Chapter 71: Survival at the Bottom of the Abyss

Chapter 71: Chapter 71: Survival at the Bottom of the Abyss

Outwardly, Griffin maintained his indifferent demeanor, but the patience in his eyes was nearly exhausted.

Just before the students were about to free-fall face-first into the ground again, the instructor frowned and continued to roughly yank them up using magic bubbles. He waved his hand, and a powerful surge of magic power blasted forward, tossing the entire group straight into the empty space above the monster forest.

The five looked at each other in mid-air with wide eyes. Griffin smirked, a threatening smile on his face: "This time, even if you scream your throats hoarse, I won’t care. If you want to keep your lives, take controlling your magic power seriously."

After speaking, the five figures were thrown straight down once more.

Three minutes passed.

Griffin’s cold gaze swept over the five figures wobbling in mid-air. His tolerance had hit rock bottom. Not bothering with the rule of not interfering too deeply, Griffin directly channeled his own original magic power into the five exhausted bodies, using the pressure to force them to clear their blockages.

"The wings move according to intention, and intention is born from the mind. Don’t treat it as magic; treat them like shadows, like limbs connected to your body. Ride the flow of magic power to change direction, thereby seizing balance. It’s that simple!"

In reality, the nearly six previous failures weren’t entirely useless. Under Griffin’s sharp guidance coupled with the pressure from his magic power, the group gradually found their center of gravity.

Jeremy took a deep breath, closing his eyes to feel the flow behind his back. He controlled his magic wings to glide in a wind-tearing circle, his body soaring perfectly into the mid-air. Fortunately, he succeeded this time.

Once the first barrier was broken, everything that followed suddenly became strangely easy. Flying horizontally, flipping backward, diving, stopping abruptly in mid-air. Jeremy displayed a series of fluid flight postures, his movements neat and decisive. Seeing him succeed, the others also consecutively grasped the rhythm.

Griffin glanced at his watch. Six twenty-seven. Slower than anticipated by nearly an hour.

...Never mind, at least these brats weren’t so useless that they were beyond saving.

"Next are the Ten Core Elemental Magics. Today, you must finish comprehending them." Griffin’s flat voice rang out, but to the ears of the five at this moment, it sounded no different from a demon’s life-claiming whisper.

--

Three days later.

Five figures were thrown straight into the central area of the monster forest.

Reason: Too stupid. Or speaking more realistically: Griffin’s patience had completely evaporated.

Although they eventually grasped the Ten Core Elemental Magics, this progress was miles slower than Griffin’s expectations.

"Everything I needed to teach, I’ve stuffed into your heads. Within two months, gather 1000 Demon Soul Crystals and you pass. Otherwise, from now until the comprehensive final exam, just plant your roots in this corner permanently."

Griffin left a cold, ruthless sentence before instantly vanishing from sight. As for whether he was hiding nearby to supervise or had dumped the burden to go play, no one had the free time to care anymore. Because right at this moment, what greeted them was a number of monsters several times greater than what they had estimated from the outside.

Packs of monsters growled, swarming toward them like a pitch-black tsunami. It was absolutely impossible to kill them all.

Only a third of the trees in this forest were normal plants. The rest were all twisted mutants, their trunks sprouting wrinkled, disgusting monster faces. Their danger level was on par with one-star magical beasts, but the miserable thing was that there were no Demon Soul Crystals inside their bodies. They were merely deformed creatures; no matter how many were killed, it would be a futile effort.

It was currently still daytime, so dealing with them only took a bit of effort. But according to records from books, once night fell, the number of magical beasts in this wasteland would multiply exponentially, not to mention they would enter a berserk state, their power exploding fiercely.

Jeremy narrowed his eyes, disregarding the magic power consumption, and directly activated his second skill - Domain of Death. Phantom spirits rose from the ground, lunging to bite and tear at the tree monsters blocking their path.

"Retreat from this forest first," he ordered in a low voice, his magic wings spreading wide behind his back, decisively riding the wind and dashing out. The remaining four did not hesitate, immediately following closely behind.

The entrance to the spatial rift they had passed through earlier was an ancient ruin. But countless monsters were scattered around it, and by nightfall, the magma hidden deep beneath the rift would boil and rise, turning the whole area into a literal purgatory. Taking that path was no different from throwing their lives away.

The most fatal point was that the rift systems in the wasteland world were all one-way. The entrance could absolutely not be used as an exit. To leave here, they were forced to find crescent-shaped rifts hidden somewhere.

The monster forest’s density was too thick, coupled with the relentless pursuit of the tree monsters and the threat of magma at night; staying here would lead to only two outcomes: one was becoming dinner for magical beasts, and the other was being burned to ashes. To survive, the only immediate option was to escape the forest before planning their next move.

After nearly an hour of relentlessly breaking through the encirclement, the five finally shook off the pack of tree monsters and set foot outside the forest boundary.

But what met their eyes now was a deep cavern, looking exactly like a tunnel leading straight to the underworld. Aside from this dark cave mouth, there was no other path around.

Leon frowned and spoke in a flat voice: "Since we’re at a dead end, there must be a single ’door’ hidden beneath this ground connecting to another area."

"Whether there is or not, we have to charge in and see." Jeremy tilted his head slightly, glancing backward. Dust billowed in the distance; a large number of magical beasts from the forest had caught their scent and were frantically charging over. If they didn’t go down the cave, they would be caught in an encirclement; diving underground to take refuge was the best strategy.

Weighing the pros and cons in the blink of an eye, Jeremy decisively carved a round-trip teleportation magic matrix on the ground at the entrance as a backup escape route. Immediately after, he pulled out a vial of highly toxic viscous liquid, pouring it along the inevitable path the pack of magical beasts had to cross.

The bloodthirsty roars drew closer. The ear-piercing sound waves of several Nightmare Bats rang out, piercing through space and directly assaulting their nerves. Jeremy ignored the throbbing pain, didn’t bother to erect a defensive shield, and continued to split his magic power to create illusions to divert a portion of the monster pack.

The demonic sounds drilling straight into his eardrums made the blood in Jeremy’s body boil, and his vision darkened slightly.

Right as the frenzied flock of bats prepared to swoop in, Lucius, who was standing right behind him, stepped forward. He forcefully reached out, pouring magic power directly to reinforce Jeremy’s magic matrix. Immediately after, Lucius grabbed Jeremy’s shoulder, decisively pulling him behind his back.

He raised his hand, collapsing all the rocks and soil at the tunnel entrance, simultaneously casting a sturdy seal that tightly sealed the cave mouth, completely cutting off the pursuit path of the magical beast pack outside.

The rocks and soil crashing down shook the entire foundation. Frantic crashing sounds echoed continuously against the cliff wall from the outside, but with Lucius’s seal, they would have a hard time breaking through in a short period.

Lucius slowly retracted his magic power, turning his head to look at the person standing behind him, his gaze sweeping over Jeremy’s slightly pale complexion: "Are you alright?"

Jeremy took a deep breath, shaking off the dizziness in his head, and calmly shook his head: "I’m fine. Let’s keep going."

The stone stairs leading down were incredibly deep. The tunnel was damp, suffocating, and swarming with highly venomous insects, snakes, and centipedes that were dozens of times larger than normal. Blood-sucking, bone-eating ants the size of chicken eggs crawled everywhere, not to mention cockroaches, snakes, and centipedes slithering horizontally and vertically. They all carried deadly venom, but in this wasteland world, they were as useless as the tree monsters; in terms of rank, they weren’t even on par with one-star magical beasts and possessed no Demon Soul Crystals.

The Sacred Weapon in Jeremy’s hand instantly transformed into a scepter radiating brilliant light. He used light magic to sweep a path clean, dispersing the disgusting bugs.