Chapter 232: The Construction of the Mage Tower

Donald asked about the origin and differences between these blueprints and those from the Mage Association.
“These two sets of blueprints belong to the Ansel and Celt families, dating back two thousand years. Those old folks in the Mage Association are just using others’ work to make money!”
The imperial princess and marchioness spoke with even more disdain.
“The princess of the Mage Kingdom shared most of the ancient arcane materials, including blueprints for mage towers, with all mages of rank above silver in her kingdom hundreds of years ago. One only needed to make contributions or pay a fair price to obtain such materials. Although Gadril’s knowledge remains in the hands of the nobility, it can still be acquired at a cost. It’s just a set of blueprints—nothing irreplaceable. Only those stubborn old members of the Mage Association, who have been in the North for too long and become greedy, cling to them, trying to reap huge profits from this opportunity.”
“As for the differences between these two sets of blueprints, I wonder if you, Donald, know anything about the types of mage towers?”
Donald replied, “I don’t know much. I only know that besides elementary, intermediate, and advanced mage towers, there are also arcane towers built by ancient archmages. As for those, I’m not familiar with them.”
“Then let me explain, and it will be easier to understand!”
Edwina said, “Arcane towers built by archmages are divided into four categories: ordinary, urban, special, and extradimensional.”
“These categories are determined by the location of construction. Ordinary mage towers are built in general wilderness, forests, or deserts. They are the cheapest type of arcane tower aside from urban ones, but their cost is still at least 50% higher than that of later-designed mage towers. However, their capabilities are at least twice that of ordinary advanced mage towers, so the extra cost is well worth it!” Donald nodded in agreement. He had no shortage of funds, and he also had ample stock of magical materials. If he were to build one, it had to be the best.
Edwina continued, “Urban mage towers cost about 30% less than ordinary ones. Although they are more functional than later-era mage towers, their capabilities are still limited. Cities are probably the worst places for mages to build towers. While there may be some advantages to this choice, urban mage towers are basically worthless for summoning powerful creatures or studying knowledge from other dimensions. So, I don’t recommend choosing this option!”

“The above are the two types of mage towers mentioned in the blueprint in our family’s collection. As for the more precious special and extradimensional types, they were even the pinnacle of arcane creations during the Age of Mages. It’s likely they only exist in ruins.”

“The so-called special types involve building mage towers in places with abundant elemental energy, such as on water, underground, in volcanoes, or even in the air. For example, a mage can construct his tower on the slopes of a volcano’s crater and draw fire elemental energy from it. When he wishes to summon fire-based creatures within the tower, the spiritual energy around it allows him to summon more powerful ones to serve him. The same applies to casting fire-related spells. In addition to basic arcane matrices, the construction materials of the mage tower and its surrounding environment can grant it many advantages, rewards, and special abilities.”

“Among these special-type mage towers, the most valuable is the Cloud Tower! This arcane tower built among the clouds in the sky is the legendary aerial fortress, the prototype of a sky city. With such an aerial fortress, one is virtually invincible in the main world. Unless faced with a semi-divine opponent, even legendary archmages can only sigh in frustration!”

“As for the extradimensional mage towers, as the name suggests, they involve building mage towers in other dimensional planes, establishing stable teleportation channels with the main world to travel between the two planes at will. Even powerful mages can build their towers in a small demi-plane and, by controlling the tower, develop that demi-plane into a small world entirely under their control, similar to a realm of gods!”

After hearing these explanations, Donald’s mind raced with thoughts. He was deeply fascinated by the incredible feats that those powerful mages could achieve. However, since the blueprints of those advanced mage towers had long been lost, he could only dream about them. He hoped the Book of Truth would not disappoint him and allow him to deduce more powerful functions from the Ansel family’s blueprint.

The Ansel family and Donald were not new to each other. Whether due to their friendship or the mutual benefits from their trades, they trusted one another deeply. That’s why Edwina brought the blueprint right away.

The biggest difference between these blueprints of arcane towers and those of later mage towers is that each blueprint is unique, with a seal placed by an archmage at its entrance. Once used, it completely merges into the mage tower’s magic array. Of course, this seal can be broken, but even a deity would need some effort to do so; otherwise, attempting to force it open would only trigger its self-destruction mechanism.

Thus, the blueprints of arcane towers become rarer as they are used, making them far more valuable than the mage tower blueprints that have been altered over generations by various mages.

In the end, both parties agreed to exchange these arcane tower blueprints for three teleportation scrolls, five pairs of tamed horned eagles, fifteen golem alchemy puppets, and ten bottles of moon elf wine that could enhance a mage’s mental potential.

To outsiders, the value of what Donald offered was at least over a hundred thousand gold sols, all of which were rare treasures that couldn’t be purchased elsewhere. Particularly precious were the extremely rare magical pets like horned eagles and the alchemy puppets like golems, which had infinite lifespans and could be passed down through generations.

Yet for Donald, the cost was merely 1,400 units of soul power and less than a drop of divine energy.

“The blueprints are now in your hands. I need to escort these items back to my family as soon as possible, so I won’t stay any longer!”

After the transaction, Donald, in high spirits, said with a smile, “Madam, when you come next time, be sure to stay for a few more days. It’s not me bragging, but Dalaran’s environment is among the best in the entire continent, offering a comfort level unmatched even by the three great manors of the kingdom. There are many convenient facilities suitable for us mages, not to mention ordinary people!”

“Sure! Definitely! Your stone roads are built very well. In the future, our marquisate will need to learn from you! By then, you’ll need to send a few of your mages to help us!”

Upon arriving, Edwina also took a look at the changes in Dalaran. As allies without a formal agreement, the Ansel family kept a close eye on Donald’s situation and was naturally aware of Dalaran’s current reputation.

However, as one of the most powerful military families, the Ansel family wasn’t interested in various amenities but rather in Dalaran’s well-paved stone roads.

It wasn’t that the elite of Thelos didn’t want to build such roads—it was simply that in this era, without the modern machinery and materials from Donald’s past life, building even a few kilometers of gravel road would require thousands of laborers and at least half a year of work.

The impact of wide and smooth roads on military operations is immense. If the entire Celt region had roads as excellent as those in Dalaran, then in case of problems at any border, the armies of nearby kingdoms could be mobilized and dispatched within half a day. Unfortunately, such a massive project requires the involvement of hundreds of mages worth at least several hundred silver pieces, and it’s likely that no entire kingdom could gather that many. Even if there were enough mages willing to participate, they wouldn’t have the powerfully strong free laborers like the mountain giants and alchemical puppets from Dalaran, and the scale of the project is so enormous that it would inevitably drain resources and cause hardship to the people. Once he obtained the blueprints, Donald began selecting a location for the mage tower and preparing the basic materials. However, before construction started, he still needed to have the blueprints scanned by the Book of Truth to see if they could be deciphered. The Book of Truth didn’t disappoint Donald; it quickly entered calculation mode and spent about a day and night deciphering the complete blueprints, scanning and storing them all. With its increasingly powerful functions, the higher-tier artifact could now reproduce an identical set of blueprints at any time. Not only could the main structure of the mage tower be created, but other auxiliary devices and buildings could also be brought to life directly in the Creation Factory. This undoubtedly greatly accelerated the construction process of the mage tower. After scanning, Donald finally took a look at the blueprints. The content on the thick stack of parchment blueprints was just as detailed as those of construction projects in his past life. It included designs for arcane geometry, energy extraction arrays, summoning arrays, interdimensional binding arrays, auxiliary building components, and arcane gardens. There were even mechanical devices and trap mechanisms that didn’t rely on magic at all. After reviewing a few pages, Donald felt dizzy and had to gather all the mages to analyze them together, assigning each person specific sections of the blueprints, which sped up the analysis process. Although the functions of the mage tower were magical and powerful, it still needed to be built brick by brick, just like ordinary buildings. The basic material used was a type of stone called white stone, produced in the central part of the kingdom. To Donald, this stone resembled the raw jade from his past life—waste material from mining elemental crystals. Yet due to its durability, whiteness, slight elemental energy, and high affinity for elements, it was very popular among mages and nobles, making it a high-end building material worth ten times more than ordinary stone.

What Donald valued most was Bai Shi’s affinity for elements and its ability to store a small amount of elemental energy. It is said that in ancient times, the arcane towers in the Sky City were all built from precious magic stones. At that time, most of the magic stones in the main world had been mined out, so many powerful mages traveled to other dimensions to gather materials. Although Bai Shi is far inferior to the now-extinct magic stones, its relatively abundant supply makes it the most suitable choice for now. If necessary, other precious materials can be used later to enhance the capabilities of the mage tower! Even the high-level mage tower in the capital city was only built with one-tenth Bai Shi, with the rest being ordinary hard rocks.