Chapter 330 Construction of the Giant Mage Tower

Shaoke gladly accepted this invitation, because not only did this construction method follow his design, but more importantly, it required a large number of magical arrays and magic scripts. As mentioned above, he could learn a lot during the construction process.

Perhaps because of the Death Mage Corps, the external alliances and organizations didn't try to seize Shaoke's territory, but several other weak rulers and their families or larger organizations suffered devastating blows because they weren't realistic and refused to give up their territories to the newcomers.

When Shaoke heard this news, he just shook his head and smiled bitterly, feeling that without the Death Mage Corps' backing, his organization would have been completely destroyed under the attacks of the major organizations. Of course, before that, they would have paid some price.

Shaoke then told his few intelligence agents to inform him only about major events, and he now put all his energy into building the Death Mage Corps' tower.

This time, the construction of the Death Mage Corps' mage tower incorporated many elements, the most important of which was copying the massive stone pillars from those underground cities, which made the tower's construction even more magnificent.

After a year of construction, a mage tower covering over a hundred acres slowly took shape. During this period, the Death Mage Corps forcefully occupied a large amount of land for the tower's construction, and no estate owner resisted for long, because when they refused to hand over their estates for the tower's construction, their families or trade groups were completely erased from the world by the Death Mages. As one Necromancer among the Death Mages put it, even their souls would be permanently destroyed.

Although many great merchants were dissatisfied with the Death Mage Corps' domineering methods, their discontent was deeply suppressed in the face of hundreds of Death Mages who killed as easily as dining.

Shaoke did not know how many years it would take to build this mage tower, as he only knew that the lower nine floors had taken a year to build, thanks to the intense labor of over a thousand mages.

According to the joint design of Shaoke and others, there were still nearly a hundred floors above ground to be built. Thinking of a mage tower hundreds of meters high standing in the Fallen Imperial Capital, Shaoke became excited.

The main construction force consisted of eighth-order beings. At one point, nearly a hundred eighth-tier Death Mages appeared out of nowhere. Their main task was to inscribe high-level arrays, which Shaoke and the other mages were incapable of doing. So, Shaoke and other sixth-rank and seventh-tier mages mainly carved non-essential magical scripts and prepared materials.

One day, after breakfast, Shaoke took his staff and headed to the former estate to work on the mage tower. On the way, he encountered a frustrating incident.

A group of low-level mages and warriors keeping public order were surrounded by a group of richly dressed young men and their guards. Some guards even released their Aura, injuring several patrolling warriors, and a mage’s low-level defensive spell was forcibly shattered.

"Why did you do this?" Since no crowd was watching, Shaoke easily got to the scene. The patrol team, upon seeing Shaoke, quickly saluted him and then detailed the cause of the conflict.

It turned out that these young men and their guards had been forcibly lowering prices when buying items on the street, something they'd been doing for a long time, causing dissatisfaction among many merchants. However, the merchants didn't dare provoke them because they belonged to several noble families visiting the area, and moreover, the merchants were small traders with no power to protect their property.

After a straightforward, honest account, Shaoke turned his gaze to the young men. "Is that so?" He then carefully examined the badges on their chests and finally glanced at their low-level guards before standing quietly, awaiting their response.

"That's right," a stout young man said loudly. "But we don't need you to interfere with our actions. You probably don't have the authority." With that, the young man laughed loudly, showing no respect for the black-robed mage before him.

"Didn't you learn the rules here when you got here?" Shaoke shrugged nonchalantly, then slowly rotated his staff and added, "I'm the ruler here, and the rules ban fighting, bullying merchants, stealing..." He recited the rules in one breath.

"Sorry, I didn't quite catch that. Could you say it again?" A thin young man rolled his eyes and made his request.

"Of course," Shaoke replied without hesitation, repeating the rules he had set here, then added, "Since you didn't know the rules this time, I won't pursue it. I hope you won't make such mistakes next time." He then reassured the patrol and told them to get back to work.

"But I still didn't hear you clearly," another young man stepped forward. "Besides, I don't think you have the right or ability to set rules here. I don't even care about the laws of the Blue Feather Empire." He laughed. "We'll often come here in the future, and I won't pay a single silver coin for items then." He signaled to his guard, who suddenly kicked and broke the wall of a nearby shop, causing panic among those inside.

"I hope you remember what you said today," Shaoke said, taking out a bag of gold coins and tossing it into the shop. He did not wish to resort to force, as that would cause heavy casualties among ordinary people in his territory.

"People like you, I bet you wouldn't dare touch me, right, respected Mage Xueye?" The stout young man smirked, gave Shaoke a strange salute, and then led his guards away, laughing.

"I, Shaoke Ye, now decree: anyone in my territory who breaks the following rules will be killed." After announcing the rules twice more through an amplification spell, Shaoke used a magic item to send a message to Mage Roman and others in the mage tower, instructing them to dispatch high-rank mages and high-rank warriors to patrol his territory. If anyone broke the rules, no matter who they were, they were to be killed without worrying about the consequences.

After finishing that, Shaoke picked up his staff and continued toward the Death Mage Corps' base. He was already late, and if he delayed any longer, some people there might become dissatisfied. After all, he was still just an ordinary member of the tower construction team.

As for the earlier incident, Shaoke knew it was a probe from other powerful organizations. Therefore, he had to issue such orders, because they had already started causing trouble in his territory. If this continued, ordinary merchants would leave his territory for other places, reducing his future income.

When Shaoke arrived at the former estate, nearly a thousand black-robed mages were busy constructing the mage tower. Most of them were wandering mages who had recently joined the Death Mage Corps, some of whom had previously been in Shaoke's organization. Thus, his arrival was warmly welcomed by these mages.

Even a seventh-tier mage asked if Shaoke needed help, offering to assist in maintaining law and order in his territory during their free time, since they were now all Death Mages.

After thanking them for their kindness, Shaoke joined the busy work. His current task was to carve ancient magic scripts onto obsidian stones from volcanic regions. Perhaps due to his study of some original ancient magic books, his consumption of energy when using ancient magic scripts was now more than halved compared to before. Moreover, due to his continuous insight from those original books, his understanding of ancient magic scripts would deepen further.

One by one, Shaoke carved magical scripts onto the stones. Since each piece of obsidian for the tower weighed at least one or two tons, his carving work was extremely difficult. Often, he had to lie on top of a stone for an entire magic hour before he could get down and turn it over.

A day's work passed in silence. Shaoke informed the eighth-tier mage in charge that he had some matters to handle tomorrow and could not come to work for a short while.

After hearing Shaoke out, the eighth-tier mage thought it over and said, "Mage Xueye, don't worry about this. The Mage Corps has just recruited many young low-rank mages. I believe the higher-ups will let them help you. You should come here tomorrow as usual." He then reiterated that the Death Mage Corps would help Shaoke deal with those organizations causing trouble in his territory before letting him leave.

Because Shaoke was one of the few high-rank mages here who could use ancient magic scripts, there was a great deal of work requiring his participation. If they lacked a mage who understood ancient magic scripts for even a short time, the tower's construction would be held up badly. After all, you couldn't ask an eighth-tier mage who understood ancient magic scripts to carve scripts—that would delay the engraving of arrays.