“No that’s not it…”

A hoarse voice quietly mumbled, “That’s not it either...”

An old man sat down in a sea of books, surrounded by balls of fire, streams of water, and clumps of dirt all floating through the air around him. There was also a small metal ball floating still behind him that would rhythmically flash with lightning every other second.

In front of this old man was a massive book that if it were standing upright would be two meters tall. He had this book opened in front of him on a slightly slanted surface as his eyes quickly swept through the pages.

He quickly moved from page to page, moving back and forth through the massive book. At times he’d raise his hand, and his index finger toward the ceiling drawing a few indistinct symbols in the air causing a sudden change in the elements around him.

Sometimes the flames would take some shape or form, or perhaps change into a different color. At times the fire would flicker and suddenly grow big, or suddenly shrink to the size of a marble. Maybe the flame would split or began to move around erratically, and the other elements would similar change in different ways.

The water, for example, would at times turn to ice, the stone to dust, the lightning would randomly take forms and shape or shoot through the air before returning to its previous state.

Or perhaps maybe an entirely new element would be added, at times balls of light would suddenly shoot into the air illuminating the room, at times his shadow would suddenly stand upright and transform, and at times random objects would suddenly appear out of thin air like a sword or a bottle, or maybe it would be something in the room that would suddenly begin to float.

With a wave of his finger, this old man began to make all sorts of peculiar phenomena occur. And when the old man was done with his massive book, he’d close it and it would shrink to the size of your average book before shooting into the shelves in the back and a different book would shoot out and inexplicably grow to a massive size and land before him.

Though at times the old man would instead choose to cause several books to float before him, rapidly flipping through pages with the wave of his finger, or perhaps he’d do both at once having a massive book before him and being surrounded by several books rapidly turning pages eliciting changes in the surrounding elements before being thrown into the ground or into one of the shelves.

Though as the old man continued to throw more and more books on to the increasingly large pile of books around him, several small blips of lights would fly out from the shelves and start putting the books back into the shelves. Though the shelves were already jam-packed as it is, so these little fairies had no choice but to stack the books into a nearby pile or throw the book into one of the large piles in the back for later sorting.

All the while the old man sat there simply mumbling the words, “not this” or “not that” over and over again as he continued waving his finger. Suddenly as the old man was once more going to wave his finger he paused, the flames in the air vanished, the water disappeared, and the dirt fell to the ground which the fairies quickly swept up, and the rhythmic beats of lightning came to a halt.

The old man looked forward and stared at a figure that suddenly appeared in front of him and began laughing hysterically. The old man stood up, and he glared at the figure before him red-eyed screaming something incomprehensible. The old man raised his hand, and a large wooden staff appeared in his hands, which he pointed towards the figure in front of him, “So you’ve finally shown yourself, you cursed Gods!”

…

Ian opened his eyes and slowly rose from the massive bed he slept in befitting someone as massive as he was.

“Oh you’re awake master”

A small fairy sitting on a table beside him flew over, and Ian lazily greeted her, “Morning”

Cathy waved her tiny hands, and several golems holding trays of food open the door and walked through the large doorways built to more easily accommodate the likes of Ian. She turned to Ian and smiled, “Pleasant dreams I presume?”

“Well I wouldn’t really call it pleasant”

“A nightmare?”

Ian reached out his hand to grab a large sandwich from one of the Golems trays, and in a few bites quickly finished it. He motioned one of the golems holding a massive glass of water, to come over and quickly quenched his thirst.

“It wasn’t really a nightmare, just a memory of mine. It’s just that...”

Cathy asked, “It’s just that?”

Ian shook his head, and turned to Cathy, “Never mind it’s nothing important really. But I’d like to ask you something”

“Hmm?”

“What was your previous master like? Just who was he?”

“The old master? What brought this up?”

Ian scratched the back of his head, “Nothing really.”

“Hmm, well the old master was rather taciturn like most mages his age, he was mostly stayed in the tower hardly saying anything and busily doing all sorts of experiments. As for who he was, well I have a few records on that in the database”

Cathy raised her arm, and a tiny book made of lights appeared in front of here, “The old master was born a commoner and was simply known as Cyron during his youth. As for his true age, and birthplace, I can only make an estimate but even then I could be completely incorrect.”

“Well, those two things don’t really matter that much do they?”

“Not particularly, anyway according to the records the old master was hailed as a genius during the first hundred or so years of his life earning himself the title of Sage and the rank of Special-Class from the Mages and Adventurers Guild respectively.”

Ian grabbed a thick slice of toast from the golems, and asked, “Special-Class adventurer?”

“Master, you should have a general understand of what a Guild is correct?”

“I can make a guess.”

“Well in the world there are a total of five major guilds, the Adventurer's Guild, the Mercenary’s Guild, the Mages Guild, the Merchants Guild, and the Craftsmen guild. Though of course there exist the Assassins Guild, and the Thieves Guild but those two organizations work in the black market and don’t possess the facilities and resources that the five major guilds have.”

“Naturally.”

“Anyway each of these Guilds possess their own sort of ranking, for example, the Adventurers Guild was originally founded to explore dangerous regions and created what are known as Danger Levels which go from least dangerous to most dangerous: F, E, D, C, B, A, S. Adventurers were tasked with administering these danger levels to regions and reporting back to the Guild. Though later these Danger Levels were also adapted to categorize monsters, and dungeons and the like.”

“Adventurers themselves were also given a rank based on the likelihood of them surviving a certain level of danger. So, in essence, these ranks mark an Adventurers skill and achievement, and from I’ve heard it’s possible to even receive some form of peerage upon reaching a certain rank within the Adventurers Guild or well any Guild really.”

“But what are Special-Class Adventurers?”

“Well, you see master the after civilization advanced and the more of the world became mapped and explored the Adventurer Guild began to decline. So the Adventurers Guild started to become the jack of all trades among the five major guilds where people could make all sorts of miscellaneous requests. So there began to be Adventurers who began to earn their rank through merit instead of skill so it became more difficult to understand how powerful some adventurers truly were.”

“But Special-Class adventures are different you see, those with that rank of Special-Class are awarded that rank solely on their combat abilities. Their fighting ability is so far above everyone else's that they’re awarded a rank of their own, and according to the records the old master was one of such Adventurers.”

Ian sighed, “That old man sure was amazing huh.”

Cathy chuckled, “That's a bit of an understatement master.”

“Hmmm?”

“I’ve covered only the accomplishments within the first hundred years of his life, and most renowned mages can easily live anywhere from three hundred to four hundred years. But the old master wasn’t content with mere the rank of Sage, nor did he remain at that rank for long. Soon enough the old master acquired the exalted title of a Magic King, a title typically only the Guildmaster of the Mages Guild possess.“

“But eventually the old master's power began to transcend even that of a lofty Magic Kings, and soon enough he reached a level of power found only in legends. The old master reached the level of the Magic Emperor from the Age of the Gods becoming Humanity’s second Magic Emperor!”

“Amazing, but wait why does everyone simply refer to him as a Wizard then? I feel like all his other titles are far more impress aren’t they?”

Cathy sighed and shook her head, “Of course they’re far more impressive and awe-inspiring, supposedly there were even those who worshiped the old master in his heyday according to the records. But as soon as he began the construction of the Tower and it grew and grew and grew up until it reached far into the sky, the people began to fear him.”

“And to make matters worse all the Temples began to label the old master a heretic. Soon enough the old master was stripped of all his former titles and all records pertaining to him including his name, his achievements were erased leaving him only with the title, the Heretical Wizard of the Tower.”

Ian paused and thought about the old decrepit man in his dreams, and everything he’s heard so far. “But Cathy what was he like?”

“Hmmm?”

“A man isn’t defined merely by his accomplishments or his actions. Just what was he like? He couldn’t have been working all the time could he?.”

Cathy shook her head, “The Master was always engrossed in his research, and I’ve never really seen him do anything else. He really was quite the taciturn man ”

Ian sighed, “Well let’s finish breakfast, the foods getting cold.”

Ian got off his bed and put on his robe, and hat he couldn’t stay in his underwear the entire time after all “Anyway have you eaten?”

“Master, I don’t require sustenance”

“Hmm…”, Ian grabbed an apple, and took a bite before extending it towards Cathy, “It’s sweet.”

Cathy sighed, she flew towards the apple which was almost as large as she was and sat on it. With her tiny hands, she dug her fingers into the apple's skin and ripped off tiny chunks and brought it up to her small mouth and slowly ate.

“Sweet…”

Ian smiled, “Right?”

Ian turned to golems, and as he was about to grab some more food an unfamiliar voice spoke behind him, “So this is the rumored Tower huh.”

Ian paused and looked around, but he couldn’t see anyone. Through telepathy Cathy began to speak, “Master on the window, that crow.”

Ian’s eyes turned to the window, and just as she said there was a small crow standing on the ledge. It slowly strode forward and opened its mouth, and began speaking, “I apologize for appearing before you so abruptly, but I’ve heard so much about you and your tower. My curiosity overwhelmed, I couldn’t help but make a small visit. But I’m still rather curious to know just what are you fellows planning? Pray tell, or perhaps have I entered the wrong tower? Though it doesn’t look like that way to me.”

Ian looked at Cathy, and whispered, “Is this that Language of the Gods thing?”

Cathy shook her head, “That bird is a corpse puppet, a mage is speaking through the crow. And it’s an extremely skilled mage at that. I can’t seem to track his location, I think he’s using some sort of jamming spell. To think there was someone skilled enough to control a corpse puppet, maintain a clairvoyance spell, a long distance communication spell, and a translation spell all at the same time. It’s a good thing he didn’t come in person, the defenses in the this Tower might not have been able to keep him at bay.”

Ian turned to the Crow, and asked, “Who are you? What do you want?”

“Oh, pardon me I forgot to introduce myself. I am a humble bird, you may call me Birdy McBirdface if you will. As for what I want, well it’s as I told you, I’ve heard all sorts of rumors about this tower here so I just had to see it with my own eyes.”

“Birdy McBirdface?”

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out.”

Ian sighed, “What rumors?”

“Oh, you haven’t heard? Dear me, dear me to think I was gossiping about someone behind their back. Shame on me! I Birdy McBirdface apology sincerely.”

“...”

“Now let’s see where should I start, oh yes supposedly a massive phallic shaped object has risen from the ground in this area, though from the air this tower didn’t look to phallic shaped so perhaps I missed it. There’s another rumor out there saying that a rare bird was able to shit out an entire tower! Can you believe that!?

The crow laughed, “There are all sorts of rumors really, but my favorite is this. Supposedly, the Heretical Tower has begun expanding once more.”

The crow paused and its eyes fell on Cathy. Cathy sensing his gaze flew behind of Ian and quietly began activating the defense systems. The crow laughed, “Don’t worry little girl, I don’t bite! Besides, it would be a shame if I were to end this show early?”

“What show?”

“Oh you’ll see, I saw a few rather interesting fellows as I was making my way over here, things are bound to get exciting.”

And with that Birdy McBirdface, the crow flew away. Ian scratched the back of his head and turned to Cathy hiding behind his back. He turned to grab the sausage off the plate and said, “Crap it’s gotten cold.”