Chapter 534 – The Library Floor

Chapter 534 – The Library Floor

Going straight up and down, with each lift serving multiple purposes, one had to wait when there were many people—and there were simply too many mages inside a single Mage Tower.

Setting up dedicated express lifts for every single floor wasn’t realistic either, as that would mean far too much space inside the Mage Tower being taken up by elevator shafts.

The current system of dedicated lifts for specific routes, while costly in both resources and materials, saved a great deal of time.

Everyone could board a Magic Lift the moment they arrived. Even though those on the lower floors had to yield to upper-floor passengers between floors two and five, above the fifth floor it became a dedicated express shaft, and the speed picked up considerably.

The large open space spanning floors two through five seemed to serve only as a transit hub for repositioning upward-bound passengers.

After noticing this, Mo Lan thought back to the gaps she had just seen in the fifth-floor ceiling, as well as the layout of each floor of the main tower and the positions of the Magic Lifts stored in her memory. Suddenly, she realized something.

Although she couldn’t see the layout of the topmost floors, the trend was obvious.

The closer to the top floors, the more centrally positioned the Magic Lifts were—a location equally convenient to every part of that floor. An extremely sensible layout.

The closer to the lower floors, the more the Magic Lifts shifted toward the edges of the Mage Tower, making some areas on those floors very far away.

Moreover, every Magic Lift shaft was integrated into the main structural walls of the Mage Tower, maximizing space efficiency.

The large open space from floors two through five really did serve solely as a repositioning hub, designed so that mages heading to the upper floors could quickly locate a Magic Lift entrance the moment they entered the Mage Tower, and upon exiting the lift, could swiftly reach their destination.

Built upon this principle, every floor’s Magic Lift entrances and exits had been planned with the goal of saving time for all mages.

The lower a floor’s Magic Lift, the lower its priority, and the longer one spent riding it.

From this single Magic Lift design alone, Mo Lan could feel how much mages valued their time.

All that time and effort spent on such a complex Magic Lift system—just to shave off a little travel time between floors.

The internal hierarchy among mages was also starkly apparent. Higher-ranked mages took priority even when it came to riding the Magic Lifts.

Floor 7 arrived.

Mo Lan stepped out of the Magic Lift.

Before her stretched a deep, winding corridor. The magical lamps on the walls were neither densely placed nor particularly bright—just enough to see the path ahead.

The corridor spiraled inward, ring after ring, extending all the way to the center of this floor.

Walking along either side of the corridor, one would periodically come upon a door, each leading to a library room.

Even though these were all books meant for the Apprentice stage, they were still divided by learning priority and difficulty into nine library rooms, numbered 1 through 9.

The numbering ran in reverse—the library room nearest the Magic Lift was Room 9, which housed the most difficult books related to Apprentice-level Psychic Magic.

Mo Lan was merely a beginner in Psychic Magic. She needed to go to Library Room 1 at the very end of the corridor, where the books were meant for absolute beginners just starting to build their foundation in Psychic Magic.

As she walked through the deep corridor, the mage apprentice who had exited the Magic Lift ahead of her was walking at a brisk pace and soon disappeared around a corner.

An apprentice who came up behind her also walked briskly past, overtaking her.

As he passed, he even glanced back at her with a look of contempt, as if mocking how slowly she was walking.

Then he noticed the advanced mage badge on her chest, and his expression cracked. But he didn’t apologize—he simply whipped his head back around and broke into something very close to a jog.

At the Imperial Magic Academy, apprentices were as common as dirt, low and mid-level mages could be found everywhere, and even advanced mages were plentiful. Only upon reaching Peak level could one be considered to have any real say in matters.

Mo Lan: “…”

So mages had taken time-saving to this extreme? Even walking had become speed-walking or outright jogging?

Given how long it took to get anywhere here, she had actually wanted to start running ages ago—she’d only held back out of fear that such unusual behavior would give her away.

But it turned out the mages were all intensely competitive about this sort of thing. Well then, she wouldn’t hold back.

She didn’t use Super Speed—just ran on her own power.

Since her body had been enhanced by the Dietary Fortification Card, she actually had to dial it back a bit, running at the pace of an Earth-level track athlete.

She blew past the apprentice from before in an instant, then turned her head back to give him a taunting look: “Too slow!”

The apprentice: “…”

What kind of advanced mage had nothing better to do than come to the apprentices’ turf to bully the weak?

You could outclass someone in magic, sure—but in running too?

The higher the rank, the older the age, the worse the stamina. This was an eternal, unchanging truth among mages.

The apprentice gritted his teeth and broke into a full sprint.

The reason he hadn’t been running full speed before was that he didn’t want to be gasping for breath later and have it affect his efficiency in finding books—not because he couldn’t run.

But now his competitive spirit had been ignited, and he couldn’t be bothered with such considerations.

Yet even pouring everything he had into running, all he could see was Mo Lan vanishing around a corner.

“No way! She’s that fast? Did she train her body like a warrior? No, impossible—what kind of mage would be that stupid? If you had that kind of time, wouldn’t it be better to read a couple more magic books? Knowledge yields far greater returns than brute strength!”

Mo Lan blazed past quite a few mage apprentices hurrying through the corridor, occasionally throwing out a cheeky taunt as she went. In her wake, the apprentices’ brisk walks became jogs, their jogs became sprints—and then, under the astonished gazes of those behind her, she charged straight into Library Room 1.

“That advanced mage has probably lost her mind,” thought one of the mages who had witnessed the whole thing.

After finishing her run, Mo Lan took only a few token heaving breaths before heading off to browse the books.

Looking at the library room’s fully packed bookshelves, she felt a surge of excitement.

She first took a full lap around Library Room 1, getting a general sense of its layout and collection.

Most of the books here were theoretical texts. Only the first row of shelves near the entrance held a few books that recorded simple Apprentice-level Psychic Magic spells.

But those few books that actually contained magic—if you opened any one of them at random, the introduction would include a recommended reading list of theoretical texts one was advised to study before learning that particular spell.

There was a famous saying among mages: “The more advanced the magic, the more vast the theoretical knowledge required to support it. The theory you neglect at lower levels, you’ll have to make up for on your knees at higher levels.”

Everyone said that a mage’s magic was developed through an enormous foundation of knowledge, and indeed, it was no exaggeration.

Mo Lan obediently started with the theoretical texts shelved in the innermost section.

The library room had plenty of tables and chairs for reading, though they were all plain wooden tables and wooden chairs—comfort was middling at best.

But that wasn’t going to stop Mo Lan. There was no explicit rule in the library room saying you couldn’t bring your own “equipment,” after all!

The aisles between bookshelves were spacious enough, so she simply pulled out an Item Card — Armchair, an Item Card — Desk, and an Item Card — Desk Lamp, materialized them all, placed them somewhere that wouldn’t get in anyone’s way of reaching the books, and settled in comfortably.