Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Chapter 376: Chapter 175 Hill Wants to Watch a 3D Blockbuster

Fran glanced at the mages being dragged out of the Forest Array by the Guardians and sighed silently.

”William’s Illusion Magic Array uses the human heart,” he said.

Everyone responds differently, leading to completely different outcomes.

The darker the heart, the more extreme the reactions and the more terrifying the things seen.

Being selfish is fine, but if you harm others without benefiting yourself, you might come face to face with the Evil God.

Adrian hadn’t seen it, but Fran heard William describe it as a legend from their world.

Fran wondered what the people of that world were thinking, to conjure up such revolting things; he felt it was best not to see any of it with his own eyes.

Perhaps the God of Smithing saw the most disgusting version of it; otherwise, given the extent of his evil, how could he have been scared?

The interest of the Goddess of the Silvermoon in the construction of this Illusion Array didn’t come from the nauseating aspects William thought of, but rather from how it tailored different outcomes based on people’s emotional reactions, which was of great help to Her Illusion Magic.

Fran thought about what exactly was taught in William’s world, feeling that William made this ”heart-refining magic array” sound so simple to achieve, yet even the Goddess could only manage it to this rough extent.

It was only because these people were so easily startled by the sudden appearance of the dead, that their emotions were so easily sensed.

Adrian only felt disgusted, but Fran didn’t know what these mages had seen.

They might have already entered the Abyss; otherwise, why would they rush directly towards Hill’s Forest Array?

It was fortunate that they retained a mage’s instinct to find the safest place when they didn’t understand what was happening.

But it was surprising that not a single one realized this was an Illusion Array.

As mages, to be frightened to the point of fainting, the Mage Association would probably capture all these fools and remold them if they knew.

It’s too embarrassing.

”I’m no different. Had I not known this world would be ruled by kind deities in the future, I wouldn’t have so readily agreed to temporarily sever my ties with the Mage Association,” he said, looking back at Adrian, ”Let’s see how things go after they clean up the Mage Association. I don’t think His Majesty the King is someone easy to deal with.

If they continue with their old ways, they’re likely to meet misfortune.”

Adrian asked, ”Old ways? How do you know about them?”

”Those of the Legendary Laws, none are good. By letting these people cause trouble and collude with Evil Forces, and only stepping in to clean up the mess after it’s too far gone, it’s much simpler to just kill everyone off than investigating little by little. They can even conveniently recruit a bunch of mages with clean backgrounds to continue working for them.

It’s happened before, but silently, with few being cleared out.

If the bar for mages is so low that even they can’t tolerate it, you should understand what those people must have done.

But this time it’s different. They’ll need to purge quite a few if they want to get along under the eyes of these kind or Neutral Deities.”

Adrian fell silent; he had no desire to get involved.

Adrian knew that Fran, though not very knowledgeable about court struggles or the invisible war between nobles, was very adept in matters within the circle of mages.

And after studying for so long, Fran’s decision showed that the Mage Association was now a ticking Alchemical Bomb, bound to explode eventually.

”Is this something that’s about to happen?” he couldn’t help asking.

”If His Majesty the King wasn’t so keen on investigating, it probably could’ve lasted a few hundred years before trouble arose. But now, those of the Legendary Laws are growing impatient. They no longer care if innocents get involved,” Fran said with a cold laugh, ”So you’ll stay here for the time being, and release your Magic Tower tomorrow.

”Once this city is built, you’ll stay here; I’ll talk to His Majesty the King about it. After all, you don’t have much to do at the Alchemy Academy anyway. If really necessary, let those students come here to learn!”

Adrian quickly nodded in agreement, then was handed a pile of blueprints.

William wasn’t planning to start building the city yet, actually waiting for the moss below to grow properly.

Having seen it a few times, Fran figured it would only be a matter of days.

Since Adrian was staying, he had to demonstrate sufficient capability.

Even though everyone knew he was avoiding issues, it shouldn’t be so obvious that even ordinary people could see it.

Adrian was different from Hill; Hill didn’t have to worry about the Mage Association at all, not because he was a Magician, but because his status as a Legendary Laws quadruple-elementalist made the higher-ups of the Mage Association reluctant to provoke him.

Adrian, who still needed to spend a lot of time at the Magister stage, couldn’t afford to bluntly refuse requests from the Mage Association.

The group in the Mage Association would definitely not give up on bringing Fran’s lineage into their ranks; if they saw even a slight chance, Adrian could be unlucky.

Fran had to leave a secure path for Adrian.

Without any miracles, Adrian would likely have to spend the rest of his days in this world.

Although it was a little regrettable, considering others couldn’t even take in a student capable of becoming legendary, Fran was quite satisfied.

Fran’s requirement for Adrian was to pass down their Alchemy School lineage.

Even if he could not take in any students capable of becoming Legendary in the future, the least he could do was ensure the school did not perish.

Fran knew that no matter how dissatisfied deities like William were with the mages of this world, they couldn’t affect the foundation of the Mage Association.

Mages, by nature, are in opposition to the deities.

Even the God of Time and Space and William, who are considered quite reasonable among the deities, don’t care about mages exploiting the laws of magic, as long as the mages don’t commit evil acts, at least not blatantly.

But it’s impossible for mages to achieve that.

Mages have always believed that all magical research is justified, and no matter what harm it causes, they should not be condemned.

For hundreds of thousands of years, there haven’t been any powerful deities in this world, and mages educated under orthodox teachings don’t revere the deities at all.

Fran is no exception, his moral baseline is just slightly higher than that of the average mage,

Fran knows his current alignment is neutral, only because he has a grandson who is a Nature Warlock, with whom he has done many deeds that are meaningful to the world.

He used to lean a bit towards evil himself.

During his travels in the wilderness, not to mention killing people in droves, at the very least, he lost count. After all, in the wilderness, it was normal to strike immediately at anything perceived as a threat.

Moreover, killing too many Magical Beasts also affects one’s alignment.

The baseline for a normal mage is actually around Melanie’s level.

Perhaps one-fifth of the Mage Association’s normal mages?

Fran shook his head, deciding not to think about this anymore.

He looked towards the window, where Hill was gently tapping on the glass. Seeing Fran’s gaze, he squeezed out a sycophantic smile.

Fran helplessly nodded for him to come in, watching him dash straight to Adrian’s side.

”Uncle Adrian!” Hill grabbed the arm of the surprised Adrian who looked up, ”Did you see that Illusory Realm?”

”Didn’t you see it?” Adrian asked in surprise, ”I remember you didn’t get a Sobering Bracelet.”

”The Goddess of the Silvermoon gave me her blessing!” Hill said somewhat dejectedly, ”Unless it’s a power beyond Hers, I can’t see any illusion. I don’t understand any Illusion Spells at all.”

”Apart from Silvermoon Sorcerers, how many human mages understand Illusion Magic,” Adrian commented, ”You’re better off not having seen it. I wasn’t very scared, just disgusted.”

Hill couldn’t help but tilt his head, his face full of curiosity.

”It was His Majesty the King’s idea, executed by the Goddess of the Silvermoon.

It started with rotting corpses crawling out of the ground, which could be killed, but their numbers would just increase, to the point where the entire land was covered with that disgusting stuff.

Whether it was humans or Magical Beasts, getting scratched or bitten would turn them into the same thing.

Then you’re painfully aware of your own body slowly decaying.

I saw up to that point. While flailing around, my teacher put on the bracelet, and I woke up.

Actually, I didn’t think death was so scary; it was just that feeling that was so revolting.”

Hill shouted ”Ah!” loudly, with surprise on his face, but no disturbance in his heart.

It was just the walking dead, wasn’t it? Who hadn’t seen that!

”You’re a Nature Warlock, of course you wouldn’t find it scary.” Adrian didn’t find Hill’s calm reaction surprising; after all, the boy hadn’t seen it with his own eyes and certainly wasn’t afraid of anything evil.

Adrian guessed that if Hill had seen those things, his first reaction would be to plant Sunflowers.

”By the way,” Adrian said seriously to Hill, ”when I die, be sure to ask Mr. Hill to set up a Purification Array at my grave, one that exists eternally.”

Hill blinked in surprise and readily agreed before asking, ”Is our world also going to have problem?”

”The Goddess of the Silvermoon said it would, although it might not happen for hundreds of thousands of years,” Adrian sighed, ”Although I suspect I’ll just be dust by then, who knows if there might be an exception! Without that Purification Array, I’m afraid even after death I’d end up in the Abyss.”

The outspoken Adrian was hit with a cup thrown by Fran.

Hill couldn’t help but snicker. What a big shock Adrian must have suffered! To speak such nonsense even in front of Fran.

Although mages don’t fear death, they don’t like to hear their students idly talking about ’death this, death that’ constantly.

But now he was a bit curious to see what the Illusory Realm was like, what should he do?

It must be better than so-called 3D blockbusters.

Hill eagerly looked at the Crystal Ball on Fran’s desk.

The moment he came in, he noticed that it was the control center for the Illusion Array.

”Forget it, you can’t watch it,” Adrian bluntly told him, ”otherwise I wouldn’t have gone into the Illusory Realm to suffer myself.”

Hill kept quiet, figuring the Undead Tribe must be able to see it.

When he got back, he would ask Old Cat if there was a live broadcast of the Illusory Realm.

Even if it wasn’t as terrifying as being there in person, it would still satisfy some of his curiosity.