Chapter 516: Iolum

Sitting down with Niya in the Giles Tower section, Xia Duo finally had the time to properly examine this Arena. Similar to modern stadiums on Earth, this Arena was also a circular structure with seats distributed all around, the seats becoming higher the further out they were.

The entrance direction was empty, as if the circle had a gap, and in the direction directly facing the entrance, there were only three seats, clearly the seats for the representatives of the three parties in this Snow Melting Competition.

On both sides of the three representatives, there were some "second-tier noble" seats; it was unclear who would sit there, and currently, not a single person was there.

In the very center of the Arena was the battle platform; the Central Plaza of Savile Town also had a battle platform, which could be made to appear or disappear through relevant Magic Arrays.

However, the battle platform here in the Arena was already prepared; it was diamond-shaped and looked even smaller than the one in Savile Town. Xia Duo couldn't help but wonder, was a space this small enough for Spellcasters to move around in?

……

The entire Arena was permeated with the aura of Magic everywhere; not to mention the restructured Magic Net environment, even the Arena itself might have been shaped by Magic—stone, light cyan, and seamless.

Xia Duo casually tapped the seat beneath him with the Pioneer Scepter; although it looked like stone, it emitted a crisp, metallic sound. It wasn't just Xia Duo; other Spellcasters who had entered were also looking around here and there with great curiosity.

Before long, in the direction of Xia Duo, near the battle platform, a white light suddenly flashed, and a Spellcaster appeared there. Immediately following that, teleports were activated one after another.

In every direction of this ring-shaped Arena, near the battle platform, people were continuously teleporting in. Besides humans, there were also Dwarves and Elves.

Was it finally about to begin? Xia Duo subconsciously clenched his hands. He didn't know how many Great Arcanists would come; until now, he had only seen two Great Arcanists with his own eyes, and the others were only heard of or read about in books.

He had not been able to see them in person.

There was some regret, but also relief.

In a moment, perhaps multiple Great Arcanists would appear. Even knowing they wouldn't target him, Xia Duo still felt somewhat nervous; this was the pressure brought about by unequal power.

Before long, the frequency of teleportation began to slow down. It seemed that everyone who was supposed to arrive had arrived, and only those big figures were missing.

At this moment, Xia Duo deliberately counted. On the human side, there were only about a few hundred people who looked like Spellcasters—over four hundred, less than five hundred. This was just counting those who had just teleported in; those who walked in from the entrance were not included.

If those were included, it would be about 800 or 900 people.

As for those not dressed as Spellcasters, there were only twenty or thirty.

That was for the humans. On the Dwarf side, there were only thirty in total, one of whom sat in the "second-tier noble" seats on the sides of the three main seats. These Dwarves were almost all wearing armor and carrying hammers; they were short and had no necks, looking just like a barrel with a hammer hanging on the side.

Xia Duo did not understand how these Dwarves managed to establish a foothold in the world of Magic. It was a fact that the Netherese lacked Mithril; if the Dwarves were all "Warriors," they would never be able to withstand the Netherese Mages taking things by force.

Perhaps the Dwarf Mages were dressed like this.

From afar, Xia Duo could not judge whether those armors and weapons were Magic Items, but being able to sit in the second-tier seats next to the three main ones, that Dwarf must have had extraordinary qualities.

On the Elf side, the number was much larger. They teleported in batch after batch, about two or three hundred, ten times that of the Dwarves.

Xia Duo didn't find it strange that the Elves had this many people, because the Elf population was large to begin with; the population of the Yierlan nation alone exceeded that of Netheril.

Only two or three hundred Elves coming this time was considered few.

However, Xia Duo also noticed that among the Elves present, more than half were Gold Elves; the other Moon Elves and Wood Elves mostly sat around them, and some were even mixed in among the humans.

Currently, in the second-tier seats, only the Dwarf carrying a hammer was sitting there foolishly; the humans and Elves had not yet arrived.

Just as Xia Duo was wondering if there was some unexpected situation, the last batch of teleports ended. Eight humans and four Elves appeared almost simultaneously.

And when these eight humans and four Elves appeared, almost all the humans and Elves stood up, and Xia Duo was no exception.

Among these eight humans was the Princess whom Xia Duo had seen, but the other Great Arcanist he had met, Bailun, did not appear. Except for the Princess, the others were all new faces.

However, from the emblems on their Mage Robes, Xia Duo still recognized their identities. If nothing went wrong, they were the seven Great Arcanists of the Seven Towers, and the last one—

It was actually the emblem of the Yiaole Mu Ling!

Although Xia Duo had no research on the emblems of Territories, he would pay extra attention to the one he was interested in. The person who arrived this time should also be a Great Arcanist, but Xia Duo could not be sure if he was Iolum himself.

The Yiaole Mu Ling had two Great Arcanists; one was Iolum himself, and the other was his student, Buluode. He did not go to open up a separate Territory like Saville, but built his Mage Tower in the Yiaole Mu Ling.

Although this person looked middle-aged and could be Buluode, since he knew that there might be a 【Yiaole Mu Chang Sheng Shu】 in the future, presumably the current Iolum also had his ways regarding Longevity.

Then the possibility of it being Iolum himself was not small.

"Niya, do you see the one with the Yiaole Mu Ling emblem on his clothes? Do you know which lord he is?" Xia Duo leaned close to Niya's ear and asked in a low voice.

Niya's great-grandfather Saville was a student of Iolum; perhaps he might have left behind some information.

"He is Lord Iolum himself. Great-grandfather left behind a portrait of his teacher!" Niya's tone was somewhat excited. She had heard stories of Iolum when she was very young, and could even be said to have grown up listening to stories about Iolum.

Whether it was the teacher of her great-grandfather, the outstanding mentor who taught two Great Arcanists, the brilliant achievement of fighting the Orcs and nearly eliminating the Orc Tide in the Nether Core Region, or even certain magical, exclusive Spells.

There were too many legends about Iolum! But ever since the main force of the Orcs was wiped out, Iolum rarely appeared again. There were even rumors in the outside world that Iolum had already died, but Niya had never believed such rumors.

Watching Niya's excited appearance like a fan seeing an idol, Xia Duo felt a bit awkward, but in fact, he was also very excited inside; it was this person who started the Golden Age of Netheril.

The 【Nether Core】, simply comparable to Controlled Nuclear Fusion on Earth, was high-power, infinite energy; there were truly too many things that could be done with it.

Xia Duo could guess the Principles of the 【Nether Core】; it was probably similar to Arcane Fire, capable of drawing energy from the Magic Net, or even directly from the Inner Plane, but Arcane Fire could not be stored independently, and no one even knew how to store it.

There was no theory, no concrete technology, and they didn't even know how to begin research.

He didn't believe that besides him, no one had ever thought of making a Magic Item with Arcane Fire to specifically produce Arcane Crystals, but so many Mages had not researched it, yet it was Iolum who researched the 【Nether Core】.

Besides being a genius, what other explanation was there?

Of course, the 【Nether Core】 had not yet been released, and as for whether it had been researched, only Iolum himself knew.

Watching Iolum slowly take his seat, Xia Duo's mood also gradually calmed down, and he pulled Niya to sit down as well.

(End of chapter)