Chapter 83: Signal Tower

The Northern March was still covered in ice and snow in spring. Ace’s host body, after a transformation, quietly left the fortress.

The Monster Wilderness lay directly north of the fortress. It was composed of wastelands, sandy areas, marshes, forests, and home to a large number of common low-level Monsters and a small number of powerful low-level Monsters.

The fortress’s magical signal could only influence a small portion of the Monster Wilderness, leaving large areas blank. Ace needed to deploy a signal high tower to more effectively transmit information and monitor all magic base stations and Grimoires.

Ace carried the prepared components and planned to find a highland in the Larr Mountains to build the signal high tower, aiming for the magical signal to cover the entire Monster Wilderness.

A spur of the Larr Mountains extended to the edge of the Monster Wilderness, forming a peak that locals popularly called Mount Baal. Legend claims that a Demon Archon named Baal had his head severed by the God of Combat, and it transformed into this peak.

Ace transformed into an eagle in the uninhabited wilderness. Aided by the Soul Spell Flash Teleportation, he quickly reached the summit of Mount Baal.

“Caw!”

With a loud cry, the eagle circled the peak a few times, transformed back into Ace, and floated down. He carefully inspected the summit, casually killing a few unlucky common low-level Monsters.

Boom!

Perception Retrieval was fully activated. The entire mountain turned black and white. Because of his profound negative impression of the dark worshipers, Ace scanned it carefully several times but found no anomalies. The mountain itself was quite ordinary.

“It is likely just a folk legend passed down by the mountain dwellers. This location is centrally located on the northern boundary of the Monster Wilderness, directly opposite the fortress across the wilderness. It’s an ideal place to build a signal high tower.”

Ace muttered to himself. He began to consider how to build a concealed signal tower.

“The entire mountain is fairly sturdy. Why not hollow out the interior and use the whole mountain as cover?”

For the next few days, Ace gradually corroded and hollowed out the interior of the mountain. He used the Lesser Spell Mud-to-Stone to create several pillars to reinforce the inside of the mountain and embedded the main body of the signal tower within the mountain.

He manufactured over a dozen transmitters for the signal tower, disguising them as various types of rocks, flowers, trees, and mountain paths using the Imperfect Transformation Spell. After completing all this, Ace’s host body headed into the depths of the Larr Mountains to search for suitable materials for the blessing ritual.

Meanwhile, the mirror image Ace and Daina were fighting two Red Crystal Rabbits in the wilderness.

The Red Crystal Rabbit was the name the mirror image Ace gave it. This low-level Monster was crystalline red all over. It could absorb and store light and condense it into a beam with considerable lethality.

“Shield! Refraction!”

A transparent, wavy, concave Mana Crystal shield appeared in front of the mirror image Ace, directly refracting the light beam spat out by the Red Crystal Rabbit, accurately hitting it.

Daina was not idle. She used Thrust to charge forward and smashed the other Red Crystal Rabbit with a punch that carried immense power.

Ace stared at Daina’s hands. Her Mana Crystal Gauntlets flickered with a red light, indicating their extraordinary nature.

Initially, she did not maintain the Mana Crystal Gauntlets constantly, but Ace discovered that the Mana Crystal Weapons absorbed some fog-like residue, similar to residual souls, from the Monsters they killed.

At Ace’s suggestion, she tried to maintain the Mana Crystal Gauntlets for a long time and consciously siphon the residual soul fog into the gauntlets. Now, the Mana Crystal Gauntlets had transformed into this new state.

In the eyes of the mirror image Ace, these Mana Crystal Gauntlets were rare treasures!

With the continuous absorption of the residual soul fog, the gauntlets had begun to undergo a strange transformation.

Residual souls are different from the soul itself. Based on Ace’s observations, after a Monster dies, the core of its soul slowly dissipates into the unknown.

The remaining fog is the residual soul. Ace had done too little research on the soul, but that did not prevent him from utilizing the phenomenon.

He found that Mana Crystal Weapons, being special weapons imbued with the host’s Inherent Mana and will, could, to some extent, devour and assimilate the residual soul fog. He encouraged Daina to continuously experiment, and currently, the guinea pig’s results were excellent.

The entire Mana Crystal Gauntlet had transformed. Every attack carried soul damage, and the damage was growing stronger. A strange transformation was brewing inside the gauntlets, a rune structure Ace had never seen before was forming.

He was like an old farmer after sowing the seeds, diligently weeding, watering, and fertilizing every day, quietly awaiting the harvest.

“Teacher, why do you keep staring at me? It looks like there is a lot of movement in the swamp over there!” Daina said, turning her head awkwardly toward Ace.

“Eagle’s Sight!”

Accompanied by Ace’s strange, peculiar cadence and gesture, a surge of Mana rose from the surroundings and flew into his eyes.

Ace’s eyes instantly transformed, gaining the ultra-long-distance vision of an eagle.

“There is a team of Monster Hunters fighting a Deep Croc in the swamp ahead.” Ace described the scene.

“I really envy Magical Trickery. It seems absolutely omnipotent. I want to exchange for one later. Why did those people provoke the Deep Croc? It’s usually a very docile Monster.” Daina asked curiously.

“It is possible they provoked it on purpose.” Ace looked ahead. His Grimoire could track all contractors active in the Monster Wilderness, and one of them was in that team.

Perhaps the person wanted to hunt the Deep Croc and sacrifice it to exchange for points.

Ace had no intention of helping them. Everyone must be responsible for themselves. If this contractor died, Ace would only retrieve the Grimoire and nothing else.

“Collect the core Red Crystal from the Red Crystal Rabbits. That is worth 20 points. You should sacrifice it to me through the Grimoire to exchange for points. It’s getting late. Let’s head to the nearby camp and return to the fortress tomorrow for supplies and rest.”

Ace signaled Daina with his eyes. The two ran off quickly.

While running, Daina asked: “Why can’t I just give you the Red Crystal, and you give me the points?”

“Because that is the Wizard’s Principle I established!” Ace replied.

In the swamp, the red-haired contractor saw the charging Deep Croc and rolled sideways awkwardly.

“Damn it, I have the Grimoire. How can I die in a place like this?” He rolled sharply, grabbed a female Monster Hunter companion, forcefully shoved her toward the Deep Croc, and then turned back, running quickly in the opposite direction.

Accompanied by the companion’s desperate cries, another Monster Hunter raised a long bow and shouted: “Sulu! How dare you!!”

An arrow streaked across the air, stabbing Sulu in the back. He stumbled, his eyes turning vicious, but he continued to flee without looking back.

“Boss, let’s retreat too! We have to be alive to settle this score with Sulu!” The other muscular man, wielding a two-handed axe, fiercely swung it at the Deep Croc, creating a metallic clang that made the strong Deep Croc stagger.

“Fight and retreat. The Deep Croc won’t leave its nest for too long. We will settle the score with Sulu for betraying our companion sooner or later.”

Meanwhile, the mirror image Ace watched everything through his Grimoire, remaining silent.

People like Sulu are utterly self-serving. In some circumstances, they might actually go further down the path of Magic.

Ace was not worried. Subordinates must be loyal first. He would definitely not rely heavily on this person in the future Wizard organization and would even increase surveillance.

However, no one is useless. If someone seems useless, it only means the observer is not strong enough.

As long as Sulu could not threaten Ace, he could be exploited at certain times to achieve the desired objective.

I will keep him for now. I’ll take care of him when he becomes an annoyance.

The mirror image Ace made this pleasant decision. Sulu, on the other side, barely escaped with his life, crawling and rolling. As a Monster Hunter, making a fire in the wilderness was an essential skill. He quickly built a bonfire.

He fiercely pulled out the arrow from his back and used the scorching flame to cauterize the wound.

Gritting his teeth in pain, he muttered to himself: “I can’t go back to the camp.”

He looked at the first page of his Grimoire, at a passage that continuously flickered.

【The Choice of Path】

【Academic Wizardry Path: The brilliant light of knowledge illuminates the path ahead. Requires a high aptitude for research. Initial development is slow. Recommended for those who pass the Grimoire’s built-in General Knowledge exam.】

Sulu looked at the courses and examination interface with a headache. Although he had developed a basic understanding of Logic and Mathematics through the spoon-fed education from the Grimoire, looking at these courses still made his head ache. Moreover, he urgently needed to increase his strength immediately, which did not align with his needs.