In a place of utter darkness, a heavy chair stood steadily. Suddenly, ripples occasionally spreading across the ground shattered the tranquility beneath the blackness, revealing the extreme emptiness of this place. The ripples drifted far into the distance without stopping, and it seemed as though this chair was the only thing placed here. They also revealed the strange nature of the ground: the chair seemed to rest upon a tranquil black lake. The entire dark place carried an eerie quality amid its silence.
All of a sudden, a pair of eyes opened. Only by the faint glimmer flickering in those pupils could one make out an old man sitting upright in the chair.
"Hmm, it took the bait. I've hooked another Abyssal Lord."
The old man muttered to himself and raised a hand to shake out the folds of his wizard robe. Yet he did not rise, so the result was rather unimpressive.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. How did it end up in a place like that? Who moved my hook again? How annoying. Another scrawny little fellow—how boring—"
The old wizard narrowed his eyes, looking as though he was about to close them again and doze off.
"Hmm?"
The old wizard forced his eyelids up once more and looked downward, as if he could see many things through the black surface of the water.
"A few Little Ones are actually advancing to become wizards. Hmm, this layer of the Abyss is quite interesting too. Is someone playing a joke on these Little Ones? What kind of grudge would it take to lure over an Abyssal Lord—this doesn't quite add up—" the old man murmured.
"Hmm, if someone was playing a joke on me and moved my bait, accidentally dragging them into it, that would make some sense. Then I'd have