The trace of the mage tower had been discovered.
For everyone in the Starry Myth team, this brought no small amount of excitement.
After all, it directly confirmed the legend of Lobranch, proving that the records their guild brother found in the library were not false.
Of course, the most crucial part was that it gave the team—who had been searching for quite some time—a next target.
But this target still seemed quite distant.
After dealing with another group of encountered monsters, Zhenmo looked up at the faint shadow in the sky and narrowed his eyes. “Wrench, how long have we been walking roughly?”
“Should be about seventeen or eighteen minutes, Brother Mo.” The one answering was a warlock in the team.
He glanced at the system’s built-in time.
“What’s wrong?”
Fantasy Melody beside him cast a gaze over, somewhat curious why he spoke up at this moment.
Zhenmo paused. “Have you all noticed that the tower seems even farther than before?”
Reminded by Zhenmo, everyone then realized something was off.
Logically, after walking for twenty minutes—even with a few interruptions by monsters—they should have at least closed the distance considerably.
Yet in reality, the mage tower’s shadow appeared a few points smaller than before.
“What’s going on?”
“Even if we took a wrong turn midway, it shouldn’t be this ridiculous, right?”
“And we’ve clearly been heading straight in that direction.”
The Starry Myth members discussed it but couldn’t reach any useful conclusion.
“As expected, it’s not that simple. No wonder Little Tong couldn’t find it either.” Fantasy Melody couldn’t help frowning.
Little Tong—wasn’t that the child they passed by earlier… Wait, she seemed to have said something.
Meanwhile, Zhenmo, who was pondering beside them, recalled something. “Do you remember what the mage tower is called in the rumors?”
“Let me think… It seems the locals call it the Tower of Mirror Fog.”
Someone in the team answered.
“Fog… thick fog… mirror… mirror?”
As if reminded, Zhenmo looked up at the ethereal tall tower hidden deep in the mirror-like sky.
He decisively issued an order to the team. “We’re going back—head in the opposite direction.”
Everyone froze for a moment but quickly reacted, promptly adjusting formation and turning their backs to the tower’s shadow, heading northwest—which was the direction they came from.
The monsters on the path had already been cleared by them and wouldn’t respawn in a short time.
After advancing for just about ten minutes, the outline of the mage tower in the high sky became increasingly clear.
“No wonder it’s called that name—there’s a trick to it.”
“Worthily Brother Mo, figuring it out so quickly.”
Everyone couldn’t help feeling some admiration.
To think of the key so fast.
Fantasy Melody also clicked her tongue in wonder and patted Zhenmo’s shoulder. “A top math major indeed lives up to the name—impressive, impressive.”
“Overpraising. It’s just an empty reputation. After all, someone under my tutoring still couldn’t pass the mathematical olympiad exam last semester.”
Fantasy Melody’s face immediately stiffened.
Zhenmo ignored her and looked up into the sky again.
“We’re almost there—why do you still have a bitter face?” Seeing this, Fantasy Melody forgot his earlier teasing and asked curiously.
Zhenmo shook his head. “I always feel like it’s not that simple.”
Facts proved he seemed to be overthinking.
After dealing with three waves of monsters, the entire team actually succeeded in passing through the fog and arriving before a towering mage tower.
About a hundred meters tall, the tower body was constructed from white cloud stone, engraved with various exquisite patterns.
One could even see some mysterious magic array designs.
Depleted arcane gems were embedded on it, decorating the entire tower to appear magnificent and luxurious.
Though it looked dilapidated due to age, one could still vaguely see traces of its former glory.
“This must be Lobranch’s mage tower.”
Everyone stared wide-mouthed at the grand white tower before them.
After all, the hazy shadow seen from the fog was far less impactful than experiencing its majesty in person.
Even Zhenmo—who had seen many famous historical sites—was shaken by that ancient and rustic aura.
But he reacted in just a moment. “Alright, everyone stop spacing out—hurry inside.”
Zhenmo’s voice reminded them of their purpose.
Thinking of the treasures inside this ancient tower with a long history, everyone couldn’t help getting excited.
At the same time, they didn’t forget the necessary vigilance, maintaining their original formation and having the frontline warriors push open the mage tower’s main gate.
However, their excitement quickly vanished.
The team walked straight through the gate without any hindrance whatsoever.
What appeared before them was not the interior of the mage tower, but a stretch of dim jungle faintly filled with mist—
They had inexplicably arrived at the outskirts of Deep Mist Outpost.
This sudden occurrence left not only the Starry Myth members stunned—even the ever-calm Zhenmo failed to react for a moment.
Under everyone’s gazes, he looked around while pondering for a long time.
In the end, he couldn’t reach any conclusion and sighed.
“There’s definitely something strange here. Everyone, just level up around here for now. I’ll discuss it with the president again.”
Hidden in the fog, I couldn’t help laughing out loud.
If Lobranch’s treasures were really that easy to obtain, they would have been emptied hundreds of years ago.
Yet in reality, most thieves lost their way in this fog.
Because this fog itself was an illusion set up by Lobranch.
If one headed straight toward the tower’s shadow, they would only get farther and farther.
Thus, just as I had anticipated, after advancing in the fog for a long time without approaching the mage tower, Zhenmo recalled the “inadvertent” hint I gave and chose the correct method—heading in the opposite direction.
However, this could only be considered half success.
Actually, if those guys were more careful, they would notice that after walking out of the fog in the opposite direction, a buff called Mirror Fog on their status bar would disappear.
So at that point, they just needed to re-enter the fog and walk back along the original direction.
But Starry Myth ultimately didn’t think that far.
Plus, with this layer of experience—and my deliberate implication earlier that even I couldn’t find the mage tower using this method—they had likely ruled it out.
Even if not, they wouldn’t come disturb me in the short term.
This was the other reason I helped earlier.
Following the original path cleared by Starry Myth, I passed through the fog.
Looking at the magnificent mage tower before me, I reached out and pressed on the somewhat heavy gate.
Unlike Starry Myth and the others who walked straight through, this time I solidly pushed it open.