Chapter 81: Trial

Half a month later, the biggest secret realm of the Underdark Treesea, the Underdark Secret Realm, was the entrance lake.

The Apprentice Trial that had been prepared for nearly two years was finally about to begin. On this day, the entrance lake of the Underdark Treesea was filled with people!

Standing on the riverside of the lake, Jenny looked at the people around her and smacked her lips. “So many people.”

At this moment, the lakeside was already packed with people, and there were thousands of them in a hurry.

This trial was not only attended by the Apprentices of the Shadow Tower, but also the Apprentices of all the wizard organizations in the Underdark Treesea who were less than 20 years old. There were more than 3,000 people in total.

The real Apprentices of the Shadow Tower were only about 200.

After a pause, Jenny frowned again and stuck out her tongue. “And why do I feel that everyone seems to be hostile towards us…”

She swept her gaze over and did not see any smile on her face. There was a faint cold light hidden in her eyes.

Ender sneered and continued, “Do you really not know or are you just playing dumb?”

Jenny was puzzled. “Why?”

Ender laughed and said, “Do you still expect the slaves to sing praises to the tyrant? It’s already good enough that they do not take a hoe and rake to rebel.”

“Just look at this position. It’s as if we have a plague on us.”

The Apprentices by the lake gathered according to their respective Wizard organizations, and the nearest Wizard organization was at least a hundred meters away from them. Occasionally, if someone wanted to go over, they would rather take a detour than pass by them.

Jenny was speechless. “Then we’re really miserable. They won’t find trouble with us, right?”

Ender shook his head. “They don’t have that ability.”

Although there were many Apprentices gathered by the lake, it was obvious that they were divided into small pieces according to their respective organizations. Many of them were not much closer to each other than they were to Shadow Tower.

After a pause, Ender looked in a direction and added, “They don’t dare to either.”

On the other side, there were six figures gathered in the most fertile and beautiful land by the lake. The unusually powerful pressure was particularly conspicuous here.

They were the six Wizards of Shadow Tower.

Many Wizard organizations in the Underdark Treesea could not even bring out one Wizard, but Shadow Tower could easily bring out six. The total number of Wizards in the Shadow Tower was more than thirty.

This was an incomparable gap.

“Brother Heath, don’t you think so?”

“Huh? Heath? Brother Heath? What are you looking at? So engrossed?”

Ender walked over and asked Heath.

Heath shook his head. “It’s nothing. It’s rare to come here and see the scenery.”

He had heard about the Underdark Treesea when he had just joined the Tower. This was the largest natural secret realm in the entire Underdark Treesea. In name, it was jointly managed by all the Wizards in the Underdark Treesea.

It was said that the Wizards had planted countless high-level materials in it. Many rare materials were found everywhere in it.

‘I wonder if I can get anything out of it?’

The effects of the extraction had been greatly reduced these days. The increase in strength was close to the upper limit, but at the same time, the decrease in the number of species that could be extracted was also an important factor that could not be underestimated.

Over the past two years, he had basically run through all the areas within the Shadow Tower’s control area. He had extracted most of the species in there.

Without any new species, the extraction ability had naturally been greatly reduced.

“Eh? Quick, look at the sky. What is that?”

“Horse… carriage?”

“What a beautiful carriage!”

At this moment, an Apprentice suddenly pointed to the sky and shouted.

A carriage came from the sky. It was a wide and large brown-red carriage. In front of the carriage were six pure white Pegasus that did not have any color. Their muscles were strong and powerful, and they looked extraordinary.

After the carriage appeared, the six Wizards who were originally meditating on the ground stood up together and bowed their heads respectfully to the side.

The high and mighty aura they usually had was completely gone. They lowered their heads like children.

Heath could not help but be curious when he saw this scene.

In the past two years, there had been higher-level Wizard organizations that came to the Shadow Tower to collect taxes. There had been a Rank 2 Wizard in their team. However, Heath had never seen the Wizards show such an attitude at that time.

What kind of big shot was sitting in this carriage?

While Heath was thinking, the carriage slowly descended and soon stopped by the lake.

Click!

A light sound was heard.

The carriage door opened.

“Woof!”

The first sound was a dog barking.

An old dog jumped out of the carriage. It had long brown and white fur, and looked like a shepherd dog.

“Scott, you old thing, you’re happy as soon as you come out.” A jeer came from the carriage. The voice was old but energetic.

Then, an old man walked out of the carriage.

He was about 60 or 70 years old. He had long gray hair, a hunched body, and wrinkles like old tree bark. His body was wrapped in a somewhat tattered gray cloak, and he held a long curved wooden staff in his hand.

He looked like an ordinary old shepherd. There was nothing special about him.

However…

At this moment, all the Wizards…

The six Wizards of Shadow Tower and the Wizards of other Wizard organizations lowered their noble heads at the same time.

“Lord Ferde.” They bowed.

The old man smiled kindly and raised his hand.

Then, he looked at Witch Cassandra beside him and suddenly asked, “Is it Little Ninny?”

Witch Cassandra said, “I’m an old Witch now, my Lord.”

The old man gestured with his hand and said, “I remember you were only that tall back then.”

Cassandra smiled and said, “It’s been 200 years, my Lord.”

The old man sighed and said, “Has it been that long? I remember it was before the last meditation… I didn’t expect it to be so long in the blink of an eye. Time really flies…”

Cassandra also sighed and said, “The Apprentices you taught back then are basically gone.”

The old man sighed and said with a heavy tone, “The path of Wizards is like that.”

“Loneliness, solitude. Every person we know will gradually leave us. The further we go, the lonelier and quieter we are.”

“The path of Wizards, the path of loneliness.”

Then, he ended the topic. “Alright, let’s not talk about this anymore.”

He walked forward and looked at the many Apprentices by the lakeside. “Have all the young apprentices in the Underdark Treesea gathered here?”

Wizard Slater stood out. “There are a total of 3,268 Apprentices under the age of 20.”

The old man nodded. “In that case, let’s begin.”

“Yes.”

After saying yes, Wizard Slater took two steps forward and slowly rose into the air from the ground.

Then, he spoke in a clear voice and spread his voice to the whole place with a sound amplification spell, “All Apprentices of the Underdark Treesea, listen carefully. I will now announce the rules of this trial!”

“1. After the trial begins, you will be transported to any point on any one of the seven levels of the trial mountain. You will proceed towards the finish line. If you walk far enough to win, the winner will receive a generous reward.”

“Furthermore, I, Slater, will choose an Apprentice to be my student.”

There was an uproar among the Apprentices.

“2. We have placed Wizard tools, potions, spells, etc. at any point in the mountain of trials. Whoever can get them will get them.”

“3. During the trial, you can attack each other, kill each other, and plunder each other. All of you have protective spells on you. Your lives will not be in danger.”

The Apprentices’ faces tensed up at first, but they relaxed after hearing the last half of the sentence.

After a pause, Wizard Slater added, “But you are not allowed to torture each other. Plundering is only limited to the items obtained inside. We will monitor the entire trial.”

Then, he gestured to an official Apprentice. “Joyce.”

“Yes, Teacher.”

Joyce walked forward, took out a large sack, and placed it on the ground. He then took out a short wand and chanted a short spell at the sack.

Immediately, a bundle with wings flew out from the sack and quickly flew into the hands of each Apprentice.

Heath took the bundle and opened it.

Inside were an hourglass and a map made of sheepskin.

Slater explained, “When you enter the secret plane, the map will show where you are, your destination, the treasure chest with the Wizard tools, and so on.”

“The hourglass next to you will start to count. Once the sand in it runs out, it means that you have failed.”

“The sand can be replenished. The location of the replenishment will be shown on the map.”

At this point, he asked the old man below, “Lord Ferde, is there anything else you need to add?”

The old man thought for a moment and nodded. “I’ll tell you a trick to get to the end. I’ll only say it once. Whether you can understand it or not, it’s up to you.”

Everyone’s ears perked up. Their eyes were all focused on the old man.

They looked expectant and nervous.

The old man smiled and said, “The trick is –”

“Keep going, don’t stop.”

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