Damian asked tentatively, "Besides the blue hub crystal, are there any other crystals? Like... red ones?"
"No. The blue crystal you possess is the only hub crystal capable of activating the highest permission level."
Tower Spirit Zero seemed to only know about the blue crystal. Moreover, the construct had assumed Damian entered the Gap World through the crystal's power. In reality, he had slipped in directly while sleeping in the Winter Forest.
Damian harbored a vague suspicion. His ability to enter the Gap World organically in his sleep had to be tied to the mysterious metal disc.
The Winter Forest was the primary entrance to the Gap World, making it the most heavily corrupted region in the outside Wizarding World. Some unknown force within the metal disc had reacted to that proximity, pulling him across the threshold while he dreamt.
It wasn't an unfounded guess. The "Dream Entry Ritual" Damian had obtained from Jack White required actively communicating with the Gap World's residual magic to cross over during a dream.
Because the Winter Forest had such a profound connection to the Gap World, simply being there allowed the metal disc to mimic the effects of the Dream Entry Ritual.
Damian recalled his very first arrival in this universe. When he transmigrated via the metal disc, he had materialized in the outer fringes of the Winter Forest. Perhaps that hadn't been a random drop at all, but a deliberate teleportation guided by the disc's resonance with the Gap World.
He grew increasingly certain that the metal disc was intimately tied to the Ancestor of Time, Aemon. A flicker of worry crossed his eyes. Was acquiring the disc, and subsequently finding the blue crystal that controlled this very tower, really just a string of coincidences?
Pushing the thought aside, Damian asked, "Zero, do you know what happened to the Ancestor of Time, Aemon? Why has his tower been abandoned in the Gap World for tens of thousands of years?"
"Searching... Data missing. No relevant clues found in the database. I do not know the whereabouts of the Ancestor of Time."
The tower spirit's functionality was strictly limited to its existing database.
Damian tested a few more queries and confirmed his suspicions. Zero lacked true sentience or emotion. It operated much like the AI language models from his past life—unable to think proactively, only regurgitating stored data.
Suddenly, a memory surfaced. Every time he entered the Gap World, he encountered a glowing girl with antlers, and she always pointed directly toward this tower.
"Zero," Damian said. "I've repeatedly encountered a girl in the Gap World. She has pure white elk antlers, slightly curly chestnut hair, and emits a faint glow."
"Every time I see her, she points toward the Wizard Tower, almost as if she's guiding me here. Do you have any records of her?"
"Is this the entity you are inquiring about?"
Tower Spirit Zero processed the request instantly. The ambient light shifted, projecting a lifelike illusion of the Antlered Girl.
Damian nodded.
"She is a manifestation of ancient magic, a nature spirit born directly from the Wizarding World's damaged source," Zero explained.
"When the world's source was fractured, its ambient magic began bleeding out. Even after the Gap World was created to catch it, the bleeding never truly stopped."
"Instead of dissipating into the endless void beyond the plane, that raw magical essence pools into the Gap World."
"This Wizard Tower acts as a plug for the entrance, significantly slowing the rate of that magical leakage."
"Over millennia, the raw ambient magic pooling around the tower reacted to the Gap World's unique environment, eventually gaining a primitive consciousness. That is the spirit you saw. She wanders near the tower, though her exact motives remain unrecorded."
Damian processed the information, forming a simple analogy. If the Wizarding World was a water bottle, a hole had been punched in its base.
If left alone, the bottle would eventually run dry.
The Ancestor of Time placed a second bottle—the Gap World—underneath to catch the spilling water. Then, he shoved a cork—the Wizard Tower—into the hole to slow the leak to a crawl.
A spirit born from the world's leaking magic... Damian rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Why is she guiding me to the tower?
Given that she was a literal manifestation of the world's lifeblood, did she want him to use the tower to reopen the gates? Did she want to flow back into the surface Wizarding World?
He had tried speaking to her before, but she lacked human intelligence, only blankly pointing the way.
"Can the entrance to the Gap World be fully opened?" Damian asked. "And what would happen if it was?"
"As the holder of the hub crystal, you possess the highest authority. You can indeed open the gateway," Zero replied. "However, the tower's systems are severely damaged. The gateway module must be repaired before activation."
"Once repaired, opening the gate briefly will cause no harm. But leaving it open for an extended period will drastically accelerate the draining of the Wizarding World's ambient magic into the Gap World."
A heavy weight settled in Damian's chest. In that moment, he realized he quite literally held the lifeblood of an entire world in his hands.
Suppressing his rising anxiety, he focused on the immediate problem. The tower had been rotting in the gray mist for eons. It was falling apart. If he wanted to do anything, he had to fix it first.
Damian climbed the final stone step of the massive tower. The previously seamless wall parted down the middle, sliding open to reveal a grand entrance.
As he approached, the inner doors parted automatically.
He stepped into a cavernous, circular hall. Looking up, there were no ceilings to block his view. The interior was built like a gargantuan lighthouse, featuring a grand spiral staircase that hugged the curved outer walls and stretched endlessly upward.
There were no rooms on the ground floor. Starting from the second level, ornate doors lined the spiraling walkway.
However, everything above the fourth floor was swallowed by a thick, impenetrable layer of gray mist.
"The Wizard Tower is a hollow, cylindrical structure," Zero chimed in. "The doors along the perimeter lead to various specialized chambers. These rooms utilize advanced Undetectable Extension Charms and spatial folding. Some laboratories even contain entirely self-sustaining ecological biomes."
"A levitating lift can transport you directly to any floor, but that module is currently offline. For now, you must use the stairs."
Damian sighed. "How do I repair these damaged modules?"
"There is an Alchemy Workshop on the second floor," Zero answered. "There, you can create alchemical golems capable of repairing damaged modules."
Damian spread his hands helplessly. "I don't know the first thing about alchemy."
[75 STONES] - Unlock1 Bonus Chapter
[150 STONES] - Unlock 2 Bonus Chapters
[300 STONES] - Unlock 3 Bonus Chapters