Arriving in the room, Evangeline gave a nod to everyone else before pausing at the water magic tower's head. She let out a sigh and sent a gentle jolt of lightning to the tower head. "Vivienne, wake up."
The two of them were clearly close, as Evangeline addressed Vivienne without any honorifics. The tower head stirred slightly, mumbling, "Mmm... 5 more minutes." Evangeline's eyelids twitched, and she sent a thunderous clap right next to Vivienne's ears, jolting her awake. Vivienne shot a resentful gaze at Evangeline as she grumbled, "You could've woken me up more gently, you know."
Ignoring Vivienne's glare, Evangeline began the meeting. "I apologize for gathering you all like this on short notice, but as you know, there are some significant changes outside of the tower that we need to discuss.
About 5 days ago, we received a report of a major battle occurring on the eastern side of the Fulminar Empire. Witnesses mentioned that the battle released fluctuations from level 3 powerhouses, with one aura clearly emanating divine power. Furthermore, after one of our mages investigated the battle site, we identified the opposing party as a wizard." Pausing briefly, Evangeline hesitated, but the bald man chimed in, saying what Evangeline couldn't bring herself to say.
"A lightning wizard," the bald man said with a deep, rough voice, his gaze sharpening on Evangeline. Him and the other towers also sent an investigation party and found a clear lightning mana residue besides the divine power residue, which clearly proves the other party was a lightning wizard.
Taking a deep breath, Evangeline confirmed, "Yes, a lightning wizard. However, we honestly had no idea there was a level 3 lightning wizard in our tower. If we had another level 3 lightning wizard here, we wouldn't be in this sorry state, don't you think?" She said it with a touch of sarcasm, not just directed at the tower heads, but also at herself. She still couldn't wrap her head around the fact that the once proud wizards were now reduced to hiding like rats.
After regaining her composure, Evangeline continued, "So, after sending Sir Archibald to investigate the site further, we found no trace of Concept in the spell residue left by the anonymous wizard."
The tower heads gasped, clearly surprised by this news since their factions hadn't conducted as thorough an investigation as the lightning magic tower. Only level 2 powerhouses could detect Concept fluctuations, and they couldn't risk their own tower heads' lives just for the sake of investigating the battle site.
"We suspect that this newcomer is either a level 4 wizard who decided not to use their Concept against the saintess, or a level 2 wizard with an unusually large mana pool." As Evangeline finished speaking, all eyes shifted to Zack.
The tower heads knew Sir Archibald, Sir Cedric, and Lady Evangeline for a long time. If they had the ability to contend against a level 3 powerhouse, the outcome of the great war a decade ago would've been different. So, the finger pointed towards the newly advanced Zack as the suspect.
Zack tried to keep a straight face and appeared as innocent as possible. "Guys, do you really think it was me? If I were that strong, I'd have snagged the tower head position ages ago. Why would I settle for being a department head? I mean, come on, who wouldn't want more resources to speed up their advancement, am I right?"
Except, well, he was the one who didn't want to speed up his advancement any further. He was already progressing at lightning speed. Plus, he still had a whopping 2000 years ahead of him. He figured it was all thanks to his massive mana reserves, which kept his vitality in top shape.
After Zack's speech, the tower heads redirected their attention to Lady Evangeline. However, her gaze lingered on Zack a bit longer, doubt still evident. And she wasn't the only one; Sir Cedric and Sir Archibald also seemed skeptical about Zack's innocence. They had witnessed Zack's advancement, which had consumed an incredible amount of mana, even more than the leap to level 3.
Moreover, they had noticed Zack's ability to control his outward mana levels at will. They were almost certain Zack was the anonymous wizard who had fought against the saintess. But precisely because they were almost certain, they didn't dare confront him. After all, Zack had the ability to take on a level 3 powerhouse, effectively making him one himself. And that meant giving him the respect due to a level 3 powerhouse.
Lady Evangeline withdrew her gaze and carried on, "We'll put the discussion about the anonymous wizard on hold for now, as we have more urgent news to address. As you all know, 3 days later, the saintess was reported missing from her post."
The other tower heads nodded in agreement. Despite not having as extensive an information network in the Fulminar Empire as the lightning magic tower, they had also received this news.
"There was an update today," Lady Evangeline continued, taking a deep breath before proceeding, "the saintess was confirmed dead."
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Another collective gasp swept through the room. This time, even the sleepy water magic tower head opened her eyes wide.
Lady Evangeline pressed on, "This news is quite credible, as it came from our informant, who is one of the high-ranking members in the Holy Empire's headquarters. He even lost his life in order to deliver this information."
Unbeknownst to the other tower heads, the level 2 wizards in the lightning magic tower felt a shiver of fear. Fear toward Zack, who could take down another level 3 powerhouse. Dealing with a level 3 powerhouse was one thing, but killing one was an entirely different story.
This fear was the main reason they didn't dare to ask Zack for confirmation. After all, Zack was a legitimate powerhouse capable of killing a level 3. If they happened to catch him in a bad mood, who would save them from losing their lives? Thus, the level 2 wizards in the lightning magic tower had an unspoken agreement to play dumb. In any case, Zack was on their side.
Lady Evangeline paused before adding, "There's more news."
You could almost see the words "another news? Seriously?" written on the foreheads of the tower heads. With all the shocking updates already, they couldn't fathom there being more.
"The Grand Paladin betrayed the Holy Empire. He wrecked the church headquarters in the Holy Empire. However, the pope managed to arrive just in time and inflicted heavy injuries on him. But, the Grand Paladin still managed to escape."
This time, the tower heads couldn't even muster a gasp; they remained silent, trying to digest the news. They had assumed the Grand Paladin was rebelling as in not following the Pope orders, but wrecking the headquarters? That was a clear act of betrayal.
Soon after, however, excitement bubbled among them. With two of the Holy Empire's greatest forces gone, they reckoned the Holy Empire wouldn't have enough strength to continue taking over the Fulminar Empire. Especially considering the Pope couldn't move recklessly, with the powerful tribe alliance to the south with their Great Warrior.
Sure enough, Lady Evangeline mentioned that the Holy Empire's forces were withdrawing from the Fulminar Empire. She called the meeting to discuss dispatching more wizards to hasten the retreat. However, she cautioned against being too aggressive; provoking the Pope could lead to unforeseen consequences.
Despite rarely leaving the headquarters, the Pope was acknowledged as one of the strongest level 3 powerhouses, second only to the head of the lightning magic tower in his prime. This was evident from how he managed to severely injure the Grand Paladin in just a few moves, forcing him to flee.
The meeting wrapped up quickly, and one by one, everyone's avatars vanished. Zack also withdrew his consciousness from the space, returning to reality. Opening his eyes in the chamber, he pressed a button to open the sleeping chamber and stepped out into the corridor.
In the hallway, he found the trio of level 2 wizards already waiting for him. Lady Evangeline approached him hesitantly, awkwardly patting his shoulder. "If you need anything, just message me through the badge. I'll make sure to check your message," she said, her tone uncertain.
The other two echoed similar sentiments with the same awkwardness before leaving. Zack couldn't help but wonder, 'Did they find out I was the one who fought the saintess?' But he quickly dismissed the thought. His concealment and acting had been flawless.
As he walked, he replayed his actions in his mind, reassuring himself that he had hidden his strength and acted normal perfectly. The only possible blunder was not erasing the traces of the battle with the saintess, but he had encountered the Grand Paladin right after. He simply hadn't had enough time to clean up the evidence.
"Well, it doesn't matter," he thought to himself. "As long as they don't confront me and outright accuse me of being the anonymous wizard, I shouldn't jump to conclusions." In any case, there wasn't much he could do except lay low for a while.
He made his way to the library, intent on borrowing some level 3 books. Standing before a door inside the library, he tapped his badge to the scanning device, and the door slid open. This room contained level 3 books, accessible only to level 2 wizards like him. The library had a massive main hall housing most of the books, with smaller rooms scattered around, each requiring specific privileges for access.
Calling it a "small" room was a huge understatement; it was more like the size of a football field. That just gives you an idea of how massive the main hall was if they considered this room "small." Inside, lay the accumulated wisdom of many level 3 wizards from the lightning magic tower over thousands of years.
Last time, he had skimmed through the books, grabbing a mix of theory and spells. Now, he was on a mission to find the spell books with the concept of "fast." Browsing the shelves, he quickly located what he was after.
Compared to other concepts, the number of spell books focusing on "fast" was considerably fewer, as he had learned from the theory books he perused last time. And compared to level 1 and 2 spell books, the selection of level 3 spells was already quite limited. Most of the books in the room were either theory books detailing level 3 spell patterns and formations or the philosophical musings of past level 3 wizards.
Gathering most of the spell books, he purchased all of them and made his way to a practice room on his floor. Now that he had his own practice room, he no longer needed to use the practice hall. Inhaling deeply of the mana-concentrated air, he felt satisfied. This room was linked to the tower's mana gathering formation, just like the rooms in the practice hall.
The room's base mana concentration, even without additional formations, was already high—about 10 times the normal concentration. But with his own formations in place, he had boosted it to a whopping 20 times! And the best part was that he didn't need to supply the formations with mana stones; they were powered by the tower's mana gathering formation.
Of course, the free ride was only for the first room. If he wanted to link another room to the tower's mana gathering formation, he'd have to pay tower points monthly. So, he'd have to pay for the second room, especially since he needed it for Fannie.
Unexpectedly, when he brought this up to Lady Evangeline, she informed him that all the rooms were free, and he could connect as many practice rooms as he wanted to the tower's mana gathering formation. He decided not to take advantage of the tower and only connected one more room.
Sitting down in the center of the training room, he opened one of the spell books.