With that, all the tasks for this trip were settled. Leo then told Gru about his experiences over the past five days, carefully studying Gru's expression as he spoke. Yet Gru remained expressionless throughout.
He paid particular attention when he mentioned that powerful wizard apprentice, but Gru showed neither surprise nor any other reaction. This left Leo rather puzzled, unsure whether Gru truly knew nothing or had known all along.
"I understand. I'll keep an eye on it. Our mission has nothing to do with those eight elemental wizard apprentices, so you don't need to pay them any attention."
Leo was just about to nod in agreement when Gru continued, "Of course, with your strength, you wouldn't even catch their eye. They won't come looking for you either."
"..."
Fine. Being weak really did make a person invisible.
"All right, leave the disappearances and the beast tide unrest alone for now. Tiyama City won't decline. Go choose somewhere to train on your own."
With a single sentence from Gru, Leo, who had only just arrived in Tiyama City, was driven out again and ran toward the place he had chosen.
Meanwhile, inside Tiyama City, the wizard apprentices who had dined together yesterday gathered once more in the hall where the banquet had been held. Only now, yesterday's laughter was gone, and every face was solemn.
"Master Gru, we've found traces of the outside wizards. They're from the Black Skull Wizard Academy."
"The Black Skull Wizard Academy?"
"How could it be them?"
The name alone immediately drew a wave of sharp breaths throughout the hall, as though it were some terrifying scourge.
"Samir, are you certain?" Samatchi asked, so frightened he could hardly believe it, his voice carrying a trace of a tremor.
"It's confirmed. Last night, I fought one of their wizard apprentices. He explicitly identified them and told me they were here on an academy mission." Samir was a handsome wizard apprentice with a head of golden hair.
Seeing how certain Samir was, Samatchi immediately turned anxiously to Gru for help. "Master Gru, what should we do?"
Gru's expression was unusually grave, but he was not as afraid as the other wizards.
After a little thought, he said, "There's no need to panic yet. We haven't established exactly what their mission is, nor do we know how many have come. As long as there's no level two wizard among them, we can handle it."
With Gru, a level two body refinement wizard, present, almost everyone felt considerably reassured. Level two wizards were already part of the academy's core strength.
Under ordinary circumstances, level two wizards did not go out on missions. The vast majority who did were first-level wizards.
It was already unexpected that a level two body refinement wizard like Gru would take a garrison mission. They did not believe the Black Skull Wizard Academy would send a level two wizard here.
Gru continued, "For now, focus on communication. Our main priority is to find out their mission. If possible, try to resolve this through negotiation."
"Of course, we aren't pushovers either. This is our Purple Flame Wizard Academy's territory, after all. If they attack, we won't show any mercy."
"I'll send word back to the academy immediately and have the headmaster inquire through other channels. Ideally, the academy should send more teachers here as well."
Any wizard qualified to teach was a level one formal wizard.
Gru's words instantly reassured the wizard apprentices present considerably. Having level one formal wizards come to assist would ease their burden.
Facing the slaughter-focused wizards of the Black Skull Wizard Academy with just their handful of wizard apprentices really was rather stressful!
With a few simple sentences, Gru soothed the group who had been so uneasy moments before, then said to Samatchi, "Start drawing the population back in and reduce external trade. If the situation exceeds our expectations, holding Tiyama will count as a great achievement for you."
"Yes, Master Gru."
Samatchi also knew the situation was urgent and immediately went out to make arrangements. Fortunately, Tiyama had enough grain to feed its residents for three years, so a halt in production would not affect anything.
Once Samatchi left to arrange the work, Gru turned to Samir. "Samir, the eight of you must stop acting alone. Split into two teams of four and determine their intentions while ensuring your own safety."
"Yes, Lord Gru."
After all the wizard apprentices left, Gru's expression did not relax. Instead, it grew even graver. With a wave of one hand, a magic array materialized in the air above his palm.
Gru's lips parted slightly, and a silent message was transmitted.
Naturally, Leo knew nothing of what was happening in Tiyama, nor did he know that Tiyama was now like a powder keg that might explode at any moment.
He was currently heading toward the first place he had chosen. It had no name on the map, only a large yellow marking. It was a desert.
"Back where we're from, there are people who attempt challenges like this too, trying to push their bodies to the limit and advance. But very few succeed. Most give up, and a small number die inside," Benji reminded him, afraid Leo would die there.
"I know. I've read brief introductions in wizard books before. The training of body refinement wizard apprentices often comes with an enormous mortality rate. Their methods are more extreme," Leo said.
"Challenges that push you to the utmost must not be disturbed by outsiders. From now on, I won't say a single word to you. You must also forget the Shadow Space, forget your way out, forget everything. As you say on Earth, put yourself on death's ground to find life," Benji said.
"Follow instinct and forget reason. I understand," Leo said.
The desert was a full day's journey from Tiyama. Although Leo had not traveled at full speed, it was still six hundred li away.
Yellow sand rolled, and waves of heat struck his face. Light distorted by high-energy reactions converged and shone down, making the temperature here dozens of degrees higher than outside the desert.
Leo looked at the vastly different environments right beside one another. On one side lay scorching yellow sand, on the other a lush primeval forest. These utterly different environments coexisted peacefully.
All Leo could say was that the mighty power of wizards could accomplish anything.
Gru had said this environment was the result of a high-level battle. Although he had not specified the exact level, Leo estimated it had to have been above level three.
Changing the terrain and leaving it unchanged for hundreds or thousands of years-they were practically walking natural disasters!
With a flick of his feet, Leo tossed his shoes and clothes into the Shadow Space.
Barefoot and bare-chested, Leo walked into the rolling desert without hesitation.
One step, and it was as though he had entered a new world: a sudden surge in temperature, a world of sandy yellow!
The desert was hot enough to cook an egg, but Leo found it very comfortable. Stepping on it barefoot felt like getting a full-service massage.
For the first five days, Leo felt nothing in particular and simply walked aimlessly. A body refinement wizard apprentice's body was extraordinary in its own right.
He neither ate, drank, nor slept, yet after five consecutive days, he still felt no discomfort.
As for loneliness, Leo felt none of that either. The vast world seemed to contain only him, leaving him free to indulge all the random thoughts filling his mind. He had never felt so relaxed.
One moment, he thought about the direction of his future development; the next, about the experiments he had just begun. With nothing else to do, he even simulated experimental procedures in his mind.
His body relaxed. It felt as though, after working overtime for an entire year, he had suddenly received a long vacation, releasing him from the bottom of his heart.
Bliss!
On the sixth day, his mouth grew dry. Leo finally felt thirsty and pressed his lips together, but it was still manageable.
On the seventh day came hunger. His stomach kept growling, as though ten thousand elephants were trumpeting inside it, craving food. Leo tried to think more, making himself forget his hunger.
On the eighth day came exhaustion. Hunger and dehydration finally made Leo feel tired. Each step was no longer as easy as before, but he continued walking slowly, one step at a time.
On the ninth day, his exhaustion worsened, but he could still endure it.
The twentieth day.
Leo no longer knew how many days had passed. His robust body had shrunk by half and was beginning to look like skin and bones.
Without water to replenish him, his lips were furrowed like a dried riverbed.
His steps were so heavy that each one seemed to drag an entire world forward. He was nowhere near as fast as before, and every step took tremendous effort. Even a tortoise would probably shake its head at his sluggish pace.
His dazed eyes stared straight ahead, without any discernible focus. He had already lost awareness!
Keep moving. Leo tried hard to forget his purpose and simply move forward mechanically.
Across the entire desert, only a single stooped figure advanced, lonely and desolate...
Another unknown stretch of time passed.
Thud.
At last, while taking a step, Leo failed to lift his foot, now nothing but skin and bones, and fell into the sand.
There was no struggle, no movement. His eyelids had closed heavily, and he looked like an ordinary corpse that had perished in the desert.
Windblown sand rose, burying the bare-chested corpse little by little.
To the desert, a corpse merely recorded that someone had once come and failed to leave. Who knew how many such corpses lay beneath its sands?
Perhaps hundreds or thousands of years later, someone would dig them out from deep within the desert and lament how pitiful they were.
The windblown sand continued for a long time. Leo's figure had long since vanished, leaving only a small mound of sand.
There were countless mounds like this in the desert.
No one came, and no one cared.
In a pitch-black world, a speck of light suddenly appeared, bringing a little hope to a world that had never seen light.
A faint voice, hoarse, halting, and confused, sounded intermittently.
"I..."
"Who... am... I?"
"Am... I... dead?"
"I... should... be... dead, right?"
The voice vanished, and the speck of light in the darkness disappeared. The world fell into complete darkness once more.
After another unknown length of time, the faint speck of light appeared again, and a confused voice murmured in the darkness once more.
"What... is... death?"
"Dead... not dead?"
"Not dead... what is that?"
After the faint, halting voice murmured, the speck of light vanished again, and the utterly dark world fell silent once more.
After who knew how long, that speck of light, which seemed liable to go out at any moment, appeared again, bringing a little light to the dark world.
"Am I... still alive?"
"Why...?"
"What are the signs of being alive?"
The voice was noticeably faster. By the final sentence, it no longer faltered at all. Even that faint speck of light, which might have gone out at any moment, had brightened considerably.
The speck continued shining. Even after the confused voice disappeared, it did not go out.
This time, only a short while passed before that confused voice appeared again.
"The signs of being alive?"
"Is it that cells can still function normally, or that consciousness can still think?"
"??? What are cells?"
"??? And what is consciousness?"
"Then am I thinking for myself right now, or is this subconscious feedback?"
"Who am I?"
"Who I am doesn't matter. Thinking about the signs of being alive is more important."
"If it's cells...? I don't understand what cells are, but whatever. Anyway, if the cells are still alive, then I'm still alive."
"Cells..."
The voice sank into thought...