Supreme Magus

Chapter 3317  Bad Habits don’t Die (Part 2)

"Yes." Lith nodded. "But only while the tower is active and if I don't recycle the materials."

"Why don't you store the pieces of Menadion Set here, then?"

"Because they are already a part of the tower and are needed to operate floors like the Spark." Lith moved forward, leading them to the Factory and the Workshop.

"Gods, even after all this time I'm still green with envy." Bytra said while visiting the latter. "Infinite tries with no waste of materials. Creation Magic can do the same, but this floor requires no mana or focus. It can't fumble the ball."

"This is the Forge. It's nothing special but- The farm?" Lith opened the door, finding the room deeply changed.

Only Ripha and her previous apprentices weren't impressed by the new Forge.

The Ears of Menadion rested upon Lith's Adamant Forge, right beside the Fury. The helm was connected to every single element in the room by a translucent tendril of emerald energy.

Countless strings of runes cascaded along the walls, briefly forming patterns before moving along the stones. Lith recognized most of them but a few were unfamiliar.

"Is this what the Master Ears look like?" Lith took the artifact, studying it from every angle.

The helm was comprised of stone, like everything else, but bore some gold-veined white streaks already. The mana crystals on the sides were bright blue instead of white, but there was also a Spirit Crystal on the forehead the Apprentice Ears lacked.

"What does it do?" Lith tapped on the emerald gemstone.

"No clue." Ripha shook her head. "It's not supposed to be there."

"Okay then what's the Ears doing here and what's the meaning of the runes?"

"I'll tell you once we are alone." She looked at Baba Yaga and Silverwing like they had tried to kidnap her baby.

'That was weird.' Lith said.

'It sure was.' Solus replied via their bond. 'I expected to find the Ears in the Watchtower, not the Forge. It makes sense, though. The pieces of Mom's Set are meant for Forgemastering. Their battle abilities are just an extra.'

The visit to the rest of the floors went smoothly between Zoreth's constant amazement and Bytra's sighing.

"I'm really sorry, Solus. There are still so many floors left and it's all my fault." The Raiju said.

"Don't worry." Solus cleared her throat. "Nothing is lost. I'll regain them with time. Actually, now that I've recovered the Ears, it shouldn't be long until I reach the deep violet and the tower gains at least four more floors."

"What have the Ears to do with that?" Zoreth asked.

"After the original Bytra killed my mother, the tower remained without a host for a very long time. In order to keep me alive, the tower consumed its own floors first, then my body, and lastly my memory, preserving solely my mind.

"After bonding with Lith, the tower has steadily recovered its power but as you can see, it still has a way to go. By accessing the Apprentice Ears, the tower added the runes they have in common to its core, filling the blanks." Solus explained.

"I see." Zoreth nodded. "Is that why you've disappeared for so long and haven't aged a day?"

"Correct." Menadion replied. "I'm not proud of it but consider the tower like a giant phylactery that can revive Solus as long as it's not destroyed."

Among the upper floors, Zoreth appreciated the Library and the Greenhouse the most. The former because it granted instant knowledge without the need for long hours of study and the latter for its unique ability.

"Growing natural treasures is something even Nandi can't do." The Shadow Dragon knelt down to appreciate the smell of the magical flower and their rich elemental flow coursing through the ground.

"Finding these little bastards takes us a lot of time and to visit several black markets whereas you have whole patches of them!"

Frost Dew, Earth Roots, Thunderstone Flowers, and several other kinds of rare natural ingredients grew in orderly flowerbeds. Each species had their little ecosystem with different degrees of temperature, humidity, sun exposure, and world energy.

One patch of green was hot and humid while a few steps away there was another cold and shady.

"It's harder than it looks like." Menadion and Lith said in unison, making the former grunt.

"The tower doesn't know how to grow living things. It took me a long while to research the perfect growth conditions for each variety whereas Lith just entrusted it to Raaz." Ripha said.

"He has the green thumb and I'm busy." Lith shrugged. "There's no point wasting weeks on end for something he can do better and faster."

"I can vouch for that." Menadion nodded. "Raaz is way better than me at gardening. He did in months what took me years to accomplish."

"You are too kind." Lith's father scratched his head in embarrassment. "You are a mage and a legendary Forgemaster, lady Menadion, whereas I'm but a humble farmer. I'm sure that during those years you achieved many great things."

"Call me Ripha, please." She replied. "Also, unless you consider learning new profanities and inventing a few of my own an achievement, I did nothing else. I am bad at gardening and until I got the hang of it, the Greenhouse required all of my time."

"What about those?" Zoreth pointed at a luscious bush of Moonroses. "Have you managed to grow them into a new species of magical flowers, or are they common flowers?"

"They are Kami's flowers." Lith replied. "I grow them here because going all the way to Verendi just to pick a few Moonroses would be a colossal waste of time."

"He's very romantic but also pragmatic." Kamila sighed.

The Watchtower too turned out to have been upgraded.

In the middle of the room there was a stone pedestal with an indentation whose size and shape matched the Ears.

"Now we can not only detect the flow of mana and world energy in the tower's surroundings, but also focus on a specific signature. Once the tower is locked on a target, we can keep following it even from a great distance." Solus said.

"Meaning?" Lith asked.

"That once we find a mana geyser, we can instantly locate a vein of-" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Menadion coughed violently, cutting Solus short.

"I'd say that's enough." Ripha said. "We all had a long day and need to rest."

"This is what she considers her polite way of kicking us out." Baba Yaga chuckled.

"It's nice that we've been friends for hundreds of years yet I had no idea what most of the floors of your tower did until Epp- Solus showed me." Lochra clicked her tongue in annoyance. "Whenever I came visit you, Ripha, there was neither the pedestal or the Ears."

"Because I hid them!" Menadion snorted. "Excuse me, master Silverwing if I didn't make it easy for you to steal my secrets and make your own knock off tower."

"First, I was your master. I taught you everything I know!" Lochra said.

"But not everything I know!" Ripha retorted. "You know, it's called working your arm off." The Guardians' auto-correct struck again.

"Second, if it wasn't my knock off tower, as you call it, you and Solus-"