Chapter 270: Plane Exploration, Star Fortress
"Are you saying that Sunan killed Makaro in less than a minute?"
In the study, Gary set down his quill, his tone filled with intrigue.
Tanner nodded, his voice tinged with disbelief. "I confirmed with the Star Tower; Makaro is indeed dead."
Gary looked thoughtful. "It seems Sunan is even stronger than we anticipated. As someone who could establish a wizard faction within a sealed plane, he's clearly extraordinary. Maintain a good relationship with him, and if necessary, offer him some assistance."
"Yes, my lord." Tanner nodded firmly.
In truth, the entire duel had been orchestrated by the All Things Guild. They had pushed Makaro to set up the arena specifically to test Sunan's true strength and determine how to approach him in the future.
The results were clear: Sunan was a valuable ally, and the Star Alliance was a faction full of potential.
For factions like the Star Alliance, the All Things Guild had always pursued a policy of friendly yet cautious relations, which was one of the reasons they thrived in the wizarding world while maintaining neutrality.
Upon returning to the Star Continent, Sunan immediately delved into crafting constructs.
Currently, he possessed five designs for wizard-level constructs: the Tentacle Construct, the Arcane Puppet, the Shadowsteel Golem, the Adamant Golem, and the Supreme Golem.
The first three were Level 1 wizard constructs, each with unique strengths.
The Tentacle Construct excelled in close combat, functioning as a front-line tank with its spell-casting tentacles. It was versatile and highly practical for various battlefields.
The Arcane Puppet was known for its agility and intelligence. It could shapeshift into human form for covert missions and possessed formidable combat capabilities, making it a dexterous warrior-type construct.
The Shadowsteel Golem was forged from a metal mined and smithed in the Shadow Realm. Silent and formidable, it often masqueraded as an undead being due to its shadowy appearance and ghost-like movements.
Because of its stealth capabilities, many wizards used Shadowsteel Golems as hidden guards for their towers or as infiltrators on the battlefield. This made it one of the rare assassin-type golems.
Sunan planned to establish a specialized "Hunter Wizard Corps" for the Starlight Wizard Tower, with Tentacle Constructs, Arcane Puppets, and Shadowsteel Golems as its foundational units.
High-tier forces would consist of Adamant Golems and Supreme Golems.
The Adamant Golem had the strength of a Level 2 Vaporized Wizard, while the Supreme Golem matched a Level 3 Vaporized Wizard.
Both constructs were hybrids of magic and melee, essentially advanced versions of the Tentacle Construct.
The Supreme Golem, in particular, was so powerful that only large wizard towers would maintain a limited number of them, with floating cities incorporating them into their regular battle units.
"A single Shadowsteel Golem costs around 7,000 lower-grade magic stones. With enchantments and permanent spells, the total is about 8,000," Sunan calculated.
Using magic stones as a benchmark worked in the Star Alliance's favor, as Sunan's cost to produce them was far lower than their market value.
If not for concerns about potential backdoors in golems purchased from other wizard factions, Sunan would have simply bought Shadowsteel Golems and enhanced them as needed.
"Still, this is the internal golem army of the wizard tower. It's better to be cautious," he mused. "But we can purchase golems for the exchange list to let others redeem them."
Everyday wizard golems didn't require such meticulous scrutiny.
"The Adamant Golem costs about 9,000 mid-grade magic stones. The Supreme Golem... roughly 10,000 high-grade stones."
With wizard constructs, each level of improvement often meant a tenfold increase in cost.
Compared to Shadowsteel Golems, Adamant Golems and Supreme Golems were rare commodities, often monopolized by large wizard factions.
"Now that the designs are in place, it's time to upgrade the wizard tower."
With ample magic stone reserves and resources from the Codex of Wisdom, upgrading the Starlight Wizard Tower to a large-scale facility was a matter of time.
"I need to complete this upgrade before the wizard civil war breaks out."
Time flew by, and the calendar turned to Starlight Year 2200.
Above Zone 3 of Dragonwood, Rose gazed down at the fully restored wizard tower and let out a long sigh of relief.
The surrounding wizards—seven or eight of them—wore expressions of satisfaction.
"It's finally done!"
"That was the last tower."
"Who knew restoring a wizard tower would be this resource-intensive? Starting from scratch would take centuries!"
"Of course. When Lord Sunan built the Starlight Wizard Tower, it took over a century, even with the combined efforts of the Star Alliance."
The group chatted, their tones light and celebratory.
Restoring wizard towers was time-consuming and labor-intensive, but the rewards were extraordinarily generous, equivalent to completing hundreds of standard missions.
"Thank you all for your hard work. Once the mission is turned in, I'll distribute contribution points based on your efforts. For now, feel free to rest," Rose said warmly.
"Yes, Lady Rose."
As one of the three Level 1 Crystallized Wizards in the Star Alliance, Rose commanded great respect. At her words, the wizards bowed and departed.
Once they had gone, Rose headed to the mission hall to finalize the task before returning to her quarters.
Sitting cross-legged, she began her cultivation.
Since the lifting of the planar seal, the resource exchange list of the Star Alliance had significantly expanded, offering a wealth of new options.
Take elemental cores, for instance—before the seal lifted, they were nonexistent on the exchange list. Now, thanks to trade rights with the Codex of Wisdom, they were readily available.
This abundance had accelerated Rose's cultivation, allowing her to break through to Level 1 Crystallization in just 800 years and successfully construct her second innate crystal model.
She was now one step away from becoming a Level 2 Wizard.
"Once I ascend, my accumulated contribution points should be enough to exchange for a small wizard tower."
The thought of owning a tower filled Rose with excitement.
Currently, the exchange list featured four small towers, excluding the medium-sized one taken by Starfall—now Lady Lize.
Though the required contribution points were steep, they were still a bargain compared to the tower's actual value.
To date, only Staff had managed to redeem one.
Rose had spent nearly 200 years accumulating points, and she finally saw a glimmer of hope.
"With my tower, I can begin planar exploration."
The lifting of the planar seal had brought numerous planar missions to the Star Alliance.
Across the multiverse, many planes were either resource-poor, making conquest unprofitable, or their native forces were too powerful to justify the high cost of an invasion. Instead, wizard factions preferred to send small groups to harvest resources from these planes.
The Star Alliance followed this practice, gradually issuing various resource collection missions over the years. These missions offered generous rewards, as they often involved conflicts with native forces or even rival wizard factions.
What puzzled Rose, however, was how Sunan seemed to have an uncanny ability to pinpoint valuable resource points in specific planes. He always seemed to know their exact locations, nearby threats, and even details about powerful native forces that needed to be avoided.
"Where does he get his intelligence?" she wondered.
Beyond resource collection, another category of mission was planar exploration.
As the name suggested, this involved exploring unfamiliar or unknown planes. These missions fell into two main types.
The first type involved exploring planes with known coordinates, entering them to gather intelligence and resources.
The second type, much more challenging, required wizards to embark on astral journeys, navigating the vast Star Realm in search of undiscovered planes.
The multiverse was unimaginably vast, with countless planes. Wizards had only charted a fraction of them, and new planes were discovered every year.
Of the two, the second type of exploration was significantly more dangerous. The Star Realm was home to innumerable deadly creatures, and spatial turbulence could claim even the most powerful wizards.
As such, the Star Alliance mandated that only Level 2 wizards with wizard towers could undertake these missions.
The first type, however, was open to any wizard.
Over the years, Rose had taken on numerous resource collection missions, amassing a substantial amount of contribution points.
"Once I have a wizard tower, I can attempt to conquer a small plane," Rose thought, her eyes gleaming.
The resources required for a wizard's advancement were immense. Without control over a plane, it was nearly impossible for a wizard to progress far on the path of magic.
Most wizards who reached Level 2 and acquired a wizard tower began searching for suitable planes to conquer.
Fortunately, the Star Alliance actively supported its wizards in this regard. As long as one had the strength, Lord Sunan would provide coordinates for an appropriate plane.
From what Rose knew, the Star Alliance, having fully digested the gains from the Wolf Tide Plane, was already setting its sights on other planes.
It wouldn't be long before the Star Alliance initiated a new planar war.
Knock, knock.
Rose was jolted from her thoughts by a knock at the door.
"Come in," she called.
The door opened, and a dark elf girl named Tagana entered.
"Teacher," the girl said with a slight bow.
"You're a wizard now, no need to be so formal. We're equals," Rose replied with a smile.
She was quite fond of her student. Though not human, Tagana possessed extraordinary talent. Despite entering Starlight Academy later than Fleming and the others, she had advanced to wizardhood almost simultaneously with them.
If Tagana had been human, her progress might have outpaced Rose's.
"What brings you here?" Rose asked.
"The Star Fortress has arrived in Dragonwood Zone 3. It's just outside. Would you like to see it?"
The Star Fortress was the Star Alliance's newly developed war fortress, designed specifically for planar wars.
The fortress was equipped with over a hundred Mark III Rune Cannons and ten Mark III Dissolution Cannons.
These cannons were Sunan's latest creations, only slightly more powerful than their Mark II predecessors but with half the energy consumption.
The fortress's overall firepower surpassed that of several dozen Level 3 magic ships combined.
Additionally, the Star Fortress featured miniaturized versions of a floating ring, an elemental pool, and a protective forcefield, effectively functioning as a simplified wizard tower.
After its successful development, Lize decreed that wizards undertaking planar exploration missions could temporarily use a Star Fortress for combat purposes, provided they submitted a detailed combat performance report afterward.
"Let's take a look," Rose said, nodding as she rose from her seat.
In Dragonwood Zone 3, a vast open space was occupied by more than a dozen metallic structures resembling palaces. Each exuded intense energy fluctuations.
Standing over 200 meters tall, the fortress's metallic walls gleamed coldly in the sunlight, emanating a heavy sense of oppression.
This was the Star Fortress.
A group of over ten wizards stood around the fortress, conversing in hushed tones.
Among them were Xieman and Kore, who were also on planar exploration missions.
Artil was present as well, overseeing the transport of the fortress.
Shortly after returning from All Things City, Sunan had reconstructed Artil's body.
Thanks to her close friends Xieman and Kore providing abundant resources, Artil successfully advanced to wizardhood.
Though her progress had slowed since, and she remained a Level 1 Vaporized Wizard, it was a crucial step forward.
"You're a wizard now. Why not take on a planar exploration mission?" Tagana asked as she approached Artil.
Artil smiled and shook her head. "I still have much to learn. I'll take a mission later. Besides, Lady Lize has been busy in seclusion, leaving many responsibilities to
me. I can't leave just yet."
"Lady Lize is advancing as well?" Tagana asked, her eyes widening in surprise and admiration.
"It seems the Star Alliance will soon have its second Level 3 wizard," she mused.
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