It didn't take long for Zatiel to arrive at the location where he will build his tower since it was less than two hundred kilometers from the Underground entrance.
Zatiel had decided on this location for a simple reason; it will allow him to grow the number of individuals under him at a fast rate since he was planning to accept anyone despite whatever race they could belong to.
Of course, no matter how strong they are, they will only be peripherical members of the tower at the beginning, and they will be under constant surveillance, which will work to detect those worthy of nourishing and those that should be removed.
Although this tower will not be much of an enticement for most Magus since they could go to the Sinux Magic Tower, where they will have the same opportunities and safer environment, those that Zatiel was hoping to obtain were not them, but those that are not accepted by the rest.
To him, their original talent was meaningless, and what they wanted was those that survived in a cruel environment by sticking together, protecting the weak ones, and not shunning them away. Groups like that will not be easy to find, but if a hidden gem like those kobolds were to appear, it would be worth the effort.
There was also a second goal he had by creating his tower here, and that was that he has a plan for Wasteland. The first layer of the Underground may be a place not worthy of dominating due to the lack of resources and poor living conditions, but there were a lot of uses for such a piece of land.
As he was arriving Zatiel, saw three men floating in the air.
Each of these men was wearing a blue robe with no special distinctions in it; the power in their bodies was mild and almost undetectable, they gave such a deep intellectual aura that if it weren't for the fact that they were flying, you would mistake them with a mortal world erudite.
Zatiel was a little surprised by the trio's appearance since they had extremely similar physical features, corresponding to the one of a middle-aged man with black hair, and one would think that they were related by blood, but he knew that this was not the case.
The three men were reading a book in which, instead of words, all kinds of inscriptions similar to the ones used in rune crafting were written, and it was only when Zatiel was arriving in front of them that they save them and look at him.
"I am Zatiel Daybreak. I assume that you three are the stemmed Magus of the Scientia Kingdom." Zatiel made a formal greeting before proceeds to quietly assess the people in front of thin.
"It is a pleasure to meet the fighting and runemaster genius Zatiel, I am Nathan, and these two are David and Henry. Indeed, we are the ones that his Highness Heinz contact for the creation of your Magic Tower," Nathan's attitude was truly what you would expect about the people of the kingdom, calm and amicable.
If anyone saw him acting like that before someone at Rank 1, they will never think that he was at the Master level Rank 3.
As for David and Henry, they were both at Peak Rank 2, and it was a matter of time before advancing, and despite remaining quiet, it seems that their personalities were similar to the one of Nathan.
What Zatiel founded interesting was the path of power that they trained; it was the Magi Path but not one of the four more mainstream directions. It was a more profound version of the Arcane path.
The fighting power they could express was vastly inferior to the rest of the Magus in the same Rank.
'They have replaced battle power for increased cognitive abilities. The three of them do it, and if everyone in the kingdom follows this path, then as a whole, they are fragile, compared to the empire and dynasty. There must be a reason for the lack of hostilities against them.' Although Zatiel was thinking all that, there was no expression on his face.
There was definitely a great mystery about the kingdom since they could be an enemy that no one wanted to offend despite their military might.
By seeing how the three people in front of him look and behave, plus some knowledge about the kingdom's history, Zatiel was able to formulate an idea of what the secret of the kingdom was and why every single one of their members is so valuable. Still, he did not bother to think too much about it since it did not affect him.
"Yes, I want to use your services and construct my tower right in this place."
"Oh, we don't have a problem creating your tower wherever you want, but according to my knowledge, this place can be considered under the circle of influence of the Sinux Magic Tower, and constructing any stronghold here could be considered an act of aggression or at least of provocation."
Nathan's pacifistic attitude was not only with himself but among others as well.
But due to Zatiel and Heinz's relation, his fears were unfounded.
"I thank you for your concern, but do not worry, I have already informed Heinz about the location of my tower."
"Since that is the case, I will speak no more about the subject. We can start immediately, but before we do, we need some specifications about the type of tower you want and how many funds you plan to invest."
Zatiel had an idea of what type of tower he wanted a long time ago, so he spoke immediately.
" My tower need to be able to withstand a great amount of damage, have ample spaces where all kind of experiment on large creatures can be performed, his residents will have a size of approximately four to five meters tall, and the most important thing, I need something in the top of this tower that can contain high amount fo unstable energy and can be released with precision in a determined area, plus large scale surveillance equipment."
Zatiel took a ring from his hand and sent it to Nathan. "In here, there are thirty million magic crystals."
Since the amount of fallen star he obtained in the excavation was immense, Zatiel chose to sell a quarter of it, and by selling all the treasures in the spatial rings of those two Eye Lords that he killed, he was able to amass those crystals.
"If we follow your specification, with this amount of resources, we can build you a Low Rank 3 Magic Tower" After making some calculations, Nathan gave that answer.
Zatiel was a little surprised when he ears that. Thirty million magic crystals were not a small amount since normally, a Rank 3 Magus could only obtain amass a wealth of around two to three million crystal a year, and that is if they do not use any resource at all and save everything they earn.
But Zatiel knows that Nathan was not lying, and the price of magic towers has always been immense, especially the ones constructed by the kingdom people.
"What Rank of a tower could I get if I perform the inscription of the formations?" From the beginning, Zatiel was planning to inscribe the runes into his tower since he would make it possible to enhance them in the future, and it will be safer since that way, he could be sure that there was no tampering made at all.
When the three men hear those words, a peculiar expression appeared in their eyes, but it was not disdained or anything similar; it was curiosity.
"Since the inscription is the harder part, we can make your tower at High Rank 3, but..." Nathan looked at his partners, and once they nodded, he spoke again, " If you let us see your work and analyze your rune inscriptions, then we could make the tower at Psuedo-Rank 4."
When Zatiel hears them, a strange light appeared in his eyes.
'So it's true, they seek knowledge wherever they go, and they do not care for resources or loss of wealth as long they can obtain it.'
A Pseudo-Rank 4 Magic Tower could cost at least fifty million crystal. That is not considering the price needed to pay for inscribing the several runes formation it needed.
"I have no problem, but I can only inscribe Peak Rank 2 Runes for the moment."
Although Zatiel spoke as if his abilities as a Runemaster were average when the kingdom's trio heard him, they were shocked.
"You are truly worthy of being called a genius and have your name already spreading to the empire and kingdom, being able to create Peak Rank 2 Runes at Rank 1 is beyond impressive. And although, indeed, diagrams of Rank 2 runes are not valuable to us, what we want to see is your techniques and abilities during rune inscription."
Zatiel looked at Nathan attentively for a moment before nodding.
"You people are sagacious and experts in the seek of knowledge."
