Floating cities required a lot of labor. While Richard could rely on the tower spirit for many tasks, if given the choice between a group of pale, beautiful, and highly capable witches versus a bunch of clunky construct golems—well, who wouldn't pick the witches?
Well... except for liches.
Many arcanists, in their pursuit of immortality, willingly transformed themselves into liches. Richard held no prejudice against them—he simply preferred the warmth of living flesh.
That was why his floating city was filled with maids of various races, including succubi, drow, and even banshees.
Banshees were different from most undead. Their bodies still retained a form of vitality. Not life energy, of course, but rather, negative energy.
Anyone familiar with necromancy knew that undead bodies typically rotted and reeked of decay—even death knights weren't exempt from this. But banshees were a rare exception.
Their bodies remained "active" thanks to negative energy, a bizarre reversal that greatly intrigued Richard. In fact, he once brought in a banshee maid solely to conduct research.
Despite being undead, the banshee's body still exhibited a degree of vitality. Other than being cold to the touch, her skin was fair, smooth, and elastic—almost indistinguishable from a living person's. She didn't sweat, and the stark contrast between icy coldness and body heat had a unique, irresistible allure.
Of course, persuading these witches to serve him wasn't exactly easy.
When Madison found out Richard was a sorcerer, she was ecstatic. Thus began a magical duel between a male sorcerer and a female witch right there in the villa.
To be fair, the cramped restroom at the bar earlier had really limited Madison's performance. Now, she could finally give him a proper taste of what an American witch was capable of.
Madison's magical gift was telekinesis—the power to manipulate objects with her mind. Once she started losing the duel, she relied solely on her telekinesis to fight back.
Unfortunately for her, she still couldn't overcome Richard.
After their little passionate night, Madison didn't stay long—she had to return to the Witch Academy. According to academy rules, overnight stays off-campus weren't allowed.
With financial backing from several wealthy patrons, Richard acquired a slew of high-end equipment and materials, upgrading his lab significantly. But of course, the rich weren't going to bankroll him indefinitely.
In fact, some of them were already trying to curb his growth. They didn't want Richard getting too powerful. They'd still support his research equipment, but when it came to direct funding—precious resources, rare metals, minerals—they began to hold back.
After all, not everyone was in the same desperate position as Bryton. Richard had also recently learned that some of these financiers were secretly scouting other sorcerers.
Their thinking was simple: if "Sorcerer Charlie" could brew an elixir of life, surely other mages might know similar longevity spells. Diversifying their investment was second nature to the rich—they never put all their eggs in one basket.
Richard wasn't bothered by this maneuvering. Sure, there were other sorcerers out there—but not all of them could extend life. And even those who could likely demanded steep costs and often came with nasty side effects.
Eventually, once these people had dealt with other so-called "mages," they'd realize just how miraculous Richard's elixir really was. After all, contrast brings clarity—only through comparison would his worth shine.
With his lab now upgraded, Richard turned to transforming the land around his villa. He needed to cultivate enchanted plants and arcane materials to sustain his lab's experiments—and to heal his own wounds.
The area had previously been a low-magic environment, so most flora and fauna couldn't undergo magical mutations. But now that Richard had transformed the villa grounds into a mini Elemental Zone, the ambient magical density had, over time, risen to match that of a mid-tier magic realm.
As for reaching high-magic realm levels, the Elemental Zone alone wasn't enough. For that, he would need an Elemental Pool—a staple feature of any proper wizard tower.
Building one wasn't trivial. An Elemental Pool required a high-level mage—at least Level 15. Richard, thanks to his mastery of spellcraft and knowledge, could manage it by Level 12.
Only then could one say a Wizard Tower was truly complete.
In the villa's garden, Richard embedded rune pillars forged from gold and truesilver deep into the earth, and crafted energy channels using arcane crystals. His entire villa covered about an acre of land—roughly 600 square meters of building space, with the rest being grass and gardens.
While an acre was plenty for residential use, it was woefully inadequate for cultivating magical flora. Thus, Richard decided to expand it using arcane means.
There were several ways to expand physical space in arcane studies.
One was the Extension Charm—commonly used in enchanted bags and suitcases to hold far more than they appeared.
Another was Spatial Folding, where space could be layered like origami—on the outside it might look like one square meter, but inside? The size of a football stadium.
The most advanced method was Dimensional Creation—literally opening a pocket dimension.
Each had pros and cons. Extension Charms were easiest to cast, but couldn't support a self-sustaining ecosystem. Spatial Folding was more difficult, but could create secret realms or magical gardens. Dimensional Creation was the pinnacle, but far more complex.
This time, Richard opted for Spatial Folding. He planned to fold a portion of the forest behind his villa into the estate itself.
To do so, he needed to plant numerous rune pillars and stones at the land's energy nodes, connecting them with energy channels to form a Spatial Folding Rune Array that would compress and bend the land inward.
He planned to fold in roughly 30 acres—his absolute limit at current strength. The spell required the cooperation of a mid-tier mage, and Richard's casting ability had only recovered to Level 6.
On top of the spellcasting challenges, the material costs were steep. Truesilver—a magical alloy forged from silver and several other metals—was designed by arcanists as a cheaper substitute for Mithril, which was rare and exorbitantly priced.
Depending on the recipe, truesilver could achieve 40% to 70% of mithril's effectiveness. Richard's current blend reached 45%.
He prepared 32 rune pillars and 108 rune stones—nearly emptying out all his reserves.
Once the array was in place, Richard descended into the basement—right at the heart of the Elemental Zone, where arcane energy was most concentrated. With a flick of his staff, he activated the 27 elemental rune arrays embedded in the zone, drawing upon their power to cast the spell.
—[Spatial Folding]
As he gently tapped his staff, golden runes floated into the air, forming a complex sigil midair. Under Richard's guidance, the runes moved to the targeted land.
The entire villa trembled slightly as elemental energy surged into the rune nodes. In the outside world, the area suddenly twisted, space rippling as if folding over itself—before returning to calm the next moment.