Chapter 541 – The Fourth Mage Tower

Chapter 541 – The Fourth Mage Tower

The collections in the main towers of the derivative Elemental Branches were far fewer than those in the Psychic Branch’s main tower.

Mo Lan had spent a year at the Wind Elemental Branch, and upon visiting the other Elemental Branches, she found that many of the magic books on derivative elemental force theory were identical.

She skipped over those portions.

Going through all the derivative Elemental Branches took her only two years.

When she reached the foundational Elemental Branches, she found that not only had she already read many of the theoretical magic books, but she had also seen quite a few of the books containing spell structures.

Mo Lan didn’t linger long on the 7th, 17th, and 27th floors of these branches’ main towers. She spent a month filling in gaps, then headed to the 37th floors, which housed the advanced-level elemental magic books.

There were very few theoretical books here—they were all magic books containing spell structures.

The number of books was also smaller than on the floors below. Much of the space in the collection rooms had been converted into reading areas furnished with comfortable chairs, completely incomparable to the collection rooms on the lower floors.

The 37th floors of all branch main towers were much the same.

At the tail end of her fifth year at the Imperial Magic Academy, Mo Lan finally finished reading all the advanced-level and below collections in the entire Academy, advancing to become a genuinely all-element-proficient advanced mage and creating a miracle for the Ancient Mage Class.

But she didn’t dare pause for even a moment.

Years ago, after she had added Samantha’s Communication Card, Samantha had introduced her to quite a few witches hidden within the Imperial Magic Academy.

They had a dedicated group chat to conveniently share information with one another.

Recently, Candice—the chief disciple of the Alchemy Branch’s current Headmistress—had warned her in the group chat that the Peak level mages at the Imperial Magic Academy had begun to take notice of her, and it likely wouldn’t be long before the Beyond Peak mages heard the news as well.

Prompted by her warning, Mo Lan immediately raised her displayed active psychic power level by a notch, “breaking through” to Peak level psychic power, and headed to the 47th floors of each main tower to read the Peak level magic books.

After so many years, the Dawn Society’s scale had surpassed everyone’s imagination.

To say that wherever in all of Valen there were intelligent spellcasters, there were Dawn Society members—that was not the slightest exaggeration.

The permanent Mana contributed by Dawn Society members upon joining had directly pushed her Mana rank to the peak of the fourth tier, with her total Mana breaking through twenty million.

Recently, the rate of new member recruitment and old members’ identity tier upgrades had both slowed significantly. Mo Lan was planning to observe for another year before launching channels for accumulating ultra-high spending rebates into contribution points and exchanging permanent magical energy for contribution points to upgrade identity tiers—harvesting another wave of permanent magical energy.

Under these circumstances, Mo Lan wasn’t afraid of Peak level mages or Beyond Peak level mages.

But using only the strength that didn’t exceed her current disguised identity—fighting Peak level mages or even Beyond Peak level mages at the level of an advanced mage—she was still far from capable of that.

Having them notice her was not a good thing. If they grew curious about her learning speed and their research instincts kicked in, that would be trouble.

Mo Lan wasn’t afraid of being exposed—at worst she could flee. But leaving before she’d finished reading all the magic books would be too great a loss. Beyond Peak level magic books required resources from the Well of the Sky to exchange for, but she couldn’t let the Peak level magic books slip away!

She had already learned the advanced magic of every branch, and her study of Peak level magic was temporarily free from the constraints of the ancient mage training program. Pressed for time and fearing that powerful mages might come knocking, she employed her memory palace technique, memorizing these magic books in her mind first.

All magic books within the Mage Tower had protections against transcription and copying, but the memory palace was unaffected.

She memorized the Psychic Branch’s Peak level magic books into her memory palace first, then immediately headed to the Alchemy Branch’s 47th floor.

Books that would have taken several months to read were memorized in her memory palace in less than a month.

Mage Psychic Magic and Alchemy Magic were what Mo Lan valued most. Having stored these two systems’ magic books in her memory palace, her primary purpose in coming to the Imperial Magic Academy was essentially accomplished.

As for the Peak level magic books of the remaining Elemental Branches, ideally she could learn them, but if she couldn’t, using Witch Magic instead would actually be better. The mage elemental magic knowledge she had already acquired was sufficient to fill in her understanding of elemental force.

With no more worries holding her back, Mo Lan didn’t let up. Instead, she immediately headed to the Elemental Branches—every bit of the mages’ magical heritage she could seize was worth seizing. Having something was always better than having nothing!

Just as she was rapidly flipping through books on the 47th floors of the various Elemental Branch main towers, memorizing Peak level magic into her memory palace, a shadow suddenly fell over her and a voice questioned her:

“You’re flipping through books that fast—are you actually absorbing anything?”

Mo Lan looked up with displeasure. The 47th floor had few people and plenty of space; those who came here were either advanced or Peak level mages, and it was rare to be interrupted like this. “Of course.”

She was now treating the Library Floor as her Dormitory, only borrowing a few books each week and taking them to a meditation room for a day. This gave her a chance to check the Book of Cards, keep tabs on the Dawn Society’s development, and maintain contact with the witches and Sorceresses through the Communication Card.

Her earned points were roughly enough to get by, and her enthusiasm for earning points wasn’t nearly as high as it had been before she’d learned the Academy’s inner workings.

Right now, she was focused solely on quickly memorizing the magic books from the 47th floors of all the Elemental Branch main towers. After that, she planned to rent a cheap, spacious dormitory in Tower Forest and properly digest the knowledge in her memory palace. It had been a long time since she’d sold any psychic power techniques from her memory palace.

She was in no mood for conversation.

But her dismissiveness didn’t deter the newcomer.

“I am a disciple of Angrboda, the Beyond Peak level mage and master of the Psychic Branch’s Fourth Mage Tower. My Instructor heard about your achievements upon his return and is very interested in you. He intends to take you as his disciple and sent me to bring you to the Fourth Mage Tower to meet him,” Iverson said.

Mo Lan’s heart sank at the words “Beyond Peak level.”

She still had Peak level magic books in three more Elemental Branch main tower collection rooms that she hadn’t memorized into her memory palace. Though abandoning them wouldn’t be a great loss, she still wanted to fill in this gap.

If she could avoid meeting this Beyond Peak level mage, she’d rather not.

“I am deeply grateful for Lord Angrboda’s regard, but I wish to walk the path of an ancient mage and do not intend to specialize in any single system of magic. If I were to seek an Instructor, I would want one who could guide me along the ancient mage path.”

Her words were rather diplomatic, but the meaning was clear—she had no interest in the olive branch Angrboda was extending.

Even if Angrboda was a Beyond Peak level mage of the Psychic Branch, he couldn’t guide her on the path of an ancient mage.

Iverson picked up on her meaning and grew somewhat irritated.

“Don’t be ungrateful… The Ancient Mage Class is just a pilot program at the Academy. In all of Tower Forest, there isn’t a single legitimate Beyond Peak level mage who walks the ancient mage path with mastery of all-element magic, let alone one who could become your Instructor!”