Wizard's Journey

Chapter 129 Footprints of History

The moment he opened his eyes, Green quickly stood up and looked around warily.

Ok?

The corpses of those otherworldly creatures had even lost their bloodstains.

However, the two otherworldly biological organ specimens that Grimm had previously created told him that everything in his memory was real, and that he had indeed been in a fierce battle.

Frowning, Green tossed the two specimens of otherworldly biological organs into his spatial pocket. Suddenly, he noticed the semi-transparent halo above his head. To his surprise, he tried to touch it, but it passed right through him, and he couldn't even sense any trace of energy fluctuations.

What is this?

correct!

Green suddenly looked up at the sky, which was still a hazy gray, without any abnormality. Green quickly ran to the edge of the arena, where the view below was still a blurry gray, as if the arena he was on had pierced the clouds.

Slowly, Green fell into deep thought.

His unconsciousness was definitely not due to exhaustion or other reasons. Although Grimm fought against three otherworldly creatures that were equivalent to the level of the Academy Guardians, on the one hand, those three otherworldly creatures were quite injured, and on the other hand, the Greedy Flame Giant's strength had greatly increased after devouring the Abomination, and there was also the long-term corrosive effect of the Blood Terror Doll's radioactive stones...

Overall, after Grimm successfully dealt with the first alien creature, he maintained control of the pace of the battle.

Thus, Green did not have the opportunity to use the Key of Friendship of the Black Tower again.

However, as the battle ended, Green, who was catching his breath and resting, suddenly felt an indescribable and terrifying pressure descend upon him. Extremely weak, Green only had time to look up and see the eyes slowly opening behind the hundreds-of-meters-long, pitch-black crack before he completely lost consciousness due to exhaustion, weakness, and terrifying pressure.

Beneath the pale mask, Green's eyes lost focus as he drifted into memories.

Could it be...

The enormous eye behind that massive, pitch-black crack—is that the True Spirit Wizard of the Seven Rings Holy Tower? If that's really the case…

So, compared to such a great being, I am merely a creature in a small bottle?

The other party could only observe him through the bottle opening, but he, such a weak creature, was already terrified by the other party's terrifying power.

If this is the case...

When I ventured into the Tower of Destruction alone at the Black Tower Wizarding Academy, my mentor Peranos said that the illusions inside the Tower of Destruction were originally a permanent spiritual barrier left by the Lord of Black Tower. In addition to the various illusory realms inside the Tower of Destruction stimulating the spiritual power of all unknown wizarding apprentices, passing through them would also help them advance to become formal wizards.

But before entering the ruined tower, was that giant eye in the sky something the sixth-level Saint Mark Wizard Tower Master was trying to tell us?

In the eyes of those great and sublime true spirit wizards, are wizarding apprentices nothing more than tiny insects in a bottle?

Rumble!

Suddenly, after a loud noise, mechanical puppets, or mechanical golems, with standard human figures rose up around the arena. There were two such advanced puppet devices guarding the seventh and eighth levels of the Black Tower.

It is said that this puppetry technique was passed down from ancient wizards, but at this time, only the Sky Tower, which is skilled in mechanics, still preserves this knowledge in the wizarding world.

In the Wizarding Continent, even if there are wizards who occasionally study mechanics, it is only for auxiliary modifications to themselves, and they have no involvement in mechanical puppets, mechanical armor, or those legendary aerial fortresses.

(The Sky City and Sky Tower are very important places in the Wizarding World, involving the ancient history and civilization of the Wizarding World and its subsequent evolutionary history. In the later part of the second phase of the work, the mysterious veil of the Wizarding World's long history will be gradually unveiled.)

Ok?

There were approximately seven or eight hundred of these mechanical puppets, about half of which remained intact, while the other half were damaged to varying degrees and rendered ineffective.

At this moment, in the center of the arena, a perfectly intact mechanical puppet appeared out of thin air after the space distorted, but it was bound by a fire-attribute light shield.

Ding……

Within Green's soul, several messages appeared after the crisp ringing of the bell.

"Every top wizard apprentice on the arena has the opportunity to fight a worker-ant-level mechanical golem alone."

(Note: Wizard apprentices who did not reach the arena and obtain the pinnacle reward do not have this opportunity. Mechanical golems are divided into three levels: worker ants, soldier ants, and general ants.)

「工蚁级机械傀儡可免疫身体信息诅咒巫术、扰乱感知型幻术，防御斩杀类物理攻击220~250度，防御震荡类物理攻击150~200度，防御负面能量类攻击120~350度，防御正面能量类攻击170~210度。可造成120~250度标準物理攻击，溶蚀射线攻击230度、瓦解光波270度。」

"Worker ant-level mechanical puppets were the lowest-level puppets used by ancient wizards in their conquests, also known as cannon fodder puppets. Due to their high cost and other drawbacks, their status has been replaced by the low-level soul slaves of modern wizards."

"You now have an hourglass of time to observe the historical imprints left on the worker-ant-level puppet by past top wizard apprentices. After that, you can choose whether to fight the worker-ant-level puppet. You can leave the secret realm at any time without losing any points, or you can be directly teleported to the Seventh Ring Holy Tower after defeating the worker-ant-level puppet."

"One year from now, all top-tier wizarding apprentices in the Wizarding World will receive World Heart Fragments as a reward based on their points. World Heart Fragments can be used to trade as Wizard Essence in any Holy Tower within the Wizarding World."

The Heart of the Wizarding World...

Is it really as Professor Peranos said...?

After a silent sigh, Green glanced briefly at the bound puppet in the center of the arena before slowly walking around it.

Of these puppets, half only had some scars on their bodies, and their internal structures were not damaged. Obviously, as long as the energy source was activated, they could fight again immediately.

In other words, even though half of the past top wizard apprentices on this arena are capable of using their own power in another world, they are not even qualified to be cannon fodder in the ancient wizarding world's conquest of another world.

As for the other half of the puppet that was destroyed, Green began to examine it piece by piece.

Some used high-penetration methods to destroy the core of the puppet, some cut off the puppet's limbs, some used mysterious methods to make the puppet explode inside, some used various elemental methods to make the puppet look strange and damaged, and some even looked strange and were cursed.

Green examined each item one by one.

The puppet had a fist-shaped mark on its chest, which had completely destroyed its internal mechanical components...

Ok?

The puppet's limbs are all broken, but it doesn't seem to have been done by brute force. Was it torn apart by a hurricane? Or compressed by earth elementals? It couldn't possibly be a curse or anything like that. Uh? What are these strangulation marks? Could it be using the principle of thermal expansion and contraction of some kind of thread…?

Huh?

This puppet exploded inside its head, exhibiting dissolving and corrosive properties? But the puppet's energy source is in its chest. Could it be that some of the puppet's own energy attacks were blocked?

Uh?

A petrified puppet...

Grimm walked past one damaged puppet after another, observing only those that were damaged, ignoring those that were undamaged. Suddenly, Grimm seemed to realize something, and took several steps back to a puppet he had previously ignored.

This puppet seems a little different.

Although there is no damage, the volume seems to be a bit larger?

Thinking this, Green's eyes narrowed slightly beneath the pale mask, and he slowly stretched out a hand to try and sense if there was anything wrong with the puppet inside.

However, as Green's hand passed right through the puppet in front of him without any resistance, Green's pupils suddenly contracted!

An illusion! This is an illusion! There are no puppets here at all!

In an instant, Green felt a cold sweat break out. Among the past generations of top wizarding apprentices, there were indeed some super geniuses he couldn't even comprehend, or even more terrifying nightmare-level wizarding apprentices than Green himself. (Green entered the academy relatively late, but his level of knowledge was already among the highest of all wizarding apprentices.)

Subsequently, upon closer observation, the forms of two other mechanical puppets made Green feel uneasy.

One of the puppets was reduced to a layer of metallic sand; the other puppet had its hands perfectly attached to its feet, and its feet perfectly attached to its hands, while its head was completely gone.

With the first mechanical puppet, Grimm only felt the terror of the wizard apprentice's unknown methods, but with the second mechanical puppet, Grimm felt an indescribable sense of oppression. A wizard apprentice who could dismantle a mechanical puppet without any mechanism for research, and even take its head as a trophy?

time flies.

As the time of an hourglass passed, the mechanical puppet in the center of the arena finally broke free of its restraints, and a terrifying black beam of light shot into the sky.

however……

After a tense silence on the arena, a dark red light flashed across the sky, followed by a terrifying wave of flames that instantly engulfed the newly freed mechanical puppet.

Space distorted for a moment, and Green crushed the badge and disappeared from the arena.

The arena gradually returned to calm.

Meanwhile, among the puppets destroyed by previous generations of top wizard apprentices, there was an empty spot, completely empty. Including the one that Grimm had just appeared in, there were three such empty spots in total, though Grimm himself hadn't noticed anything special about them before.

No, historically, wizarding apprentices must have discovered these special features and left behind a permanent psychic illusion.

These are also the footprints left by the history of this arena and by those top wizard apprentices.

(End of this chapter)