CHAPTER 27: CHAPTER 27: PRELUDE TO THE ABYSS, MAGE CLASS TRIAL!

"Abyssal aura eruption, Mage trial?"

Lin Yi was a bit puzzled.

What on earth is that?

Zuo Qian continued to explain, "This knowledge isn’t found in your textbooks, so it’s normal you don’t understand it."

"But you should know, a thousand years ago, what was the fundamental cause of Blue Star’s mutation?"

Lin Yi nodded, "It was abyssal invasion, dimensional overlap."

Zuo Qian: "Exactly! The Abyss, that’s a term you must hear often."

"You can understand the Abyss as a parallel world, a different dimension."

"It’s the source of all Blue Star’s disasters and crises."

"There are endless horrific monsters there, and they even have their own civilization, their own societal systems, just like us!"

"But dangerous places are often also the places rich with opportunities and rewards."

"Some of our Xia’s true powerhouses became strong because they trained in the Abyss and acquired extremely rare rewards like key skills, talents, and exclusive equipment."

"The Abyss is a terrifying and diverse dimension. It operates and moves like a universe. Sometimes it comes particularly close to our Blue Star dimension."

"During these times, when the two dimensions clash, it’s easy for a rift to form that exists between the two dimensions."

"These rifts are essentially the dungeons you’re familiar with."

Lin Yi listened as the old principal filled him in.

It suddenly became clear to him.

He had never thought about how exactly those dungeons came into being before.

So, this is how they’re created.

"This morning, a new limited-time dungeon appeared in the eastern outskirts of Jiangcheng."

"That dungeon was tainted with some slight abyssal aura, causing the monsters within to mutate."

"This type of dungeon has an extremely unstable spatial structure, and after some time, it will disappear."

"So you need to enter early and grab the rewards!"

"And this time, the dungeon that appeared is very special, it’s a trial-type dungeon."

"Moreover, it’s a single-occupation trial dungeon, only allowing Mage professionals to enter!"

Lin Yi pondered for a moment and asked, "Then, Principal, what’s the benefit if you clear this trial?"

Zuo Qian chuckled, "You rascal, you never act without seeing the rabbit, huh? But I’m the same, haha, aren’t we all entering a dungeon for the rewards!"

"The reward for this trial is a title."

"The title is called: Abyss Challenger!"

"This title has no attributes, but you can understand it as a key, or as a qualification!"

"The qualification to enter the real Abyss!"

Lin Yi understood.

From the old principal’s introduction.

Truly valuable equipment, rare skills, rare talents.

All need to be acquired by entering the Abyss.

And those professionals who can’t clear this occupation trial, have no qualification to enter the Abyss!

It’s undoubtedly equivalent to never becoming a true powerhouse in life.

No wonder it would affect one’s future career.

"From past patterns, every time a profession trial dungeon appears on Blue Star, it’s different. The trial informs challengers of the clearance rules beforehand, and fulfilling these rules grants the qualification to enter the Abyss!"

"Jiangcheng is quite lucky. The trial rule for the Mage professional trial that appeared this time is very simple, just persist in the trial dungeon for 3 hours. It doesn’t require you to kill a certain number of monsters, nor to kill the boss."

"So, Lin Yi, seize this opportunity!"

"Because the next time you might encounter such a profession trial, who knows when it will be, and it might be even harder by then!"

Actually, the difficulty isn’t a big deal for Lin Yi. At least with his current strength, while it’s not exactly overwhelming fellow professionals of the same level, it’s what you could call a dimensional reduction strike.

This trial, no matter how difficult, can’t be that tough.

Perhaps, for Lin Yi, the real Abyss is the actual challenge.

What Lin Yi fears most is missing out and not knowing when there will be another opportunity to participate in the trial.

Despite the discussion between the two, even with the slow pace of the strange creature flying, they had already exited Jiangcheng.

"You’re doing well. When I was still a teacher, I had taken a few students flying at high speed, and they all were terribly frightened."

Lin Yi: "..."

He didn’t know how to respond to that.

You call this high-speed flying?

Can I say that if I used my skills to fly, I could be over ten times faster than this turtle-paced mount of yours?

The area surrounding Jiangcheng is nearly all lush and beautiful prairie.

The eastern outskirts are no exception.

After leaving the city, they flew east for a bit, and soon Lin Yi saw a certain part of the prairie amassed with a huge crowd of people.

"The news spreads quickly. As soon as this Mage professional trial dungeon appeared, people from several base cities around Jiangcheng caught wind and rushed over."

"When I had your homeroom teacher look for you in the morning, there weren’t that many people. Many of our school’s mages have already teamed up and entered. They should be inside now."

"No, it seems there’s a slight problem now..."

Zuo Qian looked at the dense crowd below with a change in expression.

Lin Yi also noticed the issue.

It was so crowded you couldn’t even see the dungeon entrance, and evidently, these people were queuing up!

What is going on? Does the dungeon require queuing to enter?

The strange creature landed, Zuo Qian retracted his mount, and relying on his many years of accumulated contacts, he took Lin Yi and presented their identities to all the Jiangcheng military professionals maintaining order on the scene.

Perhaps because of some bias towards their own, these soldiers turned a blind eye to Zuo Qian and Lin Yi as they continuously cut the line and moved forward and did not stop them.

Very soon, Zuo Qian and Lin Yi reached the central area surrounded by the crowd.

Lin Yi also saw a spatial rift radiating a dark and ominous aura, flickering incessantly.

Evidently, this was the entrance to the limited-time trial dungeon.

On both sides of the entrance, numerous professionals in mage robes and Array Masters were working to maintain the stability of the dungeon entrance, trying to extend the dungeon’s open time.

"Mr. Jiang, it’s me, Zuo!"

Zuo Qian put on a humble and pleasing expression and immediately spotted Jiangcheng Professional Alliance President Jiang Xian in the center of the crowd.

Jiang Xian was all smiles at that moment.

So many schools from other base cities, informal organizations, and guild members coming to their Jiangcheng made him proud.

At this moment, a group of people clad in uniforms from some professional college, exuding powerful auras, most of them above the fourth rank, were conversing with Jiang Xian about something.

For Lin Yi, Zuo Qian had no choice but to brave the situation and shout out.

But he did so with utmost respect.

His conversation with important guests interrupted, Jiang Xian was a bit displeased.

But this being a public event, he didn’t want to make a scene.

He could only turn to look back.

Zuo Qian awkwardly smiled and said, "Mr. Jiang, here’s the thing, our school has one more student who successfully transitioned to a Mage and hasn’t been able to participate in this trial yet. Given how crowded it is, what do you think...?"

"Lin Yi, come here, this is Jiangcheng’s Professional Alliance President, Jiang Xian, a Grand Mage of the fourth rank!"

Before Lin Yi could speak, Jiang Xian said in surprise, "You are Lin Yi?"