written by Orica on the day the Wizards agreed to release the Astral Beast.

What happened to his plan?

Did he succeed?

Marvin didn't know.

He had a faint feeling that it wasn't a simple matter. If that Orica survived the final battle, then there would have been two survivors left in the Secret Garden!

Wizard Apprentice Eric and Legend Wizard Orica!

Eric was swallowed by the Magic Medicine King and Orica apparently disappeared.

Was he also swallowed by the Magic Medicine King?

This seemed very unlikely.

The Magic Medicine King was very weak at the time and needed to use deception just to lure a small Wizard Apprentice.

It would have been completely unable to face a Legend Wizard.

'Did this old guy's longevity plan fail? What was his plan in the end? How could it be related to the release of the Astral Beast?'

Marvin frowned.

He was puzzled about this.

But he also didn't know the matters of that year, and even if the old man's plan succeeded, he still shouldn't be able to obtain eternal life.

Without the Fate Tablet, he wouldn't be able to ascend to Godhood. Apart from Gods, only a few classes like Cloud Monk and Liches could attain immortality.

Otherwise, the Magic Medicine King wouldn't be the one in control of the entire Secret Garden, would it?

Marvin put the diary down and threw the matter to the back of his head for now.

The Earth Crystal had finished fusing, becoming a sharp crystal that emitted a powerful energy. In a Wizard's hands, it could be used to alter the terrain.

Earth Crystal was very compatible with the spell [Transmutation], and using them together allowed one to permanently create great changes in the landscape!

You could turn a mountainous area into plains, or change a sea into a snowy mountain!

This was the power of the Earth Crystal!

...

After taking care of the matter of the Earth Crystal, Marvin didn't linger any longer and left the 7th tower.

There was nothing worth staying for in the Desolate Tower Ruins anymore.

Marvin activated Stealth and took off at a sprint. He had the [Stealth Master] ability that would let him travel at full speed while maintaining Stealth.

When coming across a Magic Beast, he would rely on his extreme speed to avoid it.

He rushed the whole way and got out of the Desolate Tower Ruins.

He could see a field in the distance that had a huge skeleton spread across it for about a kilometer. One could faintly imagine what it looked like when it was alive.

This was the frightening Astral Beast. It was a relatively small Astral Beast but had almost been able to destroy the flourishing Wizard school.

But what made Marvin happy was that there was a person next to the corpse.

Ivan!

Marvin rushed over excitedly.

The Elven Prince's expression was serious. When he saw Marvin appear he seemed to be greatly surprised, but he motioned at Marvin to not make a sound.

Marvin was a bit bemused as he drew near.

"Keep quiet, it is still alive!"

Ivan's words were shocking.