The large metal doors of the capital’s wizard’s tower swung open, and a white-haired man stepped inside.

The moment he sat foot inside, all the mages turned to stare at him, “Such raw mana,” One of them gasped. “It’s screaming around him, twisting and twirling like an ice storm,” He approached Gojo.

“Are you perhaps a cryomancer? Or, dare I say, a sorcerer? White blood perhaps, or is it silver?” He stared at Gojo’s face, “Ah! Don’t tell me, an elemental, I’m sure of it.”

Gojo smiled, lifting his palm, “Close. I’m both a cryomancer and an ice elemental sorcerer.” He conjured a rose of white ice.

The wizard gasped, “Such fine control. It can’t be achieved without both the talent of sorcerers and the dedication of wizards. Which noble state do you hail from, bender of the cold magic,” He waved his hand, bowing slightly and taking off his large, wizard hat.

“Sadly, I’m an orphan adventurer. Give me more free time to work on my spells,” Gojo smiled, waving his hand and releasing a trail of snow.

“It saddens my heart to see another student of magic suffer the uncurable sickness of loneliness, but fear not. The mana never abandons us. Neither is the amused gaze of the goddess of magic.” The wizard smiled, patting Gojo’s shoulder, “Trust in her, and you shall find happiness.”

Gojo giggled with a smile, “Sorry, but I’m not completely alone. I do have my younger brother with me,” He looked back.

The wizard stared behind Gojo as a large man walked into the tower. The door seemed to barely contain the massive shadow, and the moment it stepped inside, a wave of dreaded magic rushed across the whole tower.

The wizard backed away, sweating, “Curse, gravity, and psychic magic all mixed into one. I do sense a faint hint of vampire blood magic and lycanthropic curses. That isn’t all, fire and brimstones. I sense a draconic aura inside him,” The wizard fell on his butt, crawling away.

Gojo looked back, “Hey, brother. Keep your magic down. See? You scared them like chickens,” He waved his hand, “You know that a scared chicken’s meat is tough and lacks flavor?”

Arad closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. “This is the best I can keep it down.”

Arad’s aura was well under control to hide from the common folks. But here, in this den filled with wizards and experts in magic, it only takes one of them to get lucky and notice it for the rest to start following his trail like bees after honey.

It wasn’t Arad’s skill that was shabby, but Gojo’s ability to hide his magic from literal wizards that seemed like an otherwise shapeshifting. A dragon among humans is like a wolf among sheep, a fox among chickens.

“Gojo, Arad, do we look like we have time?” Vars walked from behind them, “Stop playing with them. We have a deal to seal,”

The wizard stood up, brushing the dust off his robe, “Another wizard? What wild magic brought this upon us,” He smiled, “Need anything?”

Jack walked from the back, a smile on his face, “Sirlon Jadfrey, I want to buy a scroll from him.” He then pointed at Gojo and Arad, “Brought them with me to make sure I’m not scammed. I know how easy that can be when you’re not expert in what you’re buying,”

The wizard nodded, “That’s right, but sadly Sirlon isn’t taking any meetings now.” He shook his head, “He said that he would be staying at the top of the tower. Anyone who wants to meet him has to find a way to get all the way up to him.”

Gojo looked up, “How high is the tower?” 𝑜𝑣𝘭.𝘯𝑡

“From the outside, it is a ten stories tower.” The wizard smiled, “But from the inside, there are one thousand and one stories. Each of them is an intricate maze filled with summoned elementals.” He giggled, “A marvelous of magic engineering achieved by the raw power of a ninth-tier spell. Cloud’s tower.”

“That’s a pain,” Gojo sighed.

“You can use the stairs, but you have to clear each maze to gain access to the next stairs. Or engineer a teleport spell, but that is almost impossible with the violent magic of the tour interfering. Unless you’re a mage of Sir Sirlon’s caliber, getting to him isn’t worth the effort.”

Jack looked up at Gojo, “So instead of telling people to ** off, he created a whole ass dungeon to make getting to him so annoying they would give up?” The two stared at each other, and then Jack stared at the wizard, “Are you all that insane?”

Gojo scratched his head, “Typical wizard. They always make things more complicated, and use massive amounts of magic to create something utterly useless.”

Gojo then stared at Vars, “Can you teleport us all the way up?”

Vars shook his head, “The walls are extremely resistant to magic. It’s like a human trying to throw a softball through a wall. No matter how hard he tries, it’s just going to bounce back,”

“I can’t see a way to teleport as well,” Arad sighed, squeezing his eyes to look through the wall’s magic, but it was as thick as a cloud.

Gojo walked forward, “What am I going to do?” He looked at Arad, “You might not have been able to reach that man without me,” He smiled.

“You can get through that?” Arad stared at Gojo with a doubtful eye.

“I won’t call it easy, but I can do it.” Gojo smiled, closing his eyes.

“It’s impossible to teleport all the way up, give up.” The wizard said with a smile, “I will send a letter to Sirlon. You might get a reply within a year or two,”

“I’m not saying it’s possible to teleport all the way up,” Gojo smiled, opening his eyes, and the wizard gasped, seeing the blue, pure mana dripping from Gojo’s eyes.

Gojo extended his hands forward, clapping them together. “If you can’t hammer it in one go, then do it over a thousand hits,” The wizard lunged back, scared of the disgustingly huge amount of magic coursing across Gojo’s body.

“I call upon the frozen wastelands of the hells, the mystic glaciers of the heavens, and the cold lands of the mortal planes. Layers upon layers of ice, stacking sheets upon sheets to block a thousand steps.” With Gojo’s words, the mana flew between his palms. Only Arad noticed it. Every word Gojo said was a mere act, covering the nature of his draconic magic.

CRACKLE! Magic crackled between Gojo’s fingers as he opened his palms, a thousand magic circles made of ice sprouted like the pages of a book as they sparkled like the stars.

ZON! ZON! ZON! ZON! ZON! ZON! ZON! ZON! ZON! ZON! ZON! ZON! ZON! ZON! ZON! ZON!

The scenery in front of Arad’s face changed one after the other. Once he saw a burning fire skeleton, and the next was a weird woman, a large golem, and then a transparent blob of goo. In the blink of an eye, a thousand images flashed across his head.

Thud! As they landed, Arad, Jack, and Vars fell on their back and only Gojo remained standing, “If I can’t teleport in one go, all I have to do is teleport a thousand times between the layers.”

He said with a smile, staring at the massive golden door in front of them. “He’s behind this door,”