“Congratulations on reaching level five academy grade!” Lizbeth exclaimed cheerfully from the side.

  “Mhm, indeed.” Victor smiled, having already sensed the fairy waiting at the entrance to greet him. “It’s been long overdue, after all.”

  The past few days had been spent preparing for this milestone. One of his primary objectives — imprinting the Shadowlink Marks — had been fully accomplished. Every member of the Asteriscus Magus family, including all high-ranking servants and capable acolytes, had received the mark. With this, Victor could now monitor and guide them directly, ensuring their loyalty while integrating them seamlessly into his “game.”

  Earlier that morning, Alvin and the rest of the elders had formally departed for the northern region of Thornwood Forest. Their dirigibles were packed with construction materials, food supplies, and essential provisions needed to establish their new home. The lakeside to the north of Thornwood Village would soon become the foundation of a new Asteriscus Manor.

  In addition, the Magus tower had been completed — a towering spire of magic now stood at the heart of the academy grounds. With its completion, the academy now had more protection, and Victor could proceed with inviting Valeria to the academy.

  As a being who seemingly surpassed even the most powerful Sigil Conversion Magi, Valeria’s presence would elevate the Sanctum’s standing to an entirely new level. With her protection, the academy would become an untouchable force in this kingdom and around. It would become a fortress of power, influence, and secrets no one would dare challenge.

  Aside from this, there were also new main and side missions that appeared in the Headmaster’s Journal.

  —— [Headmaster’s Journal] ——

  Mission: Crush the Merlin Family’s Invading Forces

  Although the Asteriscus Magus family has successfully relocated to the academy, the Merlins will not stop in their pursuit of revenge. They are expected to launch a full-scale assault with their main forces and at least a dozen dirigibles. You must ensure the academy mounts an effective defense and utterly crushes the Merlin invaders.

  Type: Main mission

  Winning Counter: 0%

  Reward: 15,000 academy points and a Cosmic Rubik’s piece

  ————————

  Mission: Estate Building

  You must ensure that the Asteriscus Magus family establishes a new stronghold in the Thornwood Forest. Assist them with all necessary resources and personnel until the new Asteriscus Manor is fully constructed.

  Type: Side mission

  Reward: 5,000 academy points

  …

  Another Cosmic Rubik’s piece!

  But what truly excited Victor wasn’t the reward of the main mission. Instead, it was the academy grade leveling up since it signaled the arrival of a new version update. This time, there would be new buildings, new story events, and even fresh game mechanics to explore. Most importantly, a key system enhancement was now available: the long-awaited 4:1 time dilation feature.

  A smile crept onto Victor’s lips.

  He couldn’t wait to start drafting the update — and to see the players’ reactions once they discovered these new features.

  But first things first, Victor needed to inform the players about the upcoming maintenance. The last thing he wanted was for someone to be forcefully logged out in the middle of a battle or dungeon. As of this moment, the total number of players had exceeded two thousand. Many of them were scattered across the Thornwood Forest, delving into ruins or hunting primitive monsters in dangerous territories.

  With a flick of his finger, he opened the holographic screen and sent out a system-wide notification:

  [System Notification: Magus Academy Online will undergo scheduled maintenance in one hour. Please find a safe location and log out before then. Expected downtime: 6 hours.]

  Once the message was sent, Victor didn’t immediately stay to write the post for the full content update. Instead, he stood up and walked up the spiraling stone steps toward his office before walking toward the door.

  “Are you going to check the upgraded Nexus Tower?” Lizbeth asked, fluttering closer.

  “That’s the idea, yes.” Victor nodded, stepping out into the corridor. “Before I finalize anything for the update, I want to see everything with my own eyes first.”

  “Then I’ll accompany you,” she said, perching on her special seat — Victor’s shoulder.

  Moments later, Victor arrived at the base of the Nexus Tower, only to find it swarming with excited players.

  “My god! The Nexus Tower has sprouted another floor!” one player gasped, pointing up at the towering structure that now loomed around forty meters high. Its purplish-black surface gleamed under the sunlight, and runes were pulsing gently across its obsidian-like surface.

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  “Guys, look! There are a hundred incubation pods inside now,” another exclaimed, his voice brimming with excitement. “That means we can support up to a hundred new players per in-game day! The open beta’s definitely on the horizon!”

  “Whoa! There are more facilities on the basement floor! I think we may be able to breed chimeras now!”

  “Ahem.” Victor revealed his presence, stepping forward with quiet authority, thus causing the crowd to straighten instinctively.

  “Headmaster!” several voices called in unison, though none dared approach too close, keeping a respectful distance.

  Victor nodded, silent for a moment as he surveyed the upgraded structure. The structure had grown significantly — nearly one and a half times taller than when it had first reached level two and had three floors. Most noticeably, the first floor had expanded in diameter, now easily twice its former width. From the outside alone, one could make out the silhouette of rows upon rows of sleek incubation pods lining the chambers inside.

  One hundred incubation pods... With that many available, Victor could finally envision expanding the academy to rival a true powerhouse — perhaps even surpassing large Magus academies like the Arcane Radiance College, which boasted tens of thousands of acolytes, in a matter of a year.

  However, with this scale of expansion came an inevitable issue. The current academy layout simply wouldn’t suffice. Already, the two thousand or so current players had occupied much of the land within the academy’s fortified inner walls. While a large number were out exploring or completing missions in the forest and surrounding regions, the campus would become hopelessly crowded if their numbers grew to ten thousand or more.

  Fortunately, a solution had been proposed; one that Victor had approved without hesitation.

  Earlier, while walking to the Nexus Tower, Lizbeth had relayed a suggestion from several of the more infrastructure-savvy players. They had proposed constructing an outer defensive wall in the shape of a star, modeled after a modern fortress design. The shape would not only provide a unique and aesthetic layout but would also be tactically sound, improving defense and accommodating layered expansion.

  Victor had immediately seen the merit in the plan, and it was exactly the sort of creative thinking he welcomed from the players. With such a design, the academy grounds could be divided into even more functional districts — academic sectors, housing blocks, training grounds, and industrial zones — all while offering protection from future sieges.

  He had tasked Lizbeth to oversee and coordinate the planning and initial groundwork. This new outer wall would mitigate the space issue and prepare the academy for a population boom, as well as prepare new missions for new players to earn merit points, thus killing who knows how many birds with one stone.

  That aside, Victor stepped into the Nexus Tower and descended to the basement floor to check the new facility, only to find himself standing before a strange new installation — large incubation pods that lined the walls — called “Homunculus Grafter.”

  The process was pretty simple: rather than putting the carcasses of dead magical beasts into the essence converter, which had accumulated thousands of points at this point, he could put them into the Homunculus Grafter to create powerful chimeras that could protect the academy. And if he let the players use this thing by paying a large amount of merit points, he would benefit without having to trouble himself with the process. And since it was made through the System’s building, all created artificial life forms would ultimately be loyal to him, not the players.

  If this wasn’t a brilliant idea, then Victor didn’t know what would be counted as one.

  “Master… I have practically given up on reminding you that you need to hide your sinister smile.”

  “Oh, right, sorry.” Victor covered his mouth, only to realize that he wasn’t smiling at all. “Why you little! You already knew about this new facility’s features, didn’t you?”

  “Teehee.” Lizbeth quickly flew away, barely avoiding Victor’s attempt to flick her forehead.

  In any case, now that he understood the new facility and what he could do with it, it was time to place the next structure he had planned — the Virtual Combat Chamber. So, Victor backtracked from the basement, ascending once again through the tower. Once outside, he made his way northwest of the Nexus Tower toward a large patch of open land. This space had remained untouched, neither by the players nor by the expansion of other academy facilities. It was perfect.

  [Virtual Combat Chamber is available to be constructed.]

  [Please select a location on the map to place the building.]

  Victor opened the System’s building interface and zoomed in on the area. With a slight flick of his fingers, he marked the rectangular plot on the map and confirmed the location.

  “This place should do,” said with finality.

  Moments later, a building began to rise from the ground, bricks forming from swirling mana. Within seconds, the Virtual Combat Chamber had fully materialized. The completed structure stood sleek and formidable, with smooth black stone walls reinforced by runes. At the center of the entrance was a large metallic door with the symbol of crossed blades over a circuit-like motif.

  Victor stepped forward and placed his hand on the door. It responded instantly, recognizing the Master Shadowlink Mark and unlocking with a soft mechanical hiss. As the doors parted, they revealed a spacious lobby bathed in cool silver light.

  Inside, the chamber was even more impressive. Several sealed rooms lined the walls, and one could see floating holographic screens displaying various battle scenarios, difficulty levels, and enemy types that could be simulated within each room.

  Victor’s eyes were filled with excitement as he surveyed the facility, taking in every detail. His gaze finally came to rest on the black obelisk standing at the very center of the room — the same kind that any other System building would possess.

  “I wonder what kind of enemies… and how much power the simulation chambers here can actually contain,” he murmured, walking toward the black obelisk.

  Suddenly, from one of the in the ceiling, a small, round drone-like construct descended slowly. Its surface gleamed with faint blue lines as it hovered steadily on four tiny propulsion rings, and atop its spherical body were a pair of mechanical cat ears, twitching slightly as if responding to Victor’s presence. A small screen on its front blinked to life, forming an animated cat-like face.

  “Welcome to the Virtual Combat Chamber, Master,” it spoke in a smooth, AI-like tone. “How may I assist you today?”

  Victor blinked. “You’re new. Are you Lizbeth’s cousin or something?”

  “Hey! I’m not a mechanical construct!” Lizbeth snapped and smacked Victor’s shoulder with her tiny legs, puffing out her cheeks in annoyance.

  “Negative. I am your facility assistant for the Virtual Combat Chamber as well as its designated overseer,” the drone explained with a bob. “I am programmed to guide you through combat simulations, scenario customization, and advanced performance tracking.”

  A small name tag icon blinked to life on its screen as the AI face smiled cheerfully. “You may refer to me as COMA-11, which stands for ‘Combat Operations Management Assistant Number Eleven’ or simply ‘Coma’ if you prefer a less formal name.”

  So, there’s a preset overseer for the Virtual Combat Chamber like the Magic Botanical Garden. Well, that saves me the trouble of finding someone myself.

  Victor smirked. “Well then, Coma, show me the options.”

  “Of course.” Coma projected a screen in midair, displaying a vast list of combat scenarios. “You may select from battle challenges, training simulations, boss encounters, or create your own custom enemies based on real combat data collected from your Shadowlink Mark network. There are also PvP trial zones for duels between individuals or players.”

  At that, Victor’s eyes glinted. The level of customization was ridiculous — he could simulate enemy behaviors using real-time player combat data? What was more, he could recreate past enemies he had faced to test his progress, refine tactics, and even devise counters for enemies that were previously impossible to defeat.

  The Virtual Combat Chamber was simply awesome!

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