Selection, Shadowwood Realm

Information flooded in like a tide.

Luo Lin heard many familiar and unfamiliar names, all of them renowned Third-Rank Apprentices from various academies and external outposts.

Kyle Silverglow of the Elemental Ring was naturally among them. Rumor had it that his strength was now unfathomable; he had long since reached his limit and was merely waiting for a suitable meditation method and medium.

Lina's name also stood out prominently. Her stealth and assassination skills inspired considerable fear.

There were also apprentices from other wizarding families or those with special talents. None of them were opponents to be taken lightly.

Three days before the selection began, something caused quite a stir within the academy.

A stocky apprentice named Aubrey publicly signed a two-hundred-year service contract in the center of the academy square.

Luo Lin happened to be passing by and witnessed the entire process.

He knew Aubrey. He was an apprentice from several classes before his own, renowned for his tenacity and exceptional talent in earth-element spells. He had likewise been stuck at the bottleneck for years.

At that moment, Aubrey wore a complicated expression: relief, resolve, and a trace of gloom he could not conceal.

On the heavy contract glowing with spiritual light, he branded his soul imprint with his mental power.

The instant the contract took effect, a powerful energy surged from the contract scroll and poured into Aubrey's body.

Luo Lin could clearly sense Aubrey's mental power violently boiling and compressing under the guidance of some external force. A prepared earth-element Crystallization Medium, the Shard of Earth's Heart, rested against his chest, radiating a dense yellow light as it resonated with that force.

The process lasted roughly an hour.

Throughout it, Aubrey's entire body trembled, and veins bulged across his forehead. He was clearly enduring immense pain.

But when everything finally settled, a spiritual pressure carrying an utterly different aura of weight and stability spread out from him.

It was not powerful yet, but its very nature had changed!

Aubrey's mental power had successfully crystallized. He had officially stepped into the realm of a First-Circle Wizard!

The surrounding crowd erupted into exclamations of amazement, envy, and even jealousy.

Aubrey slowly opened his eyes. Sharp light flashed within them, but the shadow born from losing two hundred years of freedom was impossible to fully hide.

He glanced at the mark the contract scroll had become in his hand, then silently turned and left, his back carrying a trace of heaviness.

The sight had deeply shaken Luo Lin.

He had personally witnessed someone successfully advance through this path, proving that it was viable.

But an advancement bought with freedom, the feeling of being controlled by another—it stirred an intense discomfort and resistance within him.

I absolutely cannot take this path!

Luo Lin repeated in his heart, his fists tightening unconsciously.

His desire to reach the realm of an Official Wizard had not weakened because of Aubrey's advancement. Instead, it had become even more fervent and pure.

He would seize his fate in his own hands and walk the path of transcendence in his own way!

The selection would take place in a demiplane known as the Shadowwood Realm.

The moment Luo Lin stepped into the teleportation array, the scene before him abruptly changed.

The sky remained forever tinted with dusk, and the light was dim.

Massive branches and leaves, along with twisted black trees, formed a boundless forest. A thin layer of shadow energy blanketed the ground, capable of interfering with perception.

The air was filled with rustling sounds and a vague sense of being watched.

The selection process was indeed as comprehensive as the announcement had stated.

Within the allotted time, they had to survive in this perilous woodland and complete as many standard tasks as possible, issued by the academy through designated beacons.

The tasks came in many forms:

Hunting designated shadow creatures, searching for particular magical plants, dismantling simple ancient rune traps, surveying the terrain of unexplored areas, and even engaging in limited confrontations with other apprentices under specific conditions.

The competition became fierce from the very beginning.

Several hundred elite apprentices scattered across this vast and dangerous woodland, each displaying their abilities for the limited number of slots.

Luo Lin quickly encountered his first challenge.

In a twisted patch of woodland, he ran into a group of Shadow Panthers capable of blending into the shadows and launching ambushes.

Baha's Dark Gold Eye gave an early warning, but the panthers' numbers and speed still placed him under enormous pressure.

Luo Lin did not panic. The optimized Weak Force-Field Armor steadily blocked the first wave of attacks, while Acid Spray accurately struck the panthers pouncing out of the shadows.

Baha circled overhead, using his vision to provide Luo Lin with a complete view of the battlefield while employing weak mental interference to disrupt the panthers' attack rhythm.

Man and raven worked together seamlessly, quickly clearing out the troublesome creatures.

Afterward, he received his first task.

He had to find a Ghost Orchid that grew only on specific Moonlight Moss.

With Baha's sharp perception of energy and life aura, they avoided several dangerous shadow vortices and successfully found their target on a shaded rock face. They also carefully avoided the Mimic Moss Monster guarding it, which had nearly blended into its surroundings.

While surveying the terrain of a valley, they encountered another participant.

The other apprentice came from a school famous for summoning elemental creatures, and two blazing fire elementals followed at his side.

That apprentice clearly regarded Luo Lin as prey as well and attempted to seize the tokens Luo Lin had gained from his earlier tasks.

A battle erupted.

The fire elementals' ranged attacks posed a major threat to Luo Lin's armor.

Luo Lin decisively adopted a mobile fighting strategy, using the woodland's complex terrain to maneuver. A Corrosive Orb heavily wounded one fire elemental in a single strike, while Baha used his Dark Silver Eye to detect faint fluctuations from the other elemental's energy core and guided Luo Lin's precise Acid Spray attack.

Seeing that things had turned against him, the apprentice ultimately used a scroll to flee in embarrassment.

As time passed, the tasks became increasingly difficult, and encounters with other apprentices grew more frequent.

Relying on his solid foundation, flexible tactics, and flawless coordination with Baha, Luo Lin resolved crisis after crisis and completed task after task.

He chose his routes carefully, avoided unnecessary conflicts whenever possible, and focused his efforts on earning task points.

Luo Lin noticed that popular candidates like Kyle and Lina acted far more boldly. They often completed tasks or eliminated opponents with overwhelming force, causing their points to rise rapidly.

But he was not impatient. He continued forward steadily at his own pace.

During a task to dismantle an ancient rune trap, his prior research into ancient runes proved useful. He found the trap's energy nodes faster than the others and safely disabled it, earning extra evaluation points.

In another timed resource-gathering task, Baha's ability to sense energy-rich locations allowed them to swiftly identify the target area amid the endless forest, saving a great deal of time.

By the middle and later stages of the selection, Luo Lin's overall ranking remained steadily around the top fifty.

It was not the very best result, but it was secure enough. It displayed his well-rounded and solid abilities, especially his coordinated combat capability with his magical pet, which left a deep impression on the wizard mentors observing in secret.

He knew the most crucial moment had yet to arrive.

The later the selection progressed, the more brutal the competition would become.

He adjusted his breathing and felt the cool touch of the Mind-Calming Crystal stored close to his body. His gaze grew increasingly resolute.

The selection in the Shadowwood Realm entered its final stage, and the atmosphere grew ever tenser.

The number of remaining apprentices had plummeted. Those who could persist until now were all elites among elites, and the competition on the rankings had reached a fever pitch.

Luo Lin maintained a cautious yet efficient pace.

He no longer pursued task quantity alone. Instead, he selectively accepted special tasks that were more difficult but also offered richer rewards.

These tasks often involved clearing powerful magical creatures from designated areas or exploring uncharted regions marked as high-risk.

In a region of the Shadowwood Realm known as the Rotten Woodland, Wailing Banshees lurked. Luo Lin's task was to eliminate them.

But while carrying out the task, Luo Lin encountered a severe test.

The Wailing Banshees were not physical entities, but crystals condensed from dense negative energy and the resentment of the dead. Ordinary physical and elemental attacks had little effect on them, while the banshees' mental shrieks could directly assault the soul.

Baha's Dark Gold Eye issued an unprecedentedly intense warning, indicating that the target was extremely dangerous.

Luo Lin did not rashly venture deeper. Instead, he first observed from the outskirts of the woodland.

He noticed that the gray mist permeating the forest could weaken mental perception, while the Wailing Banshees flickered in and out of sight within it, making them extremely difficult to lock onto.