Advent of the Archmage

Link's Mage Tower

Today, when all the Magicians woke up and went to their work rooms, they saw a new clear water mirror in the center.

The mirror had a long announcement. It said that the Mage Tower would enact a punishment and reward system from now on and described it in detail. There was also someone beside the mirror to hand out the special magic signets.

Sorotto was a Level-2 Magician, but he was already 30 years old. Because he was a commoner, he didn't have the chance to learn magic until he was 20. After that, he began working while learning basic magic. After five long years, he was still a Magician's Apprentice.

During these five years, he'd worked hard on creating various magic scrolls and basic potions to sell at the cheapest price. After scrimping and saving, he finally saved up 600 gold coins to enter a magic academy in a small northern city. That was when he started learning officially.

However, the tutors there weren't too skilled either. The dean was only at Level-4. The most advanced book in the library was Level-3; it was seen as a rare treasure and regular people couldn't look at it.

Sorotto had studied from a 60-year-old Level-3 Magician in the academy. Most of the time, he created magic scrolls for this old guy for almost nothing in return. It was rare for him to have one hour to study seriously.

After studying for three years, he finally became a Level-1 Magician. Then he was forced to graduate and expelled from the academy.

Level-1 was probably amazing for a regular person. They could live a comfortable life off of selling magic items. It wasn't enough for Sorotto though. He thirsted for magic knowledge and desired after the wisdom of saints. The world was unstable and filled with war. An official Level-1 book that could help bring him power cost at least 100 gold coins.

Sorotto worked hard for more than one year but could only buy four Level-1 books. His Mana reached Level-2, but he didn't have money for those books. On average, a Level-2 book cost more than 500 gold coins.

This horrible situation didn't improve until half a year ago.

At that time, Sorotto had traveled thousands of miles from the North to Ferde. Coincidentally, the Ferde Mage Tower needed Magicians badly. As a regular Level-1 Magician, he was fortunate to be accepted.

During this time, Sorotto received his first Level-2 book. He personally witnessed the Mage Tower's fast development. He also saw many talented youths level up quickly.

All this made Sorotto feel the Mage Tower's strong vigor. At the same time, he felt pressured. He had to work much harder than before. Otherwise, the others would leave him in the dust.

What improvements are there today? Sorotto walked up in anticipation.

Beside the water mirror, he saw Carrido. He was a Level-5 Magician and the Mage Tower's Magic Official. Looking over, he chuckled and said, "Oh, Sorotto. Let me see… Here's your signet. Take it."

"Signet?" Sorotto found it strange. He accepted it reflexively and studied it.

The round thing was two centimeters in diameter. One side wrote Ferde in runes. The other side had a realistic profile. Looking closer, it was the Ferde lord. The material was special. The surface had many silver veins; it was made of Mithril. Under the veins, it was semi-transparent and had a tinge of crystal-red. The inside had some beautiful bits of silver.

At a glance, the signet looked normal. There wasn't anything eye-catching about it. But if one inspected it carefully, you'd realize it had too much to discover.

As a Magician, Sorotto instinctively fed some Mana into it. An instant later, a beautiful female voice rang in his mind. Welcome, Mr. Sorotto.

Shocked, Sorotto looked around and discovered that many people with signets around him had the same expression. Good, Sorotto wasn't an ignorant civilian. He quickly gathered himself. This must be some telepathy spell.

He replied in his mind, "And you are?"

I am Lily, the spirit of the Mage Tower. From today, I will serve you. For the specific details, you may read the announcement or let me explain for you.

Sorotto immediately looked to the water mirror. The announcement was long and detailed, but he read every word. After finishing, he couldn't contain his excitement. "So my authority is Level-2 now?" he asked.

Yes. With this authority, you are qualified to read all magic books at or under Level-2 in the library. You may request to use all magic material at or under Level-2 in the Mage Tower.

"How many magic points do I have now?" Sorotto asked.

Lily immediately replied, All Magicians will receive a starting number of magic points equivalent to their level. You currently have 200 points. You may use it to buy reading rights, time to use the Elemental Pool, usage rights of enchantment room tools, usage rights of alchemy tools, and more. You may ask me for the price list at any time.

Sorotto grew more and more excited. This improvement didn't seem like much, but for someone who'd gone through all the hardships of the world, he immediately saw the benefits.

From now on, he didn't have to get on his tutor's good side or have connections to learn magic. He could get what he wanted just by earning magic points. All the uncertainty and time wasted on human connections were wiped out by this new system!

He asked for the specific prices and ways to gain magic points. It was another long list. Lily's voice was sweet and patient as she read it all out for him.

Hearing all this, Sorotto realized with surprise that his 200 magic points were quite a lot. Firstly, he could exchange it for 2000 gold coins. It was ten times as much. Of course, he wouldn't do something stupid like that. From now on, all resources in the Mage Tower had to be bought with magic points.

With these points, he could buy reading rights to two Level-2 books. He could also request up to 20 hours in the Elemental Pool and more.

There were many ways to earn magic points too. For example, he could collect magic materials, write magic scrolls, create potions, complete tasks in the various city offices, and more.

If he had limited talent, he could still gain many points by doing these things. He could also go find talented commoners. If he found a magic genius, he could even get a reward of 5000 magic points.

This wasn't the most exciting part. In the items list, there was also a Tutor System.

In this system, every Magician had a respective consulting fee. As long as a lower level Magician paid the price, they could ask high-level Magicians any question. The high-level Magician would not be able to refuse and must try their best in answering.

The system would record and rate the entire process. If a consulted Magician was "irresponsible" three times, their consulting fee would be drastically reduced. They'll also be given a bad rating. This would negatively affect their reputation.

Every high-level Magician had different fees. Sorotto checked his own and saw that it was 20 magic points per hour. This could be converted to 200 gold coins an hour. He couldn't help but chuckle wryly. So my power is quite valuable. I wish someone would come to consult me, ha.

Twenty points per hour was much faster than making magic equipment.

What excited Sorotto was that he saw Legendary Magician Link's fee in the system. It was 2000 magic points for half an hour, and he would only accept five consultations per week.

This was expensive, but he was a Legendary Magician!

Glancing at it, Sorotto felt inspired. Without wasting a single moment, he turned to the Golden Rune Workshop. He planned on making some equipment to earn magic points. Then he could consult the Legendary Magician.

In reality, it wasn't just him. After all the Magicians finished reading, they all acted the same way and rushed to earn magic points.

Sorotto walked down from the hall for official Magicians and arrived at the apprentice hall on the first floor. He saw the apprentices were in an uproar too.

These apprentices also had signets, but they looked less fancy than his. I'm sure they have a lower starting point for magic points.

Sorotto felt proud but was also alert. When the high-level Magicians see me, they'll probably feel this way too. I heard there are occasionally banquets on the roof of the main tower. The Magicians who make great contributions have a chance to dine with the lord of Ferde… that is such an honor!

He quickened his pace.

…

One day after implementing the authority and Magic Point system, Link and the other high-level Magicians received Lily's feedback. According to the data, all production in the Mage Tower had doubled!

The resource usage rate had increased from 60% to almost 100%. Practically not a minute was wasted.

Efficiency had gone through the roof.

This was definitely good news, but Link wasn't always successful. Their power seeds ran into some trouble.

At this moment, Link, Eliard, Vance, Alloa, and Eleanor were working together to create a new power seed. But after starting it, they realized it was harder than expected.

Human bodies were complex systems. In addition, they had to create something out of nothing and had no starting point. After a whole day, the group didn't even come up with an idea.

Link knew this couldn't do. "Creating like this is too slow. We must borrow from others!"

"Borrow? From whom?" Eliard asked. Of the five here, he was the most innocent and didn't grasp Link's meaning.

Vance understood though. Smiling, he explained, "High Elves have the power of nature. Dragons have Dragon Power, demons have demonic power, and Beastmen have wild power. These are all unique. If we need to borrow, we'll borrow from them."

"But they won't agree," Eliard said weakly. "Like the High Elves, they're so proud. They're upset with us over the magic equipment now too." The atmosphere felt weird to him.

Alloa looked up at the ceiling without saying anything. Eleanor's lips curled upward. "Who said we need their permission? Can't we do it secretly?"

"Secretly? Are we going to the Isle of Dawn to steal books?" Eliard asked. "High Elves have books, but demons and Beastmen don't."

Link shook his head. "No, no. Just using books isn't enough. The wisdom of sages is abnormally complicated and can't be understood easily. We need to find some people to try it on."

He had dragon magic books and the Heart of the Dragon. He still wasn't clear about the essence of Dragon Power though. It had taken 72 sages' countless years from ancient times to create Dragon Power. It then underwent centuries of refinement. He progressed so slowly, mostly because there was no real thing to study.

Now, the God of Destruction was already creating a military in the North. They had no time to waste. Desperate times called for desperate measures!

Eliard gulped. Did they want to find someone to dissect? This was dark magic; they were legit Magicians.

Vance cackled. "You all don't need to dirty your hands. I can do it! I have experience!"