It took Lor a full hour to finally rummage through the entire ruins of the Energy Cabin.
The harvest was quite satisfactory: a total of 37 Fire Element Magic Crystals.
Don't think this is too little; if converted into energy points, it would be as many as 370 energy points.
Lor would have had to kill fish in that previous small town for over three years to save up this much.
"Misfortune is the seed of good fortune, now the startup capital is in place," Lor laughed, "but if I had a choice, I'd rather not have the misfortune."
Risking his life for these 37 Magic Crystals — only a fool would do that.
After picking out the Magic Crystals, Lor made a show of wandering around the remaining areas of the first floor, naturally finding nothing.
He then went to the mess hall to grab some bread and fruit, returning to his own cabin.
The door of his cabin was broken too, but it didn't matter. There was a big shot sitting upstairs — who would dare act presumptuously?
After enjoying a delightful dinner and relaxing his mind, Lor began his daily meditation.
...
The next day, in the early morning.
Mala took Lor off the Flying Ship and onto the clearing below. First, she gestured at the ship, and endless flames engulfed it.
After about five minutes of burning, Mala pressed her hand against the ship.
In the next moment, the Flying Ship vanished.
Then she pointed at Lor with one hand, and he instantly felt weightless, floating upward.
Mala grasped his arm and flew eastward with him.
"This speed is at least five times faster than the Flying Ship."
Lor watched the quickly receding scenery below, calculating in his mind, "If we keep flying nonstop, we should reach the Wizard Tower within the day."
With the element reserves of a second-ring wizard, flying for a day is as easy as having meals or drinking water.
Just as Lor predicted, before the sun had set, Mala brought him to hover over an extremely vast city.
In the center of this city was a towering, earth-colored high tower, stretching across more than ten miles in width, its body piercing the sky.
With Lor's eyesight, even from mid-air, he couldn't see the top of the tower clearly.
At the base of the Wizard Tower, various styles of spaceships occasionally landed or took off.
Every mile or so, there was an entrance to the Wizard Tower.
These entrances were quite lively, bustling with people coming and going.
The only slight disappointment was that except for the 30-mile radius near the Wizard Tower, the rest of the city was desolate, with few signs of life despite the presence of houses, manors, and castles.
"This city must be newly built, just a framework in place, likely with very cheap property prices."
Lor felt a bit regretful, "If this wasn't the Murphy Continent, I would definitely buy more land here and wait for it to appreciate. But it's not urgent — I'll have opportunities after reaching other continents."
Mala did not stop above the city but headed straight for the Wizard Tower at the city's center.
Whoosh.
In no time, she brought Lor to the base of the Wizard Tower, flying approximately half a circle around it.
Finally, they landed in front of a female Wizard Apprentice wearing a bicolor yellow and red wizard robe, sitting behind a desk and yawning.
"Wizard, sir."
The golden-haired, strikingly attractive apprentice stood up immediately upon seeing Mala approach, but her gaze couldn't help darting toward Lor.
Those coming here were generally wizards recruiting apprentices for the Earth and Fire School.
Other than that, only talents identified by other schools as having a fifth-level Meditation Talent, who also chose the Earth and Fire School Meditation Technique, would come.
"Hmm, go call your mentor." Mala said.
"Yes, Wizard sir, please wait a moment." The apprentice responded respectfully before quickly running towards the entrance of the Wizard Tower.
A genius with a fifth-level Meditation Talent was indeed not someone she could handle.
In no time, the Wizard Apprentice returned, accompanied by a blue-haired middle-aged wizard wearing a red and yellow bicolor wizard robe, with an additional circle on the collar.
As the two approached, before the blue-haired wizard could speak, Mala pointed to Lor and said first:
"Lor Rox, fifth-level Meditation Talent, with an innate Spiritual Power of nearly 2. Built the Earth and Fire Meditation Model perfectly in eight hours, Spiritual Power nearing 6 within twenty days, voluntarily chose the Fire and Earth Faction."
"On the way to Nelson Wizard Tower, my spaceship was attacked by War Divine Hall Knights. Except for him, all other apprentice wizards perished, including my student."
To be honest, Wizard Mala regretted not trying to recruit Lor when he was choosing a faction.
A fifth-level Meditation Talent didn't mean much to him, but Lor's wisdom, he greatly admired.
Unfortunately, by the time he realized Lor's wisdom, the foundation of his Meditation Technique was set; it could only be added to, not subtracted from, making him no longer suitable as a student.
Opposite.
The blue-haired wizard swallowed back his initial words and turned to the apprentice beside him, saying: "Kateya, you take Lor inside; I have some matters to discuss with this Wizard."
The delight was evident on his face upon hearing the data and experiences Mala had recounted.
This was an extremely rare talent — high Meditation Talent, rapid Spiritual Power progress, and that in itself would be exceptional.
But for Lor to also be the sole survivor of a crisis demonstrated tested wisdom.
Talents can be modified; wisdom is innate. As an Elemental Mage, wisdom is the most valued quality.
"Yes, Mentor."
Kateya snapped back to reality, suppressing the turmoil she felt from Lor's experiences, swallowed hard, and spoke to Lor: "You... please come with me."
"No need to be so polite; just call me Lor."
Lor smiled, following Kateya into the Wizard Tower.
Seeing the three horizontal lines on her collar, she was at least a third-level Wizard Apprentice. Using honorifics for him, a first-level apprentice, wasn't really appropriate.
"Alright then."
Relieved that Lor was not as difficult to get along with as some other geniuses, Kateya said with a face full of admiration, "Lor, you're incredibly impressive."
"Not even considering your cultivation prowess, those Temple Knights killed the wizard's apprentices and everyone else, yet you survived."
"I've heard that Temple Knights inherit the legacy of deities, with some of them at a third-tier life stage."
"If it were me facing such a powerful life form, I'd definitely not survive!"
Once Kateya started, she was an unstoppable chatterbox, speaking a whole lot in one breath.
"I was just lucky, and besides, Wizard Mala dealt with the third-tier Temple Knights; we only had to handle the second-tier ones."
Lor shook his head, though a profound chill lingered deep in his eyes.
Sooner or later, he was going to get his hands on some Temple Knight corpses to examine, aiming to develop a personal tracking witchcraft to wipe these cockroaches out.
"Surviving an encounter with a second-tier Temple Knight is already incredible. You're just a first-level apprentice!" Kateya said.
"Hmm."
Lor responded perfunctorily, his gaze shifting, starting to survey the interior of the Wizard Tower.
The ceiling inside the Wizard Tower was very high, with the first floor resembling a small city, spanning about ten meters in height and very spacious.
On both sides, miles away, staircases led to the upper levels.
The entrance of the Wizard Tower was crowded with many people, most of whom were Wizard Apprentices and occasionally passing wizards wearing earth-colored wizard robes.
Only a small number wore bicolor or tricolor wizard robes.
Among them, the majority wore yellow-green or yellow-blue bicolor robes.
As for those in red and yellow bicolor robes, while not entirely absent, they were indeed rare.
"The Earth and Fire Faction is truly out of favor these days," Lor mused. "Unlike the future, where the Earth and Fire Faction completely breaks away from the Elemental Wizard System to become a new massive faction, the Space Faction."
After walking a bit further, climbing two more floors, and making over a dozen turns, Kateya finally stopped her praises and asked: "Lor, why did you decide to join our Earth and Fire Faction?"