Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 3102: Chapter 3103: Maggie

If Jeanne and the other people from Rabbit Town could really live on Silver Coral Island. This would also be solving the problem of the new residents’ living conditions using the Authority of the Crystal Origin of Dreams.

It would fulfill Angel’s concern.

However, reality is a bit harsh; the "kindness" threshold is determined by Maggie. No one knows, in Maggie’s mind, what truly constitutes the benchmark of kindness.

Angel initially considered having Jeanne ask Maggie how she judges kindness.

But after thinking it over, he decided against it.

Even if he knew Maggie’s standards, how could he use those to judge whether the new residents qualify? Surely not by making everyone take a psychological test?

Thus, for now, let’s set it aside: at least it’s confirmed that Silver Coral Island is a place for permanent residence; in the future, new residents who can go to Silver Coral Island will decide themselves if they want to come.

Moreover, Angel believes that if there are semi-instances like Silver Coral Island for long-term residence, there must be other similar semi-instances.

"Do you have any other questions?" Maggie looked at Jeanne.

Jeanne shook her head: "No more... Can I go and try the Little Treasure Tower challenge now?"

Maggie nodded with a smile: "Of course, you can already see the Little Treasure Tower from here. As the first challenger to enter Silver Coral Island, I can lead the way for you."

Maggie said as she patted the white jade coral shell beneath her with her tail.

The pure white shell began to enlarge at a visible speed, expanding tenfold in a short while.

Then, under Maggie’s invitation, Jeanne ascended the shell.

Once Jeanne was settled, the pure white shell slowly flew up to a height of about twenty meters, heading towards the center of the island...

Jeanne’s challenge at the Little Treasure Tower was permitted by Angel.

Firstly, to see the difficulty of the Little Treasure Tower, and secondly, to further observe the island’s environment and crops.

Until Jeanne reached the Little Treasure Tower, Angel was quite satisfied with the ecological environment along the way. There were birds, fish, insects, and small beasts; currently, no ferocious animals were visible; the variety of flowers, grass, and trees were plentiful; there were some trees bearing numerous fruits, though their names were unknown.

From the diversity of plant life, the land on this island seems very fertile. Additionally, Jeanne passed several freshwater inland lakes, indicating that the water resources here are abundant.

Silver Coral Island is indeed an environment-friendly place, suitable for settling down.

Perhaps, new residents entering the Crystal Origin of Dreams in the future may first be evaluated by Maggie. If they can stay on Silver Coral Island, it would certainly be better than staying in the empty Rabbit Town.

While Angel contemplated how to "develop" Silver Coral Island, Jeanne was already brought to the Little Treasure Tower by the white jade coral shell.

Compared to the primitive island, the architectural style of the Little Treasure Tower was strikingly advanced.

The shape of the tower differed from regular ones, with wider base and top, while the middle portion was narrower, resembling an upright drum.

Angel had not seen a similar tower style in the Southern Domain; in contrast, he had seen a similar Earth’s tower on the holographic tablet, seemingly called "Small Waistline."

The "Small Waistline" shown on the holographic tablet appeared dazzlingly radiant at night.

Here, the "Little Treasure Tower" is equally radiant, but instead of relying on neon lights like the Small Waistline, the exterior of the Little Treasure Tower is all adorned with colored gemstones, pearls, and coral shells.

It is lavish enough to dazzle the eyes.

Seeing such a colorful exterior, Jeanne understood why it was called the Treasure Tower. The tower itself is a precious treasure.

The tower’s base has a grand door made of silver metal, engraved with the image of a Treasure Mermaid, seemingly indicating the tower belongs to the Treasure Mermaid.

Jeanne: "I’m going."

Under Maggie’s watch, Jeanne walked slowly towards the giant door, took a deep breath, and pushed the door open.

Soon, Jeanne’s figure vanished into the dark corridor behind the door.

When Jeanne felt the surroundings brighten again, she realized she was already standing in a magnificently grand hall.

Curtains, carpets, tall candle stands, plush sofas, tassel clocks—the profusion of decorations gave the hall a traditional nobility’s style.

While Jeanne was observing the surroundings, a late influx of information flooded into her mind.

"Special Dreamland ’Little Treasure Tower’ is activated; this special dreamland does not account for exploration degree, but counts the number of cleared layers."

"Current layer: Little Treasure Tower Level 1."

"Current type: Random Puzzle Solving."

"Current goal: Successfully solve the puzzle and exit the escape room before the wall-clock reaches 0 o’clock."

"Current remaining time: 11 hours and 58 minutes. (Exceeding the time will result in being ejected from the escape room and counted as one of the Little Treasure Tower challenge attempts)"

The information was brief but provided Jeanne with her current situation and objective.

To put it plainly, it’s an escape room, the only exit is the hall’s door; leaving here counts as clearing it.

Jeanne previously heard from Maggie that Little Treasure Tower might not test combat skills; back then, she thought the phrase might mean intelligence tests could appear.

How to test intelligence? What Jeanne imagined were exams and doing problems.

But unexpectedly, the Little Treasure Tower’s test was completely different from the intelligence tests she had imagined.

Jeanne hesitated for a moment, first approaching the hall’s only door, as this was the exit.

Jeanne initially intended to see if some "means" could be used to open the door. But upon looking, she was taken aback.

The door had no locks whatsoever, and it was very solid; at least with Jeanne’s current strength, she couldn’t break it.

Although it lacked locks, the door had two different areas on the upper and lower parts, seemingly representing two different puzzles.

The first area was a rectangular frame, inside which there was nothing; however, within the frame were white-line patterns, dividing the rectangle into six small squares. Based on the shape of the squares, this was... a jigsaw puzzle.

This means one must find six pieces in the hall to put into the frame, potentially resolving this area.

The second area had three recessed gemstone slots, and currently, the slots were empty; gems should be searched within the hall and placed here.

Although Jeanne had never experienced this type of puzzle-solving escape room before, judging from the current goals, it shouldn’t be too difficult.

Jeanne returned to the hall and began a careful search.

While Jeanne was searching the hall, Angel had already noticed the location of all the puzzles and gems. However, Angel did not remind Jeanne because finding these puzzles and gems was not difficult.

After all, it was only the first floor of the Little Treasure Tower, and the difficulty was not high. Almost all the puzzles and gems were placed in conspicuous places—not directly out in the open, but in obviously lockable boxes with codes to be solved.

These boxes were definitely signature items in the whole hall, meaning Jeanne only needed to find the codes, unlock the boxes, and she could obtain the puzzles and gems.

Angel also looked at the codes and the hints were obvious enough, with several of the box codes solvable through brute force.

If a knowledge-seeking Wizard were to challenge this, the difficulty here couldn’t even be considered infantile.

Jeanne, as a descendant of the Charlie royalty, received the top tier royal education, so these puzzles shouldn’t pose any difficulty for her either. Angel estimated that this wouldn’t hold her up for too long, so there was no need for outside guidance.

While letting Jeanne solve the puzzles in the hall, Angel withdrew his focus and joined the people relocating in Rabbit Town.

He indicated that they were free to return, but advised them not to approach the pool for the time being.

Next, Angel found Laplace and Glaipnir.

"It seems there’s no danger in the pool?" Glaipnir had already noticed that the new residents of Rabbit Town were starting to return, which meant Angel had explored underwater and concluded there was no threat to them, otherwise he wouldn’t let them return so soon.

Angel nodded, "Yes, there’s no danger."

Glaipnir: "It seems Jeanne hasn’t returned, so the pool really is a Fairyland Duplication?"

"It’s considered a Fairyland Duplication... but it’s entirely different from the previous ones we encountered."

Angel’s tone was somewhat strange, piquing Laplace’s curiosity, "What’s different about it?"

"This Fairyland Duplication is triggered by an NPC."

Glaipnir and Laplace exchanged glances; they’d seen triggered instances before, such as the Sunshine Circus instance before it was properly cleared.

However, what Angel referred to as triggered was different from what they assumed.

They understood that NPC referred to the Gifted People, as Angel had previously explained. The circus host, Uriel the pianist, belonged to the Gifted People.

Still, they believed the Gifted People played specific roles within the instance, and now they were surprised to hear from Angel that they could also act externally as the Guide?

Facing the puzzled Glaipnir and Laplace, Angel didn’t keep them in suspense and briefly recounted everything that had happened underwater.

After listening to Angel’s storytelling, Glaipnir showed a strange expression, "You mean...the underwater Gifted Person is a Treasure Mermaid? And her name is Maggie?"

"That’s correct." Angel cast a puzzled glance at Glaipnir, unsure why she had such an expression.

Glaipnir turned to look at Laplace, whose expression was also strange, and they exchanged silent looks for half a minute.

Until Angel curiously asked, "Is there something wrong here?"

Laplace broke the silence, "It’s not really wrong. However, I once crafted a Temporal Body with the appearance of a Treasure Mermaid..."

"Temporal Body, Treasure Mermaid?" Angel was stunned, "Don’t tell me, this Treasure Mermaid’s name was also Maggie?"

Laplace nodded after a moment of silence, "Yes, her name was also Maggie. Although the name was long, it simplified down to Maggie."

Angel felt his brain suddenly cease to cope, "So, the Treasure Mermaid on Silver Coral Island is your Temporal Body?"

Laplace shook her head, "I don’t have a Temporal Body of a Treasure Mermaid; I simply crafted a Temporal Body, which is more accurately a ’proto-Temporal Body’, or a backup Temporal Body."

According to Laplace, she had once seen several impressions of Treasure Mermaids in the Sea of Void Mirror and personally admired their form, so she crafted a proto-Temporal Body.

If in the future she wanted to appear in the form of a Treasure Mermaid, she could use this proto-Temporal Body.

The proto-Temporal Body didn’t contain Laplace’s spiritual mark or her memories, but was infused with copious imagery compatible with it, forming a broad template through Laplace’s special ability.

Simply put, it was about integrating vast data to build a proto-Temporal Body that only held memories and characteristics of a Treasure Mermaid.

Later, when Laplace wanted to use this Temporal Body, she could directly inject her memory into it, and the proto-Temporal Body would immediately evolve into a brand new, unique Temporal Body.

And Laplace had crafted many such "proto-Temporal Bodies," across various races.

Ultimately, however, Laplace felt humans suited her aesthetic more, leading to most of her current Temporal Bodies being in human form.

The other proto-Temporal Bodies became backups.

"Even if it’s a proto-Temporal Body, it’s still a Temporal Body you made, so why did it become an NPC?" Angel was puzzled.

"Well..." Laplace thought for a moment, "I actually have a conjecture."

Laplace then elaborated on her thoughts—

Laplace had many proto-Temporal Bodies, and these were all infused with relevant memories. So, to prevent internal memory loss, she stored them all within the Forest of Memories.

The Forest of Memories was recently absorbed into the Crystal Origin of Dreams by Angel.

As the Forest of Memories essentially served as a Witchcraft Garden, its internal laws had a presence in reality. Angel feared the Crystal Origin of Dreams might not suppress the Forest of Memories, and thus released Wonderland of Dreams from within the Authority core to counteract the Forest of Memories’ Law intrusion.

The ultimate outcome was pleasing.

The Wonderland of Dreams successfully suppressed the Forest of Memories.

Angel recalled that when the Forest of Memories entered the Crystal Origin of Dreams, it manifested as a towering tree, attempting to interfere with the Dream Crystal Origin through reality laws. But finally, the Wonderland of Dreams suppressed the tree, releasing a mass of memories that made the tree revert back into a small potted plant.

With that thought, Angel recalled another event.

Those memories released from the Forest of Memories, under the influence of the Wonderland of Dreams, formed several Crystal Creations.

Among these Crystal Creations, there were Treasure Mermaids.

And not just Treasure Mermaids, but Rainbow Fairies, Illusion Elves, Moonlight Banshees... many races appeared.

At this point, Angel somewhat understood.

Perhaps the Wonderland of Dreams converted proto-Temporal Bodies from the Forest of Memories, resulting in the present Treasure Mermaid Maggie?