Chapter 45: The Dream-Entering Magic Matrix

Chapter 45: Chapter 45: The Dream-Entering Magic Matrix

From the corner of her eye, Fino quickly glanced toward the rearguard. The preemptive strike plan had completely fallen apart solely due to Lomita’s slyness.

From an initially overwhelming position, the Red Wolf Team was now struggling immensely to defend themselves.

Everyone seemed to be focused solely on the "5-star" label of a member on the Storm Team, neglecting a core factor: the overall magic power ranking of the opponent was actually slightly superior to theirs.

Furthermore, the bond in Storm’s movement and coordination was much smoother and tighter than her team’s.

Unable to hesitate for another half-second, Fino decisively changed her tactics. The magic power particles in her palm converged intensely, and she activated an area-of-effect skill.

"Snow Domain Ice Seal!"

As soon as the incantation was chanted, the temperature across the entire arena immediately plummeted drastically. Thousands of gigantic, razor-sharp ice spikes howled as they tore through the ground, pointing up into the sky. Instantly, the support-type mage of Red Wolf cast an enhancement skill. The power and sharpness of the ice spike pillars suddenly doubled in size, forming a deadly cage.

Lomita slightly narrowed her eyes, not expecting Fino to be forced to unleash her killer move so early. Since that was the case, she had no need to hide her hand either.

Lomita let go, forcefully throwing the glazed umbrella soaring into the air.

"Heavenly Secret Thread - Bind."

"Flower Soul - Annihilation."

Two high-level skills were cast simultaneously. The glazed umbrella magnified tenfold, hovering overhead and radiating a blinding light. Countless purple magic threads crazily extended like octopuses, tightly wrapping around all five members of the enemy team.

At the same time, the sky of the arena rained down breathtakingly exquisite petals. But beneath that fragile beauty lay a terrifying corrosive power. Wherever the petals touched, Fino’s ferocious ice spikes were dissolved and evaporated without a trace.

Storm’s synergy was clearly demonstrated. The remaining members instantly activated a dual magic, channeling energy straight into Lomita, pushing the damage of the flower rain to the absolute limit.

The ambush came too quickly and fiercely; Fino gritted her teeth, hastily forming hand seals to summon her second skill to defend. However, it was all just a trap.

Taking advantage of the moment Fino poured all her strength into resisting the flower rain, the member holding the assassin position of the Storm Team had activated stealth at some unknown point. That person slipped like a ghost behind the Red Wolf’s formation. Under the absolute cover of the Annihilation Flower Rain and Heavenly Secret Thread, Storm’s assassin delivered a finishing blow, directly eliminating the opponent’s support-type mage from the battle.

The team that was once criticized by countless people as weak had, at this very moment, perfectly turned the tables. The entire arena seemed to erupt in cheers, and the applause echoed like roaring thunder.

In the grandstand, taking in the entire classic sequence of events, Jeremy absentmindedly turned to his teammates: "If it were you guys standing in that position, what percentage of certainty do you have in dodging that backstab attack?"

Evelyn was not in a hurry to give an answer; she smirked and asked back: "What is the maximum score scale?"

Jeremy calmly replied: "Ten parts."

Evelyn let out a long yawn: "Then ten parts."

Jeremy: "..." Meaning that for her, that speed was completely unworthy of concern.

Leon slightly pushed his glasses frame, his calm voice sounding steadily: "I wouldn’t have let the opponent have any chance to approach the safe zone in the first place, so your hypothesis fundamentally does not exist."

Phoenix, the boy with the faintest presence in the team, timidly mumbled: "...Five parts."

Jeremy directed his gaze toward the person sitting right next to him with crossed arms: "And you, Lucius?"

Lucius lazily lowered his eyelids, casually glancing down at the mess on the arena, the cold volume spitting out every word: "Under the condition that both sides are at an equal realm, the probability of me dodging completely without chipping a single hair is 50%. As for the possibility of dragging the opponent’s entire clan down to the grave together, it is 100%."

The corner of Jeremy’s eye twitched. The finger tapping the rhythm on the armrest also halted in mid-air.

This answer... sure enough, carried the strong style of a madman.

Perishing together. Preferring destruction over defense, it completely matched the extreme personality flowing in his blood.

Brushing aside that thought, Jeremy and his four teammates continued to rely on the match’s situation to dissect every pros and cons of the moves, simultaneously sketching out movement and formation compensation plans if they were to fall into a similar predicament.

Time passed intensely fast. Half an hour later, the brain-taxing match officially concluded. The Storm Team of the Linnea Branch won in an extremely dramatic fashion, marking a fulfilling end to the first day of competition.

Just as the referee announced the results, out of an unconscious habit, Lomita glanced toward the most obscure corner of the grandstand.

Just right, Jeremy’s gaze was also on her. Their eyes met in mid-air.

The young lord of the Valmont family slightly curled his lips, a rare smile carrying appreciation. He mouthed, the lip shape making no sound: "Very good."

Even though the distance was very far, Lomita still clearly read the praise. Her heart skipped a beat, and her spine stiffened. The surging feeling of fluster made her hastily cut off the gaze, turning her face away abruptly.

In her head, she continuously scolded herself with a torrent of abuse. Was she crazy? Why would she suddenly turn to look at him for no reason! If people who didn’t know saw it, they might think the two had some illicit affair.

Fino, who was not far away, observantly took in Lomita’s unusual action, frowning and probing: "Since when did you become friends with him?"

Even without specifying the name, who "him" referred to was all too clear.

Lomita jutted her chin, giving an arrogant cold snort: "What the hell does it have to do with you. I don’t have the free time to report."

After speaking, Lomita tightly grabbed the hem of her shirt, spinning around and darting straight down the arena platform. Her four teammates looked at each other in confusion before hastily chasing after their captain.

"..." Fino stood deep in thought, slightly leaning her body to glance toward the young boy with brilliant red hair leisurely sitting in the corner of the grandstand.

A few seconds later, Fino withdrew her gaze, turning on her heel and leaving the competition area.

Jeremy’s overbearing aura now was truly much more pleasing to the eye than the gloomy, cowardly appearance hiding in dark corners from her memories.

---

After the first day of competition closed amidst deafening applause, Jeremy’s group was finally granted permission to leave the artificial island.

Bidding farewell to his four teammates routinely, Jeremy headed straight back to his personal dorm. After taking a shower to wash away the fatigue, he glanced at the magic clock. The time just hit 22:23. It was still too early to fall asleep.

Without hesitation, Jeremy decisively took out the draft scroll on magic formulas that Professor Griffin had assigned a few days ago, placing it on the table. He carefully re-analyzed the bottlenecks in the previous exercises, separating each type of pattern to take notes.

The core structure of a magic matrix is closely linked with the formula. The amount of magic power needed to activate it is much larger and more complex than regular release-type magic skills.

Jeremy pulled out a pristine white parchment, wielding a quill, and began practicing drawing magic matrices on it.

For basic magic, as long as he had the structural analysis documents in hand, with his comprehension, Jeremy had more than enough capability to self-study and master it. Unfortunately, the concept of a "Magic Matrix" did not belong on the same level as those cheap things. Even though Professor Griffin had directly held his hand to teach this content three times, up to now, Jeremy still could not grasp its movement rules.

The fatal point of drawing a Magic Matrix lies in the sliding trajectory of the ancient characters, the intersection points between the magic meridian lines, and most importantly, the rhythm of energy transmission. Everything must achieve absolute precision down to the millimeter.

Furthermore, even the lowest-level magic matrix requires stacking three layers of embossed array diagrams and binding them with a formula combination. Every time he experimented, Jeremy always collapsed at the final synchronization stage.

This time was no exception. The quill pen in his hand let out a "crack," breaking into two halves due to the overloaded magic power pressure.

His hand clenched tightly. His golden eyes narrowed, staring coldly at the tangled, messy lines that had just spontaneously combusted into ashes due to the backlash on the paper’s surface.

He tapped his finger on the table, a gentle stream of magic power gliding over to blow away the layer of ashes, returning the intact parchment. He changed to a new pen and continued drawing.

Time ticked by, and the loop of failure occurred over a dozen times. The sky outside the window was pitch black, and the clock pointed exactly to 3:30 AM.

Considering that his physical stamina needed to be restored for tomorrow’s match, Jeremy knitted his brows tightly, deciding to try one last time. If he failed, he would immediately go to sleep.

The goddess of luck must have deigned to open her eyes today. At the moment the pen tip lifted, the final stroke closing the circle, a blinding golden light instantly erupted.

Looking at the magic matrix lines glowing rhythmically, flawlessly intertwining with each other on the paper, the corners of Jeremy’s lips were just about to curl up in satisfaction when two seconds later, his smile instantly froze.

He realized... the trajectory he had just been practicing subconsciously, was exactly... the Dream-Entering Magic Matrix!

Jeremy’s eyes widened. Before he even had time to swing his hand to sever the magic flow to forcibly stop the magic circle, a terrifying suction force strangled the space. His consciousness was instantly torn apart, sucked straight into the spatial teleportation rift.

A bout of the world spinning round and round, his internal organs feeling completely flipped upside down. Waiting until his heartbeat stabilized and his vision slowly recovered, what struck Jeremy’s eyes was a desolate, gloomy, eerily dead-silent spatial realm, with absolutely not even half a speck of light.

"..."

If his memory of magic theory was not mistaken, since this was only a basic-level Dream-Entering Magic Matrix, its coverage range to pull the host into a dream was limited to a very short distance.

To put it more accurately... this cursed place was very likely the subconscious spatial realm in the dream of a certain teammate sleeping right in the adjacent rooms.

A dark, dead-silent scene like this... could it be that the consciousness of the dream’s master was sinking deep into a state of chaos and collapse?