"Pick me! I'm comfortable here."
"My leaves are the densest. The sunlight can't get in, so you'll sleep the best here."
"Don't listen to him. I have companion vines here with built-in massage functions."
"Me, me, me! I'm growing right at the main trunk's fork. The concentration of energy particles is highest here!"
There were also the aloof ones.
Several living tree houses embedded deep within the trunks hadn't uttered a single word from start to finish. Their conscious ripples were as cold as stone. When Ethan's mental power reached out to them, they even actively recoiled slightly, their meaning more than clear.
Ethan's lips twitched.
In his twenty-some years of life, this was the first time he was being picked by a house.
Ignoring the aloof ones, he surveyed the street.
Finally, he stopped in front of a living tree house whose door was adorned with vines blooming with small, pale yellow flowers.
This house extended from a fork in the trunk, about seven or eight meters off the ground, with a wooden staircase spiraling upward.
The glowing vines wrapped around the handrails were more than twice as thick as those on the other houses, and their pale green light was as soft as moonlight.
Before he even drew near, a surge of conscious ripples washed over him.
"He's here, he's here! He's finally here! I've been waiting so long! Come up, come up!"
Ethan stepped onto the stairs.
The wooden steps beneath his feet vibrated slightly. It didn't feel like stepping on an inanimate object, but rather like walking on the back of some docile giant beast.
With every step he took, the glowing vines on both sides of the handrail brightened a bit more, as if lighting his path.
He pushed open the door to the tree house.
It was about a hundred square meters.
Much larger than he had expected.
It was fully equipped with everything one might need.
"The scale of this place is truly absurd," Ethan whispered to himself as he sat at the wooden table in the living room. A faint film of light floated over the tabletop.
【War Fortress · Temporary Residency Guidelines】
【Article 1: Freedom is unrestricted. During your residency, you may move freely within designated areas of the fortress, but you must not enter the Military Forbidden Zone, the Wizard Tower Core District, or the Energy Hub District. Violators will be executed on sight.】
【Article 2: Combat is prohibited. Any form of combat within the fortress is strictly forbidden, including but not limited to wizardry, cantrips, melee, mental attacks, toxins, and curses. Violators will be punished with fines in magic stones or execution, depending on the severity of the offense.】
【Article 3: Knowledge can be exchanged for magic stones. The fortress features a Knowledge Exchange providing biological sample analysis of the target world, research on local energy rules, analysis of hostile race weaknesses, and more. Prices are determined by the level of knowledge.】
【Article 4: Biological samples of the target world are provided free of charge. Each apprentice may receive one basic sample for research purposes. Additional samples must be exchanged for magic stones.】
【Article 5: Use of the teleportation array must be declared in advance. Anyone using the teleportation array without permission will be deemed to have deserted the fortress, and the consequences will be their own responsibility.】
【Article 6: Cannon fodder legions, such as contract beasts and slaves, are under the unified management of the fortress.】
【Article 7: Supplies are provided in daily fixed rations. Any excess must be exchanged for magic stones.】
【Article 8: Maintain the cleanliness of the living quarters. Anyone who intentionally damages fortress facilities must pay for the damage and will be fined.】
【Article 9: Obey the commands of Official Wizards. During wartime, any Official Wizard has the right to temporarily draft apprentices to perform missions, and such orders may not be refused. However, if a mission is clearly unreasonable, an apprentice may report to Fortress Command at any time and refuse to obey. After evaluation by the Command Center, if the order was reasonable, the apprentice will be executed; if it was unreasonable, the Wizard will be executed.】
【Article 10: The War Fortress reserves all rights of interpretation.】
Ethan's eyebrows shot up when he reached Article 9. This rule was indeed a bit extreme.
Failure to appeal resulted in immediate execution, while a successful appeal resulted in the execution of the Wizard.
Either way, a life was on the line.
But on second thought, if an Official Wizard drafted an apprentice for a mission and the mission itself was reasonable, the apprentice's refusal or appeal would be an act of military insubordination. Execution was justified.
If it was unreasonable, it meant the Wizard was gambling with the apprentice's life or interfering with the progress of the war. Execution was also understandable.
In a World War, the victory or defeat would not be decided by the presence of a single Wizard Apprentice or even a single Wizard.
Execution for anyone who disobeyed orders was perfectly standard.
He pushed these thoughts aside and continued to swipe his finger across the light film.
【Target World Information】
【World Code: SS774-AX330677H】
【Provisional Name: Amons World】
【Local Inhabitants: Amons race】
【Morphological Characteristics: Generally humanoid, possessing composite Elf sub-race characteristics. Average height is three meters with a slender build. Skin ranges from pale green to dark brown. Earlobes are long and pointed. Eye pupils are predominantly green and amber.】
【Supernatural Abilities: Proficient in Wood, Earth, and Water-element supernatural abilities. Skilled in long-range archery; weak in close combat.】
【Race Hypothesis: Suspected hybrid descendants of Human sub-races and Elf sub-races.】
【Social Structure: Ruled by a single imperial clan, with one hundred and eight large tribes and countless small tribes scattered across the world.】
【Ecosystem: Complete biosphere. Land and ocean ratio is approximately 4:6. Land consists primarily of forests, grasslands, and mountains. Rich variety of magical beasts; at least thirty-seven large predatory magical beast populations have been observed.】
【World Level Assessment: Tier 3 World.】
【Estimated Top Local Combat Power: Third-Tier lifeforms, with an estimated count of twenty to twenty-five. The probability of Fourth-Tier lifeforms is extremely low, though the possibility of a peak Third-Tier emerging after catalysis by the world's source cannot be ruled out.】
【World Will Activity: High.】
【Estimated Resistance Intensity: Extremely High.】
"No wonder a Star Wizard set their sights on this world," Ethan muttered.
Only a Fourth-Tier Wizard was qualified to be called a Star Wizard.
For such a being to take interest, the level of this Amons World naturally wouldn't be low.
The higher the world level, the higher the danger.
And the higher the danger, the greater the harvest for the Wizards.
Similarly, the harvest for the apprentices would also be greater.
Provided they could survive, of course.
Ethan pushed those thoughts aside and continued to swipe across the light film.
A simplified map appeared on the film.
The map marked the general distribution of areas within the War Fortress.
Living quarters (300 locations), Supply Exchange (77 locations), Wizard/Apprentice Knowledge Exchange (13 locations), Mission Board points (39 locations), teleportation array hubs (100 locations), Military Forbidden Zones (7,400 locations), War Fortress Restricted Area, Fortress Command, and the Energy Hub District.
Among them, the Military Forbidden Zones, the Wizard Tower Core District, and the Energy Hub District were marked in a jarring red.
He committed the map's contents to memory and stood up.
The location of the Apprentice-level Knowledge Exchange was not far from the living quarters, roughly three kilometers away.
Ethan stepped down the wooden stairs.
The steps beneath his feet vibrated slightly, and that conscious ripple surged over him again.
"Come back early, okay?"
Ethan's lip twitched, but he didn't look back.
After walking along the flagstone path for about fifteen minutes...
He arrived at the Knowledge Exchange.
Rate on N.U.
