Chapter 55: Another Astral Spirit Envoy Appears [1]

Everyone watching the recording fell silent as Victor and Cecilia instinctively turned toward Leah.

Sensing their gazes, Leah, who had not taken her eyes off the man in the image, spoke in a plain tone of voice.

"I don’t know him."

The man was in his twenties and was male, so there was no possibility that anyone could mistake him for Elena.

Yet the strangest thing was that when the authorization crystal displayed that name, no one around him reacted. The guards did not ask any questions, and the other researchers did not even look at him, as though the words "Elena Vane" had never appeared before their eyes.

"Amplify the sound," Victor suddenly said.

The knight operating the crystal obeyed, and the background noise faded. Within the recording, a guard accepted the young man’s identity card and casually remarked, "Researcher Ron, you’re here early today."

The man smiled. "The sooner we finish, the sooner I can go back to sleep."

Ron?

A gleam of understanding flashed in Victor’s eyes. The authorization crystal had displayed a different name in the guard’s eyes, yet in the recorded system logs, it had shown Elena.

"Cognitive interference?" Cecilia, who seemed to have understood as well, suggested.

She had thought of some form of mental magic, but the middle aged instructor quickly shook his head. "Impossible. There is a mental magic detection array around the entrance. Any spell powerful enough to alter a guard’s cognition would have triggered the alarm."

No alarm had sounded, which meant this was not a simple illusion.

"First of all, who is Ron?" Victor asked.

"Ron Baker," the instructor answered. "He’s a researcher at the Magical Beast Research Institute. Twenty nine years old. He is mainly responsible for researching magical beast energy cores."

"Was this his first time here?"

"No. He has entered this place many times before."

This made the situation even more troublesome. This was not a fake identity that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Ron Baker was a real person who genuinely existed within the academy.

Cecilia quickly sent a message requesting his records. A reply arrived in less than half a minute, and as she read it, her expression slowly changed.

"Ron Baker didn’t come to the academy today."

The middle aged instructor frowned. "What?"

"His personal identity card..." Cecilia raised her head. "It has remained inside the Magical Beast Research Institute’s dormitory since ten last night. According to the dormitory area’s life detection records, he is still there right now."

An eerie silence descended the moment Cecilia finished speaking.

"How is this even possible?" The head knight could not help but exclaim.

"Everything is possible in this world," Victor replied, his expression growing complicated.

One Ron was inside the dormitory, while another "Ron" had entered the trial ground at five in the morning using Elena’s old clearance.

A clone? A disguise? A duplicate? Whatever it was, it was definitely not something low level students should ever encounter.

"Seal this place," Cecilia ordered in a firm tone. "No one is allowed to leave."

The middle aged instructor’s expression also darkened. "Your Highness, there are still eleven people inside..."

"No," Victor interrupted.

Everyone looked toward him.

"Ten. There may only be ten real people inside."

That "Ron" could not be counted.

At that moment, Victor’s identity card suddenly vibrated.

It was a message from Evelyn.

[I followed it to its destination.]

[The transport carriage didn’t return to the Magical Beast Research Institute. It went to the abandoned materials disposal area on the academy’s northern side.]

Another message followed.

[The people inside are unloading something.]

Victor replied at once.

[What are they unloading?]

This time, more than ten seconds passed before Evelyn answered.

[Bodies.]

[How many?]

[I’ve seen four so far. They’re all wearing clothes from the Magical Beast Research Institute.]

Leah noticed his expression. "What happened?"

He didn’t respond and instead looked directly at the instructor responsible for sealing the entrance.

"You said Herbert was still inside with the eleven people who entered this morning. How do you know that?"

"They report their progress through the trial ground’s internal communication crystal once every two hours."

"When was the last report?"

"Ten o’clock."

"Who made it?"

The instructor thought for a moment. "Herbert."

"Are you certain it was him?"

"It was his voice," the instructor said at first, before his face abruptly turned pale as he finally realized the severity of the situation.

He quickly activated the communication crystal.

Buzz!

Blue light appeared, but more than ten seconds passed without a response.

He called again.

Still nothing.

The middle aged instructor’s expression grew increasingly grim. "This isn’t right. Regulations require their communication devices to remain reachable every fifteen minutes."

At this point, Cecilia had already drawn the slender sword at her waist.

"Open the entrance."

"Your Highness..."

"Now."

The instructor no longer tried to stop her.

However, just as the entrance barrier began to open, Leah suddenly grabbed Victor’s sleeve.

"Wait."

He halted, looking at her.

The girl’s expression had completely turned pale, and silver starlight was surfacing uncontrollably within her pupils.

"That thing inside... it moved."

Boom!

Almost the instant those words left her mouth, the defensive barrier covering the entire Seventh Trial Ground shook violently as massive mana ripples rapidly spread from the northern region.

The force was so tremendous that some of the weakest knights were almost sent toppling to the ground.

Within the forest, countless magical beasts roared in terror. Afterward, a silver gray pillar of light, almost invisible to the naked eye, erupted from beneath the northern ground and pierced the sky.

[Warning!]

[Contaminated astral energy intensity is rapidly increasing!]

[Target Leah Vane’s Astral Core is experiencing resonance interference!]

Leah groaned in pain, swaying as if she was about to collapse.

Thankfully, Victor caught her by the wrist, tightened his grip, and simultaneously activated [Mana Devour!].

Buzz!

The trace of silver gray energy that had just entered her body was instantly extracted.

[Contaminated astral energy successfully decomposed.]

[Astral Resistance Fragment +1.]

[Current progress: 2/10.]

When the system screen faded, the girl’s breathing quickly returned to normal.

The knight’s gaze snapped toward Victor’s hand, but no one had time to ask questions now because the interior of the trial ground had already fallen into chaos.

Large numbers of flying magical beasts burst above the trees, while continuous red warning lights began flashing along the southern barrier.

All the academy knights drew their weapons, their faces growing serious.

"All knights, protect the Princess!" the leader shouted at the top of his voice.

Victor, however, stared fixedly toward the northern region of the trial ground, his fist clenched.

"It’s happening," he muttered under his breath.

"Victor." Leah suddenly tightened her grip on his hand, snapping him out of his trance. "I can feel it."

"Feel what?"

"Beneath that thing..." Although her face was still pale, her expression was exceptionally serious. "There’s a person."

"Are they alive?"

"I don’t know. But..."

Leah closed her eyes as her Astral Core began vibrating on its own. A few seconds later, her eyes snapped open.

"They also possess astral mana."