Age of Adepts

The Castle in the Sky, the Diviner’s Tower.

Even within the Silver Union, the Diviner’s Tower was an exceptionally mysterious and classified place.

Outsiders hardly knew of this place, and the only ones that could enter the tower were unique individuals in silver robes, often seen holding thick tomes in their hands as they walked around. These adepts were individuals with the unique profession of Archivist.

The Diviner’s Tower was an important location from where the archivists could observe the world’s movements and record its secrets.

A strange old man dressed in white robes with a pair of tortoise-shell glasses stood on a stone balcony extending out of the Diviner Tower’s seventh floor. He was silently assessing the Castle in the Sky as the bright sun shone down upon it.

After a long time, he finally retracted his gaze and turned back into the tower.

This place was a magical room filled with the aura of knowledge. There was barely any furniture around. Instead, there were only all sorts of books and tomes. All of the books were stacked atop each other, such that the massive piles reached the ceiling a dozen meters above the ground. The books were messily arranged. The only reason the pile had not simply collapsed was the sheer weight and number of the books there.

If one took a look around the room, the only thing they would see, apart from books, would only be more books. There was a small desk, about half a meter tall, at the center of the room. Many scrolls, tomes, notes, and books lay on the desk; some sprawled open, others remained shut, and some were crushed beneath the other documents.

“Teacher, I—”

“Don’t even think about it! You’re still young. You have not experienced the real world and have no idea of the evil hearts of people. You will suffer greatly if you go on an expedition now.”

“It shouldn’t be a problem if I go with Uncle Indal, will it?”

“Hmph! They have a mission on hand right now. They can’t be distracted by taking care of you. Also, how many of the scrolls on the Central Lands have you read?”

The apprentice felt his head swell when the old man mentioned those records.

“Teacher, there are over three hundred rooms full of records on the Central Lands’ history alone. I…I’m only on Year 31,428.”

“So you’ve only understood the most recent 1,500 years of the Central Lands. That’s 31,000 years more to go! I won’t let you go out until you’ve finished reading the complete history of the continent and become an actual archivist.”

The young child’s face twitched when he heard the old man’s reply. He had been studying diligently without rest for two years, and he barely managed to grasp the changes and development of the Centra Lands in the past thousand years.

If he had to master the history that reached over thirty thousand years ago, along with the development of the three major organizations, he would go insane just at the thought of all the reading he had to do.

“Sonke, these are the basics of an archivist. You won’t be able to hold that quill firmly if you don’t wear away the instinctual impatience and sloth of humans upon the vast sea of books. Every scholar that walks out of the Diviner’s Tower as a representative of the Omniscient Eye is a reliable companion. You, on the other hand…have a long way to go!”

“Then…teacher, if an apprentice can’t bear this boring and tedious lifestyle any longer and wants to give up halfway through, what would happen to them?” Sonke’s eyes started gleaming.

“Haha! What kind of place do you think the Diviner’s Tower is? No one can take away any secrets of the world from here. If you can’t become an archivist, then the moment you give up, everything you committed to memory will vanish without a trace.”

Having said that, the old man looked towards the distant horizon out of his window. “No one can take away the secrets here! They belong only to this tower.”

The young Sonke wiped away the cold sweat from his forehead and composed himself. He bowed to the old man and returned to the desk, committing himself fully to his studying and recording again.

A strange eyeball glowing with a golden sheen watched the distance tirelessly atop the tower.

Where its gaze landed, the mists of Fate dissipated, and an image would appear, revealing the truths of the world.