The faint scent of jasmine wafted into his nose, likely from the perfume the girl was wearing.
The warm glow of orange candlelight in the corridor, combined with the light streaming through the half-open glass window of the study, illuminated the girl's face.
His fingers lightly brushed against his robe, feeling its smooth texture as he moved.
Real. Incredibly real.
This level of realism was something no virtual game could achieve.
Li De took a deep breath as he looked at the girl waiting for his response. The sensation of interacting with a real person was something no game could replicate.
A soul.
Yes, he could sense a genuine soul in this girl, something only a real person would have.
She wasn't some rigid NPC from a game but a living, breathing individual.
The girl's presence shattered some of his assumptions, but it also ignited a fiercer curiosity within him.
"Glory" was far more than just a virtual game. There was something deeper hidden within it.
Why had China chosen to promote and release it as a game?
As his thoughts raced, Li De's expression returned to normal, his eyes calm and unreadable.
He shook his head coldly.
"Vina, bring lunch to my magic laboratory. I'll eat there."
Vina felt a pang of disappointment at his cold tone.
She had noticed the spark in Li De's eyes earlier and had felt a flicker of hope.
But now, the master of the Crimson Mage Tower, the man she admired most, had returned to his usual detached self.
She bowed respectfully.
"Yes, Lord Li De."
With a heavy heart, she turned to make the arrangements.
Does Lord Li De really not like women?
The strange rumors circulating within the mage tower came to mind, and Vina couldn't help but feel disheartened.
Becoming the woman of a high-level mage was a dream for many, especially one as handsome as Lord Li De.
Thinking of his handsome, pale face, Vina bit her lip.
Li De let out a small sigh of relief as he watched Vina's graceful figure retreat.
After meeting Vina, he couldn't bring himself to treat these people as mere NPCs.
The original owner of this body, being a vampire—a race despised by humans—had always kept a certain distance from the apprentices in the mage tower.
If his true identity as a vampire were discovered, especially in Green City, a metropolis of over a million people with a transcendent mage overseeing it, even he, the Vampire Progenitor, wouldn't be able to escape.
In any other mage tower, Vina would have long been devoured by the tower's master.
But here, under the original owner, she was merely a cover, an ordinary magic apprentice.
Naturally, Li De wouldn't rashly change the habits of the original owner. It was better to err on the side of caution.
The Crimson Mage Tower, named for the red alchemical materials coating its exterior, stood seven stories tall, reaching twenty-five blades high.
A blade was a unit of measurement in "Glory," equivalent to one meter.
The first and second floors were where the mage apprentices lived, while the third and fourth floors housed the library and the classrooms where Li De taught the apprentices.
The fifth floor was his residence.
The sixth and seventh floors were storage rooms for magical materials and his magic laboratory.
The original owner, despite being the Vampire Progenitor, was obsessed with magic.
However, this bloodline of vampires had only been established two hundred years ago when Li De, the Vampire Progenitor, accidentally consumed a vampire artifact and became the progenitor.
Their foundation was shallow.
That was why he had gone to such lengths to infiltrate Green City and join the Mage Guild to study magic.
This mage tower had been built three years ago with the assistance of the Mage Guild after Li De arrived in Green City.
After learning about the Vampire Progenitor's background, Li De couldn't help but shake his head.
The title of Vampire Progenitor sounded impressive, but in terms of true heritage, it couldn't even compare to the second-tier nobles of Green City.
At the very least, those nobles wouldn't resort to sneaking into enemy territory to steal knowledge of magic due to a lack of resources.
But regardless, all the efforts of the Vampire Progenitor now belonged to him.
Leaving the study, Li De was greeted by walls made of gray alchemical materials. The floors and walls faintly radiated the aura of magical traps.
A mage tower was a mage's stronghold, the most dangerous place for outsiders.
In Li De's memory, this mage tower had no fewer than five hundred magic arrays inscribed within it.
If some foolish thief dared to enter without permission, triggering even one of these traps would reduce them to ashes.
Ascending the gray wooden staircase to the seventh floor, the highest level of the mage tower, Li De arrived at his magic laboratory.
The seventh floor consisted of a single, expansive room. The floor was entirely covered with anti-magic oak planks.
Light streamed in through a large stained-glass window on the left side of the room.
The walls were made of alchemical materials, inscribed with dozens of defensive magic arrays. Even if a magical experiment exploded, it wouldn't damage the mage tower.
The room was cluttered with various magical materials.
A cyclops's skull, branches of snow maple, Orlian magic crystal ore, unground poison ivy vines—hundreds of items were scattered about.
Walking over to the stained-glass window, which was said to be the work of an artistically gifted elf, Li De looked out.
Without lingering on the elf's craftsmanship, he pushed open the semi-transparent, colorful glass and got his first direct view of Green City, the largest city in the southern Nolan Empire with a population of over a million.
The city stretched as far as the eye could see.
At twenty-five blades high, the Crimson Mage Tower was one of the tallest structures in Green City. In this magical world with limited productivity, even nobles couldn't own buildings of such height.
The entire cityscape was laid out before him.
The architecture resembled medieval Europe, with buildings featuring domed and pointed roofs. The windows were adorned with colorful patterns, mostly depicting religious and divine themes.
In the distance, a stone statue of a hero who had sacrificed himself for Green City stood atop a wall.
At a crossroads, a tavern with a towering spire had a semicircular archway through which red-faced, staggering drunks entered and exited.
Shops lined the streets, selling various goods. Nobles in lavish attire rode horned horses down the cobblestone streets, causing the surrounding commoners to nervously step aside.
Laborers in tattered short robes carried large burlap sacks under the direction of richly dressed merchants, unloading goods from carriages.
A few beggars in ragged clothes pleaded with passersby, their cracked bowls stained with grime.
A group of slave traders, leading a chain of tall, muscular half-beastman with sharp tusks, strutted down the road, not yielding even to the mounted nobles.
A band of mercenaries, fresh from a mission and covered in dark blood, walked past the beggars. One beggar accidentally tripped and blocked their path.
Without hesitation, one of the mercenaries swung a broadsword wider than two palms, severing the beggar's hand. The street, once bustling, was suddenly filled with the scent of blood.
The beggar screamed in agony.
The nobles ignored the scene, the slave traders laughed heartily, and no commoner dared to step forward to stop the departing mercenaries.
The wailing beggar was left to the mercy of the passing crowd.
It wasn't until a shop owner, moved by pity, offered the beggar medicine and food that the situation was somewhat alleviated.
Li De watched these scenes unfold in silence.
The cultural backdrop resembled medieval Europe but was far more mysterious. Ignorance and wisdom coexisted, as did mystery and divinity.
Nobles, slaves, beastmen, elves, vampires.
A world both fascinating and brutal.
And above all, a world of magic.
Li De's gaze shifted upward.
In the distance, three towering mage towers stood out.
These belonged to the three most powerful mages in the Green City Mage Guild.
Each tower's master was a Grand Mage of level 15.