Chapter 499: Stuart, the Art of War

The Giles Tower, one of the Seven Towers, is naturally extraordinary; of course, this is mainly reflected in its height and influence, but when it comes to the capabilities of the Mage Tower itself, it is perhaps inferior to the Tower of Time in many respects.

After all, the Tower of Time was built within the last hundred years, while the Giles Tower dates back to a much more distant past.

Upon entering the Giles Tower, Xia Duo saw apprentices coming and going in an endless stream, as well as Mages whose magic auras shone brightly and who were clearly carrying multiple Magic Items.

The overall number of people was far greater than at the Tower of Time, especially the number of Official Mages, which at first glance seemed even higher than that of the apprentices; although Xia Duo could not discern their specific levels, he could roughly infer a thing or two from the number of Magic Items on their persons.

There were likely no small number of Advanced Rank Mages.

The attraction of a Great Arcanist to Mages is indeed immense!

However, Xia Duo also inferred that the situation in ordinary territories within the Nether Core Region might not even be as good as the Tower of Time; after all, the closer one is to Seventon, the greater the possibility of talent being attracted.

It is estimated that apart from the territories of a few Great Arcanists, the Mages in those ordinary territories must have all run off. Even for the Tower of Time, being so far from Seventon, there would still be Mages leaving.

Especially those with exceptional talent, who yearn even more for the realm of a Great Arcanist; being able to get a little closer is also excellent.

……

Soon, the "old acquaintance" Archmage Greta appeared before Xia Duo and Niya; afterwards, Niya left, and Archmage Greta continued to lead Xia Duo toward their destination.

On the way, Archmage Greta instructed: "The ones you are to train are ten Arcanists from the Seven Towers. Her Highness the Princess attaches great importance to this project. If you can make these ten Arcanists ultimately emerge victorious, there may be unexpected gains."

"Yes, I understand!" Xia Duo nodded and replied.

Perhaps there was no reward given now because it was waiting to be given all at once after the victory; of course, if they lost, it might really be gone. Thus, Xia Duo also had to teach with dedication, even if only for the sake of the reward.

Along the way, the two exchanged polite pleasantries, and soon they arrived at the training room.

This was a room of about one hundred square meters, with a huge chess board carved into the floor in the center, upon which sat two sets of chess pieces from different factions.

At this moment, two players were standing at their respective commander positions, directing the pieces to engage in battle. This was the first time Xia Duo had seen his proposed plan put into practice, and the pieces had been made so quickly.

Every piece here was a Magic Item, containing a spell that could be repeatedly activated by the player, and all spells were relatively balanced, with only the side that moved first having a certain advantage.

But this portion of the advantage was not absolute; it could also be leveled out by the contest between the players.

In essence, this was actually still a Spell Duel, just with the addition of chess elements. If one fell completely behind in the Spell Duel, then even if the chess was played well, failing to capture pieces would still be in vain.

Therefore, it was impossible to use ordinary people as players; they had to be Spellcasters.

"Everyone, stop for a moment. Her Highness the Princess has invited the creator of the 【Arcane Maze】 to see you," Archmage Greta shouted aloud.

Subsequently, not only did the two Arcanists who were conducting spellcasting training in the center of the training room stop, but the other eight Arcanists who were playing ordinary chess on the side also stopped.

Archmage Greta alone was not enough to command these ten Arcanists, but she was the closest subordinate to Her Highness the Princess, representing the Princess herself to a certain extent, and these Arcanists naturally dared not disobey.

Additionally, there was the reason of Xia Duo.

Having received the plan long ago and trained for many days, the Arcanists always had a feeling of wanting more. Although the rules of the 【Arcane Maze】 seemed simple, they felt that very profound principles were contained behind them.

The more they trained, the more unfathomable they felt it was, and at the same time, they became increasingly interested in Xia Duo, the creator.

Hearing Archmage Greta's words, one Arcanist immediately could not wait for the distance of those few steps and directly cast a spell to teleport in front of Xia Duo. First, he nodded to Archmage Greta in greeting, then looked at Xia Duo and asked:

"You are Xia Duo? How are you so young? Is this 【Arcane Maze】 really created by you?"

The young Xia Duo clearly did not match their previous private speculations; they felt that someone who could create such a profound chess game must be an old Mage full of Wisdom, not a young man who looked only in his twenties.

"This lord, I—"

"Wait!" The Arcanist who spoke before immediately interrupted Xia Duo's words. "No need to call me lord, just call me Stuart. I come from Morien. Hurry and tell me how you created this Arcane Maze."

While speaking, the other few Arcanists also gathered around. Being surrounded by so many Arcanists all at once, Xia Duo was indeed a bit nervous, but he also saw that these people had no malice. After all, being able to represent Netheril in the Snow Melting Competition, they were certainly the best among the Seven Towers.

Looking at their ages, they were actually not much older than Xia Duo, barely counting as the same generation. To achieve such accomplishments, the time spent on Magic must have been far more than the time spent on scheming.

In a sense, although they possessed more powerful strength, their minds should be much simpler than those of ordinary wandering Mages.

Of course, Xia Duo certainly would not treat them as completely naive little rabbits.

"Everyone, regarding the Arcane Maze, I have actually already stated it very clearly in the plan submitted to Her Highness the Princess. It comes from my hometown, a type of game used to simply simulate war. I only slightly modified it and dare not claim to be the creator."

"No wonder I always felt the 【Arcane Maze】 had a strange feeling; so it is war. It seems your hometown, Mage Xia Duo, has a very martial style!"

Xia Duo smiled slightly. It was more than just martial; over thousands of years, it had almost never stopped fighting. The strategies and philosophies born around war were countless. This was far higher in realm than any so-called fighting race.

One mostly relies on the courage of a brute, while the other has already played war to the level of art; they are completely not on the same gear.

……

The meeting between the two sides went very smoothly. Next, Xia Duo stayed at the Giles Tower, going to train those ten Arcanists every morning and immersing himself in the Library in the afternoon.

Although his Permission Level was not high, he could still see many books that the Tower of Time did not have, especially some of the latest writings; even just seeing a name was a kind of gain.

Just like this, time passed day by day, and Xia Duo became increasingly restless.

At the Giles Tower, he could not spend half a day on Meditation and could only do it in his spare time. The efficiency was far inferior to when he was at Linshui Village, but even so, he was still constantly making progress.

Even because of this faint sense of urgency, his efficiency per unit of time actually improved quite a bit.

It was not until mid-April, when Xia Duo had been here for nearly half a month. Looking at the current arrangements of the Giles Tower, perhaps they wanted him to stay until the Snow Melting Competition, but he wanted to advance to Advanced Arcanist before the Snow Melting Competition; this was a natural conflict.

This day, after the training ended, Xia Duo did not head to the Library to read books but instead found Archmage Greta to explain his intentions.

Unsurprisingly, the Archmage refused, but Xia Duo argued his case on reasonable grounds.