The Undying Magician - Book 6 - Chapter 17 (Patreon)

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Table of Contents

Click the following link for chapter 17:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dSc0vAaqmzw1MX9db43cV46c7mOXhj4dCGzfZukaz7M/edit?usp=sharing

Or you can read the unformatted version below:

NathanYear 2853 | Month 6 | Day 25

“Everyone, welcome once again to the Empire of Maltar’s capital city, the City of Dreams! The Arcane Crown will begin its opening ceremonies in three days, where the initial brackets will appear for all branches of the tournament.” The Spirit Ruler begins to explain while the servants move around cleaning up the vomit in the hall with practiced ease using magic. “During these three days, you are all free to explore the city as you wish. Rooms have been prepared for everyone attending the tournament from the auction, so I hope you all enjoy your time in the Empire!”

Seconds later, the Spirit Ruler’s body begins to morph and distort before she vanishes. No doubt the effects of her spirit magic.

After that, the servants in the hall begin to guide us to our separate rooms through the rather large palace that the teleportation device was apparently in.

The Grand Palace of Dreams that is, according to the servant guiding me to my room, is the symbol of the Empire of Maltar. Alongside the dream realms that pop up everywhere in the empire thanks to the Spirit Ruler’s alterations of reality on this continent.

And it’s not just the palace’s size that makes it a symbol. It’s its uniqueness.

The Grand Palace of Dreams is in a dream realm itself. Which leaves the rooms and multiple locations across the palace linked in ways that don’t make logical sense. To the point that, when I enter one room, I don’t actually enter the room. Instead I suddenly find myself passing through the entryway into a completely different room without any warning.

And when I turn back around and walk through the entryway into the room I see behind me – which is a room I haven’t seen before – I return to the room I came from.

The whole palace is apparently like this, and the exact layout of the palace changes every couple months. So it’s almost impossible to navigate through the palace without the help of the palace staff, who always make sure to keep track of its current layout.

Also, the palace itself has a beautiful rainbow aura when looked at from the outside, with strange rainbow colored light shining and fading in certain areas.

Almost like a dream.

Overall, it’s quite beautiful, and a lot less dangerous looking than the council building of the Melcians. Which is filled with dark lightning running through it like a current. Lightning that is used as both a barrier to protect those inside of it from attacks and spying, and to power the building itself.

Of course, dangerous looking and actually being dangerous are two entirely different things.

The Grand Palace of Dreams is a dream realm. And dream realms are dangerous because dream monsters can appear inside of them.

Also, the Spirit Ruler and other spirit affinity magicians have their spells’ power boosted inside of dream realms. With the Spirit Ruler even being able to manipulate the dream realms to a degree.

It ends up taking a little while to find my room after going through what honestly feels like a maze of a palace. After which the servant asks if I would like a tour guide around the city.

I reject that offer, though, as I would prefer to look around on my own this time.

Of course, that might partially be due to how much of a chatterbox the Mage of Storms ended up being during his so-called tour. But whatever.

Maybe the Spirit Ruler saw how I reacted to the Mage of Storm’s tour and decided to not do what he did. Or she just isn’t as proactive in approaching me as he is.

Then again, for all I know, the tour guide the servant mentioned could have been the Spirit Ruler herself.

Not that it matters regardless.

“Please pull this rope whenever you wish to move around the palace,” the servant says while gesturing towards a golden rope dangling from the ceiling. “A servant will arrive to guide you to wherever you wish to go.” They then bow once and step out of the room.

I can’t help but stare at the rope for a few seconds. Because it feels rather archaic.

My research on the Empire has told me that they keep quite a few more archaic customs, like these servants for example, but I didn’t realize they were archaic with their aesthetics too. And that realization grows even greater when I step out onto the balcony of the palace – which fortunately doesn’t send me to some random room – and gaze out at the medieval-looking city before me.

The Grand Palace of Dreams is on top of a large hill overlooking the city, with a large wall surrounding the city, and a tall Magic Tower near the palace. One I’m sure must belong to the Spirit Ruler.

It’s a rather stark difference from the high tech cities I’ve seen in other places across the planet. But I will admit that it looks aesthetically pleasing somehow.

Especially with the occasional dream realms I can see across the skies and in the city that have pinkish purple energy filling them. Making them feel rather dreamlike just to look at.

I spend a little while admiring the city before leaving a mark in my room. One that I can teleport to at any time.

Which is a pretty convenient spell I designed on the trip here.

Of course, the spell doesn’t work if the mark is too far away. And its current maximum range is several kilometers.

So I can’t just teleport to other cities, but it is more than enough to teleport back to my room.

After leaving the mark, I float right out of my room to go take a look at the city. Or, more specifically, to go take a look at the dream realms as I head directly towards the closest one in the sky.

Time to see what a dream monster looks like.