"Because of my previous faulty body, my body is on the verge of death..."
Adam instantly understood what he meant, gently taking the newly formed contract suspended in the air. He noticed that the contract stated that if Frank were to become a qualified mage, he would become Adam's personal bodyguard unconditionally.
Adam put the contract aside and eyed him, "So, what's your plan?"
"I plan to join Mage Jino's laboratory, either as a test subject or assistant. I want him to perform a full-body transformation for me."
Adam looked at Frank with amazement. Transforming yourself into a robot? That's amazing! However, it seemed too far-fetched to be true, so Adam asked, "Does the Academy even have this kind of technology?"
Frank was silent for a bit before replying, "...I'm not sure. But I want to give it a try."
Adam nodded and agreed to his request. Besides, he wasn't short on assistants anyways. Frank deserves a second chance, rather than be stuck inside his own laboratory.
Adam scribbled his signature on the contract and handed it back to Frank, smiling, "Good luck."
...
Adam had originally thought that the Dean would begin traversing through other dimensions within a few days, but he found that he had greatly miscalculated the time scale for these immortals, and soon, ten years passed.
The Tower had previously already entered a state of defence five years ago, so unqualified mages were not allowed to enter the Tower. Meanwhile, batches of materials were constantly being shipped from the Holy Tower.
The base of the tower is separated from the tower's body. Adam could sense that the tower was continuously morphing, and a silver, metal torrent was orbiting the tower, changing its shape constantly.
"Have you ever seen a transdimensional mage go on an expedition before?" Adam asked Elliott as they were hanging out in the apprentice bar.
Adam's research had greatly benefited Elliott, as he was able to produce new toxins through electrolysis. Earlier this morning, Elliot had excitedly barged into Adam's lab, urging him to come drink with him and witness the start of the Tower's expedition.
"Hah! Of course not," Elliott replied while sipping on his wine. "I hadn't even been born yet, but I heard that the previous expedition was what caused the recent war here between our Academy and the Monte Carlo Academy."
"Oh?"
"There are infinite worlds in the void, but the coordinates detected by the mages often clash together -- a new world means an almost endless supply of resources, so it is no surprise that mages want to call dibs on it. On the last expedition, the coordinates clashed, but we managed to loot it first before Monte Carlo could. Of course, as you know, we lost the war they waged against us later on."
Adam looked away for a moment. This means that Moldo's transdimensional mage was not as strong as the Monte Carlo transdimensional mage, but Elliott said that we were able to snag the resources first... why did they wage a war when we were the first to enter the plane, then?
Elliot saw Adam was deep in thought and continued, "Our Academy is under the Holy Tower's protection after the last expedition. It's not something for us to understand."
As soon as his words fell, loud rumbling could be heard and felt outside the Academy. Everyone hurriedly rushed out the bar and came to the surface, and everyone watched as the Tower changed its shape and lifted itself into the sky.
Time, space, and magic constantly intertwined with each other, surrounding the tower with indescribable brilliance.
And soon, the tower completed its transformation.
"A spaceship..." Adam muttered.
"What did you say?" Elliott asked.
Adam didn't answer him, watching as the tower morphed into a spaceship-like shape. The spaceship pointed straight towards the sky, and a huge dimensional crack was ripped through the air. The spaceship propelled upwards with magic and disappeared from the public eye almost immediately.
Adam constantly daydreamed about how mages would traverse to other worlds, but none of it was similar to what he had just witnessed. He never thought that the Mage Tower would be used as a means of transportation!
Elliott came close to Adam's ear and whispered, "It's amazing, isn't it? This was invented by all the True Archmages -- I heard that when the tower reaches the other world, it will blast a gap through its dimensional walls, and in there, they will create a hub that can be teleported to safely, and from then on, battlemages can sign contracts to join the war and plunder the world's resources."
"I don't know when I'll be promoted so I can join them, sadly enough," Elliot continued, sighing.
Adam remained silent, desire brewing in his heart. Just a little bit more, and he'll be promoted and qualified enough to join them.
Meanwhile, at Santa's Teleportation Tower, the Monte Carlo Academy received an order from their resident transdimensional mage. The apprentices and the leading mage of the Monte Carlo Academy stepped out of the portal leading to the Moldo Academy.
Meanwhile, the remaining mages at Moldo addressed the crowd of apprentices and announced, "The exchange group from the Monte Carlo Academy will be arriving soon. If they provoke you, keep in mind that..."
As the mage trailed off, Elliott patted Adam on the shoulder and whispered, "An exchange group? Did you know about this?"
"Yeah, and I heard they are here to cause trouble."
Elliott got worried, "I didn't expect this to happen. Several of my enemies should still be alive."
Adam returned his attention to the mage, who said, "I hope everyone will not let Moldo down. When necessary, don't hesitate to kill them."
The mage crushed several runes surrounding them, revealing their hideous, previously-shrouded face. Murderous auras emanated from them, indicating they lost something important in the war too. Adam whispered in Elliott's ear and joked, "Well, you were able to defeat them before, surely you can defeat them again, right?"
Elliott sighed, and replied, "I use poison, which means I have to be stealthy on my attacks, but how would the Tower possibly allow this? Are you saying the Academy would just... let me poison their food?"
Adam looked at him weirdly, and Elliot mumbled, "Alright, alright, I admit it. Most of my previous words were just bragging."
Cold sweat dripped down Elliott's forehead, as he watched that the portal leading to their Academy fluctuated in and out of reality, "I hope I don't recognise anyone -- I hope they're all dead."
