Chapter 0047: Divided Powers

Life aboard the airship was monotonous and dull. No matter how vast and awe-inspiring the scenery below might be, after a while, even the grandest vistas became wearisome, eventually fading into the background. Over three hundred apprentices crowded together on the deck, inevitably feeling uneasy and constrained. Fortunately, by noon on the second day, the airship finally arrived at its first mission point within the Erasia region.

This was a sturdy fortress nestled amidst encircling mountains. The surrounding terrain was treacherous, with winding, precipitous peaks and deep ravines shrouded in mist, making it nearly impossible to discern what lay on the ground below. The airship docked beside the central structure: a colossal watchtower rising thirty meters high from the heart of the fortress.

The entire tower was constructed from massive logs as thick as washbasins—crude in appearance, yet exuding an unshakable solidity. The airship did not touch down, but hovered alongside the tower. A wooden plank was extended to form a gangway from ship to tower. Wind particles swirling around the hull howled like a miniature tempest, making each disembarking apprentice brave the roaring gale and the trembling plank beneath their feet. Every step was accompanied by a nervous tremor, both of the board and of their own hearts.

Gleem leaned over the ship’s rail and gazed down. All around the fortress, figures toiled away at arduous labor. Whether it was the burly men carrying enormous logs across the camp’s open spaces or the sentinels patrolling the outer walls with bows and spears at the ready, most were not human. Instead, they bore the heads of lions, tigers, or wolves—beastfolk of foreign races.

Humans made up only a scant minority, and even then, most acted as overseers. Gleem could not help but admire their nerve, watching these frail human foremen brandish whips and shout orders at the powerful “beastmen,” each of whom looked strong enough to crush a human skull with their bare hands. Yet the overseers showed not the slightest trace of fear, strutting about with the arrogance of those in command, treating their bestial charges harshly and without restraint.

Within the encampment, there were also individuals clad in gray robes—the garb of wizard apprentices. Their status was clearly far above that of both the laboring beastfolk and the human overseers. Wherever the gray-robed figures passed, the overseers would bow and scrape in fawning deference, while even the towering, muscular beastmen would stiffen in terror, bowing clumsily in fearful respect.

These beastfolk, Gleem surmised, must be the lesser-plane slaves subjugated by the world of wizards—no wonder they were so obedient and docile! Though formidable in build and strength, they lacked any extraordinary powers. In battle against those who wielded arcane forces, such as wizard apprentices, they stood little chance; even a basic apprentice could easily slay several beastmen. It was small wonder, then, that they held the wizard apprentices in such awe.

This was only a minor mission point, and only twenty or thirty apprentices disembarked—most were intermediate apprentices, with only two at the advanced level, and not a single pre-wizard.

Soon, under the numb and submissive eyes of countless beastfolk, the airship, battered by fierce winds, ascended once more into the sky, continuing its journey southward along the jagged mountain range.

After traversing countless mountains and rivers and soaring over tens of thousands of miles of primordial forest, the airship finally entered another human-inhabited region. The land below gradually became more level, and signs of human activity began to appear in abundance. Unfortunately, most of the mission points selected by the Scattered Towerlin Wizard Association were located on the outskirts of settled areas, so the airship did not penetrate deep into the heart of Erasia. Instead, it veered along the perimeter.

In the following two days, it stopped at five more mission points. By then, nearly half the original apprentices had disembarked. On the third day after Gleem’s boarding, the airship turned southwest, leaving the Erasia region behind and drawing near Bracada.

Compared to the gentle sunshine of Erasia, Bracada was a world cloaked in ice and snow. As soon as the airship entered this territory, the green below faded away, replaced by an endless expanse of white. Snowflakes drifted in the air, and the temperature plummeted. The hardier apprentices still left their collars open, proudly displaying their muscular physiques, while those less robust wrapped themselves tightly in their robes, each employing their own means to ward off the biting cold.

Gleem, with a constitution of only five, was certainly not hardy enough to ignore the chill. He could only summon fire particles to swirl about him, seeking some small measure of warmth.

Fortunately, the airship had no intention of plunging into the frozen heartland. Instead, it skimmed the snowy borderlands, stopping at three small frontier towns shrouded in white and dropping off more apprentices at each. By the time the airship swung eastward and sped straight ahead, fewer than fifty remained on deck: five pre-wizards, twenty-seven advanced apprentices, thirteen intermediate apprentices, and Gleem—alone as the sole basic apprentice.

After four or five days aboard the ship, Gleem was no longer as ignorant of the lands beyond the Magic Marsh as he had once been. The world he now found himself in was called “Lason,” the World of Wizards.

The Lason Plane was known throughout the multiverse as a rare large-scale plane, its power system singular and unified under wizards—a pure continent of magic. Its adversaries were other great planes suffused with alien powers: the Divine Planes guarded by gods, the Dragon Plane protected by dragon deities, the Goblin Plane with its advanced alchemical machinery, and the Lower Planes teeming with demons and devils.

Civilizations of the large planes were already highly developed. The Lason Wizard World had established a mature and complete wizard system, producing generation upon generation of powerful, qualified wizards who then used their might to expand outward, invading medium and small planes. Seizing resources and pillaging knowledge from other planes inevitably led to fierce conflicts and wars among the great powers. Thus, at its core, the world of wizards was a civilization of relentless aggression, perpetually at war.

These were only the outward dynamics of wizard expansion. Internally, there was no single power strong enough to unite all wizards; instead, the continent was divided by region among various factions. Four dominant powers held sway.

In the far north, the Witches of the Northlands presided over more than six million square kilometers, split into dozens of human kingdoms. While nobles and rulers in these realms were ordinary humans, each nation revered the Northland Witches as its protectors.

It could be said that whenever a Northland Witch rose above the fourth rank, she would gather followers, brave the wilds, and carve out a new kingdom all her own. Through the continual emergence of powerful witches, their domain steadily expanded into the untamed lands. Each new kingdom and every newly raised wizard tower marked the birth of another formidable Northland Witch. Masters of curses and prophecy, they belonged to the realm of rule-wielding wizards.

In the southwestern corner of the continent lay the domain of the Silver Alliance—a veritable paradise for arcane wizards. Composed of silver-robed magi, the Silver Alliance had amassed vast troves of alchemical knowledge and resources from countless planes, erecting magnificent floating cities and countless demi-plane fortresses for interplanar campaigns in the skies above.

Indeed, most of the alchemical armaments used in the world’s external conquests were provided by the Silver Alliance. Its members were like brilliant, mad engineers—mechanists and alchemists—who, with endless resources and a sea of knowledge, forged ingenious creations to fuel the world’s wars.

The far east belonged to the Pan-Continental Wizard Union, which encompassed nearly every kind of wizard. Utilizing a mature and systematic path of cultivation, as well as a shared knowledge base, the Union attracted many powerful wizards and formed a rigorously regulated, yet fair and just, organization.

Beyond these three principal powers, the densely populated central region of the continent was home to the rather loose Scattered Towerlin Wizard Association. Unlike the other three, this association lacked a clear direction or strong internal unity, functioning more as a coalition of wizarding families.

This was due to the nature of central Lason: vast and resource-rich, but with human settlements scattered and fragmented. Each enclave was a small state, often protected by one or a few wizard families—thus, the region was a patchwork of varying strengths.

To counter the incursions of the three bordering powers, the wizard families of the center banded together to form the Scattered Towerlin Association, pooling their strength to safeguard stability. In truth, the combined wizard power here could surpass any of the three neighboring factions, making central Lason the strongest in raw potential. Sadly, the association’s internal divisions, multitude of family branches, and rampant infighting left it far less formidable in local conflicts.

It was precisely for this reason that the association’s leaders had deliberately intensified the apprentices’ trials, leading to the perilous ordeal that now confronted Gleem.