Black Hearted Mage

"Rad, the magic materials for your magic tower have arrived. Can you sign this list?"

As they were talking, five or six large wooden boxes had been carried into the hall of the magic tower, and Rad was sitting at the reception desk against the wall.

"You idiot, I can't make the decision on this matter. This needs the signature and approval of the Tower Master, Ms. Joanna!"

Hearing this, Caesars immediately said: "Rad, then you should inform the lady!"

However, Joanna did not come down, but also let Caesars sign. Then, the gray-haired Rad and the woman in leather armor looked at Caesars in surprise.

Caesars didn't care about this. He simply signed his name on the list, walked out of the magic tower quickly, and came to the door to urge the driver, "Hurry up and unload the food and fruits and vegetables. I still need to continue meditating!"

Seeing Caesars come out, the woman in leather armor's eyes suddenly became sharp. She stared at him closely, as if she wanted to see through him. She seemed to be full of curiosity and interest in the little boy, so she hurriedly followed him.

"Little kid, you're not that old, but you can actually sign on behalf of two great magicians! This is really surprising." She said in a slightly teasing tone.

Kaisas frowned slightly. He didn't like being called a little kid, but facing this powerful woman, he didn't dare to easily refute her. He knew she was very powerful, so he could only helplessly reply, "They're all resting and don't want to come down. It's not like you didn't hear the message!"

Caesars rolled his eyes at the woman, expressing his dissatisfaction. However, he knew in his heart that the woman might not have any ill intentions, but was only paying so much attention to him out of curiosity or other reasons.

"Madam, are you an assassin or a wind warrior?" Caesars tried to change the subject, wanting to know more about this mysterious woman.

"Both!" the leather-armored woman answered without hesitation.

Kaisas couldn't help but be surprised. He hadn't expected this lady to be a dual-professional. He knew that practicing dual professions was extremely difficult and required twice as much effort and time as an ordinary person.

"Madam, I would like to ask you a question. How can I increase my body's flexibility?" Caesars asked seriously. He hoped to learn some useful techniques from this experienced lady.

"Do you want to improve your physical agility?"

"Ok!"

"Agility alone isn't enough; you also need endurance. Sometimes running fast and far is the only way to survive!"

"Then how can I increase my agility and endurance?"

Kaisas asked anxiously. He wanted to become stronger urgently. The only shortcut to avoid magic attacks was to increase the sensitivity of the body. Running away when you can't win was the first law of survival.

"Let's talk about it after we get out. We'll be at the tower's grain storage soon!"

This woman must have been to the Tower before; she was very familiar with the place. Near the large stone house where the Tower Guards trained, carriages stopped one after another. The idle Tower Guards gathered around, and several tall ogres in leather armor also came up to the carriages.

"Melissa, please sign. These are your responsibility!"

Melissa is the manager of the grain warehouse, and Caesars also heard it from people in the mission hall.

"You damn people, stop surrounding the carriage and move the things into the warehouse. The fruits and vegetables will go bad if they are left out for too long!"

Melissa opened the carriage, inspected the delivered fruits and vegetables, and yelled at the Northern Guards. She took the parchment and, carefully holding the quill, wrote her own crooked name on it.

"Little guy, take a few more fruits. These are only for the mages, we can't eat them normally!"

Melissa took out a wicker basket and asked Caesars to take some fruits directly.

"Melissa, the wizards won't cause us any trouble, right?"

While putting fruits into the storage ring, Caesars asked Melissa.

"It's okay to eat three or five baskets. There's still some left in the warehouse, so don't worry. In a month or two, the fruit from the highlands will be delivered, and I'll give you two baskets then!"

"Melissa, thank you so much!"

"Little guy, don't be polite to me. I have to keep an eye on these damn bastards, otherwise they will steal it!"

Caesars took dozens of fruits, and the remaining fruits were put into Melissa's storage ring. She walked quickly towards the warehouse.

"You damned ones, work first, then eat after you're done!"

A roar erupted from the warehouse, and a group of Northern guards hurried out, biting fruit in their mouths. They were filled with fear of Melissa, for she was not only powerful but also had a fiery temper. Anyone who dared to challenge her authority would surely be severely punished.

Melissa stood leisurely at the door of the warehouse, chewing fruit while scanning the guards of the tower with sharp eyes.

Not long after, the carriage unloaded the cargo. After greeting Melissa, Caesar began to escort the Thorn Flower Trading Company's convoy away.

"Little guy, if you grow up a little more, I really want to take you on an adventure. Our Thorn Flower Trading Company's expedition team recently made a major discovery in the Western Continent—an extremely ancient relic, estimated to be over 10,000 years old. That place is simply a snake den, full of terrifying golden-eyed black demon snakes!"

Hearing this, Caesars couldn't help but laugh: "Madam, you are exaggerating a lot, aren't you? How could the people of the Western Continent let you go so easily?"

"Little guy, our Thorn Flower Trading Company is the only one on the entire continent that can trade with the elves. Golden ginseng comes from there. The Western Continent is also divided into regions. As long as you don't cross the boundaries, the elven rangers will not attack!"

Caesar was a little surprised. He heard the word "elf" again.

"Madam, since you saw that I could feed the black demon snake, you deliberately revealed these things. Don't even think about tricking me into going to the Western Continent. Madam, take the delivery note and go to the main tower to settle the payment yourself!"

Caesars escorted the caravan to the tower's gate and smiled at the leather-armored lady, revealing a few small white teeth. He walked quickly into the tower. He was going to the Alchemy Tower to feed the black snake and then continue meditating.

"This little fellow is so clever! He's much smarter than other magic apprentices!"

The lady in leather armor frowned slightly and walked towards the main tower with a few pieces of animal skin paper.

Two months later, Joanna remained at the Northland Tower while the other three great magicians embarked on a new journey. Hearing that the tower master, Old Ethan, had successfully cracked the mysterious magic circle, the three old men were eager to travel to Fire Maple City to explore the ancient tomb. However, they might not return to the Northland this year. It was already late autumn, and the long snowy season was about to begin.

Caesar had rarely seen Old Roman before this, as his mind was completely focused on the ancient tomb. In the past six months or so, Caesar had only seen him twice.

At the same time, the Thorn Flower Company sent many precious herbs, which would be used to refine various potions and magic potions. When Caesars was cleaning the alchemy room, he also happened to pick up some potions that the great alchemist was not satisfied with, but these potions were all of medium and high quality.

In his spare time, Caesars would go to Rad to learn about what was happening inside the tower. If he encountered problems with his magic practice, he would go to Joanna for help.

As an intermediate magic apprentice, he can learn a third low-level spell. In addition to the magic ball and illumination spells he learned before, he recently learned a small fireball spell.

"Little Fireball" is a general spell with low magic power and little attack power. This spell was recommended to Caesar by Ms. Joanna because it can easily ignite the charcoal pile, especially when he needs to go out in the future, this little trick will come in handy.

As in previous years, when the frost arrived, the ogres and a dozen high-ranking magicians set out for the Frozen Canyon to intercept the large predatory monsters from the polar ice sheets. At this time of year, these highland ogres would shoulder the responsibility of protecting the tribe.

Melissa prepared three large baskets of bread for Caesars and even left a large piece of pickled meat. Before leaving, the ogre couldn't help but gently pinch Caesars' cheek, feeling the little guy's smooth skin.

Because the passage under the ice and snow would take a long time to dig to feed the black snake, Kaisus decided to move his bedding to the alchemy tower. This tower not only had magic runes and arrays, which provided a better environment for meditation, but also prevented anyone from disturbing his practice.

Before leaving, Kandel had given him a task: to collect snake venom every ten days. Ordinary black snakes were very obedient and didn't struggle when their venom was collected. The golden-eyed black snake proved more difficult to collect, rearing up before each venom collection. Caesars was so small he couldn't even reach its head.

Kaisas was helpless against the golden-eyed black demon snake. It didn't hiss at him, but simply stood erect, looking helpless. After feeding it five or six demon rabbits, it calmed down, but the venom was almost gone.

The venom of ordinary black magic snakes was collected into the storage ring, and Caesars brought magic rats from the stone chamber next door, feeding three to each black magic snake.

The golden-eyed black snake needed to eat magic rabbits, so we threw six of them to it this time. The three little snakes needed to eat young magic rats, as they couldn't swallow the big ones.

After doing all this, Kaisas climbed up the ladder and closed the three ventilation holes. It had begun to snow outside, and the temperature in the feeding room needed to be maintained.

Three baskets of bread were enough for Caesars to eat for more than a month. He planned to go to the main tower to get some meat, cheese, pickled cucumbers, and of course, more water.

Caesars left the young female snake in the feeding room, where it was freezing cold outside. He also opened the golden-eyed black snake's cage to prevent anyone else from entering. The North Tower was a place where people were eaten without leaving any bones, and Caesars had to be extremely cautious.

The main tower's large dining hall was very warm, with many magic apprentices dining there, along with several magicians. These wizards and apprentices followed the nobles' custom of never getting up before nine in the morning, usually waking up before lunch.

These apprentices knew Caesar, but Caesar did not know them.

"Kaissa, come sit here later!"

Joanna, who had golden curly hair, called out to Caesar at the dining table.

"Okay ma'am, I'll be right there!"

Caesars said as he walked towards the kitchen counter. The chef would need some time to prepare the food he wanted to take away.

"I need food for twenty days. I want some extra sausages, bacon, cheese, and pickles too!"

"Okay, I'll have it ready for you in a minute!"

The fat chef was very easy to talk to, but he was not worried about anyone wasting food because the tower had strict rules and any act of wasting food would result in a deduction of tower points.

Caesars carried a plate of food and sat down next to Joanna. However, many apprentices from the magic tower stared at him with hostility.

Caesars had heard from Rad that two of this year's new apprentices had already died, both from falling down the stairs. According to Rad's statistics, the highest number of deaths occurred on the stairs of the Magic Tower, with over a hundred deaths in the past fifty years alone.

After Caesars sat down, he whispered, "Madam, do you have something to talk to me about?"

Joanna responded: "How's Fireball doing?"

“I’ve learned it!”

"Show me!"

"Here? Now?"

"Yes, right now. If you can send out a small fireball, this year's new apprentices will be afraid of you. They have only been learning meditation for a short time. As long as you don't come into contact with them and keep your distance from these new apprentices, they won't be able to find your weakness and won't pose a threat to you!"

Joanna knew what these new apprentices were thinking, and she was now teaching Caesars how to respond. As a walnut-sized red fireball, emitting a scorching heat, appeared in Caesars's hand, the new apprentices were first startled, then lowered their heads, afraid to meet Caesars's gaze.

Caesars was in a dilemma, not knowing where to throw the fireball in his hand. Joanna smiled slightly and reached out to crush the fireball.

"Kasas, after learning magic, you need to learn how to fight. The Stake Mage was proven to be useless over 10,000 years ago. You must learn to cast spells while moving, otherwise even the most powerful magician will just be a target!"

"Ma'am, I've seen some videos of mages fighting. I think to increase your agility, you need to train like a warrior!"

Caesars looked at some battle photos and also put forward some of his own ideas.

"Not a warrior, you need to train like an assassin!"

"Ma'am, there are no assassins in the tower!"

Joanna didn't answer, but looked at Caesar and smiled meaningfully.

"Have lunch first, and then I'll take you somewhere!"