643: The sovereign book at the First Ring Crystallization Stage, Summoning the Demon God!
Locke released his dragon pressure toward Wizard Warwick and Wizard McKinley. A terrifying three-headed demonic dragon appeared behind him, with dark gold scales, a scarred body, and a fearsome gaze.
In an instant, the ancient biological bloodlines within Wizard Warwick and Wizard McKinley surged with an instinctive fear originating from the depths of their lives.
Due to the emergence of this fear, the illusion was naturally broken.
Warwick and McKinley blinked, only then noticing that they hadn't entered the city at all; instead, they were still at the city docks, looking at the brick murals there.
Wizard McKinley realized. "No wonder I felt that Warwick and I were having such intense emotional swings. It turns out we were hit by spells from the Enchantment School and the Illusion School."
Wizard Warwick looked at the brick mural with a solemn expression. "I am now more certain than ever that the master behind this tomb is the wife of that Nameless King."
"Vezantin brick murals are a famous product of the Wizard Empire era, common back then. But in the Age of Stars, they have become a luxury item."
"This doesn't seem to be a pure Vezantin brick mural. It has been modified with some spells from the Deformation School, though not many."
"If the master of this tomb complex were just the monarch of a Magic Kingdom, or not even a Wizard King but merely a princess, she absolutely could not afford such things as guardians for her tomb complex."
"This person's status in the Age of Stars must have been very high."
"Yet the Weaving Princess has never had any recorded interaction with the known great figures of the Age of Stars. She's like an outlier, a tree without roots. But judging by the wealth of this tomb, such a situation is impossible."
"So, there is only one possibility—"
"She is likely the wife of that Nameless King."
Wizard Warwick said, "It seems many of these intruders died in this trap. Since that's the case, let's hurry inside."
Witch Shirley stopped him. "Hold on. My junior brother said you promised to share a copy of a portion of the historical data within your sovereign book with Locke before the official operation began."
Wizard McKinley looked at Warwick in surprise. "You're actually willing to do that?"
Wizard Warwick paused, then looked at Locke and smiled. "Indeed, indeed. I was too impatient, so eager that I actually forgot such a major matter."
Wizard Warwick snapped his fingers and summoned his grimoire of the demon god. The paper-folded demon god opened its large mouth, seemingly about to spit something out.
Soon, the paper demon god spat a magic egg toward the Dragon Book. Then, the paper dragon that Locke's Dragon Book had transformed into opened its maw and swallowed the magic egg.
The Dragon Book instantly became bloated, as if it had eaten too much and couldn't finish digesting it for a while.
Historical data required reading and organizing.
Reading could digest the data, while organizing could strengthen the efficiency of its use.
In any case, after his Dragon Book swallowed this historical data, its magic pressure rose rapidly, quickly breaking through the shackles of the First Ring crystallization. Its magic pressure reached the First Ring Crystallization Stage and even hit 9999.
Wizard Warwick was stunned. "Locke, I only gave you a copy of my historical data, and there's bound to be information loss during the process. I thought the magic pressure of your Dragon Book would only just exceed 9000."
"It seems you've made other gains as well."
Locke said, "Yes, I've made several trades with other Archaeology Wizards."
In fact, the biggest reason for this situation was the queens chessboard.
But Locke didn't need to say that.
Even White Wizards didn't have enough money to use the queens chessboard frequently.
Wizard McKinley curled his lip. "Previously, Archaeology Wizards fought the 'Great Historical Data War' over the seizure of data. Later, those high-ring Archaeologists hired Origin Contractors to place a curse on all our sovereign books: any historical data obtained through robbery or exploitation would curse us in return."
"That was what finally ended that brutal war for historical data."
"It also ended the history of Archaeology Wizards killing or enslaving one another. But because of this, trading historical data has become a taboo topic within our circle. For an Archaeology Wizard, although it's no big deal to copy and give away data they've worked hard to collect—with only a slight risk of damaging or affecting the data during the process—"
"Psychologically, we certainly can't accept it."
"Warwick, you are actually so generous."
Wizard Warwick chuckled. "I was originally in despair. Among the resources I could access, no Potion Master was willing to help me brew the Abyssal Werewolf potion. Very few wizards study Abyssal potions in depth, and Potion Masters are deeply superstitious about them."
"Not to mention an Abyssal Werewolf potion."
"But my luck was good; I met Locke. Out of gratitude, and knowing that the only thing I had that could attract him was historical data, I was naturally willing to trade it with him."
"As for this time... as long as we can crack the Nameless King's tomb and help me step onto the path of a Second Ring Archaeologist, I naturally have no regrets about the data. As for copying it, needing to take a certain risk..."
"That is, of course, a necessary cost."
Wizard McKinley shook his head slightly. "You are quite willing. If it were me, I certainly wouldn't be. This historical data is like my child; even if you killed me, I wouldn't give it to another wizard."
"You are too generous, Warwick. This isn't good."
Wizard Warwick said indifferently, "It's a personal choice."
At this moment, having obtained a massive amount of historical data, Locke's Dragon Book had met the basic requirements to cast 'Summoning the Demon God'. Thus, Locke began to chant, and simultaneously, the Dragon Book underwent a transformation.
The appearance of the Dragon Book began to become realistic and lifelike, like a true fire-breathing dragon.
Warwick looked at Locke in surprise. "I thought that even if you got my historical data, it would take you at least ten years to successfully use 'Summoning the Demon God'!"
"Or perhaps even longer. But it seems you are far more talented than I thought, actually able to immediately use the most powerful magic of Archaeology at the First Ring stage—'Summoning the Demon God'—right after getting my data!"
Locke nodded slightly without further explanation.
He had indeed used the queens chessboard to save a vast amount of time researching Archaeology.
This could be considered the benefit of cross-disciplinary study; sometimes one can find things in other fields that produce a massive push for one's own research area.
The Wizard Civilization has become too complex with too many branches. Many devices or pieces of knowledge that clearly have a huge promotional effect on other fields are left ignored for a long time due to knowledge barriers.
It could be said that a wizard who can combine the strengths of various schools is exactly the kind of talent the current Wizard Civilization needs.
The fire-breathing dragon let out a roar. The paper-folded dragon seemed to have the terrifying magic pressure of a true Second Ring level lifeform, possessing powerful physical combat abilities. Dragon fire appeared in its paper teeth along with the scent of sulfur.
Of course, upon closer inspection, one could still see that this dragon was made of folded paper.
Summoning the Demon God concentrated all historical data to strengthen the sovereign book, driving it to fight and exert the power of all the historical data accumulated by the Archaeology Wizard thus far.
Naturally, the three Archaeology Wizards could also sense that Locke was currently only just able to use the 'Summoning the Demon God' Spell Model.
Because Locke had not yet thoroughly compiled and organized the historical data, the strength of this dragon was still limited.
If Locke could settle down and spend ten years organizing it, he could completely raise the dragon's power by several more levels.
Locke jumped onto the back of the fire-breathing dragon and said to the three, "Jump on. we'll fly in on the dragon; this way we might avoid many traps on the city roads."
Witch Shirley nodded and jumped straight up.
McKinley and Warwick exchanged a glance, and Wizard Warwick also nodded. "True."
"However, I estimate we won't be able to fly very far."
The fire-breathing dragon spread its wings and soared into the sky, turning into a fireball as it flew from the sky toward the city, overlooking the entire place.
Standing on the back of the fire-breathing dragon, Locke saw that the bird's-eye view of the entire tomb city seemed to be a giant maze; wizards could get lost just by entering.
Moreover, the buildings within this city would constantly move, like maze barriers.
There were various structures within the buildings, along with various demon races and some golems guarding the passes and roads, seemingly protecting the master behind this tomb and guarding her posthumous honor.
At that moment, Locke sensed a massive pressure pushing down on him from above.
The fire-breathing dragon was fighting with all its might against that massive gravity descending from the sky.
As the two forces clashed, bolts of spell lightning erupted from the fire-breathing dragon's body.
The spell lightning fell continuously toward the surroundings, even destroying some of the buildings on the streets.
Witch Shirley said, "It's a flight-prohibition sealing spell from the Protection School!"
Warwick shouted, "I knew it would be like this."
"This tomb will not allow us to fly directly to the Weaving Princess's main burial chamber!"
"Locke, don't keep resisting. Otherwise, even the Summoning the Demon God Spell Model will fall apart!"
...
Within the tomb complex city, those wizards wearing the emblem of the Storm Tower and belonging to its affiliated wizard organizations all looked up at the sky.
In their eyes, the fire-breathing dragon was a fireball manifested from spell flames, crashing directly into the invisible barrier surrounding the central area of the tomb city.
The wizards of the Thunder Demon Society, an affiliated organization of the Storm Tower, all grew tense.
This mission came directly from the orders of the Smith Family on the Molten Iron Mountain of the Storm Tower.
Furthermore, it was directly overseen by Wizard Smith, a representative of the younger generation of the Smith Family.
It was said that this matter could even involve a Third Ring Wizard and was an order from one. It was merely overseen by that young Wizard Smith and outsourced through layers until it was finally given to their small-scale wizard organization, the Thunder Demon Society, to execute.
Therefore, there could be no accidents in this matter.
The Secret Treasure of this Wizard Secret Realm must belong to them.
The leader of the Thunder Demon Society looked around at almost all the Official Wizards they had deployed this time—a total of seventeen First Ring Wizards.
The leader of the Thunder Demon Society, who had himself reached the limit of First Ring magic pressure, whispered, "If this matter is handled well, we will have successfully latched onto the path of the great figures at the Storm Tower. If we fail, our academy will have to move out of the Storm Tower region."
"You also know the operating style of the Smith Family and the Storm Tower. We must find the main burial chamber of this so-called Weaving Princess as quickly as possible and bring that treasure to Lord Wizard Smith."
The leader of the Thunder Demon Society chanted an incantation, and a bolt of lightning suddenly struck down, shattering a maze wall in front of him along with an architectural carving on the wall.
They were not Archaeology Wizards, so they naturally didn't care about the historical data hidden behind these buildings, nor did they care that using magic indiscriminately might destroy precious data and cause some secrets to remain secrets forever.
At this moment, their only goal was to break through the maze of this tomb city as quickly as possible, find the main burial chamber, and obtain the target treasure through brute force.
As for anything else, it had nothing to do with their Thunder Demon Society.
What made the wizards of the Thunder Demon Society breathe a sigh of relief was that the fireball in the sky eventually fell toward the ground, failing to break through the seal to enter the city core directly, instead falling into the maze.
The leader of the Thunder Demon Society laughed. "This is perfect."
"They also fell into the maze. But we have the treasure Lord Wizard Smith gave me, which allows us to advance in a straight line through the maze as long as we keep destroying the maze mechanisms."
Elsewhere in the maze, there were also seven First Ring Wizards from the Rose Council.
They had all seen Locke's attempt to break through directly from the front and were happy to see his plan fail.
At this moment, these seven First Ring Wizards from the Rose Council looked at each other.
They were originally just fellow disciples, and after hearing the news, they had come together to explore this 'wild Wizard Secret Realm'.
At this moment, Kenneth Evans, a Floramancer at the First Ring Crystallization Stage, said, "I feel like more and more wizards are entering this city to compete with us. I think we should stick to our previous plan: dig a hole in the ground, bypass these mazes, and enter the main hall of the city directly."
"And then take that treasure."
"Otherwise, if we continue to waste time like this—while the food and water in our astral rings are sufficient—the number of people competing with us is increasing. Moreover, the maze is very dangerous; even we of the Rose Council have already lost two wizards here."
Another Floramancer at the First Ring Crystallization Stage sighed. "There's no other way. We didn't want to indiscriminately destroy historical sites like those wizards from small-time organizations, but for our goal, if it's destroyed, so be it."
"Ultimately, it's just a ruined city from some unknown era."
"There's nothing worth preserving. The living shouldn't have to make way for the dead!"
A female Floramancer, Suella Sharp, chuckled. "Exactly. I think this Weaving Princess is hyped up to be something great, but her aesthetic is really lacking. This city is ugly as hell."
"I can't see any value in it."
"Just an ancient person who's been dead for years. Let's just take the treasure and leave as soon as possible. It'll save us from competing with these small-time wizards. We are wizards of the Rose Council, after all!"