Chapter 316: Building the Image

Carina tried hard to put a smile on her face and then asked, "What about you, sir?"

She was born in a relatively big family, so Carina was often very confident and proud. However, in front of Adam, the most well-known knight in this area, Carina felt nervous. In her eyes, the young sorcerer who stood beside Adam was probably also a very powerful person.

Lucien slightly shook his head and smiled, "I'm a nobody. I was caught only a day earlier than you guys. You can call me Lucien."

"A day earlier? Are you from somewhere else?" asked Ophelia surprisedly. The rest of the team also looked quite surprised.

The way they looked at Lucien made him feel that he was a rare animal in the zoo, being watched and observed by human beings outside of the cage. He grinned and said, "Haven't you ever seen an outsider? I think most people here are the descendants of the outsiders."

Carina realized that they were directly staring at this young sorcerer. Her face flushed, "I'm sorry, Mr. Lucien, we have never seen any outsiders. Although like you just said, we're descendants of the outsiders, we are trapped in this isolated area and we rarely see people from outside."

Adam grinned, "In fact, there are outsiders coming to this place all the time. But some of them chose to directly integrate into the local people, while most of them soon lose their lives in the forests. Some were like Lucien. As soon as he stepped into this area, he directly became the old woman's target."

"The old woman..." the four of them all gasped at the same time. They wondered how dare Adam directly call the owner of this place as old woman.

Adam saw their reaction and shrugged, "It's okay. She doesn't care. She only cares about her experiments and her face. Not even those servants care."

Noticing that Adam just took a glance at them, the red-faced servant stared at Adam, "One more word about this... I'll lash you with my thickest whip!"

The servants dared not to report this to the witch. Many years ago, a servant tried to show his loyalty to the witch, so he told the witch that all the experiment materials were calling her "the old witch" behind her back. In the end, the witch killed all the people who said the three words, including that servant.

Carina saw the servants' reaction, so she felt a bit more relaxed, "I see... So, Mr. Adam, you were an outsider. No wonder when you first showed up, you were already a grand knight. I guess you're not alone here... Those people should also come from the outside world..."

Out of curiosity, the young knight, Bullard, asked, "Mr. Adam, Mr. Lucien, what is the outside world like? Are those poetries and stories true? They say that the outside world is a great place, and there are many powerful sorcerers and knights."

Adam pointed at Lucien, who looked a bit lost in his own thoughts, "I've been imprisoned here for too many years. Lucien shall be the one answering your questions."

The servants also stopped talking and looked at Lucien, as they were just as curious about the outside world.

Lucien found something worthy of attention from Carina's words. Realizing that they were all looking at him, he answered, "The outside world... is much, much bigger. It has horrible dark forests, jade-like lakes, lofty mountains, boundless plains, busy and prosperous cities, as well as a city in the sky..."

Although Lucien's description was very rough, his words still seized all of his listeners' heart, especially when Lucien was talking about the city in the sky and the magic train. They longed for the place that Lucien was describing.

"The world's so wonderful... I've never heard of something like this... a city in the sky." Carina murmured as she looked at the silver moon. Then she asked out of great passion, "Mr. Lucien, how big is the Congress?"

Lucien looked up at the rest of the floors of the magic tower above and said calmly, "A magic tower like this is everywhere in the Congress..."

Hearing that, even Adam was shocked. He could never imagine that there was a place in this world where senior-rank mages like the old witch could be seen anywhere.

"I'm only talking about the truth. At least, it's the truth for me." Lucien grinned. "But to live a really good life there, you have to win the Holm Crown Ring and the recognition from an organization or group, say, the Will of Elements. In the Congress, only powerful people have the right to talk. And there are lots of sorcerers who are a hundred, or even a thousand times more powerful than the old witch."

There was more respect in Carina's eyes when she looked at Lucien, the same as everyone else.

Lucien's purpose had been achieved. He was not an arrogant guy, but right now he decided to talk in this bragging manner to make the prisoners believe that he was the leader that they could follow. He continued, "I'm on my mission to send a letter to an important person. Before long, the Congress will send someone here to save me, a legendary sorcerer. In front of a legendary sorcerer, the old witch would only be like an ant..."

Hearing that, the servants all looked a bit concerned. The crazy old witch did not care, because she was insane. However, they did.

Lucien stopped at this point, leaving them with their own imagination. He believed that the image of himself that he wished to build in their mind was already there.

"Legendary sorcerer...? How powerful is a legendary sorcerer?" Carina could not help but ask.

Adam answered this question for Lucien, "A legendary sorcerer can easily destroy this magic tower, the nearby cities and villages, and even this whole Black Forest."

This was just Adam's guess, but his answer still shocked the adventurers and the servants.

After a while of silence, Carina looked at Lucien with great passion, "So... Mr. Lucien? What level are you of, as a sorcerer? What about the old witch? What do you do in the Congress?"

Lucien released a sigh and replied, "You don't have to call me a mister. We're all prisoners here. In the Congress, I'm one of the many middle-rank mages, and I still have a long way to go to reach the higher level. The old witch... should be about the seventh or eighth circle."

Telling them that he was a middle-rank sorcerer was enough. Lucien did not mean to reveal more of his information to them.

"I knew it! You're a middle-rank mage!" Carina was very surprised. In this remote place, middle-rank sorcerers were very rare. Becoming a middle-rank sorcerer was even harder than becoming a grand knight. Carina, as a sorcerer, admired Lucien a lot just like how Alva, Bullard, and Ophelia admired Adam, the grand knight.

However, the other adventurers looked very concerned, "The old witch is of... the seventh or eighth circle?"

In their eyes, Carina, a second-circle sorcerer, was already quite powerful. They could not imagine what a senior-rank sorcerer could do. They wondered why she stayed in the magic tower instead of choosing to rule the whole territory?

Adam knew what they were thinking, so he said, "Ruling isn't the old woman's thing. She's only crazy about magic and her experiments. All the rumors and stories about this magic tower were all spread by her."

Hearing that, the adventurers all felt very desperate, including Carina, who was still feeling very excited a second ago.

"So we are... her lambs now," murmured Ophelia hopelessly.

Lucien directly asked, "Since when did the stories about the magic tower start to emerge? Since when did those sorcerers and knights start to go missing?"

"About five hundred years ago." Carina was not very confident.

Lucien nodded and thought to himself. It seemed that the old witch was trapped in the Devil's territory before the Congress of Magic was established, so she probably knew nothing about arcana. If Lucien could somehow become her assistant, and seize a chance to show her some "wonderful" experiments, maybe her brain would directly explode. However, since the old witch was quite insane, Lucien did not think that she would allow him to be her assistant. Therefore, he still had to find other ways around.

The most important thing for Lucien to do now was to get rid of the collar and the shackles. In order to do so, and without the help of his spiritual power and Blessing, Lucien had to find the place in the magic tower where the anti-magic circle was in, to make the collar and the shackles lose effect. However, so far, Lucien had no idea where this place in the tower was.

A while later, through talking, the adventurers slowly calmed down a little. In their eyes, Lucien could be their hope.

...

Two days later, when Lucien was still digging in the wall using his nails, the old witch unusually sent her servant to bring Lucien back to the lab.

On his way to the lab, Lucien carefully remembered the locations of the flesh-golems who were guarding the important parts of the tower with sharp axes and swords in their hands.

The lab's door opened. Lucien saw that Ophelia was tied to the operation table. And the old witch was casting some weird spells with a black mirror in her hand, "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who in this land is fairest of all?"

Lucien was very confused.