Sovereign of the Ashes

Setting up an interplanar teleportation array solely to transport initiates would not be worth the cost.

However, the cost of transporting them within the Magus World was relatively low, as each activation's expense was directly tied to the life levels of the creatures using the array.

How much energy could beings below Rank One possibly consume?

Besides, the Divine Tower of Ashes had only recently been established. Both its faculty and curriculum were still in their infancy.

Even if a large number of initiates were recruited, the tower would not be able to fully develop their potential just yet.

At this stage, the Divine Tower of Ashes would reach capacity with around two thousand initiates.

However, during the screening process in Ashenreach, the number of qualified initiates had been extremely limited.

House Grantt and House Farion had already traveled extensively throughout Ashenreach in recent years.

Even so, after over six months of recruitment efforts, only around two hundred initiates had been gathered.

And that was with the Divine Tower of Ashes relaxing its standards as much as possible.

They had lowered the minimum mental focus requirement and raised the age limit.

Now, any initiate in Ashenreach with an initial focus of 8 points or higher and under the age of forty was eligible to enroll.

This was why education was often called a losing game.

At least for now, Sein could only keep pouring funds into the Divine Tower Academy, even though it had yet to show any immediate results.

As he thought more seriously about sourcing initiates with the help of spatial teleportation, a more complete plan began forming in Sein's mind.

Judging by the way he hunted down initiates, Sein clearly was not a conventional Rank Four mage.

Besides, a typical Rank Four would never choose to build a divine tower in a place like Darwell.

When Sein connected the dots, he realized this plan had real potential.

The rampant activity of black mages across Darwell provided the perfect cover for him to carry it out.

All he needed now was a suitable intermediary—someone who could take care of the dirty work for him.

***

Meanwhile, in the Divine Tower of Dark Flame...

Bousse was yelling at a chubby boy standing in front of him.

That boy was his great-grandson—the only child left behind by his favorite grandson.

Bousse's family seemed to be cursed.

While they all had decent cultivation potential, not a single family member aside from Bousse himself had managed to break through to Rank One after all these years.

This chubby kid was the one Bousse had pinned all his hopes on.

But the boy simply refused to behave. He had a decent head for business, but his knack for causing trouble was just as strong.

The most outrageous thing he had done recently was handing a love letter to a Rank One mage right in the middle of her public lecture.

That stunt had almost embarrassed Bousse to death!

Fortunately, the female mage had just laughed it off, treating it as a harmless prank from a boy.

"You spent an entire year and only earned a few magicoins. Do you actually think you did a good job?" Bousse snapped.

"Get out of here! You're not getting any food until you master the Fiery Hand spell!" he roared.

But the chubby boy clearly did not take it to heart. He just shook his head and dashed off while Bousse was not looking.

Worn out from all the shouting, Bousse collapsed into a nearby recliner with a heavy sigh.

The metal frame groaned under his weight, further souring his mood.

As he sat there debating whether he should go apologize to the female mage, he suddenly pulled a flickering crystal ball from his chest pocket with a frown.

He had received a message, and after reading it, Bousse's expression changed instantly.

Moments later, he summoned the entire family for an emergency meeting, including the chubby troublemaker from earlier.

"From today onward, our family is relocating to Ashenreach," Bousse announced.

"What? Are we abandoning everything at the Divine Tower of Dark Flame?" one stunned family member blurted out.

"Yes, we are starting over in Ashenreach!" Bousse replied.

"You useless lot! None of you train properly, and now I, an old man, have to go out and work at my age!" he shouted, glaring at the younger generation, and especially at the chubby boy.

In truth, Bousse had taken such good care of himself that he still looked younger than most of his grandchildren.

***

After the construction of the divine tower was completed, Sein promptly vanished for two full years, even though there was still a mountain of tasks waiting for him.

That left Lorianne in a bit of a bind.

She had originally come to congratulate him on completing the Divine Tower of Ashes, but before she could even exchange a few words with her apprentice, he had already disappeared—leaving the tower's affairs in her hands for the time being.

Fortunately, Lorianne was more than qualified for the job, having managed her own divine tower for over two thousand years.

Sein's sudden departure did not cause any major disruptions at the Divine Tower of Ashes.

After purchasing a large batch of materials for magic arrays from the Magus Alliance, Sein traveled north, constructing a total of eleven medium- and short-range array nodes.

Luckily, he had explored spatial theory with Leena during his early years and had also learned quite a bit about array techniques from the Spider Queen.

For mages at his level, setting up intraplanar teleportation channels was not particularly difficult

Even interplanar teleportation was well within Sein's reach now.

But like alchemy, array arts required frequent, hands-on practice to improve.

After vanishing without a word for two years, Sein returned with two hundred wide-eyed initiates.

All of them were under twenty years old, and every one had an initial focus score above ten points.

"Where did all these initiates come from? I thought the enrollment period was already over?" Lorianne asked, raising an eyebrow as she stepped outside the divine tower to greet her apprentice.

These initiates had been on their way to a public magic academy in the Alveroth Empire until they were kidnapped by black mages.

Fortunately, a powerful grand mage happened to pass by, rescued them, and even offered to escort them to a divine tower academy instead.

The experience of going from hope, to horror, and back to hope left the young initiates buzzing with excitement.

But more than anything, they were filled with curiosity and anticipation for what the future held.

The Divine Tower of Ashes held great appeal to them.

For many, this was their first journey into the wider world.

"I happened to run into a ship full of kidnapped initiates," Sein explained.

"Ashenreach was built on what used to be the Darwell Region, and black mages' activity here is still far too rampant. I really should start cracking down on them harder," he added, shaking his head with a sigh.