Gravity Mage with Level-Up System Chapter 2168: Part 2: The System’s Prison

Forbidden Island

The Zero Puppet went through the documents. I pulled out a chair and sat down. I began to think deeply; I had to rescue Forbidden Wizard Erwin.

If I left him there, he would die sooner or later at the hands of an Elder-level Wizard. As I continued to ponder, a good idea came to mind.

The idea was to interrogate the wizards alone inside the system space. If I confronted the five wizards one by one, I could learn something useful.

By then, the Zero Puppet had finished its work. It returned to its master’s side.

"I have searched the documents. There are details about an underground facility with many rooms," the Zero Puppet reported.

"The wizards take turns guarding different posts. The entrance to the underground facility was one of them," the Zero Puppet said.

"However, multi-layered restrictions cover the area. Without proper identification, you cannot enter," the Zero Puppet added.

Hearing that, my eyes gleamed with interest. I had been wondering where such a massive organization was hidden. If they were hiding underground, it explained a lot.

It was also possible that the underground facility was a ruin left behind by an older organization. Still, the existence of the restrictions did not surprise me.

Even the island prison was protected by an Elder-level barrier, so it was only natural for the organization’s main grounds to be guarded by even stronger defenses.

I was unsure whether they used black-grade scrolls for identification, which brought my thoughts back to the wizards imprisoned within the system space.

Perhaps I could extract information from them.

Gathering my thoughts, I brought the Zero Puppet inside the system space with me.

Swoosh!

I materialized before one of the captives: a middle-aged Magic Lord wandering aimlessly, completely bewildered.

Rage boiled within him at being trapped in an unknown place. Just then, he caught sight of a person wearing a mask.

Assuming I was the mastermind responsible for his predicament, he immediately marked him as an enemy to eliminate.

Swoosh!

The middle-aged man lunged forward at extreme speed.

Upon seeing me close up, his face twisted with even greater fury. In response, the corners of my lips curved upward.

"Gravity Spikes."

I cast the spell with an eightfold stack. A stream of gray energy erupted from my hand.

In a flash, the gray beam shot forward in a straight line, striking the middle-aged man dead-on.

The Magic Lord was not in his right mind; the moment he saw an opponent, he had charged blindly without caution.

The gray beam hit him square in the chest. A split second later, an overwhelming crushing force hammered down on him from above.

Boom!

He was violently hurled backward, his bones fracturing and internal organs rupturing under the intense pressure.

He slammed heavily into the dirt, the brutal impact aggravating his already severe injuries.

Pfft!

A mouthful of dark blood sprayed from his lips, splattering across the ground around him.

Seeing that he was incapacitated, I walked over. He was on the verge of death, but still clung to consciousness.

"I assume you can still hear me," I said calmly.

Hearing my voice, the man regained a sliver of clarity and turned his head. He saw the masked figure looming over him.

Terror seized his heart. He did not know who this person was, only that a single attack had crippled him.

Worse still, he had not sensed the presence of Magic Lord-level power in that strike; strangely, it carried the aura of Supreme Wizard-level power instead.

The contradiction baffled him completely.

"Who... who are you?" he wheezed.

I looked down at him without replying to the question directly.

"If you want to live, answer my questions truthfully."

I didn’t wait for his consent before beginning: "What is your name?"

"Dollen," he muttered.

"Where were you born?"

"And how did you end up joining the Covenant?"

Dollen hesitated. He knew his life rested entirely in this person’s hands, yet he could not reveal core secrets either-doing so would trigger the restrictions and kill him anyway.

"I was born in the capital city of a nation called Feronaris. I was abroad on a mission when I encountered Covenant agents. They captured me and locked me up on this prison island."

"Two years later, they released me on the condition that I serve the organization until death," Dollen confessed.

A faint light flashed in my eyes.

"So there are restrictions placed upon you?" I probed.

At that, Dollen fell silent. He dared not dwell on the question, otherwise the mental seals activate and claim his life.

[Ding! The host should ask the next question immediately. The target is dangerously close to triggering his mental restrictions.]

The system’s alert sounded in my mind, and my expression shifted slightly.

"Are you hungry?" I asked abruptly.

Dollen blinked, taken aback. His attention immediately drifted to the sudden change of topic, and the danger of the restriction triggering subsided.

"I... I am hungry," he stammered.

My mouth twitched.

"Now then, where is this nation of Feronaris located?"

Dollen answered, "If you travel by sea for a full year from this forbidden island, you will reach the shores of Feronaris."

Curiosity stirred within me. I knew the world was vast, but I had assumed all major nations were centered around the Mage Union.

Evidently, my knowledge was still limited. Things would only become clear once I visited the Mage Union myself.

For the time being, I decided to spare his life.

Over the next few hours, I visited the other four Magic Lords and used the same methods to pry information from them.

None cooperated willingly at first; each had to be beaten to the brink of death before they turned compliant.

I soon confirmed that all of them had similar mental restrictions placed upon them by an Elder-level powerhouse.

Furthermore, none were natives of this region, all were captured foreign experts pressed into forced service.

It explained a great deal. The true core members of the Covenant were likely few in number, relying on enslaved wizards to handle the bulk of their dirty work.

The only person remaining was the Forbidden Wizard himself, and I had yet to devise a clear plan on how to deal with him.