Aozaki Aoko [535-537] (Patreon)

Chapter 535: The Inverted Spire

From the perspective of experiencing the biodiversity of the Icewind Vale, Aoko’s party was undoubtedly lucky. They had encountered everything from Auril-worshipping barbarian berserkers to frost giants riding woolly mammoths.

“This should be the last group,” said Aoko, her cloak whipping in the cold wind. She had just taken down a frost giant with a lightning javelin, the giant’s head exploding before it crashed to the ground. Crimson blood and white brain matter stained the snow. “A few got away. Should we chase them?”

“Let’s just leave it,” Edgin said wearily. “We’re almost there anyway. Once we enter the Nether Spire, even if some runaways bring more frost giants, we won’t have to worry about being surrounded.”

“I don’t mind either way,” Holga grinned, pulling out a beast hide to wipe her adamantine greataxe. “These big guys are fun to chop up!”

They trekked through the snow for another half hour or so, and the Nether Spire, which was previously just a vague shadow on the horizon, gradually became clearer.

But once they could see it properly, everyone was stunned—the spire was completely upside down, its tip impaled into the glacier, while the shattered base jutted out above the surface like a giant boulder.

“Looks like this spire must’ve fallen here from a floating city,” Aoko observed, examining the base carefully and voicing her guess. “That would explain why it’s buried tip-first.”

“A reasonable guess. But how do we get in?” Edgin frowned. “The original entrance has collapsed, so should we—?”

While the others searched for a way in, Edgin suddenly found something odd behind a boulder: a downward staircase, half-buried in snow and ice.

“Hey, over here!” Edgin quickly called everyone’s attention to the strange passage.

“This pathway is very odd,” Aoko said after inspecting it, stroking her chin. “If ordinary adventurers had dug it, it wouldn’t look like this.”

“Why not?” Doric asked. “It looks neat, sure, but couldn’t someone have just used proper tools?”

“It’s the standardization,” Simon said, realization dawning. “Whoever built this even made steps, and every step is almost identical in length, width, and height...”

“Exactly,” Aoko nodded approvingly. “The biggest difference between machines and people is standardization, and this passage clearly shows marks of standardized construction. Which means it was probably built by constructs.”

“Constructs... constructs brought by wizards to explore the spire?” Edgin asked.

“No, I think these are constructs that were already inside the wizard’s tower,” Aoko replied, shaking her head. “The marks here suggest they’ve been around a long time, probably since right after the spire fell here. The internal constructs must have dug this passage and then left.”

“Is that a good thing for us?” Holga asked, puzzled.

“It’s good news,” Edgin replied. “It means we won’t have to deal with any constructs that already left when we explore the tower.”

“Let’s get ready and head inside,” Aoko advised. “No point lingering here, and more frost giants could show up.”

At her words, everyone took out the relevant gear from their packs. Aoko and Simon each used their magic pet pouches to temporarily store their sled dogs, to keep them safe from wandering monsters.

The passage had been dug into an irregular rock outcropping about twenty feet high. The upper section was split, probably from when the spire crashed down.

Perhaps when the passage was dug, this wasn’t a frozen wasteland, but now most of it was covered in ice and snow. Aoko and Simon had to keep using fire magic to melt away the obstacles.

Aoko found it odd—if Dzaan had entered the spire before, why weren’t there traces of old snow removal?

Did he enter from another part of this inverted spire?

After blasting their way to the entrance, Simon and Aoko stopped their spells. Aoko picked up a stone from a pile of rubble and examined it closely, realizing that even the most ordinary stone here was saturated with magic.

“This whole spire is a hundred percent built with magic,” Aoko said in awe. “I wish I could’ve seen the Netheril Empire at its height.”

“Yeah, who wouldn’t?” Simon sighed, glancing around.

“Looks like we’re in the underground section now,” Edgin said, holding up his everburning lantern. “I don’t think this is the actual interior of the spire yet.”

He was right. After entering from the outside, the real tunnel into the spire was just beginning. The path ahead was winding and dark; without magic, they would have tripped over rocks constantly. It would’ve been very hard to proceed.

This was in sharp contrast to the standardized stairs before. Here, the steps and ceiling had been heavily damaged, with rubble everywhere.

After about forty minutes, they finally reached an upside-down stone archway. The door was wide open, clearly left that way by whoever last entered or departed.

“I thought that since it’s upside down, our floor would be an arched ceiling, making progress a pain,” Aoko commented, surveying the first floor. “But it doesn’t look like that.”

Indeed, the spire’s first-floor interior had smooth ceilings and floors. Apart from some broken furniture, there were no major obstacles.

The visible area was about twelve feet high—roughly twice the party’s average height (Edgin was six foot two). Only the arched hallway entrance had a four-foot-tall obstacle, but it wasn’t impassable.

“Look there!” Simon suddenly pointed to a spot below—on the floor (actually the ceiling)—where there was a perfectly round hole, a chain dangling from its edge. They approached and looked down, able to see the second floor through the opening.

“Looks like I was right,” Aoko said. “After the spire crashed, the constructs at the top must have cut these holes to reach the bottom.”

“Should we split up to search the first floor?” Simon suggested. “There seem to be a lot of rooms.”

Chapter 536: Today We Cleared the Grand Library Again

“What have I always taught you, Simon?” Edgin turned and gave Simon a serious look. “How many legends and adventure stories start with people splitting up—and that’s always when things go bad?”

“Fine,” Simon shrugged. “I just thought splitting up would be more efficient, that’s all.”

“Let’s stick together,” Aoko said. “We’ve got plenty of time and supplies—no need to rush. Better safe than sorry.”

They were in what was probably the main hall of the tower. In the center was a corridor leading deeper in, lined with arched doorways to side rooms.

At the entrance to the corridor were two toppled stone statues—one shattered, one still whole.

Aoko could guess why one statue was intact: she saw Chardalyn magic stones embedded in it.

The spire’s owner must have enchanted the statue with protective magic, so even after impacts it hadn’t broken. But now, even that magic had faded.

The statue depicted a long-faced human in ornate wizard robes, holding a staff. Not especially handsome, but the serious expression showed a hint of wisdom. Was this the master of the tower?

There was nothing important in the entry hall, so Aoko led the way down the central corridor.

As she stepped in, magical torches along the walls ignited on their own, casting cold, everburning light. The tower’s magical energy clearly wasn’t exhausted yet.

Midway down the hall, there were two inverted archways on either side. The room to the right was larger, filled with bookshelves. The left looked like some kind of workshop, cluttered with broken equipment and workbenches.

“Which side first?” Edgin asked.

“Right,” Aoko said without hesitation. “Books are more valuable than broken gadgets.”

Simon agreed. Ever since becoming a wizard, he was hungry for spellbooks—and he wasn’t short on money, so knowledge was the clear priority.

Inside the right-side room (accessed via Jump spell), Aoko found most books ruined by age, but a few magically protected volumes were still readable.

“Let’s split up for a bit in here,” Aoko said. “I’ll sort out the valuable books to take. If anything dangerous happens, call out and we’ll help right away.”

The others nodded. Holga, uninterested in books, just found a comfy spot to sit and took out beast hide and oil to maintain her weapon.

The rest began searching the books. Simon and Aoko looked for magical tomes, Doric was interested in records of Netheril’s natural history, and Edgin was drawn to poetry and history.

Aoko, reasoning that any surviving books must still have magical traces, activated her Arcane Sight. Her hunch paid off: before long, she found a book in Elvish.

She picked it up, noting the title despite some cover damage: Magic and Miracles of Netheril.

Excited, Aoko opened it, only to discover it wasn’t a spellbook but a collection of interviews with Netheril’s archmages, like an academic journal anthology.

It covered research and translations on ancient elven magic, and, to Aoko’s shock, information about mythallar cores.

Eagerly reading, she found it described the effects and a few schematic sketches of mythallar construction, but nowhere near enough detail to actually build one.

She carefully stored the book in her extradimensional pocket, then searched for more detailed works on mythallar cores, but found only two other moderately valuable books, both unrelated to mythallars.

One was Mysteries of the Phaerimm, detailing the characteristics and powers of the phaerimm lurking below Netheril, and ways to counter them.

The other was Wizards in the Hollow, a history book about the founding of the Netheril Empire and the lives of Congenio, Ioulaum, and Karsus.

Not finding a full mythallar construction guide disappointed Aoko. She knew most mythallars in today’s Faerûn were long inactive, but now that she and Mystra were like mother and daughter, surely she could get a backdoor to try building one for fun.

But she also knew Mystra wouldn’t just hand her the knowledge; finding and learning forbidden lore was part of Aoko’s own trial. Still, if she ever found such knowledge, Mystra wouldn’t stop her from learning it.

While Aoko’s find was potentially superweapon-level, Simon’s find was more practical—a spellbook. Unfortunately, the spells inside were mostly ones he’d already learned, or that he had better versions of.

To his disappointment, most of the spells in the book were actually worse than the ones he’d learned—less powerful, less efficient, less precise.

It showed that, even though Netheril was a peak human magical empire, much of its magic was inferior to modern spell versions—Faerûn’s magical arts had clearly advanced.

Doric didn’t find much of interest, but she helped the others sort out anything possibly valuable and stuffed it in her magic bag (a reward Simon received from the town hall and gave to Doric).

Edgin had good luck—besides ancient poetry, he found a recipe collection titled Flavors of Netheril.

Chapter 537: Netheril Cuisine

Aoko was very interested in the cookbook. She wanted to see what these lofty archmages ate on a daily basis.

When they gathered around and opened the first page, Aoko couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

The first recipe read: “Netheril’s most treasured dish—Green Onion Pancake.”

Did everyone in Netheril’s floating cities come from a province or something?!

The others were happily critiquing the recipes, while Aoko’s lips twitched. Why were these secret mage recipes so down-to-earth?

But in the end, she held back her snark and quietly finished reading the cookbook with the others.

“To be honest, I’m a little hungry after reading this,” Edgin said, rubbing his stomach. “Isn’t it about time to eat?”

This guy—he’s hinting at Aoko to try the Netheril recipes!

“Sigh, fine,” Aoko said, exasperated. “Even if the surroundings don’t show it, it really is about time to eat. Let’s eat first, then explore more!”

“Yay!” Doric cheered. Aoko shot her a look, and she immediately waited obediently.

Since it wasn’t yet bedtime and they’d be exploring more after eating, Aoko didn’t set up a mansion spell entrance here, but she had all her ingredients and utensils ready.

They skillfully unpacked their camping gear and cleared a wide space in the lost library, setting up a simple camp.

Aoko surrounded the fire with broken stones, making a basic campfire. Holga broke up ruined wooden furniture for firewood, which Aoko lit.

Taking out pots, pans, and ingredients, Aoko summoned several unseen servants to assist. She poured flour into a bowl, added water, and began mixing—a batter for green onion pancakes.

Yes, she was attempting the most treasured recipe of Netheril—scallion pancakes.

Although she called them pancakes, they were closer to scallion flatbread or green onion pizza from Earth.

She added chopped cabbage, shredded carrots, scallions, and diced onions, then seasoned with pepper, salt, and sugar.

Her unseen servants poured olive oil into the hot pan, the sizzling sound making everyone’s mouth water.

Aoko poured in the batter, flipping each pancake until both sides were golden brown.

She made six pancakes in total—one extra for her long-neglected magic pet, Stark, who was so moved he cawed happily.

“Doric, did you bring fig jam?” Aoko asked the druid. “The recipe says it’s authentic with fig jam.”

“Sure did!” Doric cheerfully produced a jar of fig jam, and everyone spread it on their pancakes.

Time seemed to turn back as, after so many years, Netheril cuisine was recreated in its wizard tower library. Five people and one raven sat around the fire, each enjoying their meal.

“Tasty!” Simon said, taking a big bite. “Tasting this, I feel like I’ve gone back to the height of magical civilization...”

“It’s good,” Edgin agreed, chewing. “But I don’t think you need to miss Netheril too much. From the stories, those archmages weren’t all good guys...”

“Then we’d better find their treasures,” Aoko grinned. “Doing good with a villain’s legacy—now that’s the ultimate insult to them!”

They joked and enjoyed the ancient flavors (though Aoko had tweaked the recipe and brought ingredients from Earth’s industrial society), then packed up and resumed exploring.

Aoko stored all the valuable, intact books from the first-floor library in her extradimensional space. The rest might have held vital information but were too decayed to bother sorting.

Leaving the right-side library, they entered the workshop on the left.

Contrary to Aoko’s expectation of a small room, there was another locked door deeper inside.

Most things in the workshop were destroyed or beyond repair, but Aoko still found a somewhat rusted brass key, though it didn’t seem to fit the inner door.

So Aoko used a knock spell to force open the door, discovering an even more chaotic and ruined room.

It was clearly an alchemy lab—scattered with glass shards, frozen puddles of spilled unknown liquids, two broken cabinets, and a metal chest wedged in a wall niche.

Aoko carefully avoided the alchemical puddles and glass, then studied the niche for traps. Finding none, she used Bigby’s Hand to carefully pull the chest out—since opening it in the niche would have spilled its contents.

“Ha, a treasure chest!” Edgin beamed as Aoko set the box down. “What do you think is inside? Jewels? Magic items?”

“In an alchemy lab? More likely potions,” Simon reminded him. “Or maybe recipe books...”

Aoko didn’t comment, instead taking the brass key she’d found and fitting it into the lock. With a turn and a click, the chest opened.

Inside were four neatly arranged potions of different colors—and judging by their auras, even after all this time, they were still potent...