The Despairing

"Lianna..."

As Lin Ge hurried along, he kept calling into the crystal ball, hoping he could contact Yorklianna as soon as possible and determine the distance between them.

Bzz...

Suddenly, after a burst of piercing static from Green's crystal ball, Yorklianna, who had also been constantly sensing Green from the other side, finally connected with him. A somewhat blurry little face appeared on Green's crystal ball.

Green brightened and said, "Lianna, how are things on your end? Have you contacted anyone else?"

Yorklianna seemed to be running nonstop. The crystal ball jolted and shook, and the half of her little face not covered by the mask showed an anxious look, as if she were so nervous she was about to cry.

"Brother Green, Hainlo and I are being chased by several wizard apprentices from Maze Disk Academy. I just contacted Sister Lafi and Sister Robin. We're heading toward my location to meet up."

Hainlo was one of Yorklianna's suitors.

This wizard apprentice was very ordinary-looking, and with his somewhat wooden bearing and his weak strength, Yorklianna had never agreed to get along with him. Who knew how the two of them had ended up together this time.

Green's expression changed. "What happened?"

"Hainlo mastered an occult wizardry and accidentally discovered a Mooncry. But when we were digging up the Mooncry, its cries were heard by several wizard apprentices from Maze Disk Academy. Ah..."

Suddenly, Yorklianna cried out in alarm inside the crystal ball. The crystal ball flew out, and then everything went pitch-black.

Without magic power to support it, Green could no longer contact Lianna.

"Damn it. It's actually a Mooncry. No wonder they're being chased so viciously. Legend says that if a Mooncry is transplanted into a wizard's meditation room, and moonlight is allowed to shine on it at night, it can double the efficiency of the wizard's meditation. Even some high-level wizards are extremely interested in this strangely functional plant."

Green's expression turned rather ugly. He simply stopped concealing the fluctuations of his mark, directly summoned a wind-element bat, mounted it, and flew forward at full speed.

The soil beneath Yorklianna's feet suddenly loosened, turning into a muddy bog. After Yorklianna cried out in alarm, the crystal ball in her hand flew out and sank into the mire.

"Lianna!"

Hainlo was only a little over one meter sixty tall. The skin on his cheeks was somewhat rough and dark, as if he had once been the son of some fisherman, and he did not much like to speak.

At this moment, Hainlo saw Yorklianna trapped in the wizardry mire. Yorklianna's own wizardry was all support-type, originally meant to complement Yorkris's wizardry, but unfortunately Yorkris was not by her side.

Hainlo's wizardry leaned even more toward occultism and pharmacology, and was likewise unsuitable for direct combat.

As a result, the two of them fell into desperate straits almost instantly, unless Hainlo abandoned Yorklianna and continued fleeing.

Behind them, six wizard apprentices from Maze Disk Academy caught up. One of them had mark fluctuations reaching five, while the other five had no particular mark fluctuations.

The six looked at Yorklianna, who was already deeply trapped in the muddy bog wizardry, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Don't touch her! Otherwise I'll destroy this Mooncry!"

Hainlo roared, taking a strange plant out of a box.

When Hainlo took out the plant and grabbed it in his hand, the plant's roots actually struggled nonstop like a small child, while also letting out piercing screams and wails.

For a time, the "wuwu" of shrieking sobs became the only melody among the eight people present.

"Threatening us? Hmph. Maze Disk Academy's Sand River Society doesn't care about your threats. If you dare destroy this Mooncry, we'll take care of you along with it."

The leading wizard apprentice looked at the Mooncry in Hainlo's grip, his heart tightening, but his words did not compromise in the slightest.

"You... don't touch her!"

Hainlo roared nervously.

Yorklianna's entire lower body had already sunk into the mire. Tears shimmered in her eyes as she looked at everyone, a delicate, pitiful sight.

"Haha, little beauty, don't be afraid. As long as you obediently make him hand over the Mooncry, I promise I'll let you go. Besides, you're so cute, how could I bear to kill you? I still want to..."

With a neurotic shout, this wizard apprentice suddenly took the mask off Yorklianna's face, and the words behind it were immediately swallowed back down into his belly.

"She's actually an ugly freak. What are you pretending to be pure for?"

This person's temper suddenly took a hundred-and-eighty-degree turn. After glancing at Yorklianna in disgust, he shouted at Hainlo, "What a mood killer. I'll give you three last seconds to choose."

Covering the ugly scar on her face, Yorklianna was terrified. She trembled timidly, tears spinning in her eyes, stirring pity.

However, because of the hideous, terrifying scar on her face, as well as that eye without an eyeball, Yorklianna's pitiful expression looked simply disgusting in the eyes of the several Maze Disk Academy wizard apprentices.

At first, Yorklianna with her mask on had been incomparably pure, like a beautiful little girl who loved to be shy.

But once the mask was removed, that terrifying scar on her face and that pitch-black hollow blind eye made her look, no matter how one looked, like an old witch.

Most hateful of all was that an old witch was actually putting on a delicate, pitiful appearance in front of several people!

"No! Don't kill her!"

Hainlo shouted, his expression extremely panicked. He did not care at all about the hideous scar on Yorklianna's face, as if he had known about it long ago. Not daring to hesitate any longer, Hainlo flung the Mooncry in his hand out.

The eyes of the Maze Disk Academy wizard apprentices lit up. Looking at the Mooncry flying through the air, delight showed on their faces.

Smack!

A long tongue flashed out and vanished. The Mooncry disappeared.

Everyone turned to look and saw that on a tree trunk not far away, half the body of a wizard apprentice had actually grown out of thin air. He was looking at everyone with a face full of laughter, a long tongue coiled around that Mooncry.

If Green were here at this moment, he would definitely discover through Hunting Nose that this wizard apprentice who could merge his body into a tree trunk was precisely the fellow who had followed behind him for nearly an hourglass not long ago.

"Bone Clocktower Wizard Academy!"

The Maze Disk Academy wizard apprentice who had already been about to reach out and catch Mooncry stared at the bizarre wizard apprentice who had appeared on the tree trunk with his blade held sideways. His chilling voice was almost squeezed out through his teeth as he opened his mouth and sprayed a jet of black water straight at him.

"Heh heh, thanks for the compliment."

The man shrank back, then melted straight into the tree trunk again.

With a pfft, the black water splashed onto the tree trunk and instantly corroded a huge hole into it. A fishy stench spread, so nauseating it made people want to vomit.

"He ran? That bastard!"

Several Maze Disk Academy wizard apprentices were almost mad with rage. They strode over to the giant tree where the Bone Clocktower Wizard Academy apprentice had appeared just now, but no matter how they searched, they could not find any trace of him.

Suddenly, one of the Maze Disk Academy wizard apprentices seemed to think of something and said in a trembling voice, "In the materials the academy issued before, didn't it say we had to pay attention to those seven people in this trial? That one just now... could he be Ghost Thief from Bone Clocktower Wizard Academy?"

The other Maze Disk Academy wizard apprentices, who had been about to continue searching, all changed expressions.

Indeed, before the trial, the Maze Disk Academy wizards had issued a set of materials to every wizard apprentice participating in the trial. The materials recorded a total of seven so-called Despairers from the six great academies.

These seven Despairers were all genius-level wizard apprentices who had been taken as disciples by those lofty Level-Two wizards the moment they entered the wizard academies three years ago.

Among them, Black Isotta Wizard Academy had three people, with the material codenames Undying, Distortion, and Golden Eyes respectively; Hourglass of Time Wizard Academy had one person, with the material codename Son of the Sun; Ivory Castle had two people, with the material codenames Enchantment and Mechanical Heart respectively.

The final person was the wizard apprentice from Bone Clocktower, codenamed Ghost Thief.

According to the materials, this wizard apprentice was extremely eager for others to curse and insult him, because before that, he must already have obtained tremendous benefits.

In this generation of Maze Disk Academy, not a single person was a wizard apprentice personally nurtured by those lofty Level-Two wizards. Thus, the Maze Disk Academy trial takers of this generation vividly called the seven people in the materials Despairers.

Gradually, the title Despairer spread from their mouths.

It meant enemies of despair.

All of a sudden, several mark fluctuations appeared in the senses of the Maze Disk Academy wizard apprentices, and among them, two people's mark values had even reached above ten points!

"Damn it, retreat!"

Yorklianna's eyes lit up in the mud pit, and she cried out in joyful surprise, "Sister Lafi! Sister Robin! Big Brother Amland!"

A total of five people hurried over from the distance. Two of them were Lafi and Robin, who had received Yorklianna's call for help, while the other three were Amland and two not-very-familiar members of the Blood Sail Alliance whom they had happened to run into halfway.

Amland's position and prestige in the entire Blood Sail Alliance were indeed unmatched. Even Lafi, who had always been called the poisonous-tongued queen, admired him greatly.

"Hmph! They actually dared to touch someone from our Blood Sail Alliance. Lafi, let's keep them here."

Amland said coldly.

Lafi's face was extremely ugly. If they had arrived just a little later, perhaps Lianna, trapped deep in the mud pit, really would have been finished. When that time came, Yorkris would absolutely go mad.

Lafi replied coldly, "Good!"

Just as the two of them were about to go all out in pursuit of the Maze Disk Academy wizard apprentices, all of a sudden, on the other side of the distant sky, a terrifying mark fluctuation appeared in their senses.

This mark fluctuation was like a surging flood, charging over with a momentum that crushed everything, as if it wanted to destroy everything in its path!

Whether it was Lafi or Amland, both of their expressions changed, and they stopped in horror.

"You all leave here quickly. Lafi and I will hold this guy off! Such a strong fluctuation of mark value—this is practically the same as Bibilionna, whom we encountered before. This level has already surpassed the extent of the top ten rookie experts list. Worthy of being called a Despairer."

Amland's expression was grave. He drew the longsword on his back and held it in both hands. As all his magic power was stimulated, this longsword magic-guided wizard artifact actually emitted streak after streak of silver lightning power.

Dense plant shoots grew from Lafi's skin. A pair of huge leaves on her back were like the wings of a plant spirit, beating continuously. Lafi's feet left the ground, and she gently floated into the air.

In her left hand, she held a longbow filled with life energy. At the same time, her right hand lightly rested on an arrow condensed with terrifying energy, and one of her eyes had actually turned into a vertical eagle pupil.

Lafi said coldly, "Even if he is one of the Despairers those wizard apprentices talk about, with this Bow of Life combined with the Hurricane Arrow, and supplemented by my life magic, the terrifying energy intensity that erupts in an instant gives me considerable confidence that I can threaten him!"

The corner of Amland's eye twitched as he looked at Lafi.

Lafi was also far too forceful. The person coming here was one of the Despairers those wizard apprentices spoke of!

Ever since his brief battle with Bibilionna before, Amland knew very clearly how terrifying those wizard apprentices called Despairers were.

Amland even suspected that this so-called trial was fundamentally a slaughter contest that the academy higher-ups had specially prepared for these Despairers!

Its purpose was to prepare these Despairers for the... Holy Tower Qualification Battle seventeen years later!