Chapter 19 Temple of Tyrion and Amber City
Although the situation created by the Fire Mage was extremely tragic, the players like Takebitori showed no signs of fear, but rather a strange excitement.
After contemplating for a moment, Li Wen understood.
According to the normal thinking of players, the more powerful the BOSS, the rarer the drops. Coupled with the fact that some players are precisely those who become more challenging the more difficult the situation, it’s not surprising they would have such emotions.
With this thought, Li Wen couldn’t help but remind them: “The mages of the Forbidden Institute are very dangerous existences. You must not underestimate them.”
Danger is relative. The Sun Cultivation Institute is mostly composed of scholars who research magic. They have mastered magic that can change the entire world, but they do not easily reveal themselves to mortals. However, this Fire Mage was clearly not one of those friendly researchers. Judging from the mess he left behind, the other party might be a complete lunatic.
Takebitori and the others nodded solemnly, likely having taken Li Wen’s words to heart.
They proceeded in the direction indicated by the potion, and by the time twilight arrived and dusk deepened, they still hadn’t found any traces.
If they weren’t players, having traveled under the sun for so long, they would have suffered heatstroke or dehydration. But even so, they were already exhausted, especially the male players carrying tents, armor, and weapons, who were all showing signs of fatigue.
Li Wen even heard someone muttering softly: “Why doesn’t this game have a one-click teleport function to the quest location? It’s too inhumane.”
It’s right that it’s inhumane, after all, this is not a game at all, but a real world.
Li Wen looked up at the sky. Half of the sun had already set beyond the horizon, and stars twinkled in the deep blue firmament. According to the position of the celestial bodies, the Fire Mage’s location was to their north.
Creek Stone Rift… to the north…
Li Wen’s heart sank. Was the mage’s target also that thing?
“Set up camp here.”
The male players were overjoyed. Takebitori blinked and said, “Are we stopping to rest? I think continuing to travel is also fine.”
“I’ve found it already,” Li Wen shook her head. “You guys set up camp and rest first, and get ready. He is here.”
“Here?”
Takebitori was startled and looked around nervously, his eyes wide. Not to mention a person, he couldn’t even find a single living creature.
Li Wen didn’t speak, but pointed to the sturdy, dry ground, her meaning self-evident.
The players quickly set up their tents. The tents were not for resting but served as resurrection points. Similar to logging off, players’ resurrection points must be established in a safe and private space. If a resurrection point is destroyed, players often reappear in an unpredictable location upon resurrection.
While they were setting up camp, Li Wen used twigs picked up at random to draw neat circular patterns on the ground. Takebitori watched blankly, not understanding what she was doing, but it clearly didn’t look like random doodling. So, he tried to remember as much as he could, thinking it might be some powerful magic.
What Li Wen was drawing was a large magic circle called “Leonart’s Fourth Interpretation.” This magic circle could comprise up to 11 smaller magic circles, each containing a different symbolic pattern, such as a key, a blade, a star, an eye, a spiral, a hanged man, etc.
In “Ritual Magic Studies,” “Leonart’s Fourth Interpretation” is often referred to as an inexpensive universal formula with numerous functions, applicable to most problems encountered in life. The only issue is that the magic circle must be fully drawn, with no simplified or abbreviated drawing methods.
This led to it being mocked, despite being called a universal magic circle, it lacked sufficient versatility.
Situations like this were very suitable for it.
Li Wen needed to borrow three functions of this magic circle: manifestation, opening, and sealing.
Manifestation was to reveal hidden things, opening was to unlock invisible doors, and sealing was naturally to prevent things within the magic circle from escaping.
After completing the drawing of the entire magic circle, Li Wen expended half of her mana.
This was one of the advantages or disadvantages of “Leonart’s Fourth Interpretation,” which is that it requires half of the caster’s mana to operate. The power of the magic circle depends on the caster’s mana. This is good for weak casters, but ridiculous for those with strong mana, as they can make broader and more practical choices and responses with the same amount of mana.
Li Wen was only level one and had only ten mana points. After expending half, she was left with five, meaning she could only use two more Prayer spells.
This was fatal in combat. Firstly, Li Wen had to ensure she was protected by Prayer, and secondly, she needed Prayer as a means of output. However, a single Dark Word Curse was unlikely to kill anyone, meaning that to cope with a battle, Li Wen needed her mana to always be above six points.
She had already prepared for this.
Li Wen took out dried Mandrag from her pouch. As a raw material with mana, Mandrag was a major ingredient for making Clarity Potions, which were common potions for mages to restore mana in emergencies.
According to “Advanced Alchemy,” main ingredients usually possess some of the effects of the potion itself. This means Li Wen could restore mana by chewing the leaves of the Mandrag.
The effect might be very small, but it was enough to restore her mana to six points.
As Li Wen’s mana was infused into the magic circle, the entire circle emitted a brilliance as dazzling as stars. Within its illumination, all things revealed their true forms, and at the same time, the ruins of an ancient temple appeared before everyone.
Before the Kingdom of Arthur was called Arthur, the Norradon people built this temple named Tyrion. Later, when King Arthur conquered and unified the kingdom, this temple disappeared in an earthquake, and the Creek Stone Rift was formed at that time. Many people believed that the Temple of Tyrion was buried underground, and there were various speculations about why the Norradon people built it.
In later generations, after Arthur’s kingdom fell, the Black Dragon soared from the Creek Stone Rift, and the Temple of Tyrion, buried underground for thousands of years, reappeared. Thus, everyone knew the truth: the Temple of Tyrion was merely an entrance, used to conceal the existence of another ruin.
And that ruin was called Amber City. In a more ancient Golden Age, it was known as the Realm of Eternity and Twilight, a realm yearned for by all Long-lived, an eternal city between life and death, and the sole residence of the Twilight Witch in the Mortal Realm.
