Chapter 299: Supervisor of the Garden

The Tower Spirit's voice was mechanical and hollow, reaching Xia Duo's ears with absolute clarity, yet for some reason, it sounded a bit more lively now.

Arcane Garden? Back to his old trade? Xia Duo suddenly laughed; if Niya really let him go to the Arcane Garden to farm, that would be interesting.

Carrying the Pioneer Scepter, Xia Duo walked two steps outward, then turned his head back and said, "I'm leaving."

Niya tilted her body to the side and said nothing.

Seeing this, Xia Duo did not fuss over anything and left directly.

……

Arriving at the Arcane Garden, the first thing that caught his eyes was a scene of ruin; the warehouse that was originally not far from the entrance had completely collapsed.

And further away, the once lush plain wheat fields looked as if they had been overturned by some giant beast; almost no green could be seen on the ground, only gray-brown soil that had been turned up.

The winding river that ran through the entire Arcane Garden had also completely disappeared from sight; the only thing that looked unchanged was the hills in the corner.

Looking from afar, it was not hard to see that the fruit trees over there still maintained their past appearance.

At this moment, the Tower Spirit's mission notification arrived as promised—

"Mage Xia Duo, the Tower Master appoints you as the Supervisor of the Arcane Garden, responsible for organizing the Arcane Garden and restoring production as soon as possible!"

"Supervisor?"

Xia Duo looked at the ruined scene of the Arcane Garden, unable to stop himself from grumbling internally; it was more like a commander of a one-man army!

However, after grumbling, Xia Duo still asked the Tower Spirit about the situation of his subordinates, "How many people were assigned to me? Also, can I pick a few people myself?"

The Tower Spirit replied: "A total of 50 people belong to the Arcane Garden; they have been notified and are on their way. You can still summon two more people."

"Are the Apprentices Dien, Sami, and Dewan on that list of 50?" Xia Duo asked.

Organizing the Arcane Garden was not a difficult job, just one that consumed time and manpower; if he had the three of them, he would be much more at ease.

If he were lazier, like the previous Supervisor who didn't care about anything, it would be one thing, but now Xia Duo regarded the Tower of Time as his own home, so he was quite attentive to organizing the Arcane Garden.

"They are not. These 50 people are all Ordinary Apprentices; Official Apprentices have other tasks. You only have two summoning quotas."

The Tower Spirit rarely explained an extra sentence thoughtfully. Xia Duo had almost no hesitation and decided to summon Dien and Sami; after all, these two were the ones he was most familiar with.

As for Dewan, ever since he inexplicably became a believer of the Lord of Radiance, Xia Duo had felt a slight barrier toward him; although it wasn't a serious prejudice, he always felt a bit awkward.

Like Laidun, who was a believer of the Lord of Radiance from the start, Xia Duo didn't feel awkward; perhaps it was just the sudden change in someone around him that made him uncomfortable.

This reminded Xia Duo of a classmate in college who inexplicably joined some fellowship and was acting weird all day, and then everyone subconsciously distanced themselves from him.

A sudden change makes people feel like strangers, and coupled with the time spent in the Projection Plane, Xia Duo's impression of Dewan had remained at that sense of alienation from over a year ago.

With only two quotas, he would not choose him for now.

"Summon the Apprentices Dien and Sami! Tell the others to hurry up too!"

After speaking, Xia Duo cast 【Flight】 directly and flew toward the sky.

……

The Arcane Garden could be said to be the only "outdoor scene" within the Tower of Time; the results of Xia Duo's hard work last night were finally able to be manifested now!

After casting 【Flight】, Xia Duo felt his body become much lighter, as if he were a feather that could fly away with a gust of wind.

But this was actually an illusion; the reality was that the Magic made his body more "free," capable of being driven at will by his consciousness, to the point where he could fly in all sorts of incredible trajectories with a single thought.

It gave one the feeling that the stage is as big as one's heart.

However, the Arcane Garden was not a true outdoors after all; even staying on the ground, one could see the boundaries of the Arcane Garden at a glance, and once he flew into the sky, it felt even narrower.

Xia Duo flew whooshing from one end to the other, then whooshing back from that end to this one; what could compare to the freedom of flight!

There was no natural flowing wind in the Arcane Garden, and the sunlight was extremely intense, but under high-speed flight, he experienced a different kind of cooling sensation.

After flying a circle, Xia Duo saw seven or eight apprentices arrive at the entrance, and apprentices were still constantly walking out from the Elevator.

Now Xia Duo understood why the Tower of Time only had two elevator systems; the reason was that each batch of passengers was in a different space.

Just like now, people were walking out of the elevator continuously; clearly, they were not the same batch. It could only be said that multiple elevators existed simultaneously within the same elevator system.

Just like how multiple elevator cars exist simultaneously in an elevator on Earth.

The Principles behind this, Xia Duo did not yet understand, but he believed that sooner or later he would be able to figure it out; after all, this was his own Mage Tower!

The duration of 【Flight】 still had a little time left, so Xia Duo flew straight up into the sky; he had always been curious, since the Arcane Garden was inside a Mage Tower, how did it possess a sky and a sun?

Are this sky and sun real?

Now, he could finally verify it himself!

"Hmm?"

As he flew, Xia Duo suddenly discovered that the ground was no longer getting smaller. At first, he thought he had misjudged, but he kept flying and flying, and the ground never appeared to shrink.

It was as if the distance between him and the ground remained unchanged!

Xia Duo adjusted his flight direction downward, and he immediately discovered the abnormality. To verify his idea, he kept flying up and descending, testing repeatedly.

"Is it a Near-at-Hand World's End type of Spell? Or have I truly reached the limit of the space and been blocked?" Seeing that the duration of 【Flight】 was running out, Xia Duo pondered while descending.

The highest point one could reach here was only a few hundred meters high; although one could still fly further up, the space above seemed to have been cast with a spell similar to Near-at-Hand World's End, and one could never rise even another meter!

But this effect only restricted rising; it didn't mean that after flying upward for a period of time, one would have to experience it again to come down; the descent was not affected in the slightest.

"It seems this Arcane Garden is not just an expanded space for farming! Eh—"

Xia Duo suddenly thought of something. After landing from the sky, he stood still and didn't move, even closing his eyes.

Although the Personal Space existed within Xia Duo's consciousness—wherever his consciousness reached, it was omnipresent—to move items within the space, one still had to concentrate and maintain a focused state.

At this moment, Xia Duo was "pushing" the 【Blade of Veto】 inside his Personal Space to fly toward the edge of the space. Previously, Xia Duo had just treated the Personal Space as an empty box where he could take and place items at will, but now he had a new idea.