Chapter 8: Inspection

Deep Blue Tower is not a magically constructed tower built in the usual way. Besides being three times taller than ordinary magic towers, it also has more than double the diameter. This means that the total area of Deep Blue is more than ten times that of an ordinary magic tower, excluding the extensive ancillary buildings. It is difficult to imagine the enormous cost of building such a large-scale magic tower. There are more than ten thousand people living directly or indirectly around Deep Blue, essentially forming a small city. However, Deep Blue is like a massive monster, with daily material consumption ten times that of a city of the same size. At such a scale, the architecture of Deep Blue itself is already a remarkable work of art.

For the circulation of goods, Deep Blue, nestled against the mountains and facing the sea, has its own deep-water port. More than ten berths capable of accommodating giant ocean-going ships have been magically carved out of solid rocky reefs. On land, three major highways connect to Deep Blue from three directions, and at least five or six towns along these highways have prospered due to trade.

Deep Blue is located at the apex of the Ice Float Bay in the northwest of the continent and is also the entrance of two major rivers into the sea. The Ice Float Bay is vast, essentially an ocean, with a straight-line distance of over 1,500 kilometers from the Starlight Peninsula at the southern end to the Eternal Winter Mountains at the northern end. Every winter, the Ice Float Bay enters a frozen period, and only the southernmost coastal areas remain navigable. The port of Deep Blue, located at the end of a warm current, is ice-free.

The location of Deep Blue is crucial. It has convenient transportation and controls one of the three main routes south from the Ice Ocean Continent. Fierce Polar Grey Dwarves and magical beasts have to choose to bypass the Sunset Canyon in the east. That route is more than 1,000 kilometers longer and requires facing the Thor Fortress of the Holy Alliance Empire directly. However, after Deep Blue was built, several major battles made the Polar Grey Dwarves prefer to attack the Thor Fortress rather than attempt to confront Liana Morninglight's tactics. This woman is already ranked alongside the most terrifying evil gods in the legends of many Grey Dwarf tribes. And when she officially broke through the 20th level and advanced to become a legendary mage, Deep Blue completely transformed into a peaceful land.

Even the fierce and brutal Grey Dwarves, renowned for their combat prowess, no longer wish to disrupt the peace here. Gradually, the area around Deep Blue has become a beautiful and prosperous land.

This is the history of Deep Blue.

The narrator of this history is a nearly centenarian mage whose magical power is not particularly strong. At an eighth-level proficiency, he is almost the weakest mage that Grey has encountered in Deep Blue. However, the old mage has excellent charisma, with a voice, and his proficiency in Deep Blue's history is second only to Liana Morninglight. His duty is simple: to explain the history to visitors to Deep Blue. For new apprentices like Grey, learning about Deep Blue's glorious and honorable past is the first lesson in their magical careers, even more important than magical power and aptitude testing. The latter determines how far a mage can go on a particular path in the complex magical world, while the former, as Grey realizes later, determines whether a magical apprentice can embark on the path of magic at all.

Grey's status is different from other magical apprentices as he is personally recruited by Liana Morninglight. Therefore, what would normally be a one-day history lesson for ordinary apprentices becomes three days for him. Delivering three days of history about Deep Blue is indeed quite a test of the old mage's skills.

Naturally, many details are omitted from the history recounted by the old mage, and many crucial aspects are deliberately ignored. However, official histories always involve selectivity, and what can be said and what must be forgotten are both matters of knowledge. Grey has thoroughly demonstrated his wisdom and innate talent by piecing together a relatively complete picture in his mind.

The three-day indoctrination has had a significant effect. At least now, when Grey sees Liana Morninglight, he will no longer regard her as an innocent and pure white-skinned girl and has no urge to bite her. How can one not describe as terrifying a woman feared by both Grey Dwarves and Ice Ocean beasts?

Of course, this outcome was certainly not the old mage's original intention, but he would never know. In most people's eyes, Grey is a quiet child, so quiet that he rarely shows any extra expression. No one has seen him laugh happily, nor has he ever cried after being scolded or bullied. He will immediately do whatever is asked of him, completing tasks meticulously and precisely, without any flaws, completely unlike a ten-year-old child.

There is absolutely no sunshine in Grey.

After three days of history classes, it was followed by the magic aptitude test. Grey was brought into a special hall filled with towering alchemy apparatuses, which dazzled him. There were over twenty bustling mages in the hall, and the one presiding over the test was a Grand Mage. When Grey used his "Truth" ability, he saw not a mage but a blazing ball of magical flames! This was a Grand Mage of at least level seventeen, capable of serving as a court mage in any empire, yet assigned to conduct his aptitude test.

Grey was stripped of all his clothes, strapped to a cold metal chair, and wrapped in various bands. Then the Grand Mage carefully inserted several crystal needles into Grey's body. The whole process was painful, but Grey gritted his teeth and endured it silently. Just looking at the setup, he knew the test was extraordinary. He had never heard of an aptitude test being such a grand affair. For ordinary apprentices, it was just a matter of throwing a level 0 spell at a crystal ball. But these mages treated the ordinary testing ceremony as if it were the most significant magical experiment, each one serious and meticulous, their movements neat and efficient, showcasing all the qualities of high-level mages.

What Grey didn't know was that behind the one-way transparent magic wall, Liana Morninglight was comfortably reclined in a sofa, keeping an eye on everything in the testing ceremony. Although she was engrossed in reading the notes of a legendary mage from the previous generation and constantly grabbing fruits and snacks to eat, the methods of a legendary mage were not something ordinary people could fathom. Even without using her eyes and ears, she had hundreds of ways to monitor everything happening around her. Under Liana Morninglight's gaze, all the mages exerted their utmost efforts.

There was only one master in Deep Blue, and that was Liana Morninglight. Everyone else was a servant. As long as they could make her happy, the of the mages would likely increase immediately by fifty percent.

A mage walked over and held a beaker under Grey's nose, asking him to inhale all the mist floating inside. After a while, Grey's consciousness gradually became blurry but remained slightly awake, vaguely able to perceive what was happening around him.

Various strange sensations began to emanate from all over his body. It was only after a while that he vaguely heard a muffled voice saying, "High element affinity, slightly stronger in flame, shadow, and holy aspects. Innate element, none."

Then came intense pain, which tested Grey's tolerance for elemental damage and was also the most basic component of magic resistance. After a while, the voice announced the result of good element resistance.

Next, Grey's consciousness was suddenly pierced by a needle-like sensation, and the intense pain directly affected his soul! Even though he was unconscious, Grey couldn't help but twitch, but his body was firmly restrained, and he couldn't escape at all.

"Excellent mental strength, close to a prodigy." Hearing this evaluation, Grey finally relaxed. It seemed he was still in the test, and the evaluation he received seemed quite good.

What followed were detailed tests on various physical functions. What Grey didn't know was that these professional mages had even tested his male aptitudes and concluded that they were quickly usable and had exceptional potential, which was even higher than his magic aptitude. The testing lasted for three whole hours, ultimately resulting in a report over twenty pages long.

During this time, Liana Morninglight read two notebooks, experimented with a new magical idea, and ate ten kilograms of fruit. However, she never left her monitoring position.

Finally, when Grey woke up, he was told that his overall evaluation of magic aptitude was excellent, with no specific inclination. He also possessed qualified combat aptitude. If he wanted to become a combat profession, he might reach levels eleven or twelve in his lifetime.

The excellent evaluation delighted Grey. After relaxing his mind, he was so exhausted from the lengthy testing that he could barely stand and was taken away to rest. Excellent was the highest evaluation, right? Grey judged based on the common knowledge he had gained these days. Moreover, the prodigy level wasn't always assigned; it was only given in certain situations.

But the young man didn't know that the evaluation scale on his report was different. There were five more evaluation levels above excellent, namely prodigy, remarkable, legendary, unique, and Liana Morninglight.