Divine Kingdom Trial

On the other side, Andre, throwing his weight around on someone else's backing, was just about to crush an ant to death.

But new changes arose around them.

After an invisible ripple passed, the icicles that had already wilted suddenly found a second wind.

Not only did their speed increase tenfold, the violent energy contained within them was even greater than before.

And Andre?

The water shield he had raised thinned into a sheet of paper in an instant.

Boom!

The icicles exploded, and Andre was sent flying dozens of meters away.

While he was still in midair, before he even hit the ground, he vomited great mouthfuls of blood.

Mm, what happened?

Ahab looked around.

"Merlin, you dare oppose me!"

The olive tree whose voice was made by the wind began to gather and interweave its branches and leaves.

In the blink of an eye, they outlined a human face on the fork of the tree.

At the same time, on the other side of the island.

The white clouds floating in the sky also gradually condensed into the shape of a human face.

And through the refraction of light, they even did an excellent job simulating that red-and-white cured-meat look.

The face formed by the gathered clouds looked down from above, gazing over the island.

Ahab knew that face all too well. It was the Second Ring official wizard who had chosen him to become a Demon Hunter Wizard—Merlin!

"Merlin, I'll warn you one more time. Although I am only a First Ring wizard now,"

"any one of the methods I left behind in the past is not something you can withstand!"

On the olive tree where the human face had condensed, branches and leaves rubbed against one another, mimicking the sound of human speech.

"You've been saying that for five hundred years."

The face gathered from clouds at the edge of the sky smiled faintly.

Waves crashed against the reef again and again, imitating the old wizard Merlin's voice.

"Tupa, you are no longer a Stigma Wizard."

"A wizard whose realm was personally knocked down by the Void Ancient God has never been able to recover."

Ahab's heartbeat abruptly skipped two beats.

The first beat was because Ahab Gul realized something.

The big shot behind Lola, the First Ring official wizard Tupa—

had actually been a Stigma Wizard in the past???

He had seen it in the Future Diary.

Seventh Ring and Eighth Ring were called "True Spirit Wizards."

At the end of the diary, the controlled version of himself had been at that level.

And below that—

Only Fourth Ring to Sixth Ring could be called "Stigma Wizards"!

Combining that with what Merlin had said, that the other party had personally had his realm knocked down by the Void Ancient God, if he was worthy of an Ancient God dealing with him, then he was probably at the highest level among Stigma Wizards: Sixth Ring!

Thinking of this, Ahab's heartbeat skipped the second beat.

The Void Ancient God, that guy who was suspected to be from the same hometown as him.

Could even knock down a wizard's realm?

But a wizard's power came from knowledge. How could knowledge already grasped possibly be stripped away?

Fine, even if an Ancient God had strange and unfathomable methods and could strip away knowledge, then why could it not be recovered? Could he not just start over and learn it again?

"Next, I must accomplish two things as quickly as possible."

Ahab made a decision in his heart.

Become an official wizard as soon as possible, and—

get First Ring wizard Tupa onto his list as quickly as possible!

His past level had been very high. Maybe he knew quite a few secrets about the Ancient Gods.

He might even know something related to how Ahab would be controlled in the future!

"Tupa, you know Ahab Gul is a Demon Hunter Wizard."

"I don't care what other methods you use, but if he dies, the Authority he has already grasped will circulate among the Void Cultists again.

"And besides, that traitor called Clifis seems to have shown traces of himself again recently. Ahab will soon need to go demon hunting again.

"I don't want to see anything unpleasant happen."

The waves came one after another, simulating the voice of the old wizard Merlin.

"These days, even sons dare to hit their fathers."

"Back in my day, I was far richer than you, far more glorious!"

In a certain laboratory, an official First-Circle Wizard was raging impotently.

A flash of white light crossed his vision.

Ahab found that he had returned to his dormitory again.

Tonight had been more frightening than dangerous, and he had gained a great deal of insight.

It was like the line in the history books: "In a year of great famine, people ate one another."

Even though he had read countless descriptions of official wizards in the diary, after seeing one with his own eyes, he still felt shaken.

Generally speaking, going from Third-Rank to Second-Rank took as little as one year and as long as three.

The difficulty of going from Second-Rank Apprentice to First-Rank Apprentice increased as if by taking the square.

An outstanding Second-Rank Apprentice could become First-Rank in ten years.

Those a little worse might take forty or fifty years... or even a lifetime and still never become First-Rank.

Just look at those old-timer apprentices muddling along and waiting to die.

Nine out of ten were Second-Rank Apprentices.

From Second-Rank to First-Rank, there was already a bottleneck.

As for going from First-Rank to an official First-Circle...

There were clear records in the Future Diary.

All the way until he, in the original timeline, left Mensis Academy, in that entire century, only two First-Rank Apprentices in the academy advanced to become official wizards.

One was his new-student instructor, Gray.

The other was Clifis, the Void Cultist who had safely lain low in the original timeline.

In fact, after a hundred years had passed, when he left the academy, he himself—who would become an Eighth-Circle True Spirit in the future—

was still only a First-Rank Apprentice.

"But if I can gain enormous benefits in the Divine Kingdom Trial..."

"It's not impossible for me to advance straight to First-Rank Apprentice!"

Ahab summoned the Future Diary and turned to a page he had once seen before.

It was hard to say how Clifis, that Void Cultist, had advanced to become an official wizard.

But the reason Instructor Gray in the original timeline had been able to advance to official wizard

was because he had obtained the final fruit of the Divine Kingdom Trial!

The so-called Divine Kingdom Trial was not actually in some distant place.

It was right beneath Mensis Academy.

In the past, this place had been the node where the Void Ancient God inverted the natural order and invaded the Wizard Plane in reverse.

A major reason Mensis Academy had been built here was to suppress the Void Divine Kingdom underground.

Of course, the suppression was not done for nothing.

The academy definitely gained enormous benefits from it too, and periodically sent apprentices inside for trials.

"During this period, I need to accelerate the stabilization of my Second-Rank combat power."

"The Divine Kingdom Trial is at the beginning of next month. That's less than two weeks away."

Ahab had already made up his mind. After moving tomorrow, he would go take missions and earn more Magic Stones.

Although he still had the research investment, and Magic Stones would continuously be supplied to him in the future, at this particular point in time, every extra bit counted.

"Too bad the diary didn't say how Gray obtained the fruit of victory in the trial in the original timeline."

Ahab stood at the head of his bed and gazed far off toward the north.

At the same time.

Mensis Academy's North District, Gray's private laboratory.

Knock, knock, knock. Knock, knock, knock.

Gray knelt on the floor, kowtowing again and again toward the moon.

"Great Master, your wish is my command."

"I will make all 1,800 apprentices taking part in the trial accompany the Divine Child in death!"