Anser touched the Robe of Stars on his back. The two slits had already sealed, as if they had never been there at all.
Most extremely high-quality equipment took different use cases into account during its creation, such as common spell effects like transformation, enlargement, and shrinking, allowing it to adapt to the wearer's body.
After finally buying a piece of high-quality gear, having a single Reduce spell strip away his equipment would be far too miserable.
Of course, not every wondrous item had that function.
Magic items with high rarity but terrible design and user experience were hardly rare.
'Good thing I don't need to change robes. Let's go fly a couple of laps.'
People capable of modifying rare-quality robes were not easy to find.
He transformed again, then used the Black Tower's teleportation ability to launch himself outside.
While in midair, he adjusted his posture by instinct, spread his wings, and flapped hard. The airflow surged, and wave after wave of upward lift pushed him into the sky.
The start was a little sluggish, but once he began flying, he grew faster and faster. He could easily sense the direction and force of the air currents, making high-speed glides, sudden turns, and midair flips.
This feeling was different from Fly. Instead, it was a little like the original Royal Butterfly Cloak. In the atmosphere, he could borrow the wind, while in places without air, he could still propel himself with Magic Power.
Overall, dragon wings were not as agile as Fly, but their top speed and straight-line speed were not inferior, and their consumption was lower.
The flight speed of dragon wings was directly related to Strength and Dexterity, while flight duration was tied to Constitution.
What surprised him most was that the "air" effect of Elemental Orb also worked on his dragon wings, and worked even better.
That allowed him, despite his unimpressive Strength, to rely on his dragon wings alone to match Fly.
Because Fly belonged to the transmutation school. The essence of that school was changing the target's own attributes or state, not creating things from the outside.
Fly changed the target's gravitational state. It did not rely on wind, and could hover quietly, steadily, and effortlessly, even in extreme environments.
Meanwhile, the essence of "air" was propulsion by air elemental force, making it even more effective for dragon-wing flight.
To verify his guess, Anser immediately cast Fly on himself.
He felt his body lighten, and his speed increased somewhat. The increase was not large, but this speed was enough to overtake a wyvern.
'Just as expected.'
He was not discouraged.
The two flight modes could not fully stack. Their propulsion methods were different, but changing his own state really did let him fly faster. In the atmosphere, dragons could borrow the wind; in places without air, they could propel themselves with Magic Power.
Anser looked down over the island below, in an excellent mood.
After flying a few laps, Iris chased after him on a flying carpet, staring nonstop at the dragon wings on his back.
"Come catch me." Anser gave a strange laugh and flew at full speed.
Seeing this, Iris giggled and gave chase from behind, but the distance between them only grew wider.
The flying carpet's speed was about the same as a wyvern's, but in a straight line, it could not catch up to him. Only after the effect of Fly faded did the distance between them begin to close.
After messing around for a while, Anser was chased off to rest by Iris. He stopped fooling around and returned to the orrery ritual array to meditate.
...
At the center of the Wood of Sharp Teeth, in Moonscar Basin.
Beside an ancient, ruined complex stood a small village, all wooden buildings, their style similar to human construction.
However, the village was already empty. Corpses lay everywhere, both in the village and among the ruins: werewolves, humans, goblins, half-dragons, and undead.
The ancient ruins were dotted with burrows of various sizes. Judging from the digging marks, they had not formed naturally.
The largest pit was forty to fifty meters wide. Its edges had collapsed, and multicolored light shone from the opening.
A closer look revealed an extremely deep underground space inside. The ground, slopes, and walls were covered in vast patches of glowing mushrooms, strange in appearance and dazzlingly vibrant in color, stretching far, far into the distance.
Faintly visible paths wound through the mushroom forest, as though some kind of creature frequently traveled within it.
At the edge of the pit, three groups confronted one another across the glowing entrance: half-dragons, undead, and humans. None of the groups were particularly large.
From time to time, someone would slide down into the cavern along the safety ropes hanging from the opening. Despite the ropes being extremely long, they still could not reach the mushroom forest below, forcing people to cling to the mushrooms growing along the walls and continue downward. Before long, they would vanish into the mushroom forest.
Deep within the mushroom forest, three adventurers had gathered together, all frowning tightly. Wet cotton cloths covered their faces, stained with irregular yellow blotches and giving off a heavy stench of urine.
"Urgh…"
One of them, a tall, skinny man, dry-heaved from time to time, yet still did not dare remove the wet cloth.
"Quit gagging already. You're making me sick too." A broad, muscular man kicked his companion. His voice was muffled, barely understandable.
"Urgh—you're just getting revenge. Urgh… Why are we using your piss? Urgh… Next time we use mine." The skinny man cursed indistinctly between retches.
But the moment he spoke, he ended up swallowing some of it instead, making the ordeal even more unbearable.
"Reagan, I'm doing this for your own good. You couldn't piss for half the day. If I hadn't handed you my cloth in time, you'd already have gone insane like the others." The broad man retorted bluntly.
"You're full of shit…"
"Enough!" The middle-aged man with a goatee, who had remained silent until now, coldly interrupted the argument between his companions. His eyes were bloodshot as he glared at them. "Forget the treasure hunt for now. Surviving comes first. Either of you got any ideas?"
The broad man lowered his head and fell silent.
Under their leader's stare, the skinny man stammered, "I figure… maybe if we search around these hallucinogenic mushrooms, we might… find something."
The goateed man swept his gaze across the surroundings and discovered that aside from mushrooms, there was nothing here but mushrooms. Not even a single blade of grass.
Just as he was about to question him further, he suddenly caught sight of a strange figure flashing past in the distance: humanoid, mushroom-headed, and multicolored.
"Hurry, it's a myconid! Follow it!" The goateed man jolted upright and immediately gave chase.
"What's a myconid?" The broad man looked utterly confused, but could only hurry after him.
"Why do you care so much…" The skinny man's eyes flickered as he trailed behind them, his footsteps gradually slowing.
...
In the afternoon, Anser awoke from meditation.
He felt fantastic: refreshed, mentally alert, and overflowing with Magic Power. Taking out his pocket watch for a look, he realized less than six hours had passed, even shorter than when meditating in Rock of Bral.
The orrery ritual array truly was extraordinary. The meditation chamber was far more than just a quiet room.
He took out the Rod of Security, and scenes from both inside and outside the Black Tower clearly projected themselves into his mind.
At the top floor of the Black Tower, Iris was sitting at the desk reading a book, black cat Maeve curled in her arms while her fingers gently stroked Maeve's fur. The scene was unusually harmonious.
And those books had all been moved down from the Quesser by Anser himself, including the spellbook that recorded the Spellscarred Sorcerer initiation ritual.
'Maeve's previous owner couldn't have been a woman, could she?'
Anser silently guessed.
Maeve only occasionally allowed him to pet her and never let him hold her. Yet the moment Iris arrived, she had immediately defected.
Shaking his head slightly, he stepped forward, and his body instantly appeared on the top floor.
"Tired of waiting? I forgot to send you back out first." He plopped himself down on the table.
There was very little furniture inside the Black Tower. Even his own room only had a table, a chair, a cabinet, and a bed, making the place feel extremely empty.
"I don't even want to leave anymore. It's so nice here. Nobody bothers me, I don't have to deal with anything, there are books to read, and the food's pretty good too." Iris narrowed her eyes, looking completely serious.
"Welby's cooking really is pretty good." Anser grinned, feeling like he had underestimated just how much of a shut-in Iris was.
He had also been a shut-in in his previous life, but that had been built on having internet and a computer. In the end, it was just laziness mixed with a love of entertainment.
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