Ashes into Rain

After casting Levitation Spell on himself again, Lohr not only did not slow down, but ran even faster.

His target was the burial site of a Divine Power Crystal emitting intense fluctuations.

Opportunities to obtain Divine Power Crystals so easily were rare. He had to cherish them.

He did not even bother with the weakly fluctuating Divine Power Crystal burial sites that required detours.

He only picked up those that lay along the way.

With no more obstacles ahead, Lohr reached the place where he had first sensed Divine Power Crystal fluctuations in just two minutes.

The area was now a complete mess, the trees burned down to ashes.

Flames, ice shards, and earthen spikes littered the ground, which was pocked with chaotic craters everywhere.

At the center of the area lay two black Divine Power Crystals, each about one centimeter in diameter.

These were standard Divine Power Crystal Blocks, ten grams each.

"Ten minutes into the secret realm, and I've already gained twenty-three grams of Divine Power Crystals. That's almost half of my debt to my mentor. Not bad."

Lohr walked to the center and picked up the Divine Power Crystals, feeling rather pleased at first.

But when he saw three sunken pits beside the crystals, as though Potions had once been placed there, he was no longer so happy.

"Fine, fine, fine. You don't dare take the Divine Power Crystals, but you dare take the Aptitude Enhancement Potions?"

What left him most helpless was discovering that he truly had no way to track down whoever had taken the Potions.

"Forget it. Potions are secondary. I should get more Divine Power Crystals first. These things are worth quite a bit."

Lohr shook his head slightly. "With enough Divine Power Crystals, I can simply exchange them for Potions after I get out and openly raise my talent to level eight."

Without wasting any more time, he immediately headed toward the next location emitting a dense Divine Power Crystal aura.

In a forest over a hundred kilometers away from Lohr.

Ignoring the Divine Power Crystal auras emitting intense fluctuations around him, Randolph's nose twitched slightly as he rapidly headed toward Lohr.

Seizing Divine Power Crystals was troublesome and time-consuming. It was better to kill that guy first, then make plans.

Whenever he passed through an area where large-scale spells had been cast, he would detour around it before determining Lohr's position again.

About half an hour later.

"Almost there, almost there. I'll find you soon, little rat."

Sensing that he was getting closer and closer to Lohr, Randolph's lips curled into a savage smile.

As long as he killed Lohr, he would still be the most talented wizard apprentice of the Earth-Fire School.

After getting out, he would advance to become a First-Circle Wizard. By then, he would be the Earth-Fire School's most talented and youngest First-Circle Wizard.

After collecting the last Divine Power Crystal emitting intense fluctuations within a radius of thirty li, the area around Lohr became lively once more.

These apprentices were not the same group as before. They had wandered in from elsewhere.

With 126 grams of Divine Power Crystals on him, Lohr was like a beacon in these apprentices' senses.

However, only a very small number dared to set their sights on him. Lohr only needed a few weakened Small Lava Eruption Spells to send them out.

Most people fled far away the moment they sensed him approaching.

Third-Grade Wizard Apprentices might not be particularly clever, but they certainly were not fools.

No ordinary person would dare provoke someone who could carry so many Divine Power Crystals and remain unharmed.

Their targets were the Divine Power Crystal fragments Lohr had no interest in.

Naturally, Lohr had no interest in wasting time on them either. He sent his consciousness into his Sea of Consciousness and took a look.

"The Elemental Domain has eighty percent of its earth-fire elements left. I need to reserve fifty percent for emergencies, so I can loot two more areas."

After sensing the Divine Power fluctuations elsewhere for a while, he chose the direction with the most violent fluctuations and hurried over.

Rumble—crack—

Two minutes later, familiar sounds of spell collisions and screams returned, and the area was far livelier than the one he had just left.

Lohr was in no hurry to cast Small Lava Eruption Spell and continued rushing forward with his head lowered.

This place was not far from the area he had previously looted. Releasing a spell now to intimidate others would waste too much elemental energy.

Whenever he encountered someone casting area-of-effect spells along the way, he chose to avoid them.

About ten minutes later, he finally arrived at a location emitting violent Divine Power fluctuations and swept his gaze across the central battlefield.

Click—rumble—buzz—whoosh—

The Elemental Wizards had raised shields or defensive barriers and stood at the edges of the battlefield, hundreds of meters apart, bombarding one another.

Dozens of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth spells flew through the battlefield, while Bloodline Wizards in all manner of forms prowled around the outskirts, occasionally darting toward the Elemental Wizards to launch attacks.

Some Elemental Wizards also cast spells outward, bombarding those Bloodline Wizards.

Scattered severed limbs lay on the ground, and not a single complete human form could be found.

In short, it was chaos!

Lohr's arrival instantly alarmed the wizards engaged in the melee.

They all stopped fighting and examined Lohr with wary eyes.

There was no helping it. The Divine Power fluctuations on Lohr's body were simply too obvious.

When he had been far away, they had not noticed much because the battle was too intense.

But now that Lohr had walked right up to them, how could they possibly fail to notice?

"This place does not welcome you. Please leave."

At the center of the battlefield, a blond apprentice spoke first, warning, "If you do not leave, we will join forces and kill you first."

"Yes, leave this place, stranger."

"Please leave."

"This place belongs to us."

"You already have..."

With someone taking the lead, the other wizard apprentices all began speaking as well.

For some reason, their words suddenly made Lohr want to laugh.

Could wizard apprentices of this era not even make threats more forcefully?

They even used the word "please." It was truly rather speechless.

Before this, he naturally would not have wasted words. One Small Lava Eruption Spell would have cleared the field.

But after learning what the wizard apprentices of this era were like, he suddenly had a new idea.

If he could make them leave directly, he could conserve some elemental energy and loot a few more areas.

Lohr said in an indifferent tone, "Leave, or die."

Entering the Divine Kingdom Trial itself meant being willing to stake one's life for resources.

Lohr was the same, so he naturally had no needless mercy.

If he had not wanted to save some elemental energy, he would have long since blasted these people away.

"Leave, or die."

On the other side of the battlefield, Randolph arrived almost at the same time as Lohr and happened to hear his words.

At the same time, he sensed the Divine Power Crystal fluctuations around Lohr, so dense they seemed impossible to disperse.

More importantly, his sense of smell told him that the mysterious apprentice whose face he could not see seemed, perhaps, maybe, possibly... to be Lohr?

"My sense of smell must be wrong, right?" Randolph muttered softly.

He felt that he must not have woken up yet, that he was still asleep in the laboratory and the Divine Kingdom Trial had not begun.

Whoosh—

The blond apprentice who had spoken first in the middle of the battlefield could no longer endure this near-total disregard.

He raised a hand and released a Fireball roughly one meter in diameter, sending it straight toward Lohr.

"You made the wrong choice."

Randolph only had time to hear Lohr say those words. Then, without feeling the slightest pain, he was swallowed by magma surging from beneath his feet.

He turned into a handful of black ash, which rushed into the sky with the magma before falling with the magma rain, becoming an inconspicuous black pit on the ground.