Entering Eternal Dusk Garden

The next morning, Locke tidied up a little, hired a carriage, and headed to the entrance of the Wizard Secret Realm within Eternal Dusk Garden.

It was a stretch of ruins deep within the forest. Because it lay so far inside the woods, dangerous Magic Plants grew everywhere. Ordinary Wizard Apprentices could not even approach the place.

Zoina, a First-Class Wizard Apprentice dressed in black robes and seeming very introverted, looked at Locke. "Senior... is this the entrance to the Secret Realm? But there isn't anyone here..."

Locke frowned slightly and scanned the surroundings. Before them lay only the remaining foundations of ancient buildings and several broken walls. Some magical writing had been carved into those walls, but time had left it fragmented and incomplete.

"Are you here to enter Eternal Dusk Garden? Show me your application forms." A tall, thin wizard in tattered black robes emerged from behind a wall amid the ruins. Holding an enormous scythe, he looked like this place's guardian.

Locke sensed Magic Pressure from him equivalent to that of a First-Class Wizard Apprentice. Yet strangely, the other man's Magic Pressure fluctuated wildly. At times, it seemed extremely close to that of a First-Ring Wizard; at others, it was merely at the level of someone who had just become a First-Class Wizard Apprentice.

At certain moments, that Magic Pressure even seemed capable of breaking past its limits and reaching an unknown realm. It was exceedingly strange.

Moreover, he was filled with a dense aura of death. He did not seem to be a living person at all.

The guardian wizard took the application forms from Locke and Zoina. After confirming the Academy's magical seal on them, he gave a gloating chuckle. "Confirmed. They are indeed the Academy's magical seals."

"Good luck to you both."

"Eternal Dusk