Chapter 100
Xerath stood for a while, then whispered a few words in Sylas's ear. Sylas looked up and smiled at her, and also whispered something very quietly.
They weren't too far apart, but the ringing in his ears from the teleportation made it hard for him to hear clearly.
Xerath took the lead and walked forward, finding the counter and getting three forms. After signing them, she handed them back to the counter. Virgil couldn't help but ask, "How much money do you actually have in your teleportation account?"
"I save some money every time I come to the city, don't worry. When it starts running low, they will send me a letter to remind me to pay."
"I guess it's definitely more than what Sylas has."
Xerath put her arm around Sylas's shoulder and said, "Every mage who rents a Portal spot and uses a teleportation array gets a special discount, and Sylas is worth at least one Aimekotes. Don't underestimate her."
"I definitely won't." Virgil raised his hands.
"...So, how much is an Aimekotes worth?" After a moment of uncertain silence, Sylas couldn't help but ask.
"Well, the cost of those eight stones is probably over ten thousand gold coins each."
Virgil looked down and whispered in Sylas's ear, "You multiplied it by eighty!"
Xerath pulled Sylas over to her other side.
"Teacher, do you think it's still okay? I mean, teleporting."
"I'm fine, thank you. If I'm not, I promise I'll let you know. Please don't worry too much about me, okay?"
"Okay..."
After waiting for a while, about half an hour, a staff member gave each of them a teleportation runestone. Sylas held it in her hand, but that meant she couldn't hold Xerath's hand anymore.
"Why do we need this?"
"Tabletop Mountain City is beyond the safe distance for teleportation, so we need a positioning rune. I'll help you carry the box, and if you're scared, just hold onto me, okay?"
Sylas shook her head, held her own box in her arms, held onto the runestone in her hand, and tightly grasped Xerath's hand with her other hand. She wasn't scared, but she didn't want to explain much either. She was just worried that Xerath's body couldn't handle teleporting twice. After all, she had teleported too many times in the past few days. If she had asked Leunen to go and ask Hyectra yesterday, they would've surely gotten the information they wanted. But the past couple of days, she was too preoccupied with figuring out why Xerath's attitude towards her had subtly changed. Now, the two water lords hardly had any chance to be alone together.
"Please close your eyes," the staff politely reminded. After a dizzying moment of everything going black, Sylas felt the ground under her feet again. She noticed that Xerath's body swayed heavily, so she set aside her own suitcase and used both hands to support her.
A bright blue tentacle grabbed hold of the small suitcase. Leunen extended a water line from the Elemental Realm and poked Sylas, but she was too busy to pay attention. As a result, Leunen had no choice but to put down the suitcase and retreat back into the Elemental Realm.
"Xerath, what's been going on with you lately?" Virgil finally noticed something unusual. "Has it been since that evening...?"
The archmage glared at him, silencing him and making him swallow his words.
Sylas asked, "Which evening? What happened?"
The archmage replied, "Nothing much, just a big storm that kept me from sleeping well."
"Really? Now that I think about it, that storm was a bit strange. It came and went too quickly. Maybe its mysterious elemental magnetic field had some kind of effect on you that ordinary people wouldn't experience," Virgil speculated, while reminiscing.
"Don't dwell on these things, Virgil. It's time for you to focus on more important matters."
"Yes, yes, ma'am. Give me the list."
Xerath took out a small notebook from somewhere on her body and handed the paper inside to Virgil, saying "Don't lose it, it's the only copy."
"Okay, okay." Virgil muttered to himself about the strange habits of the magician as he walked out, hastily signing the form and leaving.
Now there were only the two of them left. Sylas jumped up and down excitedly and asked, "Are we going to get the measuring gauge now?"
"Yes, could you take charge of this task?"
Sylas hesitated for a moment. Her initial reaction was to refuse as she didn't really like dealing with strangers. But she thought that Xerath might not be feeling well and shouldn't be the one to go, so she summoned her courage and pretended to agree, saying, "Okay, of course!"
She ran to the counter and asked where to get the geomagnetic measurement gauge. The person there asked her to fill out a form. Nervously, she filled in "Sylas Hevel" in the applicant field.
The person took the form, raised their glasses, furrowed their brows, and looked at it for a while before saying, "I'm sorry, you must have magician qualifications to apply for this."
Sylas was shocked and turned around to find Xerath.
Xerath was originally looking elsewhere, but coincidentally, just as Sylas turned her head, Xerath turned towards her and caught her pleading gaze. Xerath got up and walked over, placing a hand on her shoulder and asking, "What's wrong?"
The other person saw the colorful silk thread on her collar and stood up straight, saying, "Oh, oh, madam, I'm sorry, but only formal mages can apply for the measuring device. Apprentices cannot."
Xerath also frowned and asked, "When did this happen?"
"At the end of last year, madam, but this rule really exists." He picked up a sheepskin paper with a seal from the Oversight Committee and showed it to Xerath.
"Let me sign," she said, raising her hand and crumpling the paper that Sylas had filled out. The crumpled paper flew into the trash can on its own, as if the wind everywhere was the same.
She filled in her own name and reluctantly took out her archmage gold badge to prove her identity. The badge startled the other person, who looked at Xerath and the badge repeatedly with a slightly frightened expression. Finally, they respectfully returned the badge to her.
The measuring device is a set of test tubes filled with stones, held in a wooden frame. It is quite heavy. Sylas instructed the Earth Child to hold these wooden frames and counted them. There were ten in total.
"Do we need to take so many?"
"Is there any extra stone?"
"Ah...please wait!"
Xerath guessed that there would be some damage during transportation. Wood is something that can be found everywhere, and glass is fragile during shipping. Only stones, carefully packed by the local guild, are guaranteed to arrive intact. Some stones are definitely damaged during transportation.
As expected, the staff brought out several severely damaged pieces and asked Xerath if she wanted them. Xerath nodded and signed another form, then left with two Earth Children, Sylas and someone carrying heavy objects.
"You didn't ask what the broken stones are for, did you already have a guess?" Xerath asked as they walked to Virgil.
"Yes, I guessed they are used to measure the range of the Earth's veins, to ensure accurate readings."
"You think a lot."
"Shouldn't I?"
"Of course, you should. It's just that I think it's hard for beginners to do so. Please keep it up." Xerath couldn't hide her satisfaction on her face, and she actually had a lot of praise to give.
"Hey, Xerath, you have a sweet smile!" Virgil suddenly appeared from the street corner, waving his hand, his stubble making him look more like a villain than anyone else on the street. "Come this way, we're getting ready to leave the city."
Near Tabletop Mountain City, there is a mountain with a flat top. The entire city is built below the flat top, giving it its name. However, they don't need to go to the distant plateau. Instead, they will leave the city from the east, which is completely a plain. The only thing that breaks the plain are some mini "tables" - small hillocks with flat tops.
Very strange landscape, Sylas looked around as she walked and said, "I feel like I've been here before."
"Have you been here too?"
Virgil chimed in, saying, "That's not strange. We entered the city from here before, but we can still turn back now if you want. The Hunter's Guild is not far from the east city gate."
"No, we're not going back." Xerath said, her face coldly keeping Virgil away with her Earth Child.
"Just kidding, don't be mad, archmage."
"Don't call me archmage when we're outside."
"Yes, ma'am."
"No... entering the city is in the opposite direction, with different scenery. I remember it being this way."
Xerath guessed that she probably saw it while fleeing, and she hugged her shoulder tightly, whispering, "Don't worry about it."
"I envy the wizards," said Earth Child as they walked ahead. When they were halfway through their journey, the two wizards sat on Earth Child because the road was difficult. The elemental creatures carried their luggage, which felt almost weightless.
"You can do it too, don't say you forgot how to summon Earth Child."
"Not every time is successful, so over time, we basically forgot."
"Yeah, why doesn't Virgil use Earth Child to carry the bow?"
Virgil opened and closed his mouth a few times, then finally decided on his words. "Old friend, could you please explain to the little beast what 'ordinary people' really means?"
Xerath shrugged. "Earth is an inert element, you already know that. It means it's the most difficult to control and doesn't easily respond to the summoner's call. Opening the Earth Elemental Realm is also a challenging task. For someone like Virgil, who is not favored by the elements, summoning an earth elemental has a very low success rate."
Virgil reached out and shook the ground.
"At the same time, when you control elemental creatures, you need to have some kind of connection with them. They told me that sometimes this bond needs to be maintained with great concentration, or else they will return to the Elemental Realm. Tabletop Mountain City is not very far from the Elemental Gate, and the elements are quite active here, so you may not have this feeling."
"Oh..." Sylas responded vaguely, somewhat grasping the feeling. For example, when she accidentally blew up the tower and summoned small Earth Children, as long as she ignored them, they would find a hole in the wall to hide in.
She asked Xerath if it was just that kind of feeling, but she didn't expect the Archmage to also find it difficult to describe, "Almost, it's just that feeling when you don't have time to pay attention to them, they would run away."
Virgil thought these two people were simply unreasonable and desperately hoped for a "regular person" to truly join the team.
But he was sure it wouldn't happen, not even Titus came this time. Bringing it meant having to bring extra food, and Titus was not the type of hardworking animal. If you didn't give it food, it would start rolling around and playing tricks.
Virgil walked ahead feeling lonely, while the Earth Child with immense strength dutifully carried the two high-ranking elemental envoys.
