A week passed by in the blink of an eye.
Since the underground world was generally pitch-black with no light,Kay, who was on the floating ship, would occasionally walk onto the deck, but he had no idea about the specific route they were taking to Shadow Valley.
A week later, when Kay and the others finally arrived at a brightly lit underground valley, he turned to Lina beside him, somewhat uncertain, and asked, "Is this Shadow Valley?"
Countless magic crystal lamps and magical devices were placed everywhere in Shadow Valley, illuminating it as bright as daylight.
Kay also saw two towering giant magic towers.
A blue energy shield that covered the entire Shadow Valley persisted without fading. Its source of elemental energy seemed to be the two magic towers in the center of the valley.
After arriving at Shadow Valley, besides sensing the terrifying auras of more than a dozen official Dark Mages, Kay also spotted many elemental golems here.
Most of these elemental golems were earth-elemental, ranging in height from two to five meters.
It was hard to tell how strong their combat capabilities were for the time being, but they were truly powerful.
They carried the equipment and materials unloaded from the floating ship to the corresponding locations.
Their dull faces and facial features indicated that these earth-elementals had little intelligence; they must have been summoned by powerful Dark Mages.
They were equivalent to the skeleton warriors Kay summoned using the low-level "Skeleton Summoning" spell.
However, these earth-elementals were far superior to Kay's small, thin skeletons. He estimated that even the smallest earth-elemental could scatter his little skeletons with a single slap.
The only question was, what was the specific power level of these earth-elementals? There were nearly twenty to thirty earth-elementals visible to him in Shadow Valley right now.
Which powerful Dark Mage was behind summoning them?
After arriving at Shadow Valley, the Dark Mage apprentices, who had been confined to the ship's cabin for a week, were urged by the official Dark Mages and the Overseers from the Owl Academy to disembark from the cabin.
Kay also caught a glimpse of Owl Seven.
However, they didn't exchange any words; they merely nodded slightly at each other as a greeting.
At this moment, the Dark Mage apprentices mostly gathered in small groups of three or five.
If one looked closely, they would notice that among the intermediate and advanced apprentices, those who had a mentor mostly grouped together based on their respective mentor's faction.
As for the intermediate and low-level apprentices who hadn't found a mentor, and even the weaker beginner apprentices, they gathered either by their dormitories or based on their usual close relationships.
There were very few true loners.
Kay, accompanied by his girlfriend Lina, went to find Senior Brother Zorro and Senior Sister Phil.
Although Fatty Bows didn't come over directly, he stood not far from Kay at the moment.
Merry didn't come over either; she had her own mentor's faction and was now staying with her two senior sisters.
"We won't be staying in Shadow Valley for a short time. Although this place is quite large, due to terrain constraints, there won't be many tents, and our mentors can't help us with this matter," Senior Brother Zorro whispered to Kay.
"So, we need to go and secure two tents first later."
"Okay," Kay replied.
Just as they were talking, the "woo-woo" sound of a steam whistle echoed.
The floating ship that had brought Kay and the others here slowly lifted off after unloading all the cargo, until it disappeared into the dark sky of the underground world, its whereabouts unknown.
…
In the end, the tents that Kay and his group secured were in a prime location on the right side of one of the two magic towers in the valley.
Being close to the magic tower meant that in case of any crisis or accident, they could immediately take shelter near the magic tower and seek protection from the official Dark Mages inside.
Additionally, the terrain here was relatively flat and open, and it wasn't far from the huge magic altar in the center of the valley.
Standing at the entrance of the tent, Kay could look into the distance and see the magic altar emitting a white elemental glow.
Upon hearing the introduction from Senior Brother Zorro, Kay learned that the spatial rift was located inside that magic altar, held in place by the altar.
The Dark Mage Academy was indeed not easy to deal with. When securing these two tents, Kay and his group even got into small-scale conflicts with two other groups of Dark Mage apprentices.
Advanced apprentices and quasi-mages were indeed rarely seen in the academy on a daily basis, but for this trip to Shadow Valley, it was clear that all the apprentices of the academy had been brought here by those official Dark Mages.
There were a total of eleven quasi-mages and twenty-six advanced apprentices. The strength of the academy's apprentices left Kay secretly astonished.
When assigning the tents, Phil and Lina, the two females, shared one tent, while Kay stayed with Senior Brother Zorro.
Fatty Bows somehow came over.
Out of consideration for Kay, and also because the fatty had offered a piece of red copper as a gift, Senior Brother Zorro turned a blind eye and tacitly allowed the fatty to sleep in the corner of their tent.
Senior Brother Zorro was the one who most resembled their mentor, Moses. In his daily life and studies at the Dark Mage Academy, he was obsessed with experiments and alchemical research every day.
He didn't have any romantic partners, and he barely even had any friends he could chat with.
Just like those other quasi-mages whom Kay didn't know about, or even hadn't heard of.
To most of the magic apprentices in the academy, Senior Brother Zorro was also an unfamiliar and powerful figure who kept a cold distance.
...
On the second day after arriving at Shadow Valley, the official Dark Mages issued a series of orders.
As expected, the academy's decision to gather all apprentices for the Shadow Valley mission was rather hasty.
The eleven quasi-mages, including Senior Brother Zorro, were the first group to enter the depths of the magic altar.
Perhaps due to the care of their mentor Moses, Senior Brother Zorro was among the last two to enter among the eleven quasi-mages.
"Do you think these kids will really be able to help us place the coordinate generator on the other side of the spatial rift?" After Zorro and the other quasi-mages stepped into the magic altar, a Dark Mage in the valley's magic tower asked the person beside him.
"Who knows? This spatial rift is too small; it can't even accommodate a Tier 1 creature," the other Dark Mage replied, shaking his head.
"Moses and the Vice-Dean have spent so much time here, just to continuously reinforce the spatial altar so that it can properly protect the fragile bodies of these kids."
"Even so, an unstable spatial rift is extremely dangerous for us, let alone these kids."
"It'll be a miracle if two-thirds of them can be sent over safely. Moreover, we don't even know what's on the other side."
Exploring other planes was inherently full of uncertainties, not to mention doing so through a spatial rift rather than descending directly from outside the plane.
If the other side of the spatial rift was a barren land completely uninhabitable for creatures, then these kids would be in great trouble.
In fact, the resource-rich sub-planes that most Dark Mages in Menzoberranzan yearned for were, under normal circumstances, precisely dangerous places where no creatures below Tier 1 could survive.
For example, if it were a fire-elemental sub-plane, Kay and the other apprentices would probably be roasted alive before long if they went there.
On the other hand, the worlds that could be adapted to and inhabited by weak creatures below Tier 1 were all worlds with complete rules.
But these worlds were also accompanied by dangers. Even if the other plane had rules and a climate similar to the Wizarding World, Kay and the others, as outsiders, would inevitably be rejected by the will of that plane and hated by the native races of that plane.
Therefore, no matter what the situation was on the other side of the spatial rift.
For these apprentices, who hadn't even reached the level of Tier 1 creatures, entering it was almost a death sentence with little chance of survival.
No wonder their mentor Moses had taken great pains to prepare so many life-saving items for Kay and the others.
Amidst the eager anticipation and attention of everyone, the three quasi-mages at the front of the line were urged by the official Dark Mages around them to walk into the depths of the magic altar.
The white elemental light made it impossible for anyone to see what was happening deep inside the altar.
Not only those official Dark Mages, but also the Dark Mage apprentices, including Kay, stared intently at the depths of the altar.
After a moment, first, several official Dark Mages around frowned, and then even Kay heard a shrill scream.
The huge white altar was like a silent, giant monster's mouth; it devoured the three quasi-mages without causing even a ripple.
"Something's wrong! There's a change!" a Dark Mage in the magic tower said anxiously.
"The spatial rift has shifted slightly. Sending quasi-mages first will result in too many losses, and we still need them as the main force to place the coordinate generator."
"Then who should we send next? Intermediate apprentices or low-level apprentices?" another Dark Mage in the magic tower asked.
"Send the beginner apprentices! We just need to find a correct path again around the periphery of the spatial rift. We can just use lives to fill this gap; there's no need to waste the strength of the other apprentices," the first Dark Mage said.
"What a pity. We should have asked Dean Darlon and the others to bring over a group of humans from Menzoberranzan when they came."
"That way, we could reduce the early losses and increase the success rate of placing the coordinate generator," the Dark Mage sighed softly.
"It's not that easy. Ordinary humans have very little elemental power in their bodies; they probably can't even get close to the spatial rift," the other Dark Mage shook his head and said.
"If we could really fill this gap with human lives, Vice-Dean Martin and Ms. Jonny would have done it a long time ago. Why would they spend more than ten years calculating every tiny rift node around this spatial rift?"
The words of the two Dark Mages soon became a reality.
At the order of Vice-Dean Darlon, the quasi-mages who had been standing at the front of the line in front of the magic altar stepped back one after another.
Instead, the largest group of beginner apprentices was forced to move to the front by minotaur warriors, as well as some other dark creatures and elemental golems.
Once upon a time, Kay had even sighed that the new batches of Dark Mage apprentices who had just enrolled were lucky.
But soon, the cruel rules of the Dark Mage Academy revealed that luck had no place here.
Without sufficient strength, one could only become cannon fodder.
These newly enrolled apprentices were no match for those strong minotaur warriors at all.
Those who entered the altar voluntarily were fine, but those who refused were either picked up one by one by the strong minotaurs and thrown in, or were casually waved into the altar by the Dark Mages standing on the periphery using their magic power.
Screams and wails echoed endlessly in Shadow Valley.
Most of these beginner apprentices were around ten years old; they were still basically children.
The tragic scene unfolding in Shadow Valley made even Kay, an apprentice who had grown accustomed to danger and cruelty, feel a chill in his heart.
When nearly half of the beginner apprentices had been consumed, and the white elemental light of the entire magic altar began to turn red, Vice-Dean Darlon finally ordered to stop sending apprentices into the altar.
Like a bottomless giant mouth, the magic altar in the center of Shadow Valley only allowed creatures to enter, never to exit.
No one knew what was really happening inside—whether the three quasi-mages were really dead, or where the nearly two hundred beginner apprentices who had been thrown in one after another had gone.
The remaining half of the beginner apprentices huddled together tremblingly, their bodies shaking uncontrollably under the coercion of the many minotaurs and dark creatures.
At this moment, the fragility of life and the powerlessness of weakness were fully revealed.
Not much better off than those beginner apprentices were the roughly one hundred low-level apprentices.
From the attitudes of Vice-Dean Darlon and those Dark Mages, it was clear that once all the beginner apprentices were consumed, the next unlucky ones would definitely be them.
As an intermediate apprentice, Kay's face didn't look good either.
The good news was that after more than two hundred apprentices had been thrown into the magic altar, the Dark Mages who had been continuously monitoring the depths of the magic altar and the spatial rift seemed to have made a new discovery.
Today's exploration of the altar ended here. No one knew if those Dark Mages could reduce the casualty rate of the apprentices entering the altar based on their new findings.
Of course, what more apprentices were worried about was when the next exploration of the altar would begin.
This was a matter of great concern, especially for those low-level and beginner apprentices.
When Senior Brother Zorro reappeared in front of him, Kay noticed that there was also a layer of fine sweat on the other's neck.
Senior Brother Zorro should be over seventy years old.
In the Wizarding World, the average lifespan of ordinary humans was generally between fifty and seventy years, with the average lifespan of commoners being around fifty years.
Nobles, thanks to their high-quality lives, often lived longer, with an average lifespan of over seventy years.
As for mages who had mastered magic and elemental power, even apprentices who hadn't reached the Tier 1 level or above could extend their lifespan and delay aging through various methods.
Although no one knew the maximum lifespan of magic apprentices, it was presumably possible for them to live to be one hundred and twenty or thirty years old.
Kay had seen illustrations of some rare materials that could extend human lifespan in the public library.
Including a magic book his mentor had given him, which recorded that forming a soul bond with a pet could also increase a mage's lifespan.
Senior Brother Zorro had been able to maintain his appearance thanks to taking certain potions or mastering other methods, so even though he was quite old, he only looked like a middle-aged man in his thirties or forties.
Of course, Senior Sister Phil's ability to maintain her youth was even more remarkable than Senior Brother Zorro's.
Logically speaking, someone like Senior Brother Zorro, who had lived for a long time and had traveled far and wide with their mentor Moses from the Western Islands to the Underdark, should have long been accustomed to crises and death.
However, in the face of what had happened today, Kay's senior brother still felt enormous pressure.
When Kay gave him a concerned look, Senior Brother Zorro patted Kay on the shoulder and said, "I'm fine. Let's go back first. There are some things I need to talk to you about."
The night in Shadow Valley was still as bright as daylight.
It was even brighter here than in Menzoberranzan, which had fluorite veins for lighting.
That night, it was unlikely that any apprentice would be able to sleep.
Kay didn't know what the other Dark Mage apprentices were feeling at the moment. Inside the tent, Senior Brother Zorro whispered to Kay and Phil, "Our mentors all miscalculated. Logically, the three quasi-mages who entered first today shouldn't have all died."
"We had clearly roughly calculated the safe path around the spatial rift in advance."
"However, the magic altar hasn't gone out, which means that only the tiny spatial rifts along that path have shifted, but the elemental fission devices we placed in advance haven't been damaged."
"That's why the Dean and the others let those beginner apprentices pave the way, to help us reconfirm a relatively safe path," Zorro said in a deep voice.