This was a spell that was like searching through one’s spirit. It allowed Leylin to look through the memories of lower ranked Magi.
However, this spell was not actually all that useful. It was only effective against beings weaker than official Magi, and the targets couldn’t be resisting.
When Leylin had first seen this technique in the library at the Four Seasons Garden, he had merely gotten the A.I. Chip to record it in passing. Unexpectedly, he was able to find a use for it here.
Though it was a simple task for him to sneak into this little team and gain information with all the methods he had, Leylin couldn’t be bothered to do all that. He didn’t want to waste time either.
In addition, no matter how hard he tries to conceal it, there were many differences between magicians of the south coast and this subterranean world. This wasn’t something that could be easily covered up with acting. Rather than being considered suspicious when the time came, it would be better to do something about it right now.
[Gathering information regarding subterranean language, named the ‘Twilight Language’. Storing in database…] The A.I. Chip first collected information regarding the language. It would organise these data and transmit it to Leylin’s memories. After some practice, Leylin would be able to quickly grasp the language used in this world.
Next was information regarding the geography and factions here.
Though Aaron was weak and had never left the Twilight Zone, his memories had been enough to allow Leylin to gain a better understanding of this subterranean world.
After he had gathered all of the valuable information, a cold glint flashed in Leylin’s eyes and he forcefully began to modify Aaron’s memories, removing all traces of his existence and the happenings today. He left behind the false memories of a high-ranked Magus with unclear facial features that had suddenly appeared and had helped them subdue the Six-Toothed Giant Boar.
These acolytes did not have anything Leylin found useful, and he did not want to kill anymore.
In a situation where he would not suffer any negative consequences, Leylin didn’t mind doing some good deeds.
After all, he wasn’t some homicidal maniac who killed people for the fun of it.
However this method of altering memories carried a very high risk. Leylin paid no heed to Aaron’s original memories and forcefully did it. If there were no aftereffects, his luck must be unbelievably good.
Afterwards, Leylin repeated the process on the other four.
Though the information he gained was about the same, it created a rather complete set of information.
“This Six-Toothed Giant Boar shall be your compensation!” Leylin looked at the acolytes who were unconscious on the ground and laughed. The black ropes that bound the boar suddenly tightened, and splat! Blood flew in all directions!
A long time after Leylin left, Aaron woke up while clutching his head, “Ugh… my head hurts… where am I?”
Next, fragmented memories entered his mind, scenes appearing in his eyes, “We met a Six-Toothed Giant Boar. That guy, Blake, actually ran away first! We were lucky that a lord who was passing by saved us.”
Aaron looked at the corpse of the huge Six-Toothed Giant Boar, he whooped with excitement, “How many magic crystals would such a large amount of raw material fetch? I’ve struck the jackpot!”
*Hah hah!*
Fine streams of air streaked past Leylin’s ears, as the scenery around him became long images, before further distorting and forming into streaks of light.
Leylin hurried towards Potter Town, recalling the information he had gained from the five.
This was indeed the underworld, and was the first layer, which was the closest to the continent on the earth’s surface. It was a pity that this was but a small region that was disconnected from the rest of the underworld.
The Twilight Zone. This was the name of this region.
Around the Twilight Zone, if there weren’t gathering points for fearful, sinister beasts, there would be a wide expanse of a lava ocean. These dangerous regions isolated the Twilight Zone from the external world, and without the power of a Morning Star Magus, it was impossible to escape from the isolation caused by these regions.
The only pathway that connected it with the external world had long since been abandoned.
Legends had it that thousands of years ago, there were two Morning Star Magi who had engaged in a great battle near the channel. The resulting fluctuations resulted in the crust of the earth collapsing, and causing terrifyingly large rocks that were almost several hundred million tons to thoroughly seal the channel and stop all communications between Twilight Zone and the external world.
It was for this reason that the Twilight Zone instantly turned into an isolated island. Luckily, the Twilight Zone itself was rather large. Based on Leylin’s estimations, it was about half the size of the south coast. However, the population was only about forty to fifty million. So, the resources were self-sufficient and able to maintain the upkeep till now.
“Based on Aaron’s memories, this whole place is called the Twilight Zone, and it can be divided into the East, West, South, North and Central Regions, which makes up five in total. It is governed by regions, and there is no such thing as a kingdom or realm.”
From Leylin’s perspective, every city here could be said to be an independent power. As land was vast and there were few people, it was no surprise that organisations would flourish and decline quickly. Hence, it was rather chaotic.
Leylin was not interested in battles between mortals. What caught his attention was the information regarding the Magus World here.
In the Twilight Zone, the Magus World here had preserved the traditions from the ancient era, still developing through taking in personal disciples and forming schools of thought.
As for academies or anything of the sort, there was no mention of that in Aaron’s memories.
Aaron and those two female acolytes were taught by a single mentor, and the Grand Knight was an assistant that they had employed while they went on this expedition.
However, what caused Leylin the most excitement was the information regarding high-grade meditation techniques in Aaron’s memories!
That’s right. In Aaron’s memories, there were mentions of great amounts of high-grade meditation techniques. His mentor had once even promised that if he proved to have enough potential, he could even apply to obtain the qualifications to get a high-grade meditation technique to train in!
Compared to the situation in the south coast, where large organisations were very strict regarding this matter, Twilight Zone was evidently much more relaxed regarding the restrictions against obtaining high-grade meditation techniques.
These Magi schools of thought set their foundations on different types of high-grade meditation techniques. Basically, all high-ranked Magi a given organisation would train in a single high-grade meditation technique. The earliest schools of thought were formed from a group of Magi who trained in high-grade meditation techniques, and for the better exchange of ideas, had set up their own organisations.
“A high-grade meditation technique!” A flame began to burn in Leylin’s heart.
However, he quickly came back to himself. The underworld was the most similar to the ancient era and had received much inheritance from the ancient Magi. In addition, with the isolation of the Twilight Zone, the Magi environment here still retained the style of the ancient era. Hence, inheriting high-grade meditation techniques was not unusual.
“However, from the fact that a school headed by a rank 2 Magus can be considered a large school of thought, the high-grade meditation techniques must not be that effective. If it isn’t damaged, there might be specific ingredients that cannot be found here.”
In Aaron’s memories, the might of the Magi here in general was similar to that on the south coast. Official Magi were highly regarded and rarely seen. Rank 2 Magi were the big shots; perhaps a few cities in the five zones were under the control of rank 2
Magi.
“In general, the Magi here get to encounter even more high-grade meditation techniques. However, since these techniques are the core of every school of thought, besides a few specific people, Magi or acolytes will at most obtain a small part or a simplified version. This was the case for Aaron’s meditation technique.”
While searching his mind, some memories regarding meditation techniques were naturally recorded by the A.I. Chip.
Through comparisons, Leylin found that the meditation technique Aaron trained in was quite interesting. It had an ancient aura to it, similar to that of Kemoyin’s Pupil and Sacred Flame. However the requirements were all lower, and it did not have the ability to really increase any ability or affinity towards elements.
After a careful search through Aaron’s memories regarding the meditation technique, Leylin found out that he was training in the high-grade meditation technique from his mentor’s school of thought, Aegalus. It was the simplified form of the Core’s Flame technique.
This simplified version was a lot more effective in raising spiritual force as compared to the willpower runic meditation techniques that acolytes in the south coast used. After reaching a bottleneck in spiritual force, there was a certain probability of passing through the limits to become an official Magus by using items to assist this process. This probability was a lot higher than those who used Grine Water.
In addition, as he trained in the simplified version of a high-grade meditation technique, there would be no problems if he were to obtain a genuine copy of the technique and train in it. Hence, these simplified high-grade meditation techniques were given out to screen acolytes who were suitable for training in it.
“A treasure trove! The Twilight Zone is a large treasure trove of high-grade meditation techniques!”
Leylin’s eyes were suddenly so bright that it was frightening.
Potter Town
The high-grade meditation technique Leylin trained in was what he had inherited from the Great Magus Serholm: Kemoyin’s Pupil.
This high-grade meditation technique had very stringent requirements, as only warlocks with the bloodline of the Giant Kemoyin Serpent could train in it. In addition, there were only three levels for now.
Though the Great Magus Serholm had hinted that there was another part of the central continent, Leylin didn’t even know where this central continent was. He wasn’t going to have any high expectations.
To give himself a way out, Leylin set up a mission for the A.I. Chip a long time ago—to simulate the second half of Kemoyin’s Pupil.
It was a pity that he lacked a database of information regarding high-grade meditation techniques that he could refer to. The A.I. Chip’s research was going very slowly, almost akin to running on the spot.
Though Leylin had found the high-grade meditation technique Sacred Flame, which he was quite interested in, it was even more incomplete than the others he had. There was even a whole bunch of residual effects from practicing that technique that caused Leylin to shrink back.
Now, there seemed to be a possibility for him to completely restore these two meditation techniques.
“Based on Aaron’s memories, he knows about at least a dozen schools of thought. Even if the high-grade meditation techniques they have aren’t complete, based on my abilities, I will still be possible to plunder a few…”
Leylin’s eyes shone.
The high-grade meditation techniques here were strictly restricted, so he most probably had to sign some contract in order to enter the school and become a core member in order to receive them. There might even be more strict requirements. However, Leylin was not planning on somehow sneaking in and secretly learning them. He was now a rank 2 warlock, and with the added bonus from his bloodline, his battle power far exceeded that of a regular rank 2 Magus, which was already rarely seen in Twilight Zone. If he used his brains and some methods, ordinary schools would be unable to obstruct him.
In addition, he was quite interested in some special information available here in the subterranean world.
Though the south coast, as well as the subterranean world, did research on the knowledge passed down through the inheritances of ancient Magi, the subterranean world had preserved more of the styles and academic knowledge from the ancient era. This was extremely tempting to Leylin.
He naturally did not think that anything from past times would be better than what was in the present. After all, after developing for so many years, the academic knowledge and foundations were more suitable for the current Magi’s progress and learning. However, this did not mean that knowledge from the ancient era was useless.
The might of the ancient Magi was deeply embedded in Leylin’s mind. He was desperate to find out the secret behind the ancient Magi’s power.
Based on Leylin’s speed, he naturally did not need to spend a day and a half to get to Potter Town, as Aaron had said.
With the use of a few spells that increased his speed, the town appeared in front of him after about half an hour.
Potter Town’s architecture was very different from what Leylin had seen on the south coast. It had an elegant yet formal style. Most of the buildings were rather tall, perhaps to properly utilise every single bit of land available.
At the heart of the little town was a tall minaret, which practically pierced into the skies. A bright little ball of light was at the peak, emitting light and warmth.
“So this is the most basic material that the people of the subterranean world rely on—sun stones! It really is similar to the sun!”
At this sight, Leylin suddenly felt a little moved. Though he specialised in dark elemental particles, he had been underground for such a long period, and suddenly seeing the bright sunlight got him quite excited.
Based on the memories he had gotten from Aaron, this light did not come from the shine of a real sun. It came from a high-energy mineral, the sun stone!
This mineral from the subterranean world was able to emit ultraviolet rays and warmth similar to that produced by the sun for a long period of time.
Every town here in the subterranean world had this type of lighthouse, which stored Sun Stones of different sizes. Every day, the people would depend on this method to have sunlight and provide energy to crops.
At the beginning, Leylin had already noticed that there were very little green plants growing here. This was because there was no sunlight, which meant that no photosynthesis could take place. Carbon dioxide and the like were absorbed by a grey moss, which could perform the conversion to oxygen.
Here, however, he finally saw a bit of green.
At the side of Potter Town, there was a large area of densely packed farmland. As the range of the light produced by the minaret was limited, every bit of space was important.
At the place closest to the town, a type of oat similar to that which grew on the south coast was grown here, though it did not seem to be growing that well.
At the area where the sunlight was directly shining, a type of large mushroom was being cultivated.
This mushroom was very large, even reaching Leylin’s calf. It was grey on the outside and looked extremely juicy.
This mushroom made up around 80% of the crops being cultivated in the outer regions of the town. This was a terrifying ratio and meant that this mushroom was probably the staple food of the residents here.
This was the truth. This type of mushroom was called the Grey Spotted Fungus, and it was a high yield fungus that did not require much sunlight. In Aaron’s memories, it had always been the staple food for people of the Twilight Zone.
In the Twilight Zone, nobility and Magi enjoyed oats, meat, and other precious ingredients, while peasants could only live off of the Grey Spotted Fungus.
Wherever there were people, there would be a certain hierarchy. In a Magus world where some people possessed extraordinary might, this was especially so, and Leylin had no desire to change anything.
Walking along the road, Leylin saw a wooden fence that was
like an enclosure. There were also two guards in tattered clothes, holding lances that were rusted all over.
“Halt! What are you doing?” Upon noticing Leylin, the guards immediately gripped their lances, evidently on guard.
Leylin’s leather armour made them feel a little wary.
The guard who had spoken was speaking in the Twilight Language. This language had already been sent to his memories by the A.I. Chip while he was on the way here, and after practising for one or two days, normal conversation was a simple task.
“I am a tired wanderer hoping to enter the town to get some rest and supplies! Don’t worry, I will abide by the rules of the town.” Leylin gave a slight smile, answering fluently in the Twilight Language.
Hearing Leylin’s words, the two guards dropped their wariness. This also had to do with Leylin’s harmless smile and handsome face, which easily gained him a favourable impression.
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