Chương 68: The Gate to the World Tower, and the Fourth Seal

The deepest point of Solaris Academy lay beneath the ninth basement level of the Tower of Knowledge, where the air ran bitterly cold and thick with the smell of ancient machine oil. Blocking the corridor stood a gate of solid black metal, fifty meters tall, its surface engraved with tens of thousands of lines of Titan Script glowing a faint blue. Massive mechanical gears turned slowly within the surrounding stone walls, letting out a low, resonant growl, like the heartbeat of some prehistoric beast.

Lucian, Evelyn, Sylvia, and Astra stood before the gate. The magical light from Sylvia's hand fell across the blocky, geometric characters of the ancient civilization. Evelyn stepped up to the central control panel and drove her homemade titanium-alloy key into the arcane lock. CLICK! Blue light immediately spread from the key across the entire surface of the gate. A mechanical notification in Titan Script appeared on a crystal display screen.

[STARTUP ENERGY REQUIREMENT: 10, 000, 000 UNITS OF MANA TO ACTIVATE THE SPATIAL HYDRAULIC SYSTEM.]"Power shortfall," Evelyn said, turning her head.

"We need an enormous burst of pure energy to drive the spatial-dimension gears." Lucian tilted his head toward Astra.

"Astra. Charge it up."

"Yes!" Astra stepped forward and pressed her bare right palm against the energy-receiving crystal. Lucian activated his ninety-five billion points of Spell Control, threading a razor-fine strand of mana around Astra's meridians, guiding the holy light within her body to pour directly into the control panel. The simultaneous activation of Titan Script and pure holy light unintentionally generated a massive arcane surge, slamming straight into the next seal layer inside the girl's soul. CRACK!

A sharp fracturing sound rang out from Astra's chest. The Fourth Seal shattered completely. BOOM! The thousands-of-tons metal gate shuddered and began to move, sliding slowly to either side. A monstrous storm of mana, carrying an eighteen-billion-point pressure wave, erupted from Astra's body and swept down the stone corridor, kicking up dust and sending everyone's cloaks snapping sideways in the gale. Ting! Ting! Ting! A Unified System v2. 0 notification appeared in front of Lucian.

[SACRED SYSTEM ACTIVATED: THE WORLD TOWER!] [Titan Script comprehension: 100% — Startup command executed!] Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. [ASTRA'S FOURTH SEAL: FULLY SHATTERED!] [Energy release ratio: 1. 0% → 10. 0% (A 10-FOLD INCREASE)!] ASTRA Level: 60 → 75 Rank: A — Legendary (Strategic-Class Entity) Physical Strength: 42, 000, 000 → 420, 000, 000 (×10) Speed: 25, 600, 000 → 256, 000, 000 (×10) Endurance: 34, 220, 000 → 342, 200, 000 (×10) Mana: 44, 000, 000 → 440, 000, 000 (×10) OVERALL COMBAT POWER: 1, 840, 000, 000 → 18, 400, 000, 000 (18. 4 BILLION!) Eighteen billion four hundred million. Astra's hands blazed with holy light, bright as two miniature suns. Her ash-grey hair whipped around her at the eye of the storm.

She looked down at her glowing hands, then turned to Lucian, who had both hands clamped onto the edge of the metal gate to keep from being blown off his feet.

"Master... looks like I got ten times stronger again... Do I get a raise to sixty gold a month?" Lucian, feet braced against the stone floor, cloak torn at the hem, shouted back over the roaring wind.

"Ten times stronger means ten times the workload! No raise!" The energy storm settled. The fifty-meter metal gate swung fully open, revealing the interior of Floor 1 of the World Tower. The four of them stepped through the threshold. Tack... tack... tack... Rows of eternal magical fluorescent lights, mounted along a metal-vaulted ceiling hundreds of meters high, switched on in sequence, stretching endlessly toward the horizon. What lay before them wasn't a damp cave or a monster's graveyard.

It was a colossal Pre-War Underground Metal City: black-alloy skyscrapers, automated manufacturing conveyor belts stretching for kilometers, cold and dormant arcane smelting furnaces, and a magical railway system linking every district. An entire Vertical Nation, buried underground for ten thousand years. Evelyn bolted straight toward the nearest foundry control panel, her eyes blazing behind her silver-framed glasses.

"An automated semiconductor smelting line... The entire Titan civilization's machinery network is still ninety percent intact!" At the same moment, at the Royal Palace of Solaris and the Central Cathedral. Hundreds of arcane alarm bells and seismographs blared in unison, an ear-splitting cacophony. Energy readings from beneath the earth spiked to a figure exceeding eighteen billion points.

Every General and every unit of the Holy Knights were placed on full lockdown, thousands of armored knights spilling out to seal off the entire capital, suspecting an ancient prehistoric Dragon had just awoken deep underground. At the center of Floor 1 of the World Tower. Lucian walked into the metal city's central control room and stood before its massive magical console. Evelyn pulled a main lever. HUMMM!

A colossal three-dimensional magical screen flared to life in the middle of the control room, displaying the complete structural map of the World Tower's full hundred floors, stretching from deep underground straight through the ninth layer of clouds. Floors 1–10: Industrial & Titan Metallurgy District (Floor 10 houses a Black Dragon's nest). Floors 11–30: Ancient Urban District & Elven/Dwarven Empires. Floors 31–100: Mythic District & the Realm of Primordial Gods.

Lucian stared at the glowing hundred-floor map, his dark eyes shining with the purest gleam of absolute financial greed. He leaned both hands on the control console, the corner of his mouth curling into an arrogant smile.

"A hundred floors of unclaimed real estate, no ownership disputes, no Tax Bureau, and it comes with a fully automated production line already installed..." Lucian turned to look at Sylvia and Evelyn.

"This is the single greatest goldmine in human history."