Chapter 37: The City of Astrology, Sgdel (II)

[Sgdel] is one of the few cities in the empire that no one dares to interfere with too much, second only to [Vando], the city located at the Riox Magic Academy.
The reason is simple: Sgdel has a larger population of magicians than Riox. The magicians in Sgdel are different from the apprentices in Riox. Although they may not be particularly powerful, most of them are wise men and scholars in various fields, enjoying great reputations.
In particular, the magicians living in [Vandel], the most famous building in Sgdel—a mage tower that has existed for hundreds of years just like the ancient castle in Riox—are almost all powerful dark magicians.
To put it plainly, Sgdel is a true city of magicians. Compared to it, Riox can at most be called the “cradle of magicians.” You might never imagine how many well-known magicians have lived in this city.
To ordinary empire citizens, Riox in Vando might seem like the gateway to the world of magic, but any real magician must know about Sgdel; otherwise, they cannot be considered a true magician.
Sgdel is neither an academy nor a base for the empire’s magical forces. The magicians who choose to stay here are mostly scholars who are indifferent to power and status, people who are truly dedicated to studying magic.
Here, some magicians may remain at the level of ordinary magicians their entire lives, and some even fail to qualify as magicians at all—mere apprentices. Yet even these apprentices are capable of discussing various applications of magic, including negative energies. They can draw out all the complex incantations for a ritual magic in one night, add their own insights to existing knowledge, analyze the purpose of each incantation, and strive to create more powerful and simplified versions.
Sgdel does accept magic apprentices, but just like the Royal Chief Mage Veston, it only takes in students with exceptional talent. Its teaching methods also differ greatly from those in Riox. Here, sometimes your mentor is too busy researching his own studies to address simple questions from students, such as “how to use fireballs.” Of course, this is just an analogy.

In Sgeldel, every magician owns their own house—a simple wooden cabin—each one situated very close to the others. The doors of these cabins are almost always open, and some don’t even have doors at all. Of course, I doubt any foolish thief would be so reckless as to steal from Sgeldel.

Magicians focused on research don’t have time to take care of their houses. These cabins are more like storage places for magical items rather than living quarters. The mage tower standing in the center of the city is their true home.

Entering that mage tower isn’t easy at all. Even more so than in Riox, the entire city of Sgeldel is enveloped in a protective barrier, especially the [Mage Tower—Vander]. After all, just like in Riox, it’s a barrier sustained by only the head mage.

When you enter Sgeldel, you’ll find that the city itself is built on a massive magic array—a huge innate barrier. Legend has it that even the most powerful forbidden spells revered by countless magicians cannot break through Sgeldel’s defenses, let alone shake the city. How astonishing!

Some magicians have calculated the defensive capabilities of this barrier. Take a combined fire and earth magic spell, the most powerful [Fire] forbidden spell, [Meteor Fire Rain]. Sgeldel’s barrier can withstand it for two hours. Have you ever seen any great magician—no, a holy magician—able to cast such a spell continuously for two hours? Even for holy magicians, ten minutes would be the limit, right?

Of course, if two holy magicians cast the spell together, the defense time might be halved. This is just an example.

Of course, don’t forget the magicians in the mage tower either. They’re not just decorations. Although they’re not very skilled in combat, if it’s just about maintaining the magic power of the array, well, I think even ten great magicians casting spells together couldn’t cause the slightest damage to Sgeldel in a short time.

Are there ten great magicians in the world? Yes! There are more than twenty.

But the key question is: Which of these great magicians would have time to come to Sgeldel and cause trouble? After all, that mage tower called Vander is considered a holy place by most black magicians in the empire!

Perhaps some might ask why Sgeldel, being a holy place for black magicians, is called the City of Astrology.

The reason is simple: hundreds of years ago, it was astrologers who founded the city of Sgdel. The black magicians of that time lived in Riox. Even the great mage tower, Vandel, was originally just a place where astrologers studied the stars. When the first King of Sassen ordered improvements to magic, some magicians stayed in Sassen, some moved to Salonia, and among the remaining magicians, some chose Sgdel. Over time, as eras changed, many black magicians who were not interested in power or status moved to this land and studied the mysteries of magic alongside the astrologers. In their research, the black magicians did not go unrewarded—some aspects of the [Power of the Stars] sought by the astrologers had already been applied to magic circles and grand ritual spells. Take Sgdel’s inherent barrier, for example: this ancient magic circle was not placed there casually. Every point in the circle represents a star, and it also contains incantations to weaken spells related to wind, fire, water, and earth—valuable cultural heritage from ancient times. Unfortunately, due to historical changes, the blueprints for constructing the magic circle were lost, and to this day, magicians have not fully deciphered this magic circle that combines black magic and astrology… Unlike ordinary cities, Sgdel is a rather dull—or rather, quiet—city. In this city, aside from the sound of the wind, you rarely hear any other noises. But today seems destined to be different, as the city has welcomed a few uninvited guests… “Is this Sgdel?” From a mile away from this legendary city, Allen spoke in disappointment. No wonder—what he saw was nothing but rows of dilapidated houses. How could this not disappoint him? “Hah!” Professor Hod merely smiled at Allen’s complaints and said softly, “Wait until you get there and see!” “What’s the difference?” Clearly, Jiang Zhe understood the deeper meaning behind Professor Hod’s words, but it only made things harder for him to comprehend. Could there really be some mystery hidden in this seemingly ordinary town?

Just as Jiang Zhe and Allen were puzzled, Scott pushed up his glasses and said in a low voice, “Sgdel isn’t an ordinary city. Without the permission of the mages in the city’s magic tower, we’ll never be able to enter it, let alone see its true appearance…”
“The true appearance?” Jiang Zhe was stunned. He was about to ask Professor Hodder when he saw him take out a special magic letter from his pocket and whispering something to it.
In the blink of an eye, the magic letter developed a pair of golden wings and flew toward the distant city like a bird. After flying less than a hundred or two hundred yards, it suddenly disappeared without a trace.
“This…” It was perhaps hard to understand. Allen opened his mouth wide but couldn’t speak.
“It’s a barrier!” Ravia, standing nearby, seemed unable to tolerate her companion’s ‘ignorance’ and explained irritably, “What you’re seeing now are just illusions. Would the real Sgdel look like this?”
“You act like you’ve been here before…” Allen muttered under his breath. Clearly unaware of Ravia’s angry gaze at him, he still recklessly patted Jiang Zhe’s shoulder and said, “Right, buddy?”
“Hehe!” Under Ravia’s murderous stare, Jiang Zhe forced a smile and turned to Professor Hodder, saying, “Professor, Scott said we need the mages inside’s permission to enter. So how do we get in?”
“Don’t rush. Haven’t I already sent a golden-winged magic letter? It was written by the dean himself!” With that, Professor Hodder sighed slightly. Judging from his expression, it was clear he didn’t want to be here.
“The dean?” Allen was stunned for a moment before smiling in relief. “Oh right. The dean is after all a respected great mage. If we say that, they’ll let us in…”
“Hehe, it’s not for that reason,” Professor Hodder said with a smile, shaking his head. “The dean’s status isn’t the main factor… Well, actually, even without a magic letter written by the dean personally, we could still get in…” As he spoke, the professor seemed to suddenly remember something, his expression turning very strange as he stammered and couldn’t continue.
Seeming to notice Professor Hodder’s strange expression, Ravia asked softly, “Professor, have you been here before?”
“No… I haven’t been here…”

“Really?” Ravia asked the professor with bright eyes, puzzled. “Then why do they say we can enter even without the dean’s letter? You must know, right? What’s the way to get into this city!”
“How could I possibly know such things…”
As Professor Hodde kept defending himself, an awkwardly shaped wave-like circle suddenly appeared before everyone. Along with it came an old man holding a brown cane. He wasn’t very tall, about the same height as Jiang Zhe, dressed in a mismatched dark green magic robe, wearing a monocle. The most striking feature was his long, white beard that trailed to the ground.
“Instant teleportation…” The sudden appearance of the old man almost made Allen bite his tongue. Even Scott immediately stopped smiling—after all, someone who could master such a skill wasn’t an ordinary person.
The old man didn’t ask anyone right away. For a long time, he just stood there, leaning on his cane. Judging from the trembling of his legs, one might have thought he was just an ordinary old man.
“What… what are you doing?” Out of curiosity, Ravia asked bravely.
“I’m dizzy…” The old man’s reply left everyone stunned.
“Dizzy?” Allen tilted his head and made a face at Scott.
Hearing this, the old man immediately got angry. He blew on his long white beard and said, “I’m already 97 years old. Just for you, I had to struggle down from the tower. How can I not be dizzy?”
“Weren’t you coming down using magic?” Probably only the fearless Allen would dare say such a thing.

“Even magic can cause dizziness!” The old man said, holding his cane and his beard trembling as he retorted indignantly, “You little kid, do you know that this way of moving requires crossing dimensions? Do you know what dimensions are? You surely don’t. A dimension is, well, space—do you understand space? The world we live in is a form of space. To come up from the tower actually involves folding space. In a sense, it means overlapping the place where you stand with the place where I was standing just now. But there’s still a barrier between these two places—we call it a [dimension]. Why call it a dimension? That’s a complicated story. We know that dimensions are actually composed of [positions] and [dimensions]. A [position] is a location, coordinates, essentially a point in space; while a [dimension] is a barrier that separates each position. Without this barrier, those creatures from the abyss could enter our world. Do you understand?”

“This magic of teleportation didn’t just simply send me here. You can think of this magic as a door—take your house door, for example. Normally, it connects the inside and outside of the house. If you enter through that door from outside, you can only return to your own home. But with this magic, I can change how that door connects—connecting it to your neighbor’s house. In that case, when I go through that door, I end up not in your home but in your neighbor’s. Yet it’s still your house’s door. So how exactly is your house’s door connected to your neighbor’s house? It’s simple—folding space! In other words, the moment I step through that door, I’ve already crossed dimensions, crossed space. I’m moving through the gaps in space. This way of moving is the most deadly for an old man like me. Do you know that?”

He had just blurted it out casually, but the old man kept talking and gesturing for over ten minutes. Allen was utterly stunned. Just as he was about to say, “I get it,” the word “I” barely left his lips before being interrupted by the old man again…

The old man rolled his eyes, leaned on his cane, and muttered to himself, “So, it might be hard to understand. Let me explain more specifically.” He paused, rested his cane, and said earnestly to the children, “Kids, when it comes to dimensions, we can’t ignore space. And when it comes to space, we have to explain subspace. What is subspace? The world we live in is what we call material space. Well, to be more precise, it should be [positive material space]. Following the laws of nature, if there’s positive material space, then there must also be antimatter space. What connects these two spaces is subspace, which can also be called [gaps in space]. The magic of teleportation uses this method of traveling through subspace. You don’t know this, but there are many terrifying creatures living there. But what’s even more terrifying isn’t those creatures—it’s the possibility of accidentally entering the wrong door and ending up in that world leading to antimatter space. That would be terrible…”
“W-why would it be terrible?” Allen, who was a bit confused, asked instinctively.
“You fool!” The old man slammed his cane down and shook his head. “That’s not our world. Well, according to our research, it’s probably an inverted world. For example, in our world, light is the fastest, right?”
“Yes… uh…”
“But in that world, light might very well be the slowest! In our world, water flows from top to bottom, right?”
“Yes… that’s right…”
“But in that world, water might flow from bottom to top!”
“So what? Isn’t that interesting?” As soon as Allen finished speaking, he noticed the murderous looks from Jiang Zhe, Lavia, and Scott.
“Still don’t get it? You idiot! This means you can use magic to enter antimatter space, but there’s no guarantee you can use magic to return. Do you understand?! If you accidentally enter the wrong door, you might never be able to come back. Get it?”
“I understand, I understand!” Not only Allen but also Jiang Zhe, Lavia, and Scott nodded repeatedly, afraid that this inexplicable old man would start another long explanation. They hadn’t even entered Sgeldel’s gate yet—what was going on?
“Do you really understand?” The old man looked at the children with a gaze filled with regret, disappointment, and a sense that he wanted more.
“I understand! You’ve explained it very clearly!” Allen kept nodding his little head, not daring to stop at all.

“Cough, cough,” even Professor Hodde could hardly bear it anymore; he greeted them awkwardly, “It seems your health is still quite good, isn’t it? Elder Jives…”
“Mm, well, I’m just an old man now. It’s okay,” the old man said. He raised his head and stared at Professor Hodde with a confused expression for a while, then paused, rested his cane on the ground, and said with a laugh, “Oh! Hahaha, it’s you, little Hodde! I thought it was someone else! Aren’t you calling out this time?”
“Cough, cough!” Those words made Professor Hodde cough repeatedly.
“Elder,” obviously, there was a question that had been bothering Lavia. Seeing an opportunity to speak, she asked carefully, “Can one enter Sgeldel without a magic letter?”
The old man stroked his gray beard and said smilingly, “Sure!” Then he pointed at Professor Hodde and said with a grin, “As long as your voice is loud enough to reach the mage tower…”
“Huh?”
Seeing Professor Hodde’s face turn red, not only Allen couldn’t help laughing, but Scott and Jiang Zhe also snickered. Lavia, who had asked the question, was completely stunned.
Is that it?
Elder Jives seemed unaware of Professor Hodde’s red face. Stroking his beard, he recalled, “Of course. Under normal circumstances, we can’t hear it, unless you shout loudly, just like little Hodde used to do…”
Gently nudging Scott, Allen whispered, “So that’s how one gets in… Do you think he let him in because he was fed up with Professor Hodde?”
“Cough, cough,” hearing Allen’s words, Professor Hodde’s face turned even redder. After coughing twice, he said to Elder Jives, “Elder, should we go in first and talk later?”
“Oh, oh, oh,” it seemed Elder Jives just remembered then. He tapped his forehead and said, “Look at my memory. Little Grete asked you to find his granddaughter, right?”
“Gre…?” Hearing this, Allen’s eyes widened. Even Scott and Lavia looked utterly incredulous. After all, the Grete mentioned by the old man was the dean of Riox Academy!
As for Jiang Zhe, he didn’t seem too surprised, as he still hadn’t figured out what the name of his own academy’s dean was.
Seeming to notice the shocked expressions on the children’s faces, Professor Hodde explained softly, “This is the most respected elder in the mage tower. The dean also came to Sgeldel before; he’s kind of half a student of the elder…”
“Oh my god…” Lavia covered her mouth, looking utterly disbelief.

“What do you mean half a student? I’m just an old gatekeeper,” said Giffes, smiling with narrowed eyes. He glanced around, his gaze stopping briefly on Jiang Zhe, causing him to frown slightly. But soon, his brows relaxed again as he smiled and said, “Are you just the kids? I saw that letter and thought little Grete had come. I haven’t seen him in years…”
“The dean is busy entertaining people from the Church, so he can’t come himself. He asked me to pass on a message to greet the elder. Please don’t be offended, elder…”
“Oh, people from the Church…” Giffes nodded slightly and murmured, “Something is about to happen…” Then he raised his head, paused, waved his cane, and said with a smile, “Alright, come in with me!”
“Just like that?” Allen asked foolishly. He knew full well that the Sgdel before them was surrounded by layers of barriers and restrictions.
“Hehe.” Elder Giffes smiled slightly, raised his cane, and waved it lightly. In an instant, the surroundings seemed to recede at great speed. Then, the area was covered by darkness shimmering with colorful lights. All of this lasted less than a second. In the blink of an eye, a towering building that reached the clouds appeared before their eyes.
[Mage Tower — Vandel]
“Well, we’re here, kids!” Despite the incredulous looks of the children except Professor Hodde, the old man stroked his gray beard cheerfully.
“Wow…” The children’s eyes were filled with shock.
Was this… the legendary mage tower?
That building floating in mid-air, resembling a castle, was really the legendary mage tower?
There were no stairs, no handrails—nothing at all. After staring up for a long time, Jiang Zhe finally faintly saw something that resembled a suspension bridge.
How could such a structure, clearly defying the laws of gravity, be built? Jiang Zhe had no explanation.