Novel The Wizard's Tower

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Synopsis: The world of Cyclalgia is in grave danger, after years of peace a Demon King was born in the western wastelands of the world and has unified the Demon Race. The Demon King having amassed his forces declared war against the Humanity and took over several Human Kingdoms. But as the Human Kingdom of Lor was facing this disaster a Hero suddenly emerged wielding a great holy sword. The hero fought back the Demon King’s army, and over time gathered powerful companions that would follow him into battle. But it wasn’t enough, no it was far from enough. The Human Kingdom of Lor was still in the midst of war after three whole years and they could hold on no longer. With no other choice, the Hero ventured out towards the neutral country of Ostea home to the fabled Wizard's Tower to seek the aid of the powerful Wizard within. It's just that things don't go exactly as you'd expect...
Tags: Action, Adventure, Comedy
Warning: This fiction contains Profanity and Sexual Content.
Link to Original: https://royalroadl.com/fiction/11230
Schedule: A chapter every week, I'll upload it on Saturday EST

Spoiler: Table of Contents

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5

Spoiler: Prologue

In a sea of trees there stood a single lofty tower a 100 meters wide that extended far into the sky, at least a kilometer off the ground. If you were to look up at this tower you’d be hard pressed to even see its upper half, let alone the peak. Only if you were to fly into the sky, up until the ground turned a pure white and the sky above a pitch black no longer filled with clouds scattered about but stars, then and only then would you be able to see the towers lofty peak seemingly chained to the ground by several floating islands.

This tower was too frighteningly tall, and over the ages it’s come to inspire both fear and reverence from locals and foreigners alike hailing it as a sacred ground, worshipping it as if it were one of the Temples of the Gods.

But naturally this tower was no temple, nor was it even a place of worship. It was merely the home of one secluded and extremely powerful wizard, a wizard so unimaginably powerful he dared to construct a tower whose existence was essentially heresy before the Gods.

But perhaps his confidence was a given, because in this tower of his this wizard sat above all else, looking down seeing everything, hearing everything, knowing everything like an omniscient God. And it was this god-like knowledge, this omniscience of his that caused countless figures to brave the forest, climb the tower, and seek his guidance just like several figures in this forest long since abandoned by man were doing.

At the base of the wizard’s tower stood a young man in his twenties with long white hair and dark blue eyes. He donned a silver plate armor with a cross engraved into the center, a golden circlet with a diamond shaped blue jewel in the middle, and a white cape with golden trimmings that fluttered in the wind. In his hands was a beautiful golden long sword stained with blood, and a silver shield with golden wings decorating it.

He stared at the tower from below, breathing heavily. He turned around to look at the massive corpse behind him. It was a wolf about twenty meters tall completely covered in arrows, small wounds, and all sorts of lacerations. Then he looked back at his companions.

Atop of the wolf was an old gray-haired knight in his fifties, covered almost entirely in a dark gray plate armor who was busy pulling out a massive black greatsword that was lodged between the wolf’s ribs. Then there was a blond female mage behind the wolf in a slightly torn red robe who was keeping herself propped up with her large wooden staff with a large red sphere in inlaid into it. And finally on top of a tree was a brown haired young rogue who wore a green hood and a brown mask over his mouth. In his hands was a short bow, while on his back were two crossbows, and below those two was a quiver of arrows and several small bags. His body was also covered in all sorts of leather straps holding bottles, daggers, darts, rope, throwing knives, and all sorts of other miscellaneous goods.

The silver armored Hero asked the others, “Ya reckon I can fly up there?”

The female mage catching her breath looked up and said, “Hero...don’t...the tower has...a defense system…”

“Even on the outside?”

“Especially on the outside,” the rogue replied, “This tower’s no dungeon, but from what I’ve heard it was designed to withstand even a Dragon’s assault and those things can supposedly level mountains. Let me repeat that, MOUNTAINS! As in more than one mountain.”

“But it’s not like we’re picking a fight.” The hero sheathed his golden sword into the shield in his left arm, and the shield began to glow before fusing into the Heroes brown gloves forming a crest reminiscent of the sword and shields previous appearance.

He raised his hand and tapped the gem on his golden circlet and his white cape fluttering through the wings suddenly grew stiff. The cape suddenly split in the middle and formed the shape of wings. While the circlet on his head began to rise into the air, spinning over his head like a halo.

“Well let’s give it a shot!” The shot into the air his cape flapping furiously as he sped forward.

The rogue shook his head, and then looked at the old knight, “Aren’t you going to try and stop him?”

“Can you fly?”

The rogue paused, “Point taken.”

The Hero laughed, “Don’t worry it’s just a tower!”

And as the Hero continued flying upwards the tower’s wall suddenly began to distort, and tens of stone snakes began to shoot towards the Hero. The Hero was surprised, “Well isn’t that something.”

The Hero smiled and easily flew past the stone snakes, and when the stone snakes fell far enough they’d just fuse back into the tower. But as he climbed higher and higher the tower began to spawn more and more stone snakes until eventually the very bricks themselves began shooting out of the walls.

These bricks began to fly through the sky shooting all sorts of spells at the Hero. Some bricks shot fireballs, others shot powerful gusts of wind that would disrupt his balance, a few would shoot icicles, and some even began charging straight towards him before self-detonating.

But the Hero managed to dodge the towers relentless assault until finally, the Hero climbed past the clouds. The hero grinned, “Is that all you got?”

The Hero laughed as his wings continued to beat and the peak became visible. But as he continued flying upward the Hero noticed that the several massive chains anchoring the floating islands nearby to the tower began sprouting massive red eyes as if answering the earlier question. From these eyes, several hundreds of crows, whose bodies were covered entirely in red eyes, began spawning.

The Hero felt a sudden sense of danger and immediately sped up. All of the eyes landed on the Hero and tens of hundreds of red lights shot out of these eyes all towards the Hero. Some of these lights missed and hit the tower causing them to reflect outwards as if they had hit a mirror, but dozens of lights were quickly approaching the Hero forcing him to pull out his sword and shield.

The Hero furiously shouted, “Cross Slash! Cross Slash! Cross Slash! Cross Slash!”

The Hero frantically swung his holy sword releasing a cross-shaped silver ray that would cut apart the red lights. While his shield began to emit a golden glow that would block the lights he couldn’t cut apart. But as soon as he thought he cleared the first volley of lights, the eyes shot another volley of light towards him, and then a third volley, a fourth volley, and the crows and chains just kept repeatedly shooting an endless stream of lasers towards the hero turning the sky from a light blue to a crimson red.

The Hero having been unable to keep up with the towers continuous attacks had portions of his silver armor destroyed, or burnt a pitch black. The Hero cursed, “God damn it!”

He raised his shield over his head to block the lasers, while his wings expanded several meters to his side. He drew his holy sword back and shouted fiercely, “Cross Infinity!”

The Hero’s wings shined brilliantly with a white light as the Hero swung his holy sword releasing hundreds of rays of silver light cutting apart the endless stream of red light, as well as the crows in the sky. The Hero paused for a minute in the air, pale faced. He couldn’t help but think he really underestimated this damnable tower.

He had to use one of his trump cards [Cross Infinity] to take care of all those pesky crows. This was a secret technique of his wings which were, in fact, the Kingdom of Lor’s Sacred Item known as the, [Silver Cross Banner].

This banner would typically be held by an army commander when leading troops to bestow each soldier the [Silver Ray] which would not only increase each soldier's defense by cladding their armor in a silver light, but it could even be used to coat their weapons to enhance their sharpness, durability, and allow them to use the technique [Silver Ray] without training.

[Cross Infinity] was merely another application of the banner’s [Silver Ray] wherein he would store a vast quantity of silver rays before instantly releasing them all in a powerful attack. But naturally, there’s a limit to how many [Silver Rays] the banner could produce so the Hero was rather hesitant to use this technique here.

But as the Hero was catching his breath, the Hero heard something behind him, and the blood drained from his face as he found a massive red eye right behind him. The eye began to light up, and the Hero swung his shield in front of him shouting, “Guardian Angel!”

The shield instantly expanded into several meters in diameter and began exuding a brilliant golden light as it floated in front of the eye. The eye shot out a massive laser striking the shield turning a large portion of the shield black.

The shield having seemingly lost all its power turned into a small ball of golden light that shot into the Hero’s glove. Whilst the hero charged forward and swung his holy sword at the eye destroying it.

But as the Hero turned around, he noticed the chains were once more producing those damnable black crows. The Hero sighed, the holy sword in his hand turned into a ball of light and entered his glove like his shield, and he raised his hand yelling, “I surrender!”

The eyes stared at him momentarily, their eyes glowing a bright red when suddenly they all vanished into thin air. Those hundreds of crows and thousands upon thousands of eyes just up and vanished.

The Hero sighed once more, “Couldn’t you have done this from the beginning? Geez, what a waste... “

The Hero finally flew to the top of the tower and landed, he pulled out a scroll from a bag on his waist, and tore off the red seal in the front opening it. “Mass Teleportation”

The scroll in his hands instantly ignited, and a magic circle formed in the air transporting everyone at the base of the tower to the top. The old man was the first to speak, “Well I’ll be damned, I didn’t think you’d actually make it up here.”

The Hero laughed wearily, “Yeah, at one point me neither.”

The Hero looked at the shield on his glove, it was burnt black and faded. To get all the way up here he’d used two of his trump cards, and in the end, he still had to surrender. If in the end, it was all for nothing, then it would be extremely depressing.

The Hero and his party climbed down from the peak, which was an observatory, and down some stairs. They wandered around the tower going through some empty rooms before reaching a large pair of wooden doors.

The hero asked, “Do you suppose he’s here?”

The female mage nodded, “This room has the highest concentration of mana, he has to be here.”

The Hero looked to his left, and then his right, before nodding, “Let’s go.”

He pushed the double doors open with both hands and walked light filled the dark hallways from the room within. And as the Hero walked in his eyes widened, as he stared at a massive bulky green man in purple robes and a wizard hat reading a book.

The green man turned his head and looked at the Hero’s party staring at him in shock. This man was one of the most powerful wizards, one of the wisest sages, a man who’d defy even the Gods, or rather should I say an Orc.

 

Despite the grammar, you've got me. Whilst the story seemed so generic, so stereotypical, you at first want to turn away, you do leave a bit of a mystery in that synopsis, just for me to ask, 'why is this different?'.

Also your synopsis on NUF is not complete. I had to go to the RRL.

 

Ops I didn't check when I copy and pasted it. As for the grammar, well tbh I have no excuse. Well I do, and that is that my PR is dying though he's just making a big deal out of his cold, but it's still my fault. Thanks for the notice, old habits die hard...I've had to edit this reply like 5 times cause the more I edit it the more mistakes I make orz...

 

Spoiler: Chapter 1: The Bestest Plan

The room was like a small cluttered library with countless books lined against walls on the tens of bookshelves that stretched up all the way up until the ceiling. All sorts of books and parchments were stacked on top of each on the floor unsteadily or thrown into a pile somewhere on the ground. Even a few of the smaller bookshelves dotting the room had toppled over, breaking, or inevitably being covered by a layer of books and papers.

And in the center of this mess sat an Orc, an Orc wearing a purple wizard robe more than a few sizes too small and a wizard’s hat on its bald green head. It sat there cross-legged uncharacteristically flipping through a thick leather bound book with his massive fingers.

As he heard the door behind him slowly open up, he turned his head to find several Humans blankly staring at him. He shut the book in his hands and threw it into one of the piles of books in lying around before standing up.

The Heroes stared at the Orcs towering figure which forced them to raise their heads so they could meet his eyes. Even the old knight, the tallest of the four of them at 6’3, was forced to raise his head to maintain eye contact, and it was exceedingly difficult for the mage to do so as she was by far the shortest of them all at only 5’1.

The Hero turned to his companions puzzled, he leaned back and quietly whispered, “Don’t tell me he’s the wizard? There’s now way, right?”

The rogue turned to him and shrugged, “Who knows, we hardly know anything about the wizard as it is. He may be a living legend, but he’s been around for centuries. Most records describing the Wizard of the Tower have always been vague or have long since been lost to time.”

“Then he’s actually…”

The rogue nodded, “Probably, the records never mentioned if the wizard was a man, woman, demon, or a human so he very well could have been an orc.”

“But have you ever seen an Orc older than forty or fifty? I’ve only ever heard of them living up until they were sixty or seventy, and that’s only a myth and you’re saying this Orc standing before us has lived for centuries?”

Suddenly a long wooden staff struck the back of the Heroes head, “You two are being rude. The concept of time doesn’t effect powerful mages like it does normal Humans or Demons or any other race.”

The Hero rubbed the back of his head, and turned to the Orc, “So he really is the wizard?”

The female mage nodded, “He has to be, who else would be up here”

“His assistant”

“What mage would have an Orc as an assistant”

The Hero laughed, “Well with our luck, the one we’re looking for”

Once again the female mage struck the Hero with her staff before stepping forward. You could hear an audible gulp as the female mage began to steady her breath and calm herself down. She carefully strode forward, trying not to knock anything over and make the room messier than it already is. Eventually, she stopped several yards away from the Orc before kneeling down and politely introducing herself, “Great Wizard, this mage of humble beginnings greets your excellency. I am Marie Sitrase, Grand Magus of Fire and Ash, appointed Royal Mage by the Kingdom of Lor and current head of the House of Sitrase.”

The Hero and his companions exchange glances before stepping forward as well. The old knight stepped to the right, kneeling down he said, “Greetings Great Wizard, your excellency I am Lord Orville Diholve 22nd Head of the House of Diholve, appointed Royal Knight Captain by the Kingdom of Lor.”

The Rogue kneeled down, and made a simple greeting, “Noe Iole, S-Class Adventurer of the Adventurers Guild”

And finally, the Hero took a step forward, pulling out his holy sword from his glove. He held it with both hands, the tip of the sword pointing towards the ceiling and the hilt grasp firmly in front of him a little above his waist. He said proudly, “I apologize for earlier, Gail Goodwin Holy Knight and Hero of the Kingdom of Lor.”

The sword in the Hero's hand began to shine with a golden light, his cape began to flutter in the air despite the lack of wind, and his battle-worn armor began to be coated in a brilliant silver light. The Hero smiled proudly, and the golden circlet on his head began to once more form a golden halo that began exuding a brilliant golden light that began filling the entire room.

The Hero, Gail Goodwin, was or rather has always been a rather proud man to the point of being arrogant. He would always act with great confidence even against foes far greater than him in strength. This lead to his abysmal defeat when he charged up against the Tower just earlier, and although he was aware of how powerful the Tower was and how amazing his feat of standing up against the Tower for so long, he couldn’t help but think his defeat was a stain in his honor.

And the Hero couldn’t stand this. But he knew this Orc in front of him wasn’t someone he could provoke, so instead, he chose to show his worth as a Hero. He put on a full display of three of the four holy items in his possession. These were proof of his prowess, and even though it was a bit of a waste to use them in this fashion if it would wipe away that stain to him it was worth it.

But then the Orc turned to him, and with his deep and dry voice he said, “Turn it down, that’s too bright.”

The Hero paused in astonishment, and immediately stop releasing that brilliant golden light, “I apologize.”

The Hero quickly retracted his halo returning it back into a circlet and returned his sword to his glove. The Hero cleared his throat before once again speaking, “Oh Great Wizard, I have traveled far and wide to come to your great tower to ask of you of one thing.”

The Heroes face twisted and turned grim, while on the corner of his eye you could see a small drop of water reflecting the light mysteriously falling from the ceiling illuminating the room.

“Those wretches Demons have united under an accursed King to bring death and destruction to these lands once again. The time has come to once more continue this age old battle between Demons and Man! But Humanity has grown frail over the years. We’ve faced famine, droughts, disease, and war. And as we were still weak and frail, having just started to recover from the depths of despair and having only quelled the internal strifes within us, the wretched Demon King invaded!”

“Those he’s killed number in the tens of the hundreds, and the number of Humans he’s enslaved easily number in the hundreds of thousands. The Demons have already conquered several of Humanities kingdoms and have destroyed dozens of our strongholds. And even after we gathering these Four Holy Items we have still been locked in battle for three years unable to step an inch further, and instead forced to take an inch back.”

The Hero gripped his fist and began to sob dramatically. The old knight Orville raised his head and continued, “The Demon King's armies outnumber us 6 to 1, and if it weren’t for the fact that the Demon King was also assaulting several other Kingdoms at the same time we might not have been able to last as long as we have. But recently one of the Demon King's generals has taken the Kingdom of Thylania further worsening our grave situation.”

The Hero fell to his knees, and with his arms, on the floor, he lowered his head down to the ground and begged, “Please Great Wizard guide us ignorant fools. We’ve no other choice, but to rely on you!”

The rogue turned to the Hero and whispered, “Could you be any more dramatic?”

The Hero smiled, and whispered quietly with his head still on the ground “I haven’t even gone all out.”

The female mage sighed, “Noe, Gail not now…”

The Orc stared at the four of them kneeling on the ground, “Why don’t you just kill the king then.”

Orville turned to the Hero on the floor, before raising his head and saying, “Great Wizard with our army there’s no hope in breaking through let alone slaughtering a path to their King.”

“You don’t need an army to kill a single man”

“But then who will hold back the Demon King’s armies?”

The Orc yawned, picking up a random book he said, “Do you think you four can hold back an army several times the size of your own?”

“That’s…” Orville paused, the four of them have been able to push the Demon King's armies back time and time again, but that was solely due to the fact that the Demon King didn’t view the Kingdom of Lor as a major threat and the Kingdom of Lor has taken in thousands of refugees to bolster their forces.

But with the much more powerful Kingdom of Thylania out of the way, there’s no reason for the Demon King to leave the Kingdom of Lor be. As soon as he occupies and secures Thylania he’ll surely send more troops over to take the Kingdom of Lor.

Noe, the rogue, raised his head, “That’s suicide, of the Demon King's six Generals there are at least two by his side at all times. Even with a small elite unit penetrating the enemy lines, fighting off these Demon Generals alone will be extremely difficult. And then we have to deal with the Royal Guard and the Demon King himself, and as someone who can unite the fractured Demon Clans, he himself is surely powerful. Killing him like this is nearly impossible”

The Orc laughed, “Nearly”

Noe clicked his tongue, “Besides what makes you think that killing the Demon King will change anything anyway. In the large scheme of things, what can the death of one man do.”

“More than you think.”

Noe tightened his fist but didn’t say anything further. The female mage finally raised her head and asked, “Is there no other way? Perhaps there’s an artifact that can make the Hero even stronger. Then perhaps we might be able to break through the Demon Army with his strength and slay the Demon King like in the legends.”

The Orc shook his head, and the female mage sighed. Suddenly, the Hero lamenting on the ground stood up, “Thank you great wizard for your guidance.”

He turned around and began walking out of the messy room, the female mage stood up, “Wait, Gail, where are you going?”

“Back”

Everyone else stood up and followed suit. The rogue asked, “Are you sure we should be leaving? He’s a wizard who's been alive for centuries if we ask him a few more things we might be able to find a better way.“

The Hero laughed, “No, this will do”

The Hero took out another scroll from his bag, when the rogue suddenly yelled, “It’s suicide!”

The Hero laughed, “He’s the Wizard of this godforsaken tower, he wouldn’t tell us to kill the King if there wasn’t a possibility of succeeding. Besides this is how Heroes should be overcoming the odds, standing in the limelight, fighting for the people when all hope is lost! Now that is a Hero!”

Noe sighed, “Narcissistic bastard”

“Narcissistic? If anything I’m a bit too modest! If I were to really show off you’d already be in my bed, and we’d be wed!”

Noe snatched the scroll off of the Hero's hand, “I’ve told you I’m a man!”

“No with that face, and that voice.”

Noe glared at the Hero before ripping the scroll and vanishing from the tower. The Orc standing in the sea of book merely watched them disappear, starring as the scroll silently burned and the embers fell to the floor. He walked over to where the Hero party had vanished and inspected the floor.

Although it was faint you could see a large circle on the floor constructed out of tens of complex characters. But as he continued staring at it the circle eventually disappeared completely, and with nothing to look at the Orc began to climb down the tower.

The Orc silently walked down the stairs, the halls, through cluttered room after room of this desolate tower. Many of the rooms were filled with all sorts of books or scrolls, while others were filled with what appeared to be some unusual machinery or materials.

In one room there were hundreds of different colored rocks, and gems lying on the shelves. In the room next to it there were stacks of lumber and several wooden sculptures. While entire floors were dedicated for some purpose at times.

The orc passed by several floors dedicated entirely to a massive garden with its own artificial sun, and clouds which would at times turn dark and start raining. While half of a floor was dedicated to a massive smithery.

And as the Orc continued to pass through room after room, floor after floor he eventually came across this one peculiar pair of doors. The doors weren’t particularly large, but they were constructed out of metal instead of wood. And hovering over the door where tens of hundreds of bizarre symbols forming a purple magic circle over the door.

The Orc approached the door silently and pushed it open, but as soon as his hand touched the door the purple symbols grew massive and the circle expanded filling the entire wall for a moment before suddenly shrinking down and growing brightly. A blinding purple light gathered around the Orcs large green hand, and suddenly the door violently exploded into a massive puff of black smoke and shrapnel.

“What was that!?”, a voice called out from within the room. The smoke quickly began to vanish as the walls seemingly began absorbing the smoke, and soon enough the room behind this peculiar door became visible.

Inside was a large bed, and over a dozen naked women standing inside. The women stared at the Orc and began muttering when one of the women boldly strode forward in the nude.

She stood there proudly in front of all the other woman, not attempting to hide her voluptuous curves nor was she ashamed of standing before the Orc. She smiled seductively and asked, “Who are you Orc?”

 

Spoiler: Chapter 2: The Tower's Core

The Orc stared at the naked woman in front of him and backed up slightly. If there was only one word you could use to describe this woman in front of him it would be beautiful and what a beauty she was, she was beautiful beyond belief. Her hair was as white as snow, her lips as red as blood, her eyes dyed a deep crimson, and her skin a sickly pale.

Yes, she was undoubtedly a beauty, and the Orc couldn’t help but think he’d never seen anyone more beautiful in his life, yet there was something off about her something about her felt uncanny, artificial. It was almost as if someone sculpted her body out of clay like some sort of doll.

And as the Orc’s gazed wandered from the woman in front of him the women in the back brazenly standing in the nude his large eyes widened in shock. He turned to one woman, and then another, and then another after that but the more he looked the more shocked he became as he couldn’t tell the difference between any of the women in the back.

Not only that but all the women in the back, every single one of them looks exactly like the woman standing in front of him. Their skin was that sickly pale, their hair that snow white, their lips that blood red and all their piercing eyes staring at him from afar were dyed a deep crimson.

And before he knew it the woman in front of him had already walked up to nearly a meter in front of him. He turned to look at her and asked, “Who are you…”

The woman however ignored him, “I’m asking the questions Orc, who are you? Those robes, why are you wearing them? Why are you here? What’s that old man doing?”

The Orc paused, and in his rough dry voice replied,“Ian”

“What?”

The Orc repeated, “The names Ian.”

The woman paused, “And the old man?”

“The wizard?”

“Who else would I be talking about!”

The Orc scratched his chin, and said hesitantly, “Dead”

The woman exclaimed,“Dead!?”

“Probably”

The woman suddenly burst out laughing, “Dead you say? I haven’t heard something as unfunny as that in years!”

Suddenly, the woman vanished and he felt a cold hand touch his shoulder. As he turned his neck to look at her he felt a sharp prick as the woman pressed her sharp fingernails against his thick green neck.

“Answer me, who are you, another one of his creations? Why did he send you down here, to toy with us? Answer me, and I might let you live”

The Orc sighed, and grabbed the woman's hand, “Look I can tell you’re pissed, I broke your door, and walked in on your…”

He turned to look at all the woman standing around naked and the bed and decided it was better not to ask, “Well you know. Anyway, I apologize, but I’ve already seen all of you naked. There’s nothing that can be done, so if we all think about this rationally…”

“What the hell are you going on about answer the question!”

The Orc turned his head, and laughed wearily, “Well I don’t really know what you want me to say.”

The woman clicked her tongue, “Useless, what was I expecting from an Orc”

With a flick of her wrist she somehow managed to shake off the Orc’s massive hand. Suddenly her sharp fingernails grew increasingly longer until they reached about a few inches in length before she stabbed out towards the Orc’s neck. It was clear that this was a very common practice for her as all of this was done in quick succession and with complete ease.

She didn’t even really need to think about doing this sort of thing, it was almost as if it was second nature to her. But as her fingernails touched the Orc’s thick neck her nails emitted a loud screeching sound as if metal were scraping against metal and her nails shattered.

The shrapnels flew everywhere at a shocking speed, and some of the fragments even dug into her own hand turning it into a bloodied mess. The woman’s face paled, and she darted back into the hallway grabbing a piece of the broken door from the ground and holding it up towards the Orc.

“You...what are you!?”

The Orc turned towards the woman and said, “You know I’d like to know that too, so what do you want me to say?”

The woman paused, she was admittedly at a loss for words. To most people it would be it would be weird if they didn’t know what they were, or who they were, but for someone like her, it was entirely possible. She turned to the Orc once more and said, “Fine that doesn’t matter, tell me what's that old man planning then. It doesn’t look like he put you on any sort of leash.”

“You’re talking about the old dude in the purple robes, and hat, right? The old man those people came earlier to visit that they kept calling the great wizard? Well, he’s dead, I’m pretty sure at least.”

The woman paused for a moment, “You swear on your life?”

“I swear on my life.”

The woman paused as if waiting for something, she sat down on the cold floor dropping the piece of the metal door to the side. She looked up at the ceiling her expression repeatedly changing from one of exhaustion to one of melancholy to one of relief before once again she burst into a hysterical fit of laughter.

“Ah, To think that bastard would die just like that, and to an Orc no less.”

The Orc scratched his head, “Thanks, I guess.”

“My bad, my bad. So what are you gonna do with us now?”

“Do with you?”

“You’re an Orc aren’t you?”

“Well…”, the Orc stared at his large green hands, and the stretched out robe covering his body, “yeah I suppose I am.”

The woman laughed, “You’re an odd one, I’ve never seen an Orc like you before.”

“Is that a compliment?”

“Take it as you will, anyway I’m R-1A”

“What?”

“R-1A, my name or at the very least what that old man used to call me back when he was mass producing us?”

The Orc paused, “Mass producing?”

“Well, of course, no one would just build one Homunculus at a time.”

“Homunculus?”

R-1A scratched her head, “Do you know anything!? How the hell did you even kill that old man anyway.”

“Well, one way or another.”

R-1A scratched her head, “We’re getting nowhere like this! You!”

She pointed her bloodied finger towards the Orc, “You’re way too lackadaisical, you just killed one of the world’s strongest mages couldn’t you act like it?”

The Orc laughed wearily, “And what would that be like?”

R-1A stood up, “I don’t know, arrogant, pompous, haughty, rude, narcissistic, at the very least not like this. I’ve never met an Orc with so little energy in my life! Can’t you give me one clear answer for once in your life, oh wait you did, but can you stop answer me with maybes and I don’t knows.”

R-1A glared at the Ian, and began firing questions in quick succession, “Tell me what are you gonna do now? Are you going to take over the tower? Are going to become a King or maybe even a Demon King? Hell, you could probably become an Emperor! Are you going to take over the world? Are you gonna spread your seed everywhere? Are you going to make a harem filled with a thousand beauties? Are you going to bring peace to the world? Are you going to…”

Ian stood there speechless as he was berated with question after question, he couldn’t even answer any of these questions even if he wanted to R-1A just wasn’t stopping. It was like some switch was flipped inside of her that just made her keep on nagging and nagging.

“Um, R-1A”

R-1A turned to Ian yelled, “What!?”

“Can I call you something else? R-1A is a bit odd”

“Call me something like what?”

“How about Ria? R-1A sort of looks like Ria, after all, and it's a lot easier than saying R-1A.”

R-1A thought about it for a moment, “I don’t mind, my name wasn’t really that important in the first place whatever works for you. But you still haven’t answered any of my questions”

Ian laughed wearily, “Well that’s kind of hard when you don’t give me time to answer any of them”

“Ah,” Ria apologized, “My bad, well all those questions don’t really matter so why don’t you just tell me what you plan on doing with us?”

“Honestly I don’t know what you’re talking about, it’s not like you guys are slaves and I have no right to keep you here. If you wish to stay you can stay, after all, this tower wasn’t mine originally, and well if you wish to leave who am I to stop you?”

And once more R-1A, or rather Ria couldn’t help but laugh, “I can’t believe it, I can tell how sincere you but in the end that makes it all the more unbelievable”

Ian looked at Ria puzzled and then began walking down the hallway towards the stairs, “Well then I’ll be taking my leave.”

“Wait”

Ian paused and turned his head, “Yes?”

“So what are you going to do now?”

“I suppose I’ll walk around the tower, see what's around.”

“Will you live in the tower?”

“Most likely.”

“Have you formed a master-servant contract with the Tower Core?”

Ian turned around, “Tower Core?”

Ria sighed, “You never cease to amaze me you know. Well to put it in simple terms, first, do you know what a Dungeon is?”

“Sort of”

“Then are you aware that each Dungeon has a core?”

Ian shook his head. Ria continued, “Well then I’ll start there. Every Dungeon has a core which is essentially the Dungeons brain, it's in control of regulating the dungeon, spawning creatures, creating treasures, and structuring the dungeon itself. If someone can reach the dungeon’s core they can become a Dungeon Master and control the core to do their bidding.”

“This tower is no different from a dungeon, you can think of it as a man-made dungeon of sorts that's been raised above ground. That old bastard went and destroyed several dungeons and fused their core together to make this tower’s core and it’s thanks to this core that the Tower can even exist today. Because without the core...

R-1A vanished and reappeared at the other side of the room. She kicked the wall and with a loud boom, the wall crumbled into pieces and the wind came blowing in. She turned to Ian and continued

“The tower won’t be able to maintain simple functions such as it’s self-reinforcing mechanisms or it’s self-repair mechanisms. At most, the Tower can only maintain the lights, the temperature regulation, and its shape right now. If you want to live here you’re going to have to establish a contract with the tower’s core.”

“And where exactly is the core?

“It should be somewhere in the basement”

“And how do you expect us to get down ther-”

Ria suddenly vanished from where she was, and Ian felt a small hand grab his arm. With a quick kick from her legs, Ria flew all the way to the other side of the room pulling Ian’s large body and they flew the hole.

“We jump!”

Ian sighed, and then looked back up and he was surprised to find all the other women were jumping down one after another.

“Ria I’ve been meaning to ask, are they homunculuses too?”

Ria nodded her head, “It’s Homunculi, but yes they’re my daughters.”

“Daughters huh,” then Ian froze for a moment, and turned to Ria, “Wait, daughters!?”

“Yep, I think she was my first child,”, she pointed towards one of the girls falling down in the nude, though it was likely that she was just randomly pointing towards any one of the Homunculi.

“I had just repaired my body back then, and I came across this centaur. Most centaurs are rather level headed, and wise but this one was rather savage. Back then I was pretty weak, so I couldn’t beat him so instead, I used my charms and seduced him.”

“Eh, but she doesn’t look half-centaur.”

“Well naturally, I’m a Homunculus my reproductive system is only designed to produced Homunculi similar to me. It’s sort of how the Harpy race can only produce females, so they’ve developed the ability to reproduce with any race.Though she does some of a centaurs traits, for example, she should be a pretty good runner and I bet she’d be great with a bow.”

“Wait then all of these girls…”

Ria smiled seductively, “Yes, I’ve reproduced with most of the prominent species, centaurs, several other types of beastmen, Demons, Elves, Humans, Dwarves, and even male type Homunculi.”

“...”

“Oh, looks like we’re almost down.”

Ria used Ian's body to push herself forwards causing her land before everyone else. She quickly stood back up and caught Ian’s huge body with her two small hands leading to a rather peculiar sight. Looking at her Ian couldn’t help but say, “You’re amazing you know, you’re fine after falling from that height”

“Oh please, it’s not that high, nothing a little magic couldn’t fix.”

Soon enough all the other Homunculi landed safely on the ground, and they made their way to the tower. Ria looked around, “We landed on the wrong side it seems, well might as well make an entrance ourselves.”

Ria walked up to the tower’s wall and kicked causing the walls to cave in, “Come on”

Ian and her daughters followed her inside as she kicked her way through monsters, undead, beasts, traps, and walls. Ria would easily make quick work of anything in the way. As for her daughters, they’d pick up parts of the monsters remains and store them who knows where before catching back up.

Eventually, they reached the center of the tower, Ria looked around and spent about an hour probing the walls, the ceiling, and the floor while Ian sat there making small talk to Ria’s daughters.

Suddenly, Ria sent a powerful kick towards the floor, and a massive hole opened up.

“This should be it, come on.”

Ria jumped down, and Ian quickly followed her. The two even them fell down a fair bit before ending up in a hallway in front of two massive doors. Ian glanced at Ria momentarily before walking over and pushing the doors open.

The room inside was quite spacious, there were light blue luminescent stones on the walls illuminating the room and several lines on the floors the grew a bright blue. In the center was what looked like a massive glass globe several meters in diameter slowly spinning.

This globe was surrounded by several orbs attached to rails that slowly spun around the larger globe. Each orb rotated and orbited the centermost sphere at different speeds and they each emitted a faint light.

Suddenly a very mechanical voice echoed throughout the room, “Orc speaketh, are thou that which has slain mine master”

Ian nodded his head, and the voice continued, “Then dost thou wish to usurp the throne of the the High Palace and reign over all?”

Ian turned back towards Ria, and asked, “Throne of the High Palace?”

R-1A nodded, “This tower is commonly referred to the Wizard’s Tower, but from what I’ve heard a few years after it was created it was seen as a heretical object by nearly all faiths. After all, this tower is a recreation of a certain Artifact created by the ancients back in the Age of Gods, one that's long since been forgotten. This tower's purpose is to act as a bridge between the Mortal Realm and the Land of the Gods to usurp the throne of the High Palace, or essentially it’s a tower designed to fell the Gods.”

Ian turned back around and mumbled, “A tower designed to fell the Gods...”

The mechanical voice called out once more, “Answer us Orc!”

Ian shook his head, “I’m not interested, there’s no reason for me going around taking anyone's throne let alone the Gods.”

As Ian spoke the ground suddenly shook, and the mechanical voice spoke once more, “Then Orc, what does thou seeketh!”

Ian paused for a moment before saying, “Send me home?”

“Home? And where dost thou belong?”

“A world without magic, without Orcs, without dungeons, or towers, or wizards. Send me back to where I came from.”

The Tower Core paused, and in a solemn voice said, “Impossible.”

“You said you could grant any wish.”

“Indeed, we possess the means to bridge the worlds, but to find that which you seek is to search an endless sea of stars for a single speck of dust.”

“Is there no way?”

“None”

Ian sighed, “Fine, then let’s form a contract so I can live here. But I’m not going to usurp any throne okay.

“...”

“Am I clear?”

“Very well, we cannot survive without your presence, then so be it.

The Tower Core began to shine and a brilliant pillar of light appeared before Ian revealing a piece of paper and a quill pen. Ian walked up to the floating paper and pen and grabbed it, and clumsily wrote his name on the bottom.
“The contract is signed, ownership of the Tower has been passed on to you Orc. Master you need but speak, and it shall be done.”

Ian scratched his head, “Then can you do something about that way of speaking? It’s a bit weird.”

“Oh? Is my manner of speech not to your liking?”

“Could you perhaps be less formal?”

“Less formal? That can be arranged. I need merely access the network and pull data for a less formal manner of speech.”

The Tower paused for a minute, and the light being emitted from it dimmed slightly before returning to its original brightness.

“New form acquired”

Suddenly, another pillar of light appeared in front of Ian and a small little girl in a gothic lolita outfit appeared in front of Ian.

“Onii-chan is this better?”

“REJECTED!”

 

Spoiler: Chapter 3: The Little Tower In The Horizon

The small little girl tilted her head, “Is it not to your liking?”

“Of course not! And where the hell did you even learn that word.”

“Oniichan?”

Ian hands rubbed the area between his eyes as he felt a headache coming on, “Yes, clearly, that's not even English.”

“English? That does not appear to be a language in my dictionary”

“What? But you’re speaking it right now!”

The Tower Core shook her head, “Master in this world you're something of an abnormality, you were never born from this world’s cycle of life and death and despite taking on a form similar to one of this world’s species you are entirely alien to this world.”

“Of course if we were to draw your blood, in all likelihood it would be no different from any of Orcs but your very existence defies the very concept of the conservation of energy and mass.”

Ian turned to the little girl, “And what does that have to do with what we were talking about earlier.”

“Well, essentially your body’s constitution more closely resemble that of a Gods than any mortal race. You possess an abundance of mana, extraordinary innate abilities, and what would essentially constitute as the ability to Language of the Gods.”

“Huh, the Language of the Gods?”

The little girl nodded, “Back in the Age of the Gods when the Gods still roamed the world freely there was said to have existed a single unified language among the Gods, naturally the Language of the Gods. But in truth, the Gods spoke a wide array of languages, each of which became the foundation for their corresponding species native tongue. Why do you think then the Gods were said to speak a single language?”

Ian shrugged, “I don’t know stories like that tend to get embellished over the years”

The little girl laughed, “Indeed that’s true, but that’s not exactly the case here. You see the Gods possessed the innate ability to understand intent, in other words, malice, kindness, hatred, love, the Gods were able to instinctively feel all of it. It didn’t matter what language they used or how they communicated their intent because as long as it was towards another God they’d be able to understand the other's intent.”

“But since the mortal races who worshiped these gods began to lose this ability they began to have the misconception that the Gods spoke a single unified language. Therefore although it’s a tad inaccurate to call it so, those who began to possess this innate ability became known as those who could speak the Language of the Gods.”

“I thought you said the Language of the Gods was lost?”

“Indeed, although the progenitors of the current races did speak the Language of the Gods this ability would soon fade within the next few generations as the first languages came to be and an alphabet was constructed. However every now and again there are those born with the innate ability, and typically the High Priestesses and Oracles of a faith typically possess this innate ability or an ability similar to the Language of the Gods. ”

Ria nodded her, “And then there are you freaks, those who’ve bridged the boundary between worlds. All of you guys tend to exhibit abilities and traits typically only Gods or Godlike beings tend to have.”
The little girl laughed, “Oh yes if I recall you were in Ilyios during the battle between the Dragon Van Nol, and the summoned Hero Creos a few decades ago.”

“Van Nol? Creos?”

“Van Nol was one of the few pure-blooded Dragons in the world and also one of the most violent. His strength is known to eclipse even some Gods and is famously known as Van Nol the God Eater. Of the Godbeast of the Dragon race, he is within their Top 5 in terms of sheer strength. As for Creos...“

Ria commented, “Creos is both the protector and destroyer of Ilyios. He was originally summoned nearly a century ago, but after fulfilling his duty and defeating a total of three Demon Kings he retired as a Hero and became the King of Ilyios. However, when Van Nol attacked Ilyios killing all his children and even his wife, Creos was driven into madness as he unleashed all his power upending heaven and earth.”

Ria laughed wearily, “It was seriously no joke, space was so distorted that teleportation was impossible. There were countless rifts and cracks in space where things would just vanish into. And even the Void Drifters wandering out there in the void started crawling in through all the holes. The sky and the earth were literally reversed. In the end the battle ended with both of their deaths and the entire country of Ilios vanished from the face of the earth in a massive explosion.”

The little girl continued laughing, “If you were lucky the old master came to save you, if it weren’t for him you would have perished there.”

“But it was because of that event that he found me and locked me in that room for years.”

Ian turned to look at Ria with a look of pity, “You must have been through a lot. Anyway, we got off topic? How do you know that word? Do you even know what it means? Also, what’s with this form and that clothing?”

“The meaning? Well from the information in my database the world ‘Oniichan’ refers to a person of utmost importance, someone more important than even the Gods themselves. And this form is-“

“Wait hold the phone!”

“The phone?”

“That definition's so off I don’t even know where to start!”

The little girl tilted her head, “Is that so? Then let me make corrections to the database, would you please state the proper definition?”

Ian sighed, “It means brother, you know a male sibling?”

“Oh, that’s quite different from what my constituents have told me, but very well it would be disrespectful of me to refer to you master as my 'oniichan' then. As for this form, it’s the form of suggested by a Dungeon recently conquered by someone who’s crossed the boundary between worlds.“

“Ah, I think I know what that Dungeon Master might be like. Wait a second you can speak to other Dungeons?”

She nodded her head, “Dungeons are typically located atop of special ley lines, known as Dragon Veins, that are filled with massive amounts of mana. These Dragon Veins allowed us Dungeons to both sense and communicate with each other if we choose to do so, so we formed a network of sorts. It helps to pass the eternity. ”

“As for this form since I’m the youngest Dungeon they suggested that I take the form of a child to fit my age and that I should be a female of the Human race since they’re far more appealing to male orcs such as yourself. The design of these clothes also happens to be based from the Dungeon I mentioned earlier. Since they were created according to their Dungeon Master’s preferences, we thought you would also like it as someone who crossed boundary.”

Ian scratched his head, and hesitantly said, “Well, how do I put this...this sort of things is something of a fetish for a certain group of people. And well I’m not into that.”

“I see then would you like me to change my form?”

“Please do.”

“Very well,” the Tower Core went silent for a moment before once more being surrounded by a pillar and transforming into a fat female Orc about as tall as Ian, “How is this master.”

Ian sighed, “Could you just turn into something normal? Why do you even need another form anyway?”

“I can contact you telepathically, and sense you when you’re inside the Tower, but it would prove difficult to ensure your safety should you leave the tower. A vessel would be able to meet my needs, as well as help alleviate some of my boredom.”

“That last part sounds like your real motive…”

“I don’t know what you mean master?”

“Whatever, I don’t mind if you want to accompany, but can you transform into something smaller like a fairy perhaps? Do those exist in this world?

“I see, one of the Fae, very well”

The fat orc was once more covered in a pillar of light once again, before transforming into a small ball of light.

Ian leaned forward to get a closer look. The Tower Core had transformed into a small fairy only an inch tall limiting a blue light. She had long dark greenish hair and a pair of tiny golden eyes that Ian could barely make out. Her eyes were slanted and pointed like an elf, and on her back were four transparent blue wings. And she wore a simple green dress with a few simple floral patterns.

Ian squinted his large eyes, “Don’t cha think that’s a bit too small?”

“No, this form is adequate for most functions.”

“But I can hardly see you, why don’t you get a few inches taller.”

“Very well,” Upon command, the small fairies body changed until she was 5 inches tall and it was much easier to see her.

Ian turned to Ria, and then asked, “So what now?”

“What do you mean what now!?”

“Well I never really had much of a plan in the first place, and besides you're the one that dragged me down here to make a contract with this Tower Core thingy.”

The Tower Core laughed, “To think someone had to be dragged down to make a contract with me, you’d think as soon as the first Dungeon Master died he would have run down here immediately. Instead, he sat down and started reading some books!”

Ria looked at Ian, “So he really did kill that old man.”

Ian turned to the Tower Core, “Tower Core how do you, actually hold that thought. I can’t just call Tower Core the whole time.”

“Why not? That’s what the all the other Dungeon Masters do, though they shorten it to Core.”

“But you're not exactly a core anymore. Maybe I should shorten it. Tower, Core, TC? How about C.T.? Hmmm, C.T… how about Cathy? It can be a nickname for something like Catheline.”

Ria commented, “What a peculiar naming sense.”

“Well can you come up with something better?”

“I would have just called her Core like everyone else, you're the one incessant on calling her something different. “

“Ah whatever” Ian took a look at Ria from head to toe, and then at her daughters still brazenly standing in the nude, “ Well I guess first things first let’s get you guys some clothes…”

…

In the middle of a forest in Ostea, several hundred kilometers away from the Wizards Tower a tower began sprouting from the ground until it was a little over 200 meters tall. This tower despite how short it was in comparison, was nearly identical to the Wizard’s Tower.

Suddenly an Orc in an extra large robe walked out of the towers large front door. H took a quick look around before turning to the fairy on his shoulder and said, “That’s a rather convenient ability you have there.”

The fairy shook her tiny head, “On the contrary, it’s quite limiting as I can only create a replica where the mana in the ley lines are particularly strong. Those areas are typically occupied by either another Dungeon or by some beast in which case it would be too dangerous to create an auxiliary tower there. We were quite lucky to find a spot in the middle of a Forest nearby, though this is still a several hundred kilometers away from the original tower.”

“But to cross several hundred kilometers instantly, and with a Tower of this size no less is still quite a feat.”

Once more the fairy shook her head, “Master you underestimate the power of magic if it were the previous dungeon master he could have easily moved an entire mountain range from one end of the world to the other end.”

“Seriously?”

“Indeed, it would have taken a bit of preparation, but it is feasible. After all, he is this world’s strongest mage.”

“Oh? From what I’ve heard I thought he would have been only one of the world’s strongest, not the world’s definite number one.”

“Well in terms of power there are tens of beings just as strong or stronger than the old master, but in regards to mages, there are only a few that could rival the old master in terms of power. But all those mages were those who crossed the boundary, possessed the bloodline of the Gods, or gave up their mortality.”

“But hasn’t he been alive for centuries? Well until I killed him.”

“Indeed, but all he’s been doing is slowing his body’s natural rate of decay and supplement the loss of Life force with mana from the Dragon Vein. It’s for this reason that he was able to live so long without losing his power, and also the reason why he rarely left the Tower.”

Suddenly several figures came out of the Tower behind him dressed in armor, followed by Ria who was in a beautiful dress. Ian turned to Ria and said, “Why didn’t you let them wear dresses as well? I thought I saw plenty of those.”

“They’re the ones who picked out the armor, they said it was more practical. So what’s the plan, I can sense at the very least six villages within 10 kilometers of here, one of the villages might even be big enough to be a town.”

Ian walked back into the Tower, “There’s no plan, Cathy you set up enough rooms for everyone right? “

“Of course, enough supplies, utilities, and rooms have been transported. I even set up some defensive mechanisms, some traps, the smithery, the farm, the library, and some Golems to maintain it all.”

“Thanks, anyway all of you are free to stay here, but if you want to leave you can go ahead. I’ll head over to the library or take a nap.”

Ria looked at Ian dumbfounded, “Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

Ria sighed, “Look I can see why you don’t want to go around killing people since your world was so peaceful, but come on there’s an entire world out there, go live a little! Your old world didn’t have magic, did it? Your old world didn’t have dragons, did it? There’s so much to see, and do, and you’re just gonna stay in here in this tower all day?”

“Probably”

“Don’t you think that’s a big waste!?”

“Not particularly, besides you’ve heard it from Cathy earlier the world's a mess right now. The Demons are at War with the Humans. Dragons are wreaking havoc in some places of the world, there are bandits literally everywhere, there’s a plague to the North, the Humanities Hero is probably going to die, a living legend just died, and apparently there’s something called an Overlord hanging out in a place aptly called ‘The Land of the Death’.“

“Also apparently there’s way more than just one Demon King out there, though I have no clue why people keep calling them Demon Kings when only one Demon King has a country, and other worlders are just doing whatever they please, sort of like me. I think that’s more than enough reasons to just sit back, and relax in what is essentially an impenetrable fortress.”

Ria stomped her foot on the ground, “And what does that have to do with you? You’re also one of those absurd other worlders, you’re the one who killed a living legend, you’re the one who sent one of Humanities Heroes to their death, and you’re more than strong enough to not give a shit about more than half of the things you mentioned! What do you have to be afraid of!?”

Ian ignored her and continued walked down the hallway. Ria sighed, and followed him. Cathy flew off of Ian’s shoulder and came up to Ria, “You know you don’t have to follow him, it’s not like he’s put you on a leash or anything.”

“Well he hasn’t but there’s more than enough people out there willing to do just that. But I can’t bear to just stay here anymore.”

Cathy laughed, “Welcome to the party friend, anyway how about this.”

Cathy flew over to Ria’s ear and began whispering something quietly to her. Suddenly, Ria broke into a grin and said, “You know what that just might work.”

 

Spoiler: Chapter 4: An Unexpected Guest

“No that’s not it…”

A hoarse voice quietly mumbled, “That’s not it either...”

An old man sat down in a sea of books, surrounded by balls of fire, streams of water, and clumps of dirt all floating through the air around him. There was also a small metal ball floating still behind him that would rhythmically flash with lightning every other second.

In front of this old man was a massive book that if it were standing upright would be two meters tall. He had this book opened in front of him on a slightly slanted surface as his eyes quickly swept through the pages.
He quickly moved from page to page, moving back and forth through the massive book. At times he’d raise his hand, and his index finger toward the ceiling drawing a few indistinct symbols in the air causing a sudden change in the elements around him.

Sometimes the flames would take some shape or form, or perhaps change into a different color. At times the fire would flicker and suddenly grow big, or suddenly shrink to the size of a marble. Maybe the flame would split or began to move around erratically, and the other elements would similar change in different ways.

The water, for example, would at times turn to ice, the stone to dust, the lightning would randomly take forms and shape or shoot through the air before returning to its previous state.

Or perhaps maybe an entirely new element would be added, at times balls of light would suddenly shoot into the air illuminating the room, at times his shadow would suddenly stand upright and transform, and at times random objects would suddenly appear out of thin air like a sword or a bottle, or maybe it would be something in the room that would suddenly begin to float.

With a wave of his finger, this old man began to make all sorts of peculiar phenomena occur. And when the old man was done with his massive book, he’d close it and it would shrink to the size of your average book before shooting into the shelves in the back and a different book would shoot out and inexplicably grow to a massive size and land before him.

Though at times the old man would instead choose to cause several books to float before him, rapidly flipping through pages with the wave of his finger, or perhaps he’d do both at once having a massive book before him and being surrounded by several books rapidly turning pages eliciting changes in the surrounding elements before being thrown into the ground or into one of the shelves.

Though as the old man continued to throw more and more books on to the increasingly large pile of books around him, several small blips of lights would fly out from the shelves and start putting the books back into the shelves. Though the shelves were already jam-packed as it is, so these little fairies had no choice but to stack the books into a nearby pile or throw the book into one of the large piles in the back for later sorting.

All the while the old man sat there simply mumbling the words, “not this” or “not that” over and over again as he continued waving his finger. Suddenly as the old man was once more going to wave his finger he paused, the flames in the air vanished, the water disappeared, and the dirt fell to the ground which the fairies quickly swept up, and the rhythmic beats of lightning came to a halt.

The old man looked forward and stared at a figure that suddenly appeared in front of him and began laughing hysterically. The old man stood up, and he glared at the figure before him red-eyed screaming something incomprehensible. The old man raised his hand, and a large wooden staff appeared in his hands, which he pointed towards the figure in front of him, “So you’ve finally shown yourself, you cursed Gods!”

…

Ian opened his eyes and slowly rose from the massive bed he slept in befitting someone as massive as he was.

“Oh you’re awake master”

A small fairy sitting on a table beside him flew over, and Ian lazily greeted her, “Morning”

Cathy waved her tiny hands, and several golems holding trays of food open the door and walked through the large doorways built to more easily accommodate the likes of Ian. She turned to Ian and smiled, “Pleasant dreams I presume?”

“Well I wouldn’t really call it pleasant”

“A nightmare?”

Ian reached out his hand to grab a large sandwich from one of the Golems trays, and in a few bites quickly finished it. He motioned one of the golems holding a massive glass of water, to come over and quickly quenched his thirst.

“It wasn’t really a nightmare, just a memory of mine. It’s just that...”

Cathy asked, “It’s just that?”

Ian shook his head, and turned to Cathy, “Never mind it’s nothing important really. But I’d like to ask you something”

“Hmm?”

“What was your previous master like? Just who was he?”

“The old master? What brought this up?”

Ian scratched the back of his head, “Nothing really.”

“Hmm, well the old master was rather taciturn like most mages his age, he was mostly stayed in the tower hardly saying anything and busily doing all sorts of experiments. As for who he was, well I have a few records on that in the database”

Cathy raised her arm, and a tiny book made of lights appeared in front of here, “The old master was born a commoner and was simply known as Cyron during his youth. As for his true age, and birthplace, I can only make an estimate but even then I could be completely incorrect.”

“Well, those two things don’t really matter that much do they?”

“Not particularly, anyway according to the records the old master was hailed as a genius during the first hundred or so years of his life earning himself the title of Sage and the rank of Special-Class from the Mages and Adventurers Guild respectively.”

Ian grabbed a thick slice of toast from the golems, and asked, “Special-Class adventurer?”

“Master, you should have a general understand of what a Guild is correct?”

“I can make a guess.”

“Well in the world there are a total of five major guilds, the Adventurer's Guild, the Mercenary’s Guild, the Mages Guild, the Merchants Guild, and the Craftsmen guild. Though of course there exist the Assassins Guild, and the Thieves Guild but those two organizations work in the black market and don’t possess the facilities and resources that the five major guilds have.”

“Naturally.”

“Anyway each of these Guilds possess their own sort of ranking, for example, the Adventurers Guild was originally founded to explore dangerous regions and created what are known as Danger Levels which go from least dangerous to most dangerous: F, E, D, C, B, A, S. Adventurers were tasked with administering these danger levels to regions and reporting back to the Guild. Though later these Danger Levels were also adapted to categorize monsters, and dungeons and the like.”

“Adventurers themselves were also given a rank based on the likelihood of them surviving a certain level of danger. So, in essence, these ranks mark an Adventurers skill and achievement, and from I’ve heard it’s possible to even receive some form of peerage upon reaching a certain rank within the Adventurers Guild or well any Guild really.”

“But what are Special-Class Adventurers?”

“Well, you see master the after civilization advanced and the more of the world became mapped and explored the Adventurer Guild began to decline. So the Adventurers Guild started to become the jack of all trades among the five major guilds where people could make all sorts of miscellaneous requests. So there began to be Adventurers who began to earn their rank through merit instead of skill so it became more difficult to understand how powerful some adventurers truly were.”
“But Special-Class adventures are different you see, those with that rank of Special-Class are awarded that rank solely on their combat abilities. Their fighting ability is so far above everyone else's that they’re awarded a rank of their own, and according to the records the old master was one of such Adventurers.”

Ian sighed, “That old man sure was amazing huh.”

Cathy chuckled, “That's a bit of an understatement master.”

“Hmmm?”

“I’ve covered only the accomplishments within the first hundred years of his life, and most renowned mages can easily live anywhere from three hundred to four hundred years. But the old master wasn’t content with mere the rank of Sage, nor did he remain at that rank for long. Soon enough the old master acquired the exalted title of a Magic King, a title typically only the Guildmaster of the Mages Guild possess.“

“But eventually the old master's power began to transcend even that of a lofty Magic Kings, and soon enough he reached a level of power found only in legends. The old master reached the level of the Magic Emperor from the Age of the Gods becoming Humanity’s second Magic Emperor!”

“Amazing, but wait why does everyone simply refer to him as a Wizard then? I feel like all his other titles are far more impress aren’t they?”

Cathy sighed and shook her head, “Of course they’re far more impressive and awe-inspiring, supposedly there were even those who worshiped the old master in his heyday according to the records. But as soon as he began the construction of the Tower and it grew and grew and grew up until it reached far into the sky, the people began to fear him.”

“And to make matters worse all the Temples began to label the old master a heretic. Soon enough the old master was stripped of all his former titles and all records pertaining to him including his name, his achievements were erased leaving him only with the title, the Heretical Wizard of the Tower.”

Ian paused and thought about the old decrepit man in his dreams, and everything he’s heard so far. “But Cathy what was he like?”

“Hmmm?”

“A man isn’t defined merely by his accomplishments or his actions. Just what was he like? He couldn’t have been working all the time could he?.”

Cathy shook her head, “The Master was always engrossed in his research, and I’ve never really seen him do anything else. He really was quite the taciturn man ”

Ian sighed, “Well let’s finish breakfast, the foods getting cold.”

Ian got off his bed and put on his robe, and hat he couldn’t stay in his underwear the entire time after all “Anyway have you eaten?”

“Master, I don’t require sustenance”

“Hmm…”, Ian grabbed an apple, and took a bite before extending it towards Cathy, “It’s sweet.”

Cathy sighed, she flew towards the apple which was almost as large as she was and sat on it. With her tiny hands, she dug her fingers into the apple's skin and ripped off tiny chunks and brought it up to her small mouth and slowly ate.

“Sweet…”

Ian smiled, “Right?”

Ian turned to golems, and as he was about to grab some more food an unfamiliar voice spoke behind him, “So this is the rumored Tower huh.”

Ian paused and looked around, but he couldn’t see anyone. Through telepathy Cathy began to speak, “Master on the window, that crow.”

Ian’s eyes turned to the window, and just as she said there was a small crow standing on the ledge. It slowly strode forward and opened its mouth, and began speaking, “I apologize for appearing before you so abruptly, but I’ve heard so much about you and your tower. My curiosity overwhelmed, I couldn’t help but make a small visit. But I’m still rather curious to know just what are you fellows planning? Pray tell, or perhaps have I entered the wrong tower? Though it doesn’t look like that way to me.”

Ian looked at Cathy, and whispered, “Is this that Language of the Gods thing?”

Cathy shook her head, “That bird is a corpse puppet, a mage is speaking through the crow. And it’s an extremely skilled mage at that. I can’t seem to track his location, I think he’s using some sort of jamming spell. To think there was someone skilled enough to control a corpse puppet, maintain a clairvoyance spell, a long distance communication spell, and a translation spell all at the same time. It’s a good thing he didn’t come in person, the defenses in the this Tower might not have been able to keep him at bay.”

Ian turned to the Crow, and asked, “Who are you? What do you want?”

“Oh, pardon me I forgot to introduce myself. I am a humble bird, you may call me Birdy McBirdface if you will. As for what I want, well it’s as I told you, I’ve heard all sorts of rumors about this tower here so I just had to see it with my own eyes.”

“Birdy McBirdface?”

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out.”

Ian sighed, “What rumors?”

“Oh, you haven’t heard? Dear me, dear me to think I was gossiping about someone behind their back. Shame on me! I Birdy McBirdface apology sincerely.”

“...”

“Now let’s see where should I start, oh yes supposedly a massive phallic shaped object has risen from the ground in this area, though from the air this tower didn’t look to phallic shaped so perhaps I missed it. There’s another rumor out there saying that a rare bird was able to shit out an entire tower! Can you believe that!?

The crow laughed, “There are all sorts of rumors really, but my favorite is this. Supposedly, the Heretical Tower has begun expanding once more.”

The crow paused and its eyes fell on Cathy. Cathy sensing his gaze flew behind of Ian and quietly began activating the defense systems. The crow laughed, “Don’t worry little girl, I don’t bite! Besides, it would be a shame if I were to end this show early?”

“What show?”

“Oh you’ll see, I saw a few rather interesting fellows as I was making my way over here, things are bound to get exciting.”

And with that Birdy McBirdface, the crow flew away. Ian scratched the back of his head and turned to Cathy hiding behind his back. He turned to grab the sausage off the plate and said, “Crap it’s gotten cold.”

 

Spoiler: Chapter 5: From the Farthest Reaches of the Globe

Far off into the South of the continent was a certain mountainous region filled with huts and tents housing a certain group of Humanoid creatures covered in fur and dressed in leather or rags. There were those that possessed the head, such as a wolf's or a rabbit's, yet possessed the body of a man. While there were also those who possessed the body beast, like that of a horse's or a bird's, yet the torso of a man.

And then there were those who looked almost entirely Human, possessing only a small amount of fur, or perhaps a tail, or ears resembling a cat’s or a rabbit’s. These creatures were the beings born from unnatural circumstances, the folly of the Gods, known as Beastmen.

Though despite their unnatural birth and circumstances when compared to the other prominent races, they were once the proud rulers of the forest, mountains, seas, and sky losing ground only on the plains of man. It was only in those plains that the beastmen regardless of race were slaughtered like the beast they so resembled.

In the face of man’s tough walls all charges would falter. Even those who flew to the sky would be shot down by man's archers. And it was naturally hopeless for those were adapt only in the water.

So with no other choice, the beastmen remained in their hills and forest, and lazily flew through the skies or slept in their mountains. But inevitably Humanity grew stronger and stronger at a frightening pace. Eventually, Humanity began to expand in all directions, and the Beastmen were forced into the far reaches of the globe.

And the likes of those beastmen in the south were driven to this barren mountainous regions were little food could grow, and prey was scarce. But these harsh conditions proved to be the perfect natural barrier for the likes of Beastmen who could survive for far longer periods without food or water.

Here they could dash into the dense forests of the North and quickly retreat to the steep cliffs to the south. Here they need not fear man's bows or their spells. Here they need not fear man's relentless charge. And although it was not as pleasant as bountiful as the Beastmen Kingdoms to the east, it was still not as harsh as the tundra which the beastmen were driven to in the North.

In comparison, the south was a paradise when compared to the North. But things weren’t always well in the south, despite the lack of Human invader. For just beyond these mountains lay a land dyed a pitch black where the sky was left in a perpetual night. For to the south lay one of the world's most dangerous regions, awarded the highest possible danger level by the Adventurers Guild, and the burial ground of countless unsung Heroes. To the farthest reaches of the South lay the Land of Death.

Often times Undead would come swarming in from the Land of Death in troves of hundreds or so. And It was not uncommon to see a lone zombie or skeleton roaming these southern part of these mountainous regions. Beastmen with their powerful arms or their agile bodies could easily take down a few undead on their own even if they were but a child.

Yet today was a bit different, the usually lazy and relaxed beastmen who would typically be sprawled across the mountains were bustling about. Dozens of harpies could be seen hurriedly flying through the air carrying messages to and from mountain to mountain. Massive goat men were blown their horns signaling their comrades, and the proud Centaurs were rushing to the south with their massive bows in hand.

The Lizardmen in the swamp were climbing up the mountain, the Minotaurs were sharpening their battle axes, and hundreds of rabbit warriors were jumping down to the south.

It was almost as if a war had suddenly erupted, and well that wasn’t too far from the truth. If you were to climb up to the peak of one of the mountains you would be able to see a thick black fog visibly moving northwards in their direction. And yes through this fog one would be able to see countless red eye from within.

Over the years the beastmen have weather hordes and hordes of undead, but this horde was an unprecedented invasion! There tens of hundreds of skeletons, zombies, ghouls. Every now and then you’d be able to spot Death Knights, and Skeleton Mages followed by several Will o’ Wisps.

In the back, you could even see several headless horsemen riding fierce skeleton horses, and each of these horsemen held a single massive banner that spewed forth a thick black fog that covered this trope of undead.

And in the far back were five carriages made entirely of bone, pulled by horses similar to the headless horseman but were far larger in stature. In each of these carriages sat a single undead far stronger than others. On the left most carriages sat a lich, on the right most a death knight with an ominous sword in its hands, in another carriage sat a scarecrow with several large knives, and then a skeleton constructed almost entirely out of skulls in a black shroud.

But in the center most carriage which was far larger than the others sat a small child accompanied by a headless butler. She had blonde hair, and red eyes, and was almost a sickly pale. She turned to the butler and said, “Hurry it up, to Ostea!”

The butler bowed, “As you command.”

And as if the entire army had her this young girl's command, they sped up considerably and charged towards the Beastmen.

...

While West, in the direction of the Kingdom of Lor, the Heroes Kingdom, and the Demon Kingdom ruled by the rising Demon King several shadowy figures quickly traveled through the forest unseen.

Each of these figures was dressed entirely in a black armor, and a hooded robe to cover the parts the armor could not. And aside from the centermost figure who merely wore a black robe, each of the shadowy figures was especially tall and robust, and they all carried unnaturally large weapons on their backs or their waist.

This small entourage of rapidly made their way eastward leaving behind a trail of smoke wherever they went. Yet oddly enough not a single soul seemed to notice them. Not a single beast approached them, and as a matter of fact as soon as any living thing that drew near them would be filled with an indescribable sense of dream and panic before running away.

As for those beasts in their panic were unfortunate enough to run in their direction, they would suddenly vanish without a trace. Not a single drop of blood would touch the earth, nor would the beast make another sound. They would just disappear like some phantom or illusion.

…

To the far east, a large island there existed a massive city that made people think that this city was a country unto itself. This city seemed was intrinsically connected to a number of floating islands nearby was, in fact, an Academy and like Ostea one of the few neutral regions in the world. It was here knights, mages, thieves, assassins, Heroes, nobles, monsters, peasants, princes, and princess alike could come to learn.

And it was one of the world's major powers sporting a total of thirteen Sages, and a Magic King of its own. It was also home to several dozen S-Class Adventurers, countless powerful Knights, and even possessed and a troop of Wyvern Knights led by one of the few Dragon Knights in the world.

It possessed enough military strength to topple even some of the other major powers of the world, yet this city for whatever reason has remained neutral for centuries merely content in passing on the teachings of former Demon Kings, Heroes, Sages, and other legendary figures in a peaceful and calm environment.

Yet this typically calm was similarly bustling about, though the origins similar the reason was quite different from the south. In one of the floating islands above, there was a massive palace that was for the most part rather empty other than the few worker and attendees who manned the palace.

This palace more resembled a place of worship and was known as the Sages Palace where the thirteen sages often convened. So few people would dare to even approach this palace, yet there was a single Wyvern Rider who landed on this island, walked up to the golden palace doors and kicked the right open.

One of the attendees in a panic called out to the Knight, “S-Sir, please this is the Sages Palace, the thirteen-”

“Shut up! I know where I am” the brown haired knight walked into the palace with his long spear in hand, “You senile old fools I know you’re here!”

Suddenly, thirteen old men appeared before this brazen young knight, and the center most old man spoke, “We are aware of why you’ve appeared here, but the Academy is not to interfere.”

The knight slammed his spear into one of the pillars next to him, “What do you mean we’re not gonna interfere!? You old bastards won’t even send a squad to investigate! What are you afraid of? We’re the Academy!”

The attendee from earlier walked up to the knight, “S-Sir please, your language.”

The knight glared at the attendee, before turning around and walking towards the door. That's when one of the old men said, “If you go to Ostea you’ll be stripped of your status and rank within the academy, you’ll no longer be one of our honored Knights.”

The knight paused, and suddenly threw his spear towards the ground just before the Sages. He pulled off an emblem hanging on his armor, and threw on the ground, “Screw it! Who cares if I’m an honored Knight if I can’t even protecting anything! You want us to just sit here and watch from the sidelines!? Then screw it! I quit.”

The knight walked out fuming, and got on his Wyvern and began flying to the east. The sages walked out of the palace and shook their heads. Suddenly an old man with a long white beard appeared, the sages were surprised and then fell to their knees, “Lord!”

The old man turned to the sages and said, “Enough, let the child be. This will be a good learning experience for him. As for the Academy…”

The old man paused, and said hesitantly “We shall continue to remain as is…”

...

Finally to the north, there was a single man walking down a road to the south. He wore a simple traveler's robe, and other than his unnatural black hair and the large black book he held in his hand he looked no different from anyone else. He slowly walked down the dirt pavement towards a town, when he heard the sound of a lute.

He looked around and found a group of bards near the front entrance of the town. He walked over and started listening to the bard play and sing his songs. The bard sang a very slow and calming tune at first, he sang of the beauty of the trees, the forest, the river, and the seas. He spoke of the grandness of the sun, the wonder of the sky, and sang common folks songs.

But as more and more spectators came to watch him play he began to play a more exciting note and told the story of the Hero and the Demon King to the West, and the Magic Emperor of the past. He told of grand tales of the Wars between Man and Beastman, the story of the Dragons and the Dwarves, the Elves and their Sacred Tree, and Fairies and their Eternal Youth.

Eventually, the black haired man grew bored of the bard's song, but as he got up to leave. The bard began to sing a peculiar song about a rumor he'd heard from a friend. He sang a song of a tower to the South, but not the Grand Tower of the Gods, the fabled Wizard's Tower. But a little tower, or at least in comparison to the Wizards.

He referred to it as the Little Tower of the Gods and sung a playful tone joking about the second coming of the Wizard and sang about how it mysteriously appeared one night. Those who listened were amused and laughed at his joke, but something about this song caught the black haired man's attention.

He turned to the bard, and interrupting his song asked, “You say a tower sprouted out from the ground overnight?”

“Why yes good sir, it’s like the Wizard Tower of old. Perhaps a mage built it out of boredom, or perhaps no one just noticed as it was slowly built. But in the lands of the south, it supposedly exists.”

“I see the south huh, and just where in the south is this tower?”

“Well good sir,” The bard with the lute coughed, and took off his hat and extended it forward and smiled, “I’d be happy to oblige.”

“Oh, of course, a tip!”

The black haired man dug into his pockets, “Well here’s an excellent tip, don’t lose your head.”

Suddenly, a silver light flashed past the bard's neck and his head was cleanly lobed off and it fell to the ground. The rest of the bards stared at him wide eyed before a lightly dressed woman screamed and began running towards the town.

As for the other bystanders, some grew frightened and pulled back while others grew angry and pulled out their swords screaming, “What do you think you’re doing!?”

But the black haired man seemed to ignore them, he opened up the massive book he was holding the entire time, and his shadow suddenly moved unnaturally and flowed into the bard's lifeless corpse.

Suddenly, the bards severed head flew over and reattached itself to its body. The bard eerily got up and stared at the black haired man. He asked the bard, “So where is the Tower?”

“In Ostea.”

“Why thank you.”

Everyone stared at the black haired man in shock, “He’s a necromancer kill him!”

Those who had weapons began charging towards the him, swinging down their swords and hatchets. However the black haired man just simply dogged and he flipped open his book, “Well it’s not exactly a flute, but the lute will do.”

With a snap of his fingers, the book in his hands rapidly flipped to a page and the reanimated corpse of the bard picked up his lute and started playing. The song he started playing seemed to have a sort of hypnotic effect on everyone and they started to stop doing anything.

The black haired man turned to the group of people who were attacked him and said, “Kill yourselves.”

And as they were all compelled by the dead bards song they all took their weapons and cut their necks or pierced their hearts. While those without weapons slowly suffocated themselves or smashed their heads in with one of the instruments or a nearby rock.

The book in this black haired man's hand suddenly began to float, “You have the worst sense of humor”

The black haired man laughed, “I don’t have a sense of humor”

“Creep”

The floating book flipped several pages before glowing, and the black haired young man's shadow began to envelop all of the corpses slowly dragging them into the ground.

“So I guess we’re heading to Ostea”

“Of course, there’s a few months before the meeting we got time to kill.”

“Want me to get rid of this guy?”

The black haired man looked at the reanimated corpse of the bard he’d just killed, “No, I’ve got something else in mind.”

The black haired man motioned the bard, and he slowly began to walk to the town playing his lute, as for the black haired man himself he disappeared.

A day later a group of knights passing by, stopped at the town to buy some supplies and necessities. But as they entered the town they were greeted with the putrid stench of blood and rotting corpses.

The streets were lined with corpses of those who were strangled to death, of those who were cut to pieces, of those who had their sliced open or their heads lopped off. There was just death everywhere, and all lives were seemingly taken indiscriminately. No woman, nor child was spared and even the elderly met a similar fate.

The knights covered their mouths and nose and walked towards the center of the town where they found a single bard strumming his broken lute. The bard sat atop a small mountain of corpses, his body stained in blood, the strings of his lute already cut in two.

There were numerous wounds on the bard's body, but he didn’t seem to mind. He didn’t even bother to take out the spear through his heart, or the knives on his back, or sword that was run through his arms. He merely stared blankly into the sky mindless playing his lute.

…

“Do ya think we might have taken things too far?”

“Hmm?”, Ria turned to Cathy hanging up her coat having just returned to the tower, “What do you mean?”

“Well, I’ve heard all sorts of things from my associates, and well…”

“Well, what?”

Cathy sighed, “We might have really taken things too far.”

Ria laughed, “Don’t worry things will work out! Probably.”