It was 9 in the morning. B now, everyone in the Azure City should have woken up.
The adults have gone to work.
The children have either gone to school or were playing in the parks.
The streets of the Azure City looked very crowded. This was a normal thing for the people of the Istarin Empire.
Despite being the most densely populated City in all of the Dying Isle Continent, the Azure City offered a ton of benefits. Living in the city felt almost like living in paradise compared to other places. For every Istarin Empire citizen, moving to the Capital with their families is one of their biggest dreams.
Early in the morning, the Emperor who not long ago had defended the Capital from a gigantic monster had appeared with 100 guards following him. The Emperor did not come to the City. Instead, he was at the giant walls surrounding the Azure City with his men.
Due to the guards, it was almost impossible to see the Emperor from a far distance.
"Are you not going to school today?" Aditya asked while checking the second-generation Defensive Mana Formation that he just made. Even someone like him can rarely make mistakes. So before testing the power and capacity of his Defensive Mana Formation, he wanted to make sure that there were no problems with his creation.
"No...!!! I don't have any classes today. If in case, you forgot, I am still a part-time teacher." Lilith replied while standing behind Aditya.
"So are you done?" Lilith asked. These last few days, Lilith hasn't been able to find Aditya alone.
Whenever she went to his bedroom, he was with either Julia or Riya. When she went to his office, he was with Lara or with Alicia. During other times, he was either talking with Amelia or Sasha.
Yesterday, Lilith had to go to school to take classes. Even if she was a part-time teacher, she could not always ignore her work. Otherwise, she might be fired from her job.
Though, she was very sure that the Principal did not have the courage to do something like that. But still, if she regularly skipped her work then other teachers might be dissatisfied with her. In their eyes, she would look bad. Lilith wished to maintain a positive image at the school. She did not want to appear as lazy; which she was.
"I am done.....now....!!!"
The second next second, the old Defensive Mana Formation started to dissipate. The transparent dome that covered the entire Azure City started to dissipate. The dome wasn't 100% transparent. In the eyes of normal people, they can't see the Defensive Mana Formation. Only cultivators can see the transparent dome.
The new Defensive Mana Formation started to form. The dome started forming from 4 sides of the Azure City; these four sides were the four entrances to the Azure City. Each entrance faced one direction.
Once the dome had formed, every one slightly looked confused. Because they cannot see any difference in this new Defensive Mana Formation.
"Exactly, how this new Defensive Mana Formation is different from the old one?" Lilith asked the question that everyone had in their minds.
"Well, first of all, the second generation of Defensive Mana Formation draws its source of energy from Solar Stones. And as you know, Solar stones are more abundant and less expensive."
"Secondly, the previous Defensive Mana Formation only had one source of energy, which was the Mana stones. But now the second generation of Defensive Mana Formation has the ability to absorb Mana from the atmosphere. This means, that around 25% of the energy required for the Defensive Mana Formation to function will be drawn from the atmosphere."
"That's amazing....!!" Even though Lilith did not understand much about Runes, she knew how a general Defensive Mana Formation worked. Just from these two changes that he made, the cost of running such a massive Defensive Mana Formation is going to be reduced a lot.
The Azure City was massive. It had the largest population in any city in the Dying Isle Continent. It was because the Istarin Empire had Mana stone mines that they were able to reduce the cost of operating such a massive Defensive Mana Formation. But still, the cost of operating such a massive Defensive Mana Formation was a lot.
Just the cost of operating the old Defensive Mana Formation for one day was 50,000 gold coins. The monthly cost of operating this thing was 1.5 million.
What Aditya did now has reduced the daily cost to less than 5,000 gold coins. That's a cost reduction of 90%. So instead of spending 1.5 million, the Empire was only going to spend 150,000 gold coins. And if this same Defensive Mana Formation could be used every single day in the vast Istarin Empire, then the amount saved would be many times more.
The rest of the amount could be spent on improving other things. For a huge empire like the Istarin Empire, spending 1.5 million every month was just like spending a tiny drop of water.
"Thirdly, the second generation Defensive Mana Formation is many times more capable and durable than the previous Formation. I am 100% sure that this formation could withstand attacks from even a Beginner 5th-order cultivator which the previous formation couldn't do."
"Awesome......!!!" Everyone hearing Aditya's words looked really impressed by their Emperor.
"Actually, the defensive capability of this formation goes beyond just being able to withstand attacks from Beginner 5th-order. To find out just how powerful this formation is, we will need a Peak 5th-order cultivator to attack the formation and test its defensive powers." Saying that Aditya looked at Lilith.
"Me?"
"Yes. If I do it, then my attack might accidentally harm the citizens of Azure City." Hearing this Lilith nodded her head.
'If this formation cannot prevent attacks from 5th-order cultivators, then I will need to start working on the 3rd-
generation of Defensive Mana Formation.' Aditya inwardly thought in his mind.
In the end, the real objective that Aditay wanted to achieve was to make a Defensive Mana Formation that was so strong that it could even withstand attacks from that Hydra if someone a threat of that caliber ever attacked the Capital.
Aditya knew that with his current abilities, making a Defensive Mana Formation which is strong enough to withstand Hydra level attacks was impossible. Unless he upgrades his Rune Monarch class to 5-star, he won't be able to create something of that caliber.
'But that does not mean I should stop trying. Even at my current level, there are many improvements and adjustments that I can keep making. After all, my work is not perfect. It is only through trial and error that I can reach the next level.' While staring at Lilith who flew above the Transparent dome Aditya thought.
Aditya briefly summoned the system and checked his progress.
『Rune Monarch class Progression to 5-star - 61.9%』
'It looks like I still have a long way to go before I could become a 5-star runemaster.' Aditya thought in his mind. Aditya wasn't satisfied with his current level. He had a hunger to deepen his understanding of runes.
In the Entire Dying Isle Continent, there were only a few 4-star runemasters apart from Aditya. Not everyone could become Runemasters. And the difficulty doubled for every Higher Star.
Not every Kingdom was lucky enough to have Rune Masters.
Even the Istarin Empire did not have any other 4-star Rune Master other than Aditya. The entire Istarin Empire depended on Aditya's rune skills. He is the one who made all the Defensive Mana Formations, protecting every single city and town within the Istarin Empire. Around 90% of the Empire's teleportation arrays and other kinds of arrays were also made by him.
While Aditya never compared his Rune skills with any other runemasters nor did he ever join any of those annually held Rune competitions in the Dying Isle Continent. But it was widely accepted by almost every single Runemaster in the continent and outside of the continent that even in the tier of 4-star runemaster, Aditya was a different class of his own. Compared to other 4-star runemaster, he was simply better at every single aspect.
"Lilith, I want to collect some data about this formation. For the first attack, reduce your attack power to the level of Beginner 5th-order."
"Understood...!!!"
A dark Aura surrounded Lillith. Her eyes turned red and her silver hair started floating.
『Wrath of Lilith!!!』
Lilith fired a blast of dark energy at the transparent dome. Seeing the powerful blast of dark energy heading in their direction, the soldiers around Aditya took a step back.
However, Aditya just watched everything with a smile.
Bang......!!!!
Upon impact, the entire transparent dome, a few gentle ripples spread across the transparent dome. These ripples caused the dome to vibrate gently for a few seconds before everything became quiet just like before.
The dome was completely fine. Nothing had happened to it.
"Lilith now increase the power of your attack to the level of 5th-order and attack again.....!!!"
Really Thank you very much to all those who send support with valuable golden tickets. I hope we can keep it up!!!
