Chapter 412: Not Gonna Run!

"What about the main thing?" Adrian asked. "What if I do find out exactly how they manage to get so many mages?"

"Then you will be allowed to choose any book from the Magic Tower’s deepest restricted archives."

Adrian nodded. He leaned back in his chair slowly.

"Well, I am not really interested in the books that you guys have. So this is not really a good transaction for me. I want something else."

Hearing this, the Elder looked surprised.

"What do you wish to have? We have a lot of things that we can give you. Gold, magical weapons, artifacts.... almost everything that a man can imagine."

Adrian shook his head.

"I do not want that. What I do need is a pass to enter the Magic Tower itself. I want to become a student of the Magic Tower, along with my daughter and a few of my aides."

The Elder stared at him, looking genuinely shocked.

"You want to enter the Magic Tower at your age?"

Adrian just nodded. "Why? You do not think it is a good idea?"

The man shook his head slowly.

"Well, when we do take in students, we start when they are five years old. They are made to completely forget their families so their loyalty lies with the Magic Tower."

The Elder paused, thinking it over.

"But... if you do manage to find the main answer, the real reason why they have so many mages, then yes. We will allow you to bring people with you to the Magic Tower. We do have a specific curriculum for those who wish to attend the Magic Tower later in life, but not a lot of people pass the tests. We have an academy of our own inside the tower and you can attend that."

He looked at Adrian seriously.

"In fact, I will give you a pass not just for you, but for everyone that you wish to bring with you. And this pass will allow you to enter any Magic Academy you wish, not just the one based on this specific continent."

Adrian raised an eyebrow.

"You actually have that kind of power? Aren’t you just an elder?"

The Elder chuckled.

"The elders of the Magic Towers have a lot of power in their hands. There is a lot of things that we can do. And I definitely have the power to make the decision to give anyone an admission."

Adrian nodded. "So that is the true value of the knowledge that you need."

"Even a little bit of new knowledge can give rise to a complete revolution," the Elder said. "One completely different way of using magic can give rise to multiple new branches of magic. That basically means much more possibilities, major breakthroughs in magic research, and much, much more. This information can be extremely useful to us."

He sighed softly.

"And it is not just us. There are other Magic Towers from different continents who are sending people over to this exact same continent. Three Magic Towers, to be accurate. We have two neighboring continents who have the same gaseous properties of mana that we have here. Their Magic Towers are also incredibly strong and thousands of years old. All three of us seek this same exact knowledge and we just specialize in different areas. If we get our hands on this first, it means we will hold a level of control over the other two. We will have more bargaining power. So yes, this is very important."

Adrian nodded.

"I see. I will keep that in mind. Is there anything else?"

"No," the Elder said. "The time when we will start the expedition is in exactly a month’s time. So settle everything that you have and settle everything that you need over here. Be prepared with your group and remember, you have six to ten people that you can bring with you."

Adrian immediately shook his head.

"Wait. I am not going to bring my strongest people. I will bring whoever I want, and I wish to conduct my own experiments over there. So I also wish to bring mages who are not knights."

The Elder just looked at him.

"Well, that is your choice. Having knights will just give you a higher chance of survival and success. But what you do is up to you."

"Okay then. I will be ready in a month. How do I contact you?"

"You do not have to contact me," the Elder said, standing up. "I will come over here when it is time. Just be ready with your people, and I will take care of the rest."

Adrian nodded. "Okay then."

Right in front of his eyes, the man just disappeared without a trace.

Adrian leaned back in his chair, deep in thought.

Knock, knock.

He looked at the door, still deep in thought as he spoke. "Come in."

The door opened to reveal Aria and she was standing right there looking a little worried. She walked over to him quickly.

"Is everything okay, Papa?"

Adrian smiled. He reached out and patted her head.

"Well, I think things are going much better than I expected."

As he remembered whatever the Elder said, he looked down at Aria. Before he could even open his mouth, Aria spoke first.

"Papa, wherever you are going, I am going to come too."

Hearing this, Adrian just let out a sigh.

"Okay, fine. You are going to come with me."

He held up a finger.

"But I will only allow you to come with me if—"

Before he could even finish his sentence, Aria spoke for him.

"Only if I listen to whatever you say, no matter what. Even if you tell me to run while your life is in danger, I must run."

Adrian nodded. "Yes."

"Okay," Aria said, immediately hugging him tight.

She rested her head against his chest and thought to herself.

’There is no way I am actually going to run when you tell me to run away.’