"… If you want to understand the design of a mage's mage tower, you'll probably have to start by analyzing its functions …"
From a certain standpoint, Rorschach's group was quite lucky.
This mage's territory had been stagnant for far too long. It had been so long that after the sun furnace was extinguished, not only did many natural defensive mechanisms fail to take effect, some even died of natural causes.
That's right, natural causes.
In the darkness of the road, the adventurers carefully hurried on.
Faint bluish-purple lights illuminated both sides of the path. The withered and gigantic plant corpses struck fear into everyone's hearts.
"Flowers with teeth and vines with legs. What the hell is all this?"
The lights that were lit up in that direction made the surroundings seem like a ghost town. Fortunately, there were no newbies in this group. Everyone simply traveled in silence.
Dangerous gigantic plants and twisted plant corpses kept appearing around them. After the ecosystem had been stagnant for several hundred years, some of these dangerous creatures had already become history.
Yes, some of them had become history. Some of them were only dormant.
Others might not be able to tell, but as a wood spirit nature mage, Rorschach could obviously sense the powerful life force within these gigantic plants. Six hundred years without sunlight or water still wasn't enough to kill these terrifying existences.
"What twisted life forms. I never expected that such beautiful life forms as the wood spirits would be born in such a manner …"
Rorschach's muttering caused Isabella behind him to reveal a playful smile.
After experiencing all this, she had seen the original form of the Seven Virtues on the battlefield. How could she not know what the life forms under the cute appearance of the wood spirits really meant?
Perhaps, as time passed, and the wood spirits had been resting for several hundred years, most people had forgotten about these "pure and cute" "little things." These little angels who were skilled at gardening and ecological healing were born on the battlefield and grew up on the battlefield. From the moment they were born, they were war machines and weapons dealers.
In Isabella's opinion, the twisted plant life forms they saw along the way were the true essence of the wood spirits — they were natural creations that defied nature, artificial combat plants that evolved on the path of evolution.
They didn't encounter any battles along the way, but nobody would let down their guard just because of this.
In order to obtain the ownership of this place, they naturally had to activate the ecosystem here. As long as the ecosystem was activated, how many of these things would be revived and whether they would still retain their sanity was something that even the Creator did not know.
But now, Rorschach and his apprentices had received their first gift from the Nature Land.
"Teacher, I can feel magic overflowing. It seems like I'm about to advance …"
Morton's words made Rorschach pause for a moment, and then he immediately caught up with the team, leaving only one sentence.
"Hold it in."
Hold it in? How could he hold it in?
Morton's heart was filled with joy, but at last, it was stuffed back by these words.
But it wasn't just Morton himself who was holding back. Rorschach's state was also very subtle. To be precise, it was even more subtle than Morton's.
The current Morton, on the surface, had suddenly turned into a two-meter-tall muscular man, but the flesh under his clothes was green, and he could pretend to be the Hulk if he dyed his hair.
Probably any rookie Mage could do a simple increase in muscle strength. Even Morton himself could concoct some strength potions for his own use. As long as he was willing to spend resources, it was possible for him to surpass orcs and professional Warriors in terms of pure strength.
But it didn't make much sense. Mages didn't need much strength in the first place, and even the current pure Warriors didn't pursue greater strength. What they pursued was better equipment … Rorschach's transformation wasn't so low-level.
Under that seemingly robust body, what wriggled were not animal muscle fibers but plant fibers, but not low-level magical plant symbiotic transformation.
Rorschach's technique was more thorough. Morton was getting further and further away from animals at the cellular level. Whether it was life form or physical organs, he had gradually completed a sharp transformation from animal to half-plant and half-animal.
This was just a change in the nature of life. It was hard to say whether it was evolution or degeneration, because evolution and degeneration in the sense of common sense were originally the results of the mutation of life. Things that were beneficial to oneself and adapted to the environment were called evolution, and things that weren't suitable were called degeneration.
Such a change didn't mean much for the combat power that Morton urgently needed. After all, plant life had greater endurance, stamina, vitality, numbness to pain, and regenerative abilities than animal life, but it didn't mean much to spellcasters.
But this was just the beginning. It meant that he could further obtain magical plant transformation, and use various plant strengthened shells and biochemical equipment. It meant that many of Rorschach's ideas could be realized on it.
In a sense, this was an unspoken rule that was unusually inhumane but tacitly agreed upon in the Mage world — using apprentices as their own experimental subjects.
Rorschach was different from those evil Mages, probably because he didn't hide the possibility and harm of these transformations. But Morton, who was obsessed with revenge and had no other path, didn't hesitate at all.
And didn't this transformation sound familiar … In fact, there was another half-plant, half-animal life in this world, which was the wood spirits, and they were also man-made creatures.
As for their original form, they were born on this land. This was their birthplace.
Perhaps this was why Morton and Rorschach felt comfortable in this area, and even had the illusion that they could advance at any time.
Yes, it wasn't just an illusion, and it wasn't just Morton who had this strange sense of sturdiness and evolution. Rorschach felt it much more strongly as well.
Roxia didn't tell anyone else about this, but the moment he entered this area, he felt a mysterious vitality seeping out of every single cell in his body. His mana became even more active, and even his physical strength, which was his weakest point, didn't weaken at all.
If it were anyone else, they might have been excited to think that this was a treasured place for cultivation. Breakthroughs should be made, realizations should be made. But as a spellcaster, Rorschach rationally analyzed it as a topic, and the answer might not be a good thing.
Just like what Isabella said before, in order to understand the principle of a mage's territory, the first thing to do was to understand what kind of research the mage's tower was for.
Rorschach had already confirmed that this entire area was an ecological garden divided by various natural environments. It was for the purpose of cultivating various magical plants and mutated species. In that case, it was necessary to increase the vitality of the plants so that they could be replaced faster and produce new species.
"… There should be a power at the level of rules here that gives a high degree of vitality to plant life. And with a high degree of vitality, in addition to a stronger ability to grow and reproduce, the probability of mutation is also greatly increased …"
The mutation of species was the root of life's evolution. But according to the modern theory of evolution, the mutation itself had no rules to speak of. Ninety-nine percent of the mutations were harmful to life itself, and only less than one percent of the mutations were beneficial. Because it made the mutated person stronger and more suitable for the environment, it was called evolution.
The advancement of various professions in the Aishi world was also seen as an individual's selective evolution.
But for a researcher, there was no need for selection. Those harmful mutations were unavoidable, and there was no need to avoid them … They just had to throw away the harmful mutations. The idea of a "white mouse" was completely meaningless.
Along the way, Morton could no longer hide his appearance and characteristics, revealing his plant-like parts. And Rorschach's cold gaze still made him obediently "hold it in".
In fact, this was indeed Rorschach's good to Morton.
Under such circumstances, accepting the mutation of the environment was a gamble that was basically impossible to win. One of the purposes of Rorschach's trip was to collect the relevant knowledge and skills as much as possible, and carry out an active and selective evolution (advancement).
And now, not only was Morton unable to control himself more and more, even Rorschach's condition was getting worse and worse.
"I'm so hungry …"
The silent feeling of hunger made one's mood restless, and the limbs of the magical plants around him were becoming more and more delicious in Rorschach's eyes.
That was a part of life's evolution, it was the instinctive desire of life to become stronger … But Rorschach did not want to become a big monster just like that.
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