Chapter 291: Unexpected Alliance 2

"I'll take my leave now. Building this is going to take time."

"You intend to begin immediately?"

I nodded. "The sooner I finish it, the sooner I'll have a way to save my people."

"I must warn you that not just anyone can accomplish this," Hexor added. "I taught this magic to six of my most trusted disciples, and only two of them managed to create a barely livable world. Even then, what they created were nothing more than barren wastelands where only beasts could survive."

Six disciples, huh?

They must have been extraordinary individuals if someone like him accepted them as students.

"So I'm your seventh?" I asked, unable to hide my curiosity.

"Of course not. You're my thirteenth."

"Thirteenth?"

"I only mentioned six because the others did not possessed the qualifications required to begin learning it. But don't misunderstand—they weren't lacking in talent. They simply had abilities and strengths that were better suited for other branches of magic."

I understood his reasoning.

To put it simply, Hexor and I belonged to the same category of magicians.

We were the kind of people who sought knowledge from every possible source, absorbing different techniques, studying their principles, and incorporating whatever proved useful into our own arsenal.

Instead of dedicating ourselves to a single path, we collected many and refined them until they became part of our own foundation.

But that path came with its own weakness. Having too much knowledge meant having too many directions to pursue. Every new discovery opened another possibility.

The more possibilities we gained, the harder it became to devote ourselves completely to one.

A specialist on the other hand who spent his/her life perfecting a single spell could push it to a level that a generalist might never reach.

It reminded me of an old saying:

'I fear not the man who has practiced ten thousand kicks once, but the man who has practiced one kick ten thousand times.'

In the end, neither path was wrong.

One gave you endless possibilities.

The other gave you unmatched mastery.

And the truly terrifying individuals were those who managed to achieve both.

"Compared to your other students, what do you think my rank would be?"

"Hahaha. You're quite competitive, aren't you?"

"I'm just doing my research. Sooner or later, I'll meet those seniors of mine, so I want to know how I should act around them."

My answer seemed to amuse him even more.

"Research, huh? That's one way to describe measuring yourself against people you've never met."

"I prefer being prepared."

"Naturally." Hexor chuckled. "That trait is probably one of the reasons you reached this point in the first place."

"Very well. I'll be frank with you. Right now, you would probably rank seventh among my disciples, considering the variety of powers you possess."

Now, I finally got a proper estimate of the power levels of his other disciples.

"Thank you for your guidance. I'll take my leave now."

"Go. And don't worry. I'll protect your territory while you're busy mastering that spell."

His words caught me slightly off guard.

Even after everything he had already done, he was still willing to help me further.

I bowed once again, and after disconnecting from my clone, its body began breaking apart until it turned into dust and scattered into the wind.

Back in my territory.

The knowledge I received refused to settle as I went through it again.

Even after I left the tower, the formulas continued unfolding in my mind, each layer revealing another hidden beneath it as though the spell were teaching itself.

At first I thought he simply passed down an exceptionally complicated piece of magic, but the longer I studied it, the more I realized that wasn't the case.

This wasn't a spell that could be memorized and cast. It was an entirely different discipline, one that revolved around the creation of something he called a Artificial Realm.

At first glance, the concept reminded me of a spatial storage bag since both relied on manipulating space itself.

The resemblance, however, ended there. A space bag merely carved out a stable pocket where objects could be stored.

It was little more than an empty container detached from the outside world. An artificial realm expanded that same principle thousand fold, creating not just a hollow space but a complete pocket space with its own flow of mana, its own internal laws, and enough stability to sustain life indefinitely.

Given enough time and resources, tens of thousands of people could live inside it, albeit temporarily.

It was a level of magic I never imagined possible, and yet the formulas unfolding inside my head proved that it was in fact possible and doable.

As I continued organizing the knowledge inside my head, I finally reached the section detailing the requirements.

My excitement faded for a moment as I read through them one by one.

It demanded the ability to multi cast spells simultaneously. I needed to be capable of thinking like dozens of individuals at the same time, maintain complete control over my mana, and possess a soul strong enough to withstand the pressure.

At the same time, I also needed a massive amount of resources to sustain the creation, since it could take months to complete. Any disturbance during the process would destroy the entire spell—and likely cost me my life.

Missing even one of those requirements would cause the entire dimension to collapse before it could stabilize.

Then I stopped.

"...Wait."

I read through the list again.

My Hive Mind was perfect for the first requirement, so that was already taken care of.

As for the second—maintaining control over my mana—I didn't want to brag, but because of my Qi cultivation, my mana control was excellent.

Regarding my soul, there was no question that it was already tempered beyond what most beings could achieve. The countless simulations I underwent pushed it far beyond normal limits, especially since fragments of the original owners' souls from those bodies returned with me.