Chapter 261: Zero-level Trial Secret Realm and Infinity Trial
If I want to “get active” and test my progress, the best choice is naturally to fight. Within the Witch Academy, the allowed fighting venue is the arena, just like during the previous competitive matches held in the largest outdoor arena.
Of course, I could have better options, such as the secret realms.
I admit that Renata is not wrong; some cherish secret realms to the extent that they lack even the qualifications to have heard of them. However, she cannot deny that publicly accessible secret realms don’t have good things either.
She wouldn’t dare to say that.
Although I have been studying runes for the past week, I’m not oblivious to other things; I’m aware of which secret realms the senior students frequent the most and which ones are the most popular.
Generally, after three years of coursework, everyone has accumulated a substantial amount of magic sources and spellbooks. Those with some skills or those who are favored by the academy’s resources are usually stronger.
Such students prefer to go to the Witch Trial Secret Realm. Indeed, this secret realm is the “Zero-level Trial Secret Realm,” provided by a graduated senior as an expansive secret realm.
It is described as expansive because the internal space is divided into many sections and stacked. Once anyone enters, they are placed in an independent trial space.
Here, various monsters spawn randomly, and one has to engage in constant battles until utterly exhausted.
If it were only that, it wouldn’t be so popular. The key point is that individuals can exit the secret realm at any time, ensuring their safety during the trials, significantly reducing the cost of dying or being severely injured.
Moreover, this secret realm is officially supported by the academy. What does that mean? It implies that rewards within the secret realm are provided by the academy, but don’t expect them to be great.
However, this secret realm guarantees stable production of magic sources!
This is the best place for students with a certain level of combat ability to start accumulating magic sources.
The monsters that spawn in the trial secret realm are called minions; students with slightly higher abilities can usually defeat them instantly. The main issue, however, lies in their numbers.
The internal count ranges from single-digit, ten, hundred, up to ten thousand, appearing in batches.
There are a total of five waves of monsters, and defeating each wave grants corresponding rewards.
Yet, after successfully defeating each wave, one might only receive a single magic source.
This means that even the strongest seniors can only obtain five magic sources in a single run.
There are no limits on how often one can challenge this secret realm; there are no restrictions, only limits on rewards. One can only claim rewards from each batch once per week. Once the week is over, there’s nothing left except to wait for the next week. Even if magic source rewards aren’t available, the academy still encourages students to take part in trials, although rewards come in different forms.
This includes recording special skills on stone tablets, which can be photographed or imprinted. If you’re not interested, you can skip it.
In fact, the academy encourages students to master various skills in addition to acquiring extraordinary knowledge and becoming witches.
When I saw this secret realm, my first thoughts were of those individuals from the dormitory and my classmates.
I don’t lack these several magic sources, but they do. Most of the new students currently have only the single magic source obtained at enrollment, along with a basic fixed spell from an initial badge; that’s all.
However, I still have some concerns. I fear they might take risks and end up dying inside, accumulating revival debts at such a young age.
Although whether they live or d*e has nothing to do with me, if I were to suggest they undertake such actions and they died, some would surely bear a grudge against me.
I can’t be bothered with such troubles; it’s better not to do this. I can take those from the dormitory to give it a try instead.
After all, I have a good relationship with them, and by spreading this information through them, I can remove myself from the situation while later “accidentally” learning about it and issuing a danger warning in the group.
If someone dies from recklessness, it’ll fall on me, and I can only say that if they are inexperienced, they should practice more; if they can’t afford to d*e, they might as well drop out.
Coming out of the library, I plan to experience this secret realm firsthand and conveniently ransack some magic sources.
I haven’t changed my identity as “Yue,” as it saves a lot of trouble.
Arriving at the Witch Secret Realm Association, I lined up systematically.
While waiting in line, I noticed the entry fee for this trial secret realm is astonishingly one Aoqin!
However, compared to magic sources, this seems worth it. Although I’m unsure about the market price of a magic source compared to an Aoqin, magic sources should fundamentally be more valuable than Aoqin.
After all, the internal information I see under Spirit Vision is quite complex, containing various skills and an endless supply of magic, which has a significant value everywhere, whereas Aoqin is merely an extraordinarily precious metal that can circulate as currency, albeit also an extraordinary material.
But here at the Witch Academy, if acquiring magic sources isn’t difficult, their price cannot align with their value.
Moreover, the critical point is that before becoming an extraordinary witch, each person can have a maximum of ten thousand magic sources. This leads to a further depreciation of their value among prospective witches.
However, for most students, unless under special circumstances, they probably won’t reach ten thousand magic sources, so the value of magic sources remains relatively stable.
Even with this stable production of magic sources in the trial secret realm over ten years, even with persistent effort, one might only obtain around two to three thousand magic sources at most.
In this regard, few can manage to hold on for long.
Additionally, after graduating, this secret realm will no longer be available for them to farm. It’s not that they can’t enter the secret realm, but they won’t receive magic sources upon completing it.
In the higher grades, seniors have also developed their own methods and typically look down on the five magic sources a week. It’s a stark gap between higher and lower grade ordinary students.
New students definitely can’t scrape together the fee of one Aoqin. Of course, if you have the ability, it’s possible to obtain it, but most new students cannot.
Judging by the correlation between the value of entering the secret realm and the internal level of danger, this so-called trial secret realm clearly does not conform to this rule; perhaps it has raised the threshold due to being overly exploited.
After all, secret realms with low thresholds don’t guarantee practical benefits, while those with high thresholds will surely yield benefits, which is the preciousness of this trial secret realm. Its “stability” of output is its greatest value, akin to the academy’s abundant resources.
As for the issue of the entry fee, the Witch Secret Realm Association also bears responsibility for maintaining the secret realm; they can’t be expected to lose money on this.
“Hello, you want to enter the Zero-level Trial Secret Realm, right? You’re already registered here; just proceed to the teleportation portal.”
The senior at the association’s front desk skillfully processed the business registration and handed me the student card, without even realizing I am Yang Yuelan.
I don’t know if this is a loophole or if using someone else’s student card isn’t allowed for registration, as the student card is linked to Earth Vein information, which could be mystical.
I don’t want to joke around with this.
Once again at the teleportation array, I must say I’m quite interested in this teleportation, and I also master a Teleportation Summoning Spell, though unfortunately, I can’t teleport myself.
As the energy of the teleportation array surged, I felt my figure sway, and the next moment, I arrived in an immense realm.
However, the sky was somewhat overcast, and the land was charred black, with crosses and tombstones visible in the distance—all indicative of a place resembling a cemetery.
Before I could acclimate to the environment or assess the ambiance, a dry, decayed arm—nothing but bones—burst out of the ground nearby.
With such an atmosphere combined with this bizarre occurrence, someone with a weak heart might truly be frightened.
Fortunately for me, I’ve encountered the Land of the Fallen in dreams, a place much scarier than this.
“A skeleton? There’s also the aura of undead here. This secret realm seems to connect with the Earth Vein… a continuous flow of d*ath power, added with skeletal undead; this is indeed decent fodder.”
I nodded slightly, reluctantly acknowledging the setting of this trial secret realm.
At that moment, the skeleton crawled out, its body completely consisting of bones. Yet even in this state, it held a decayed shield and a corroded rusty sword.
I gently cast a Wind Blade Spell, which shattered its equipment. The undead flame in its eye sockets flickered, seemingly instinctively “thinking” about what had happened.
However, upon seeing me, it merely recognized me as an enemy and charged towards me.
Surprisingly, even though it was just a skeleton, it ran quite fast, comparable to an average person’s sprinting speed.
Then, I used a Fireball Spell to obliterate it completely. The shattered bones couldn’t be reassembled, but immediately following this, ten skeletal arms surged from the ground. The skeletal bodies broke through the soil, raising a cloud of debris, but I easily dealt with these foes.
Furthermore, I tested the strength of this creature.
Assuming a Fireball Spell can obliterate an ordinary person, the plain, unmodified Fireball Spell could let the skeleton endure one hit, but after the explosion, it would be “severely injured.” Such a skeleton would only require a heavy strike—any impact, even with a stick, would crush it. Essentially, one hit wouldn’t k*ll it, but two strikes were a waste.
The strength of these undead is alarmingly poor, isn’t it? Even I couldn’t help but comment.
However, it posed no threat to me. Next, I witnessed a spectacular scene: hundreds, even thousands of skeletons clawing their way up from the ground. It was exhilarating yet chilling to behold!
Of course, this chill felt like they all turned into shattered bones and limbs lying on the ground.
At that moment, I also felt the thrill of casting as a summoner.
This was my first time using the high-cost spellbook “Shadow Legion Summoning Spell.” The consumption of over a hundred magic sources produced a legion of shadows, their movements sharply coordinated, presumably waiting for my orders as they stood ready in front of me.
Watching this large group of shadow legions directly engage with the thousands of skeletal undead in combat, this pure slaughter and enduring confrontation is indeed a perfect choice against mass tactics.
It reminded me of the sea of undead in my dreams. If I had used this spell back then, I could have almost suppressed those undead.
The undead back then were simply skeletons, unworthy to be compared to the current undead on this side. The legion of shadows was crushing these undead, so the others should be easily suppressed.
However, the only difference is that those undead in the dreams could revive.
But rather than killing these undead, I was more concerned about the magic sources I would acquire after clearing these batches.
This trial secret realm dispenses magic sources conveniently, appearing directly before me and being pushed into my body by a force, without needing assistance from others. This can be considered very friendly for new students unable to interfere with magic.
However, magic sources are invisible energy entities to ordinary new students unless their Spirit Vision level is high enough to see them, or if the magic sources are sealed within specific containers.
Otherwise, new students can only check their number of magic sources by binding their student cards to their phones and viewing it through Earth Vein information.
I had always been able to see this, and almost thought others could too, as the delivery of magic sources is silent, and I feared that new students might not even notice it.
Based on my understanding of this secret realm, if a new student takes my dormmates as an example, they should easily handle the first wave. If they struggle with the first batch, I feel they might as well drop out of the Witch Academy.
The second wave, however, would be tough for them; their limitation is primarily the issue of magic sources. A single magic source requires a full day to recover, regardless of how many magic sources one has, it still takes a whole day to fully restore. With few magic sources, they can’t continuously cast spells, and without spells, they lack combat power…
This implies that transformation or summoning spells show their advantages in farming this secret realm.
It appears that the resources acquired by the class leaders during the previous competitions mostly lean toward transformation spells does not lack justification?
Having such means enables a continuous accumulation in the secret realm, getting ahead. This is indeed convenient.
At this moment, the Shadow Legion Summoning Spell felt somewhat limited when facing ten thousand undead. Although each individual within the legion is much stronger than the undead, the sheer number is overwhelmingly suppressive.
Even though they are still diligently killing enemies, they are gradually being unable to hold their ground under the massive assault, considering this summoning spell’s shadow legion is merely a spell’s effect.
Using a high-cost summoning spell yet being unable to clear this trial—on difficulty alone, I still acknowledge this trial secret realm.
Of course, if I were to continuously use the Shadow Legion Summoning Spell, I could pass, but what about my expenditure?
Directly consuming over a hundred magic sources? With this threshold of consumption, who among the new students can manage?
We’re looking at over ten thousand undead. Even with the Elemental Sprite’s protection, simply killing them is exhausting.
Unless I use the Rain of Fire field, but that’s not worth it, and other spells, including the three derived spells from my transformation magic, are also not to be underestimated.
On the condition of considering consumption and maximizing efficiency, I find myself in a dilemma.
Because I lack such fast mapping techniques with minimal consumption.
Ultimately, as the pressure continued to mount, I chose the most basic method, employing foundational transformation spells, mainly to test the combat memories I acquired from the Earth Vein Memory.
Of course, I could also test body techniques here, but I haven’t mastered them and only know the theory. To avoid mishaps, I opted for the conservative approach for my final cleanup.
Until everything concluded, and I incurred considerable consumption.
This let me comprehend that for my current state, I’m somewhat overwhelmed by attrition battles and the quantity pressure, revealing my visible weaknesses.
However, I’m quite satisfied with the battle techniques learned; they embody experience—combat experience requires significant time to refine into the best techniques. I just need slight grinding, and they can become my own.
After everything concluded, I obtained all five of the magic sources.
At that moment, a user interface similar to the Earth Vein Operating System popped up before me.
“Wait a minute… this secret realm… Infinity Trial Mode?”
I glanced at the information above, refraining from hastily starting, and instead checked what this meant.
In the Zero-level Trial Secret Realm, rewards can only be acquired once a week. If all trials are completed, Infinity Trial Mode will unlock, and then undead will continuously surge until the trial-taker is forced to exit. It also explained that it specially noted to act within your capability and attentively labeled the revival costs and required various materials, etc.
Aside from this endless trial, the interface also had a function to view the leaderboard.
The leaderboard records the rankings of clearing speed and the number of endless trials.
Instinctively, I clicked on the racing ranking, only to see that the first contender had a time of less than six seconds!
Six seconds!
What kind of concept is that?
The trial starts with a total of five batches, with intervals, suggesting this person had somehow blasted through the ground in reverse, right?
What level of combat power is that?
Thinking of this, I instinctively swallowed, and my previous confidence completely vanished; the Witch Academy really has hidden talents…
At least in six seconds, I might not even finish all five rounds, not to mention the Rain of Fire field.
While I might manage to get it below ten seconds with effort, achieving such a limit might truly be out of my reach.
I instinctively swallowed, closed the leaderboard, then reopened the k*ll count leaderboard for the infinity trial, where counts were based on the highest single trial.
And the front page was all in the millions!
This is millions… The first thing that came to my mind was the “Hundred Techniques Book”!
Yet every individual has a cap on magic sources. Even at the peak of ten thousand, killing a million means an average magic source efficiency equivalent to killing ten undead!
Even with potions, recharging alchemical items, etc., this is impressive.
Killing millions… just the number alone is staggering.
Once the Infinity Trial commences, the only outcome is the forced exit from the secret realm, with no way back.
I closed my eyes and pondered for a moment, then opened them, looking at the words “Infinity Trial,” decisively clicking to start.
I ultimately underestimated this trial secret realm. Considering the Infinity Trial, the number of clearances in this secret realm becomes “0”. It truly lives up to its name as the Zero-level Trial Secret Realm, ideal for honing some things within.
Only such pressure might bring me new inspiration.
