Chapter 99: Observer?
The social gathering was suddenly terminated, and all the students were rushed back to their dormitories. A towering white spire erected from the ground, and the surrounding area was cordoned off as a military restricted zone.
The students had no idea what the intruder meant, only seeing him turned into a puddle of mashed potatoes and packaged into a jar by the professors to be taken away. It was almost foreseeable that the mashed potatoes in the cafeteria would be hard to sell in the next few days.
Sonya and her three roommates stood on the balcony of their dormitory, looking at the giant spire in the distance that almost obscured the night sky. They were a little dumbfounded for a moment – to be honest, although they knew and had witnessed the power of sorcerers, the tranquility and comfort of Cailleach made them permeate the might of sorcerers into their daily lives, so they had long become immune to it.
For example, controlling the weather, preventing earthquakes, regenerating severed limbs, inducing crop growth… These miracles have even become the daily work of common professions in the “College Student Employment Survey Form”.
When you are bathed in the glory of miracles every minute and every second, you naturally take it for granted.
As for the sorcerer wars and miracle scenes in the movies, although they were very exciting to watch, they always gave people a sense of unreality.
Are they really that powerful?
Even if they are that powerful, what does it have to do with me?
At this moment, however, the sorcerer apprentices of Swordflower College finally got a glimpse of the might of sorcerers.
Just now, in just a few minutes, a towering white spire hundreds of meters high was erected from the ground before their eyes. They watched as the vast Stardust Hall was directly covered by the white spire, with soil and gravel stacking up like building blocks, and the top of the white spire reached the stars suspended in mid-air at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Not in a day, not in an hour, but in minutes!
The majestic buildings that ordinary people would take years or even decades to build, the sorcerers completed in the time it took to drink a cup of tea!
“Was it the work of a legendary sorcerer?” Iris murmured, “I don’t remember which legendary sorcerer specializes in earth magic…”
“Any legendary sorcerer from Saint Sanctum can already transcend and convert arts at this point, using one’s own art to manifest another is commonplace,” Ingrid commented. “For example, the ‘Wind Erosion Art’ of the wind-type sorcerer ‘Wind Erosion Yadan’ is a miracle that utilizes wind spirits to exert earthen might and sculpt enormous structures with storms. ”
“Not to mention the arts, even those casually practiced by legendary sorcerers, with the aid of four-winged arcane power and four-winged spirits, can exert might beyond our imagination. The intruder seemed to be held in high regard, with others coming from other schools and even the nobility. With so many sorcerers gathered, constructing a white spire is probably effortless for them.”
“I noticed the turbulence in the virtual world earlier!” Adele yelled, “If I had reported it in time, wouldn’t I have gotten a school reward? Like exempting me from homework and graduate thesis?”
“The school will reward you by allowing you to retake failed courses for free,” Iris poked Adele on the forehead, “You failed two courses last semester. If you fail two more this semester, let’s see how your schedule looks next year.”
“Don’t worry, I recently learned an amazing cheating method. I won’t fail anymore in the future!”
“Are you serious? Cheating right under the professors’ noses? Are you actually a hidden gold-rank sorcerer? Is your arcane lineage ‘Binge Watcher’?”
“Hmph, just you wait and see.”
“Speaking of which,” Ingrid looked at Sonya, “Sonya, how did you suddenly manifest the Silver Wings? Counting back and forth, you’ve only been in the virtual world for less than ten days!”
Iris and Adele also glanced at Sonya furtively. They were curious about this as well, but their relationship with Sonya wasn’t good enough to pry into such matters, so they had been waiting for Ingrid to bring up the topic.
It was just too astonishing after all.
Everyone knew that Sonya only started training in swordsmanship on the evening of April 12th, summoning the resonating sword spirit during the fight with Felix in the training hall, thus being hailed as ‘the number one sword talent of the water-type’. She was taken in as a research apprentice by Professor Trotzam, who came after hearing the news, the next day.
Then she first entered the virtual world only on the night of the 13th, and today was the 21st.
Only eight days!
From a sorcerer apprentice without even virtual wings, to an official silver-rank sorcerer who manifested Silver Wings, it only took Sonya eight days!
This speed was simply too horrifying – it should be known that Rig Caroll, who was just showing off on stage earlier, was considered a genius of Trinity College merely because he had condensed most of the Silver Wings by his second year.
And Professor Nidhogg’s beloved apprentice, the ‘Orange Dancer’ Leone, who manifested the Silver Wings by her third year, was regarded as having the posture of a Swordsaint!
Even the most gifted young sorcerers need one or two years to navigate the sea of knowledge and condense arcane power. Yet Sonya accomplished this process in just eight days!
If it wasn’t for the limitations of realms, with arcane lineages having to advance to the gold rank first before sorcerers could obtain the second pair of wings, Iris even suspected that Sonya could have become a gold-rank sorcerer before them.
To be honest, if it wasn’t for someone suddenly falling from the sky, Sonya would have undoubtedly been the absolute protagonist tonight; if the school hadn’t announced martial law and all students had to stay in the dorms, their dorm would definitely have been trampled by countless people now.
How on earth did she navigate the sea of knowledge in eight days and manifest the Silver Wings?
Sonya was a little scared in retrospect as well.
She didn’t actually intend to expose herself so quickly. But when Rig asked a question like ‘Do you have a single feather of condensed arcane power?’, under the constraints of the ritual, she had no choice but to summon the Silver Wings to prove herself – the Sonya now definitely did not admit that she had any intention to show off back then.
Her arcane power was naturally due to her and the Observer having been using the ‘Maelstrom Secret’ to create maelstroms these two days.
Although the maelstroms created this way had a relatively short range and were difficult to make, in three nights the Observer could find three or four knowledge creatures, and the two of them had created several maelstroms, both manifesting the Silver Wings.
This was supposed to be a good thing, but Sonya had become a sorcerer in too short a time, once exposed, it would appear too frightening. She was also unsure if the school would covet the ‘Maelstrom Secret’. If this was just simple knowledge, she would have contributed it and the school would have rewarded her with a candy.
But the ‘Maelstrom Secret’ was a hidden poison. The more people knew about it, the more deeply poisoned the knowers became. Now every time Sonya drank water, she felt as nauseous as drinking spoiled water. She was unwilling to share this secret which would increase the difficulty of drinking water for herself.
“Because I encountered a maelstrom.” Sonya controlled the amount of truthful information she revealed.
The others made sounds of sudden realization and didn’t continue to ask further, with envy and jealousy showing on their faces.
Perhaps they thought Sonya had encountered an ultra long-distance maelstrom and then condensed the Silver Wings in one go. They didn’t think in the direction that Sonya had encountered multiple maelstroms – who would guess that someone would win the jackpot continuously?
Bang!
Suddenly a sound akin to a mirror shattering rang out from the sky. Looking up, they saw a woman in azure blue robes flying towards the white spire. Then roaring sounds came from the spire, even blossoming a halo of rainbow ripples – a battle had evidently erupted!
“The female sorcerer who just flew to the spire, wasn’t that… Her Holiness the Saintess of the Church?” Adele exclaimed in surprise, “I think I saw her last year when I participated in the grand festival…”
Iris asked, “Adele, are you religious?”
“No, but noble families in Cailleach definitely have to participate in various festivals and celebrations,” Adele looked at the decadent glow at the top of the spire, “Nothing happened just now… Could Her Holiness have started fighting with the other professors?”
The others couldn’t get a word in at all. Their understanding of the Church was even less than Adele’s. In the Starland, the Church was a very contradictory existence. On one hand, it was undoubtedly the sole national religion, with no other beliefs existing, responsible for hosting various celebrations and even requiring the Pope’s blessing for the Empress’s coronation.
But at the same time, the Church was also very low-profile, with almost no missionary activities, and even artistic works about the Church like movies and operas were few and far between, with virtually no believers.
Even they, as female college students, only knew that the Church worshipped the Starchild Archon, but had even forgotten the full name of the Church.
Was it the Starchild Church or the Star Church?
“Time to shower,” Adele yawned.
Sonya suddenly remembered something and checked her Miracle Ring, discovering that it was already 11:30 pm!
In the past, she would have entered the virtual world by 11 pm!
Without bothering to remove her make-up or shower, Sonya lay in bed, searching for the Gate of Truth within the consciousness of the resonating sword spirit – with the school under curfew tonight, she naturally couldn’t go to the meditation building, but as an official silver-rank sorcerer now, even without the aid of the meditation building, she could easily locate the Gate of Truth!
Closing her eyes… Gate of Truth… sinking into consciousness… entering the virtual world!
The same entry process as usual, but before Sonya opened her eyes, she could already feel the cold seawater surrounding her – how nauseating, just like the disgusting feeling of being watched by others with mocking eyes when studying at home as a child.
Opening her eyes, what entered her sight wasn’t the familiar small boat and the familiar stranger, but the eternally unchanging white fog, and the deep, dark Sea of Knowledge.
Glancing around, isolated and alone, the silence around her was frightening. Disregarding the nausea, Sonya swam around for a bit, but her eyes saw only unchanging scenery.
An indescribable unease welled up in Sonya’s heart.
“Observer?”
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