End of the Magic Era - Chapter 174

Chapter 174: Mana Vine

“Puppets!” Solomon’s face darkened.

Solomon originally thought that the Frost Ray had been cast by a trap and had been considering how best to break it. But after glancing over, Solomon understood that it would be more troublesome than a trap…

Frost Ray was a 6th Tier Spell…

Two puppets enchanted with the ability to use Frost Ray, this firepower was no worse than a 9th Rank High Mage like himself.

This was worthy of a Heaven Rank Mage.

At this time, Solomon couldn’t help inwardly admiring him. Only those existences who stepped in the Extraordinary realm could consider a 6th Tier Spell as nothing and casually enchant it into alchemy puppets.

After all, enchanting a spell into an object came at the cost of runes. A 6th Tier spell like Frost Ray needed no less than several hundred runes. Besides someone unconventional like Lin Yun, those existences who stepped into the Extraordinary realm might be the only ones who could spend so much on puppets.

“And those are Mage Breaker models…” And the annoying part was that Lin Yun had to explain to him.

“…” Solomon panicked when he heard that. ‘Damn, enchanted Frost Rays weren’t enough, they are also Mage Breaker models?’

Mage Breaker alchemy puppets, these were true mage killers. They had extremely formidable magic resistance. A low-level spell was nothing more than a tickle to them, and their enchanted spells would inevitably cause mana burn. Their mana was very nauseating. Once hit, the target would feel their own mana igniting to the point of making any mage feel like dying.

Solomon was even more afraid of making a wrong move now.

Two puppets enchanted with 6th Tier Spells and of the most disgusting Mage Breaker model, this had already surpassed Solomon’s abilities. With his current strength as a 9th Rank High Mage, handling one puppet was possible, but he didn’t think his chances of success were more than 30% if they both rushed at him…

“Merlin, we are in trouble…” Solomon said, depressed.

“Yeah, it’s a bit troublesome…” Lin Yun nodded, agreeing with him. ‘This is quite troublesome, if I had known, I wouldn’t have given that spatial ring to William and Faleau.

At that time, he thought that since they were taking that group of Mages to fight in the Bone Plane, they would need the Soul Essences stored in the Spatial Magic Tool. But he hadn’t expected that he would enter a Demiplane while coming to participate in the Magic Hand’s gathering in Oddrock City, let alone that he would encounter such powerful puppets…

‘What can I do… I can’t bring these two puppets back! Do I have to dismantle them? That’s too wasteful…’ At this time, Lin Yun’s face had also darkened…

“This is Rudolph’s library…” Solomon was only a step away from the library, but how could he dare to step inside? He knew that this single step would immediately trigger the two puppets’ attacks. But Solomon didn’t want to give up either. As he said, this was Rudolph’s library, the knowledge inside was enough to make the Sage Tower reach a whole new level!

“Merlin, what do you say? Should we stake it all? You and I can both take one… No no no, you don’t need to take too much risk, as long as you can stall for time and wait for me to deal with the other one, I’ll be able to back you up, how about it?”

Solomon didn’t pause as he said everything at once. Lin Yun asked with an amazed expression, “What do you mean, stake it all? You are talking about these two puppets?”

“Yes yes, these two puppets. I know that making a 5th Rank Great Mage like you face such a powerful puppet is quite awkward, but I’ll owe you a favor. It doesn’t need to be for long. As long as you can stall for twenty minutes… Twenty minutes… Hey… Hold on, what are you up to!”

Before Solomon could finish his words, his eyes suddenly opened wide.

The young mage he was trying to convince gave him a strange smile before entering the library.

“Fuck!” Solomon suddenly cursed.

Indeed, he wanted Merlin to make a move, but he never asked for him to make a move so soon! Those were deadly puppets with 6th Tier Spells, mana burn, and magic resistance. What could he do if he went unprepared?

‘No good, no good, I have to help Merlin… Forget it, I’ll go with the bare minimum.’

After Solomon quickly incanted a few low tier spells on himself, he followed with a Runic Shield and rushed towards the library.

“Ah?”

The 9th Rank High Mage then froze, and his expression went through a multitude of changes. From lifeless to doubtful, from doubtful to shocked. Solomon felt like a mouse trapped between a cat’s paws.

The two puppets were already collapsed on the floor and the young mage was stepping on one of the puppets with his foot, trying to dismantle the puppet by force.

Moreover, he was cursing as he struggled. “Shit, this is too heavy. I can’t carry it back…”

“Me… Merlin?” Solomon looked like a ghost as he watched this scene, looking frighteningly pale. Even his voice couldn’t help shivering…

“Ah? What is it?”

“How… How did you do it?”

“I shut down their mechanical systems?”

“…” Solomon almost spat blood as he thought, ‘Aren’t alchemists too broken? Facing two puppets, I almost burnt my brain thinking of a plan, not even finding a decent one, and when I finally decided to risk it, a single alchemist went in and shut down the two puppets!’

“What? You lost interest in the rewards?” Lin Yun wiped the sweat off his forehead as he casually asked Solomon.

“Right, right, I’ll take a look first…” After being reminded by Lin Yun, Solomon recovered. At this moment, he didn’t bother to ask how Lin Yun shut down the puppets and just rushed to a bookshelf to look at the loot.

After reminding Solomon, Lin Yun got busy.

To Lin Yun, these magic books inside the library didn’t have too much importance, and even if there was a need, he could always ask Solomon to make a copy.

What truly mattered were these two puppets.

‘The Runic Magic Iron frame definitely can’t be taken away…’

Runic Magic Iron was a rare magic material. The yearly output of the Andlusa Kingdom was barely enough to make ten puppets. This was also one of the reasons that Mage Breaker models were so rare. Among the major forces, only those with a plane that could produce Runic Magic Iron could have Mage Breaker models.

Fortunately, the mechanical system could still be dismantled.

This mechanical system would be useful for study. Lin Yun intended to make the group of alchemists at the alchemy workshop try to emulate it and see if they could use it on mining puppets.

A few alchemy arrays could actually be dismantled, but they were useless to Lin Yun. As long as he had enough materials, Lin Yun could draw a dozen such arrays any time he wished.

The only things left were the four arms.

These four arms had Frost Ray spells enchanted onto them. As long as enough mana was supplied, it would form a complete cross-fire defense system that would be perfect for the camp in the Bone Plane.

“Merlin… Merlin, come over quickly, look at what I found…” Just as Lin Yun finished dismantling the second puppet, Solomon’s voice could be heard.

“What did you find?”

“Take a look…”

Solomon handed him a black book. What caught Lin Yun’s eyes were the burnt letters that read – Mana Vine Breeding – on the cover.

“Mana Vine, Merlin, Mana Vine…” Solomon attentively watched the black book while smiling and squirming.

“Yes, Mana Vine…” Lin Yun casually flipped a few pages. This black book was indeed explaining how to breed Mana Vines. It looked like Rudolph considered this Demiplane important, or else he wouldn’t have started gathering knowledge on Mana Vines while the four elements were still missing.

Mana Vines were a very mysterious type of plant. Almost every mage wanted to breed some Mana Vine because they could automatically absorb mana from the void. Usually, the poorer the void environment was, the more mana they could gather.

Moreover, after absorbing mana from the void, they would automatically transform and purify it before forming a pool of mana under the Mana Vines that stored all the mana.

Just this was enough to make Mana Vines priceless. Just thinking about it, having a few Mana Vines inside a tower, absorbing mana day and night before storing it in a pond… This was a neverending source of mana.

Unfortunately, Mana Vines grew in a very harsh environment, harsh to the point that it was impossible for them to survive in Noscent. No Mana Vine had appeared in Noscent for the past millennium.

But from this, it could be seen that Rudolph’s Demiplane was most likely a naturally formed plane.

Because only a naturally formed plane would give Mana Vines a chance to grow.

But it seemed that Rudolph wasn’t able to find any Mana Vine Seeds. Otherwise, this Demiplane wouldn’t be in this death-like state. Just a Mana Vine alone would be enough for the Demiplane to not have to rely on the Ash Tower, and in that case, that array outside simply wouldn’t need to exist.

Naturally, Rudolph being unable to find the seed of the Mana Vine didn’t mean that Lin Yun couldn’t find it either…

In fact, Lin Yun was fairly certain that the plane he could open with the Dusk Fire had at least one Mana Vine Seed. In the days of mana exhaustion, a few Heaven Mages joined hands to invade that plane and seized that Mana Vine Seed. But unfortunately, that seed wasn’t able to survive in Noscent.

“Send me a copy later.”

“Sure,” Solomon straightforwardly answered. Although a book like – Mana Vine Breeding – was precious, it didn’t have huge importance to the Sage Tower. It would at best be used for the breeding methods, to test whether they could be used to breed other magic plants.

‘Eh? What is that…’ After returning – Mana Vine Breeding – to Solomon, Lin Yun wanted to return to the puppets and see if he could figure out how to dismantle another part, but a red book caught his attention.

It was – Key Points for Elemental Spirit Capture –.