Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1879, page 1851: The Vanished Magician's Tower

"It's so pleasant chatting with you, my friend."

The local residents of the bountiful forest are now completely at ease.

He tightened the wide yellow cloth draped over his back, but no longer gripped the table leg in his hands as tightly as before.

“Oh dear,” he exclaimed, “if it were in times of plenty, I would certainly take you on a tour of this forest, where Queen Marika herself once came to bestow her blessings.”

"Unfortunately, hundreds, even thousands of years have passed in the blink of an eye, and the era of abundance is gone forever... because of that despicable, vile serpent!"

In the end, even after so much time had passed, the local resident's face still showed resentment and contempt.

Perhaps for the people of the Golden Tree, this time has passed in the blink of an eye, like yesterday.

However, thanks to their already very vague sense of time, Lan En was able to find someone to ask for directions even at this time.

The leaves and grass made a scraping sound against her thick cloak as Torisha walked out from the not-so-dark night.

She nodded to Lan En, indicating that she had calmed down the group of bastards.

The local resident looked behind the perfumer and saw that the chaotic and unpleasant shouting had indeed stopped, so he was relieved.

"You really know how to handle those mixed-race people!" The local resident didn't know that Torisha's 'handling' was probably not the same concept he was talking about. "Impressive, perfumer!"

Then he turned around and went to his room to search around.

"Thank you so much for helping me get rid of those bastards, but I've already told you everything I know."

He dragged out a rather large shield, blowing away the layer of dust that had accumulated on its surface as he walked.

"Take this as a gift."

He handed over the shield, which Lann took.

"Thank you, but...don't you need it?"

"Do I look like someone who can lift this thing with one hand?" The local resident rubbed his shoulder, which he had just pulled out of the shield. "Besides, I don't know how to use it."

"okay, bye."

"Goodbye."

After saying goodbye, Lann and Torisha walked away into the golden forest, while the local inhabitants of the bountiful forest sat on the stone steps in front of their homes, looking up to admire the sight of the small golden tree shedding its leaves.

It seemed that just watching the sight would keep him sitting there forever.

As Lan En walked, he briefly glanced at the gift in his hand.

This is a large, door-shaped shield that would be large enough to cover most of the body for an ordinary person.

It's a very simple wooden structure.

However, what makes it extraordinary is the exquisite painting on the shield.

The painting, rendered in a brightly colored oil painting style, depicts a scene from an era of abundance, where the Holy Grail, placed beneath a golden tree, receives drops of grace.

Golden leaves, azure sky, brown tree trunks, and glistening drops of dew...

Holding it in your hand makes you feel a subtle surge of life force throughout your body.

Lan En's [Spiritual Vision] could see that the painting on the shield was glowing slightly.

It seems that this sacred painting itself is a kind of subtle restorative prayer.

However, Lan En wasn't sure if the painting on the shield would still be effective if it were damaged. Generally speaking, the shield surface is the part that directly impacts the enemy's attack.

The paintings on the shield were too easily scratched off.

The Witcher thought to himself, "Why don't I wait until I return to the magical Middle Ages and hang it among the row of coats of arms in the throne room of Sintra, as a work of art?"

After confirming with Torisha that their perfumers and shields were completely unrelated, Lann hung the shield on his back and carried it with him.

In a previous conversation with that local resident, he mentioned that he had recently seen some animals that had fallen into a deep sleep in this fertile forest.

Torisha and Lann immediately realized that these were the traces left by Dolores.

Dolores is a Faded hero known as the "Sleeping Arrow," and she is best known for using Tolina's Arrow.

Those special arrows were named after the Torina water lily, which was used in their creation.

The Torina water lily isn't the kind of flower that actually lies in a lotus pond. It's called a water lily because it truly has the ability to induce deep sleep in living organisms.

Wild animals that should be highly vigilant are sleeping directly in the forest, and people can see them and pick them up.

This may be due to the residual power of the Torina arrows in Dolores's quiver.

Toliss was visibly excited upon hearing the news, feeling that her friend Dolores was probably within reach.

However, Lan En looked at the excited Torisha and didn't say anything more.

What happened to a Faded Hero known as the "Sleeping Arrow" that caused her to lose control of the power of Tolina's arrows in her quiver, thus revealing her location?
Torisha was just a perfumer and healer. She didn't realize what this meant for a veteran warrior, but Lann did.

—Things are probably not looking good.

The Fertile Forest may have held a pivotal position during the Fertile Age, shaped by the Golden Law. But now, it's merely a low-lying forest with unfavorable terrain.

Few people wander around the Altan Plateau, and there's nothing particularly special about the forest. Dolores must have come here for something, right?

Following Lan En's trail and with the guidance of the local residents, the two quickly focused their attention on the mysterious magic tower. It was already high in the sky when Lan En and Torisha headed west towards the location of the mysterious magic tower mentioned by the locals.

With a "whoosh," Lan En, who was walking, looked at the plant he was stepping on.

Unlike the golden yellow of the Asian Plateau, the flower that Lan En is stepping on now has a flower part that shimmers with a fluorescent blue.

It stands out in the bountiful forest at night.

This doesn't look like a plant that grows on the Altai Plateau. The color and feel are more like something from Lienia, which Lan En had just left.

The environment there is influenced by pyroxene and pyroxene magic.

And it was clearly visible to the naked eye that there were more of these flowers in the direction they were heading.

"Look, Lann!"

Torisha cheered from behind her veil and pointed to a small, pointed tower that was faintly visible through the gaps in the golden canopy of trees.

But when Lan En shifted his gaze from the ground to the direction Torisha was pointing, the perfumer himself stammered.

"Wait... what?"

Between the gaps in the tree canopy, there was nothing to see now, only the star-studded sky.

"Did I see wrong?" Torisia began to doubt herself. "But I clearly saw it just now..."

“No,” Lann said, seemingly even more certain than Torisha herself, “you’re not mistaken, it’s the tower that’s disappeared.”

Although Lan En looked up a little late, he could vaguely see the scattered points of light that had drifted away after the tower disappeared in some way.

"Y-really?"

Torisha scratched her headscarf.

The two continued walking forward, looking in the direction where the tower had appeared, but they didn't see it again even once.

Instead, the density of the forest began to decrease, while the number of fluorescent blue flowers on the ground began to increase.

Finally, the two arrived at a strangely open space.

There was nothing there, but Lann was certain that if his observation angle hadn't been disturbed, then this should be the location of the tower.

But now, Torisha is standing where the tower should be.

The perfumer shrugged, causing his thick apron and cloak to shake.

Clearly, she was surrounded by normal air, not by the bricks and stones that make up the building.

"This……"

Torisha clearly didn't know what to do either.

The perfumer's main area of ​​activity has always been the Alpine Plateau, or to put it more precisely, the royal city of Rodel.

They felt unfamiliar with magic, perhaps not as familiar as Lann, who had been to Lienia.

So at this point, Lan En felt that he still had to rely on himself.

"Move aside, Torisha. Don't stand in that open space."

"Huh?" The perfumer was taken aback, but still obediently walked away. "Okay, all done."

She didn't know why, but Lan En's gaze gave her a sense of profound insight.

The Witcher's right hand went behind his back and gripped the hilt of the Wolf Fang.

Guided by his gaze, his left hand seemed to tentatively reach out towards something in the void.

The Witcher's left hand moved cautiously, but suddenly accelerated at the end!
"Stuck!"

His outstretched hand, reaching into empty space, seemed to shatter a solid glass vessel, producing a sound like crystal breaking.

A complex blue-green pattern suddenly appeared on Lan En's left hand, which was suspended in mid-air.

Before the Witcher could even draw the wolf's fang in his right hand and slash at the pattern, the pattern shattered and disappeared on its own.

"Ah!" Torisia exclaimed, "What is that?"

Lan En frowned, letting his tense body relax: "It's a magical seal. Most mage towers have something like this for protection, but their effects and the methods to enter through the seal are different."

"So now you... know how to make that tower visible?"

Torisha's eyes sparkled as she looked at the Witcher, perhaps because of the golden blessing emanating from them.

"It should be about right," Lan En said calmly. "Just destroy all the sealing patterns like the ones we just saw."

"But it's invisible!"

"I can see. Just follow me."

Lan En led the way, with Torisha following behind.

However, while searching for another magical seal in the vicinity, Lann's heart was not as relaxed as the perfumer behind him who knew nothing.

Because the magic emblem that flashed by and shattered just now depicted a complex throne with stars and the moon moving, staffs intersecting, and a cuckoo peeking from the side.

This is the emblem of the Academy of Real Lucaria!
(End of this chapter)