Mage Adam-Chapter "398"

“I’m not going there to be a teacher—I’m going there to manage the Academy,” Adam said to Garfield.

It had already been three days since his talk with His Excellency Croft.

Although he had accepted the appointment, Adam had no manpower of his own. While he technically had several research institutes under his name, all the researchers’ contracts belonged to the institutes themselves. Aside from specific projects, Adam had no direct authority over them. Thus, to actually get any work started, he still had to rely on support from His Excellency Croft and the Mage Council.

Right now, he was simply waiting for the people to arrive.

There were many other matters to handle as well. All the mages participating in the Virtual World Project would be in place in the coming days. Katos’s True Spirit had given Adam full support, dispatching a genetic research team directly under the Holy Tower to join his institute. Once they were settled, Adam would need to clearly convey the research objectives.

Otherwise, given the Fourth Holy Tower’s usual style, they might end up creating a powerful monster out of it—and then this precious relic source would be wasted.

The Guardians arrived swiftly and had already formally joined the research. Their method of analyzing the Source was mystical, completely different from programming languages. Adam didn’t fully understand it himself, so he placed one of his clones with them, coordinating the two approaches together.

Knowing he’d need to divert part of his focus elsewhere, Adam carefully reviewed his research plans again. He realized his earlier designs were still a bit too simplistic. Mages were transcendent beings. For them, a “real world” must be built with far greater depth and detail. It couldn’t possibly be achieved by simply stacking together modules of matter.

By the later stages, the Virtual Reality World might very well transform into a massive undertaking spanning all disciplines, all systems, and all elements.

“You, managing an Academy? Signing master–servant contracts with apprentices, planting viruses in them, then telling them if they disobey they’ll die?” Garfield sneered.

As Adam’s only subordinate with some actual influence in the Mage World—and one who was skilled at reading people—Garfield had no choice but to join this mission. But leaving the Holy Tower meant separating from all his lovers, both old and new. He was deeply dissatisfied. Yet he didn’t dare openly resist Adam, so his only outlet was venomous sarcasm.

“Right, stupid dragon?”

Sophia blinked at Adam, then at Garfield, not understanding what they were talking about.

Wendy, who had been looking through Adam’s project plan, said, “This position won’t be easy. It looks simple, and your authority seems supreme, but in practice it will be very difficult. Probably more exhausting than going on multiple exploration missions.”

“Why?” Adam asked.

“Because human desire is never satisfied. Everyone will want more manpower, and the Academy Continent will become a battleground of interests. Whenever three people gather, there are at least two conflicting opinions. Imagine what it will be like with tens of thousands of academies established across the continent.”

“We’ll just take it step by step.”

Wendy continued, “This is a huge move. The towers belonging to the Holy Towers are one thing, but those free Archmagi-backed conglomerates won’t be as easy to deal with. To them, everything is negotiable—except profit. Profit is the only reality.”

She tossed Adam a data report. “Here. Take a look. Compiled from big data—the participation records of planar wars over the past ten thousand years. Shocking, isn’t it?” 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The report showed that in the last ten millennia, the Mage World had conquered over 16,500 planes: more than 4,000 large planes, 27 super-large planes, and the rest small ones.

A “large” plane was defined as one with abundant Archmagi; a “super-large” plane was one where Level 9 beings existed.

And in wars against planes large and above, the proportion of free Archmagi-affiliated mage towers participating accounted for only 5% of the total forces. The rest were all towers directly under the Holy Towers.

“See? Without data, we never realized it before. Those free Archmagi and their backer consortiums just sit back and reap the benefits, muddying the waters. They only involve themselves in small-plane wars—when victory is certain and profits assured. They almost never join battles that might risk their fall, or threaten their consortium interests.”

Adam suddenly recalled what Dean Victor had once told him: ‘To gain, you must first pay the price. That feeling is never pleasant.’ Now, he thought he understood.

His thoughts ran further. If the conglomerates behaved this way, then they must have some backing to rely on. What was it?

“Exactly because of this,” Wendy said disdainfully, “the Holy Towers and the Council impose restrictions on them. They’re ordered to train apprentices, then exchange vast amounts of resources for the ‘release’ of those among the apprentices who show true genius.”

“For the lower and middle-tier academies, they likely won’t care too much. If you push hard, they’ll yield. But for the higher academies—you’ll have real headaches. Those people are—hmm, parasites, yes. Harmless for now, but in the future? Hah.” Wendy clicked her tongue a second time, her distaste plain.

Adam wasn’t used to all this politicking. During his apprentice years at Moltke High Tower, though the Tower Master and Dean were free Archmagi, they’d never made things hard for him—in fact, they had been exceptions among free mages. After advancing to a mage, he had always been under the Holy Tower or on missions, where he’d met only upright people. He knew nothing of the rest of the free mage faction.

“Makes things very troublesome,” Adam muttered.

“Not makes—it is troublesome. And you can’t just kill them. Yes, duels and killing are allowed in the Mage World, but you’re only a Level 5 Archmage. You can’t beat senior Archmagi. But if you don’t hurt them, they won’t fear you. The only backing you’ll have is from the Guardians and the True Spirits. That’s your talisman: as long as you don’t strike first, no one dares strike at you. But if you do…” Wendy trailed off with meaning.

She was blunt: “Be prepared to become a solitary tyrant. From here on, you are destined to stand against the free faction.”

Adam understood. It was simply choosing sides. There was no hesitation—he already bore the mark of the Holy Towers deep within him. And the free faction’s ideals were utterly incompatible with his. Even if he tried to align with them, he would never fit in.

Then Wendy, with a sly grin, suggested, “Why don’t you petition His Excellency Guardian and Lady Laura, hm? Let me be your bodyguard. Whoever bullies you, I’ll kill them for you! Don’t worry—I’m strong. Not many Archmagi, even Level 8 ones, could beat me.”

Just as she finished speaking, a group of people teleported into Adam’s laboratory. The one leading them spoke with a teasing tone:

“Oh really, Wendy? Since when did you become that strong?”