Legacy of the Dark Sage

The roars of lightning continued to fill the air as Kyran made his way to the Tower of Tribulations.

Kyran was only thirty meters away from the tower a few minutes later. At this time, he realized the entrance to the tower was not in the direction he had come from.

Kyran walked around the tower’s vicinity to look for the entrance with a slight frown. All this time, he had been protecting his ears from the roars of the lightning circling the tower’s facade. If not, his brain would have turned into a mash, and he had not even started the actual training. That would have been a sad ending to his life.

As Kyran looked for the entrance, it dawned on him how big the tower’s floor area was. Aside from this, he realized that there were no windows in the tower. It was like the tower was just a big block of a white cylindrical object. He was not even sure what material the tower’s facade was made of to be able to withstand those bolts of lightning relentlessly circling about.

After walking around the tower for nearly an hour, Kyran finally sensed a foreboding. And as he walked further, the foreboding he sense was confirmed.

‘What the…?’ Kyran thought in disbelief as he stopped in his tracks.

He looked up ahead and saw the exact place he came from, yet there were no signs of the entrance to the tower.

‘Where’s the entrance?’ Kyran wondered as Nolan’s face flashed through his mind.𝒏𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓛𝔫𝗲xt.𝐂𝑜𝓂

‘He didn’t tell me anything about this!’ He thought through gritted teeth.

All the annoyance and frustrations he felt for Nolan earlier threatened to consume what little patience he had left. In the end, he just closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Even if he let his pent-up emotions without the person who made him feel that way, he would not be satisfied. For now, he just made a mental note to get even with Nolan once he returned. First, he had to find the entrance to the tower. He had a feeling that if he didn’t find it soon, he would face some severe consequences.

Kyran returned to where he came from and walked straight to the tower. With the random thickness of lightning bolts around the facade, he had to stay at least five meters away.

For the next few minutes, he observed the tower’s facade. He had no idea what kind of material it was made from.

“Do I have to force my way in?” Kyran wondered out loud.

He pondered for a moment, and in just a couple of minutes, he roused his magic and started. Purple rings slowly formed in his hand.

CRACK!

A bolt of lightning suddenly swerved out of its usual path around the tower’s facade and went straight for Kyran.

Instinctively, Kyran released the Void Scales to protect himself from the bolt of lightning. However, as soon as the Void Scales appeared, more lightning bolts swerved from the tower’s facade to strike him.

Gritting his teeth, Kyran activated the Regis Blessing and released the Void Scales. He jumped back just in time for the first bolt of lightning to strike the spot where he stood a second ago. As for the rest of the bolts of lightning, they slowly fizzled out and returned to the tower’s facade.

Kyran landed on the ground, almost ten meters away from the tower. He belatedly felt his back was drenched in a cold sweat from the unexpected onslaught. He did not stay his hand and take on the bolts of lightning with his Void Scales because he had an inkling these bolts of lightning could pass through them, and he would end up getting roasted alive.

Still, with this short exchange, Kyran found that the bolts of lightning were not circling the tower’s facade as decorations. They would strike at anyone or anything that would manifest magic. At first, Kyran also thought that maybe magic was not allowed. But since he could use Draconic magic, that was no longer the case. The bolts of lightning’s animosity might only be triggered if one openly summoned their magic.

‘But even if that is the case, I can’t use Draconic magic to force my way into the tower. I have a feeling these lightnings would not let me get close to it,’ Kyran thought as he crossed his across his chest and took a deep breath.

He observed the tower for another couple of minutes before an idea crossed his mind.

‘I can’t openly summon magic, but I can direct my magic to inspect the tower using magic sense,’ Kyran thought, his eyes flashing in determination.

This idea was not random. Kyran was inspired after remembering Nolan’s comment when Kyran mentioned listening to Anette’s lesson about magic sense.

Nolan said that Kyran learning magic sense was timely and would have great use of it. He did not think too much about Nolan’s remark, at first, because learning magic sense was an essential ability a mage had to learn.

Seeing the strangeness of his current situation, Kyran knew that his idea was correct.

‘Let’s try it out,’ he thought and sat cross-legged on the ground. He closed his eyes and recalled Anette’s teachings. Slowly, he absorbed the surrounding energies and circulated them inside his central core.

As soon as the energies entered his body, Kyran found how dense the energies were. Somehow, he could also feel more varieties of energies entering his body. He could not explain how he knew of it. The feeling did not come from his Void and Draconic cores. He just knew it.

Clearing his mind of unnecessary thoughts, Kyran released his magic sense, letting it expand freely and move toward the tower.

The moment Kyran’s magic sense approached the bolts of lightning, the hairs on his arms stood on ends. However, the bolts of lightning did nothing to stop his magic sense from reaching the tower’s facade.

CLICK! CLICK! CLICK!

Clicking sound appeared one after another as Kyran let his magic sense further delved into the tower.

RUMBLE!

Soon, the clicking sounds were followed by a rumble, and the whole ground shook.

Kyran opened his eyes without withdrawing his magic sense.

The scene in front of him immediately made him gape in surprise.

White solid blocks of different sizes protruded out randomly all over the tower’s facade. Within the gap these solid blocks had left open, Kyran could see massive golden cogs and gears circulating within. The lightning bolts also adjusted their path and converged around the white blocks.

Soon more solid blocks protruded out of the tower as more cogs and gears started to click and move. Finally, the protruding blocks had reached the top of the tower and a loud rumbling sound followed at the base where Kyran was.

Small blocks pushed down one after another from a ten-foot height toward the base and slowly revealed a five-meter opening.

A mixture of black and purple vortex swirled within the opening, preventing Kyran from seeing anything inside.

Kyran slowly stood up while gazing at the scene before him. Right now, the white tower looked like a white and gold disfigured clock.

A faint smile tugged at the corner of Kyran’s lips as he recalled his initial suspicion about this place. That whoever created it might know about Time runes. Seeing the state of the tower, he felt that the creator might not only learn about it but probably wield it. There was also a chance that the creator might be more than one person.

‘That’s not really important right now. I’ll think about that after I’m done,’ Kyran thought, reigning in his curiosity.

With determination and resolve reflected in his dark gray eyes, Kyran approached the tower and entered the vortex.

Meanwhile, Nolan snorted outside the tower’s line when Kyran finally opened the tower’s entrance and entered.

“Took him long enough,” he remarked, crossing his arms across his chest with a smug look.

Nolan had not left after Kyran passed through the tower’s line. He stayed behind and continued to watch Kyran’s progress. Nolan was amused when Kyran thought of attacking the tower. It was within his expectations though, after all, he did not tell him how to get in the tower.

“Why? How long did it take for you guys to open the entrance?”

The question came from Gustaff, who was now standing beside him.

After meeting up with his people to set up their stall, Gustaff followed them, wanting to see Kyran’s progress as well.

It was when Kyran summoned his Void Scales that Gustaff had arrived and was shocked by how decisive and fast Kyran dealt with avoiding the bolts of lightning. But his shock upon Kyran’s performance was not the end of it. After realizing how much Kyran’s appearance had changed, he was more shocked. More importantly, he had a huge resemblance to the great master Cade!

Gustaff was a discreet person, so he did not openly ask Nolan. It also did not fall into his ‘ability’ because he never thought of asking Nolan a question.

Nolan looked at Gustaff and smirked, “Less than half an hour.”

Gustaff raised his brows at him and replied, “I bet it was master Cade’s handiwork.”

“Tsk,” Nolan replied with a scowl. But he did deny it, which proved Gustaff’s speculation.

Nolan looked back at the tower and said, “Well, the kid just recently learned magic sense so I bet it’s the last thing he thought of doing.”

Gustaff also looked back at the tower and rubbed his chin thoughtfully, “That’s possible. When I am at a lost, I always thought of using my magic sense first.”

“Back then, I don’t. Cause using magic sense was troublesome for me.”

Gustaff laughed as if he remembered something and agreed with a nod, “Right. I guess having such an awesome magic can also be troublesome.”

A huge transparent projection suddenly appeared outside the tower’s invisible line. The projection showed Kyran walking inside a spacious white clearing.

“Wait, this…?” Gustaff frowned. It was the first time he had seen such a tower feature. Typically, no one would be able to ‘watch’ what was happening inside.

Nolan, on the other hand, did not react. He was aware of this. The cause of this was because he ‘recommended’ Kyran, and so he had the privilege to watch his progress. Of course, Gustaff being here was not part of the plan, so Nolan immediately summoned his magic and barricaded their surrounding to keep others from seeing.

“I recommended him, so I am allowed to see his progress.”

“Wouldn’t that be a problem then? I mean, with the time difference.”

“Nope, as far as I know, the projection will only show his progress but not the content of his training,” Nolan replied.

“I see.”

“Well, let’s see how far the kid can go,” Nolan added with a smile.

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