Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Hill’s initially restless mind gradually calmed down during the day-by-day teaching.

Even hearing the news that the Iron Dragon was still flying freely outside, he showed no sign of concern.

Although the mage responsible for managing apprentices came to him with this obviously unusual news, Hill had no interest in pursuing who was behind it.

Anyway, as long as he stayed in his side tower, no one would trouble him... During this time, he had gradually replaced the defensive magic array in his side tower with a better version crafted from standard runes.

After completing the array, he conducted a few experimental attacks with a bit of force, so now those who should know are well aware.

Several apprentices of Gilbert’s senior brother really have keen insight... They specifically chose the day Hill did his experiment to greet him.

Although they didn’t enter, Hill still exchanged a few words with them as they expressed concern from outside the door.

With this matter as a foundation, Gilbert’s senior brother explicitly stated publicly before leaving that if they encountered any major problem they couldn’t solve, they should go to Mage Gilbert... he had already entrusted such words, and unless someone wanted to offend Gilbert, the mages would only target other apprentices.

Especially since Gilbert always appeared on the verge of death, yet bizarrely continued to show progress... and these days, the progress became more noticeable!

Some even dared to speculate whether Gilbert might survive the dangerous mental power potion.

Anyway, Hill originally intended for the people of the Tower of Dark Enigma to have an impression of Gilbert’s solid strength and opportunity, which is why he was this conspicuous.

After all, he would indeed succeed.

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After the Tower of Dark Enigma pursued that Iron Dragon for three months, Sia Tower could no longer maintain their aloof and calm demeanor.

No way, at the end of the day, it wasn’t just the Tower of Dark Enigma’s business; most magic towers... except for some fringe magic towers that never interacted with the outside world and played with corpses at home... were actually involved, investing most of their forces because of the Iron Dragon’s talents.

The final result was that everyone ended up being played for fools.

Most of the fiercely aggressive ordinary magic towers clearly lost steam, staying just to see if they could scavenge some leftovers behind those large magic towers.

However, even though large magic towers might persist for the sake of face, they’re likely to slowly lessen their efforts; some falsely reputed magic towers have already started going home... notably the Tower of Dark Enigma.

Although Hill’s teacher did not return, another tower master brought back two level 15 students.

The reason was quite convincing.

Gilbert’s senior brother was entirely right in his estimation; indeed, due to the Outer Tower mages confirming that the Inner Tower mages couldn’t return anytime soon, they played quite a few technical tricks over the three months, and these two genuinely had students killed.

Because of Hill’s presence, the apprentices from Archmage Ruth’s lineage remained stable.

The Outer Tower mages, after all, are still bound by an oath and couldn’t leave immediately, so they’d try their best to hide their actions.

Since Gilbert was willing to shelter a certain senior brother’s apprentices, it’s hard to determine if he’d also protect others... of course, the Outer Tower mages knew why only one spoke: to offer some thanks to a good student who needed protection from the start.

But if other apprentices sought help from Gilbert, he chose to step in and protect them, their teacher would have to pay some reward upon return.

Since Gilbert agreed to one, for the sake of camaraderie among senior brothers, he likely wouldn’t be cold enough to watch other apprentices die.

However, when these apprentices had people to complain to, only the dead would be the perfect victim.

Originally, Gilbert’s senior brother was willing to offer such a hefty reward, naturally thinking of potential trouble for Gilbert.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t need to send spells that even Sia Tower, and even Ruth would glance at.

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Hill was quite pleased with the return of these two.

Though it marked the Tower of Dark Enigma’s failure... failing externally while being fierce internally, it also cooled the tension within the tower significantly during this period of near-explosive atmosphere.

If things continued like this, even though some people still feared Hillbert’s presence, someone would eventually take action.

While Hill certainly wouldn’t fear these guys, he really didn’t want to act directly.

After all... even with Gilbert’s memories, Hill struggled to ensure he wouldn’t use excessive force.

Currently, he somewhat understood that being overly cautious was sometimes his flaw, yet he couldn’t control the worry about what to do if he couldn’t kill someone.

He really despised troublesome enemies escaping... It’s tolerable if they leave and don’t return, but facing foes like Rose is truly frustrating.

Hill is not Coron, playing out some melodramatic love-hate drama where he must let go, right?

However, during this time, he could determine his attack amplitude by observing these two.

Even at level 15, these two mainly used Sixth Circle Spells, rarely employing Seventh Circle Spells.

Without the Weave, the world indeed set high demands on mages.

Moreover, once spells reached the seventh ring, the difficulty almost tripled.

Thus, the seventh ring is always the mage’s watershed.

Mages who mastered Seventh Circle Spells had the potential to impact the ninth ring... otherwise, endless years would only achieve the eighth ring.

Else, mages wouldn’t have found playing with Meteor Summoning so challenging, not merely due to the universe closing off and most Earth Sect Magicians dying.

Of course, this might be a deliberate suppression by Sia Tower; even for the Lord of Hell, Ninth Ring Mages aren’t that easy to control.

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Despite the harsh environment of this world, Hill found it not too painful... after all, interactions among mages were relatively straightforward.

For instance, Gilbert completely disregarded other students’ apprentices, so nobody would blame you for your indifference to their students dying.

Even those two assuredly stronger than Gilbert.

This very boundary-conscious engagement style brought Hill immense pleasure, as he had suffered from overwhelming desire attacks in the previous world, affirming his unsuitability for deity-like overly sensitive, intense interactions.

Indeed, the initially unplanned path he insisted on choosing truly suited him.

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The disturbances outside could in no way affect the now quiet Tower of Dark Enigma.

The Iron Dragon continued flying around, the mages joining from Sia Tower increased from a few to dozens... the issue was not combat power, but the need to follow behind those mages disheartened by the erratic Iron Dragon.

Even those magic towers were hesitant in reporting the news.

But the mages sent by Sia Tower certainly dared not dismiss their boss’s inquiries.

When Hill heard Sia Tower dispatched a man with dead white skin, dazzling pink eyes, oily black hair, wearing an open black robe, and carrying a whip on his belt, he knew the Iron Dragon’s desired outcome had materialized.

Fengo personally chose to take action.

Upon seeing that magic book, he felt assured his assessment was spot-on... Sia Tower’s Electrocution Technique had a distinctive style, indeed, one might say very Fengo.

This individual was adept at using electrocution to torment devils, various low-level entities in hell, and survivor intruders, terming this skill ’Fengo’s Gentle Care’.

Hill recalled his past glory in using such care to make an Ancient Red Dragon that dared to invade Asmodier’s Nassus court see its skin soberly.

Thus, Hill could understand why the Red Dragon endured so long to bring Fengo out.

No camaraderie exists among Chromatic Dragons, but they won’t tolerate anyone boasting about their attacks on their kin as an accomplishment.

Though Chromatic Dragons wouldn’t offend the Lord of Hell over such matters, it’s not from want, but fear.

If given the chance, they’d surely take a strike.