Chapter 401: The False Labyrinth Core

"... A line is one-dimensional, a plane composed of countless lines is two-dimensional, and the space we are in is a three-dimensional world composed of length, width, and height."

In the magic science classroom, Prince Kelin's voice was gentle and clear, that warm smile just like the rising sun on the snowfield, making people unable to look away.

Behind him, a coordinate axis composed of light elements was slowly rotating, intuitively showing the students present that strange concept called "dimension."

Facts proved that people who are too handsome are not suitable to be mentors, even if it's just a guest appearance.

After all, the vast majority of gazes were focused on his face, rather than the blackboard behind him.

However, having said that, Luo Yan didn't care either.

His expectations had been set very low from the beginning.

Even if only ten percent of the magic apprentices listened to his theory, it was already enough for the inheritance of knowledge.

"... Then I want to ask everyone, does our world have a fourth dimension? And if it exists, what would it be like?"

This interesting question made everyone in the audience fall into deep thought, the sound of whispering spreading in the lecture hall.

"Could it be time?"

"No... I don't think it's time; time is something I can clearly feel, I even know where it comes from and where it goes. However, a two-dimensional line segment theoretically cannot touch a coordinate system that doesn't belong to it at all; remember the concept Prince Kelin mentioned when talking about algebra?"

"I don't agree with your point of view; whether it can be clearly felt shouldn't be used as a yardstick to measure objective things..."

Amidst those whispering sounds, the light of critical thinking shone brighter than ever before. In this hall known as the crystallization of knowledge on the Os Continent, this scene had been extremely rare in the past, with only occasionally a few rebellious scholars guiding their students to do similar thinking.

Most mentors unconsciously taught by example two other things—scrambling up unscrupulously in the face of opportunity to plunder, and shrinking into their shells like turtles to play dead when they needed to take responsibility.

It wasn't just the young apprentices who were being influenced imperceptibly; the several teaching assistants and mentors sitting in the back row auditing were also listening extremely attentively.

They subconsciously linked this concept with the "Void" they were currently researching, their eyes flashing with the light of seeking, and they indeed gained quite a bit of inspiration from it.

If it were half a year ago, they probably wouldn't have taken Prince Kelin's casual remarks seriously, but now things were different.

Following the major research progress born consecutively from Void Realm No. 440 and Void Realm No. 178, the Kelin Tower had almost become a benchmark in the field of Void Realm research. Even calling that Prince a "Void Realm Mentor" would not be an exaggeration.

Even though there was filth hidden beneath the high tower, rules were as strict as the castle of the Luo De Kingdom, and the strong acted recklessly just like a wild jungle, the concept that the capable are mentors still existed here.

Staying together with those teaching assistants and mentors whose desire for knowledge was burning in their eyes, Professor Hector, sitting in the corner, was frowning in thought.

Prince Kelin's theory about dimensions was indeed eye-opening, but by comparison, he was more surprised that this Prince's control over magic power seemed to have improved by another notch.

This subtle change could only be seen by him, who was also at the Platinum tier; those light particles dancing behind Kelin were like a part of his body, as natural as breathing.

As everyone knows, spiritual power is one of the important attributes for measuring the strength of a mage.

This attribute can be reflected on a large scale by the total magic power of a mage, and on a microscopic scale, it is reflected by the subtle control over magic.

Just like the Black Iron-tier Fireball spell, a Fireball summoned by a Black Iron-tier magic apprentice is constantly shaking and unstable, and one can't even guarantee where it will hit when thrown, but a Fireball summoned by a Steel-tier teaching assistant not only burns stably and can exist for a long time, but can also accurately hit a target a hundred meters away.

Professor Hector tried to clench his right hand hidden under the table, and then a tiny fire elemental sprite appeared in his palm, circling his wrist.

He tried to imitate Prince Kelin's control over light elements, but was shocked to find that he actually couldn't reach the same degree as that Prince!

"Strange..." he muttered, his stubborn temper coming up, and he concentrated and tried repeatedly several times, but still couldn't do it.

Realizing that there was an essential gap in spiritual power between the two sides, Hector finally sighed in admiration and flicked his fingers, scattering the light at his fingertips.

"Forget it... perhaps this guy has had some encounter."

People who like to drill into a dead end are always inevitably going to drill from one dead end into another; he couldn't help but start pondering what Kelin's encounter actually was.

He always felt that besides having a way with Void Realm research, that Prince didn't seem to have done anything special?

Could it be...

Can teaching apprentices improve one's strength?

Hector was startled by his own discovery, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt... it didn't seem impossible, right?!

After all, he had never seen that Prince spend time in the meditation room; he spent a lot of time in the laboratory and the classroom.

He had been to the laboratory himself, but the classroom... he really hadn't been there much recently.

He was suddenly a little tempted.

Not far away, a girl sitting next to Ilana also quietly moved her gaze away from Professor Hector, who was looking down, with a flushed face.

This old thing who doesn't act his age is quite persistent...

It wasn't just Professor Hector and Anjie who were slacking off.

Skain, sitting under the podium, had his mind completely not on those profound dimensions at this moment, and of course, not on the back row of the classroom looking across the blackboard.

Prince Kelin was still teaching the students with a smile, as if he hadn't received his letter, as if nothing had happened.

This made Skain, who had sent that anonymous letter, fall into unease.

He was worried that the benevolent Prince would ignore his warning due to a lack of evidence, and regretted that his action had been too reckless.

Especially when he couldn't produce any solid evidence at all.

His judgment was entirely based on that series of bizarre actions by Professor Alister recently.

That gentleman had recently been uncharacteristically enthusiastic about guiding bottom-tier apprentices, yet at the moment of the All Souls Festival labyrinth trial, which was the best time to gain prestige, he retreated in the face of difficulty, handing the position of general director to Mentor Moke, whose seniority and ability were far inferior to his.

This was the first point.

As for the second, it was that abnormal instruction.

Stopping the conspiracy planned by Lastina against Ilana would have been an excellent favor to sell to Prince Kelin and Ilana herself, and this small matter didn't even need that Professor to come forward personally; letting him handle it would have been enough.

However, Professor Alister's choice was to let him "wait and see," not to do anything extra.

This was almost equivalent to letting the situation slide toward the worst outcome.

Although Skain couldn't figure out what substantial impact persecuting a promising apprentice would have on Prince Kelin, surely this small blow wouldn't make that Prince lose heart, abandon everything in the Academy, and leave this snowfield.

However, what made him feel worried was that all signs indicated that Professor Alister was indeed intentionally pushing this matter behind the scenes.

As for how that adult was pushing it, that was not something an apprentice like him could know.

Thinking of this, Skain sighed helplessly in his heart.

Although initially he only came to play the student of that Prince because of Professor Alister's order, and even didn't agree with that Prince's theory and scholar status, but after observing that Prince for so long, he was still influenced by that Prince to some extent.

Especially after witnessing the series of changes that occurred in this Great Sage's Tower, deep in his heart, he actually didn't want Prince Kelin to be squeezed out.

Not to mention anything else, just looking at Professor Alister's recent changes was enough to prove the "value" of that Prince.

Before that Prince came here, Professor Alister had never looked straight at an apprentice like him, let alone focus his gaze on him like before.

Even if that gaze was a bit creepy.

Now, in order to compete with Kelin for prestige, that high-and-mighty Professor also had to occasionally condescend to play the role of a kind elder.

Other things went without saying; those teaching assistants and mentors who had the opportunity to participate in Void Realm research probably felt it even more profoundly.

The existence of that Prince was like a beam of light from the Shengcheng, shining into the shadows of the high tower, and also forcing certain existences that had originally been entrenched in the shadows to have to restrain their claws and start paying attention to their table manners.

After class, Skain followed the crowded tide of people to the apprentice cafeteria.

The air was filled with the aroma of toasted bread and stewed meat, but he had no appetite, his heart filled with all kinds of chaotic thoughts.

If Prince Kelin hadn't noticed, was there a more direct way?

For example... directly find Ilana and warn her to withdraw from this dangerous trial?

Or, go and knock some sense into that apprentice named Anjie and the Lastina lady behind her?

However, he quickly denied these ideas.

If Professor Alister knew he was playing smart, not only might he not be able to help that Prince, but he would also very likely get himself involved.

Especially until now, he couldn't understand what that Professor's plot actually was, or whether everything was just his own speculation...

Just then, a familiar and unpleasant boasting sound entered his ears.

Skain looked in the direction of the sound, and happened to see a mage spitting and boasting to the preparatory student beside him that he was about to participate in the labyrinth trial, his words as if he had already reserved the final victory.

"... The labyrinth trial is actually not that scary, especially for experienced mages like us."

Looking at Finn, whose face was full of worship, Kurs continued to say in an experienced tone.

"If you just want to mix for some points, brushing monsters and finding treasure chests on the first floor is the best choice; generally, the rewards opened are not bad, most teaching assistants are very generous in this regard, anyway, the budget is given by the mage tower. Of course, generally, we old birds are aiming for the championship, that's a bit difficult, you have to go deep into the deepest part to destroy the labyrinth's core—"

Finn opened his eyes wide in surprise.

"Labyrinth core?! Is the trial in a real labyrinth?!"

"*Cough*, of course not... where would you find such a big labyrinth on the Northern Wasteland."

Kurs coughed lightly, a bit embarrassed, but soon became a proud tone again.

"That's something made by the great sages according to the labyrinth of Hell, based on holy power rather than evil curses! So, the monsters inside are actually very safe, and generally won't cause loss of life."

Finn shrank his neck in fear.

"So there is still risk..."

"That's natural, any trial has risks, and the labyrinth trial is no exception," Kurs said in the tone of someone who had been there, "Just like the great exploration we are about to conduct after graduation, you always have to experience these."

Looking at this group of magic apprentices who didn't understand anything, Skain curled a mocking smile at the corner of his mouth.

He had originally been too lazy to say anything, but somehow, he blurted out a reminder.

"This time Mentor Moke is responsible, it's not that easy."

His original intention was to persuade this "classmate" in the same class not to join in the fun. However, after Kurs was stunned, he retorted unhappily.

"Who are you, does it have anything to do with you?"

Skain realized he had spoken too much.

"Pretend I didn't say anything."

He shrugged indifferently, passed by the two, and the thought of wanting to intervene in his heart also extinguished accordingly.

And just the moment Skain turned around, he happened to see Miss Orphia Castellion at the other end of the cafeteria.

At this moment, that Duke's daughter was discussing something with two senior magic apprentices wearing blue mage robes in an elegant, decent, and unquestionable manner.

Judging from the diligent attitude of those two magic apprentices, they had probably gained quite a few benefits from this lady's hands.

Otherwise, even if there was a huge gap in status, they wouldn't have bothered to be so respectful to a noble from the Shengcheng in a place like the Academy.

This wasn't the Luo De Kingdom.

"The 'special fireworks' I asked you to prepare, no problem, right?"

"Of course no problem, Miss Castellion!"

"I can guarantee to you, its power will definitely satisfy you! Just... the power might be a bit big, are you sure you want to use it in the labyrinth?"

Bain patted his chest excitedly, and Har-de on the side also nodded excitedly, but there was still a hint of worry on his face.

If it weren't for Miss Castellion's sponsorship, their research progress definitely wouldn't have been so rapid. However, when they learned that she intended to bring that astonishingly powerful magic item into the labyrinth, they were still startled by her crazy idea.

Would it be playing a bit too big?

"It's precisely because the power is big that it's good."

Orphia nodded with satisfaction, then glanced inadvertently at the direction where Ilana and Anjie were not far away.

Especially seeing the chubby girl who pestered Ilana every day, the corner of her mouth couldn't help but curl into a confident smile like a plan succeeding.

Dear Miss Ilana would soon realize who her true bosom friend was. The one who circled around her every day wasn't necessarily a bosom friend; it could also be a poisonous bee carrying poison.

But it doesn't matter—

She would descend from the sky like a messenger of justice at the most critical moment, giving the smug villain a holy judgment!

She, who had seen similar plots in knight novels before, had long wanted to try it!

Hehehe...

Looking at Miss Castellion, who suddenly grinned and chuckled, Bain and Har-de looked at each other, a bad premonition always in their hearts.

But Miss Castellion didn't tell them what she actually wanted to do; for the sake of gold coins, they could only accompany her in her nonsense.

And at this very moment, Miss Castellion's winning gaze was like a bolt of lightning, instantly striking Skain, who was wandering in the fog.

All the fragmented clues in his brain were connected at this moment, forming a blurry yet complete puzzle!

Professor Alister's target wasn't Ilana at all, but a certain Duke's daughter who thought she was smart and intended to stage a hero-saving-beauty drama—Orphia Castellion!

He calculated that Orphia would definitely enter the labyrinth to protect her friend!

The "surprise" prepared by Lastina was just an appetizer; that Professor had long ago deployed a bigger conspiracy in the labyrinth!

And all of this was to make Orphia reasonably involved in danger!

Skain had heard from a teaching assistant under Professor Hector before that Duke Castellion had personally entrusted his daughter to Prince Kelin.

If the Duke's daughter encountered an accident in the Academy's trial, regardless of the truth, Kelin would have to bear huge political risks for this!

At that time, that Prince would be forced to leave the Academy and return to the Shengcheng to deal with this heaven-sized trouble...

Skain felt his hands and feet turn slightly cold, and finally understood the deep meaning behind Professor Alister's seemingly contradictory behavior.

Somehow, he suddenly thought of Junior Milos, who was used as a discarded pawn in the enrollment scandal and eventually died tragically in a foreign land.

He finally understood the real reason why he didn't want Prince Kelin to leave here.

It wasn't because his existence would make people like Alister restrain themselves, but because he was essentially different from the other mages here.

No matter how Alister disguised himself, in the eyes of this adult, magic apprentices like him were always ants that could be sacrificed at any time.

Benevolence and generosity were just measures of expediency.

Only that gentleman would patiently listen to the cries from the depths of their souls like a father, and give a response.

No matter how small that voice was, or how unrealistic it sounded...

At least he was willing to listen.

At the same time, on the wilderness far away from the Great Sage's Tower, several giant multi-legged monsters like small hills were quietly crawling on the snow.

They were monsters summoned by the Academy to transport large materials.

Teaching assistants were busily directing metal golems and magic apprentices, unloading heavy supply boxes from the backs of the monsters and transporting them into the entrance of a deep cave not far away.

The dome of the cave was high and invisible, only the light cast by magic floating lamps illuminating the huge construction site below.

Teaching assistants acted separately, placing shining treasure chests and magic items as rewards in every corner of the labyrinth.

Here, an underground labyrinth constructed by magic was gradually taking shape.

In the center of the cave, Moke was standing with his hands behind his back, staring seriously at the huge crystal emitting soft holy light in front of him.

This was the core of this labyrinth trial—an "artificial labyrinth core" imitated by a sage of the Holy Energy school.

It could simulate part of the functions of the Hell labyrinth, use holy power to construct an independent domain, and generate energy mirror images of various monsters for apprentices to challenge.

In fact, for the past hundred years, the Academy had been trying to imitate the labyrinth core of Hell using holy power, thereby helping the Empire achieve occupation of the underground world, only it had not achieved effective progress due to the underlying incompatibility of different spell systems.

In a sense, the labyrinth trial also had the intention of assisting the research of the Holy Energy school.

Even if this kind of thing might only be of more concern to the mages of the Holy Energy school themselves.

A teaching assistant stepped forward quickly and reported respectfully: "Mentor, the energy circuit of the core is stable, and the mirror image generation module has also been debugged; we can fill the labyrinth with monsters at any time!"

"Very good."

Moke nodded, his face without a ripple, but his heart was pondering whether there were any details that needed to be supplemented.

The annual labyrinth trial was one of the fixed projects of the Academy; although it was not as dazzling as the Sage trial, it was also a competition highly valued by the higher-ups.

This was his first time being responsible for such a major project, and he was thinking about how to use this opportunity won for him by Professor Alister to make the All Souls Festival trial look beautiful, or even surpass previous years, to repay the Professor's appreciation!

Coincidentally, it wasn't just him who wanted to show off, but also the teaching assistants under him.

Just then, a teaching assistant suddenly opened his mouth diligently and remonstrated to Mentor Moke.

"Mentor, in order to increase the realism and difficulty of the trial, I suggest that this time we can innovatively add some undead creatures common in the labyrinth into the labyrinth!"

As soon as these words came out, it immediately aroused the heated discussion of the mages, and soon a cautious teaching assistant raised concerns.

"But... our school doesn't master that kind of forbidden spell; how can we generate and control them?"

The proposing teaching assistant immediately excitedly shared the insights he had gained when communicating with adventurers at the Artisan Street tavern last night.

"This is easy to say, we don't need to create them ourselves! Undead roam the northern border of the Luo De Kingdom all year round; we can entrust the Adventurer's Guild or border lords to capture a batch of the lowest-level skeleton soldiers and transport them directly with the help of the border magic formation! The preparation should be in time now!"

There were teleportation formations on the border between the Luo De Kingdom and the Academy, only they were not enabled all year round due to costs and other reasons.

However, the labyrinth trial was different.

For major mage towers, the budget for this kind of face-saving project had always been unlimited; if just paying an extra magic crystal could add luster to this All Souls Festival trial, why wouldn't the person in charge of the labyrinth trial do it?

As for capturing the undead, that was even less of a difficulty; there were plenty of those unintelligent things in any mass grave, and adventurers were very happy to handle it for them.

Nearby villagers would even thank them!

Moke was really moved.

Previous trials had used spell mirror images; although safe, they lacked novelty. If real undead could be introduced, it would undoubtedly become the biggest highlight of this trial!

Mainly it wins in realism!

What's the point of fighting a group of slimes and goblins all day, and those things were mirror images woven by holy energy spells.

Presumably, many students had long been tired of boring monster brushing, only they were too embarrassed to reflect it.

Now, the Great Sage's Tower would satisfy their wish and teach them some "real stuff"!

Moke, who did what he thought of, immediately interrupted the discussion of the teaching assistants and made a final decision.

"This can be done! The Academy sends a large number of spellcasting talents to the Empire every year; they can't even have never seen what an undead looks like!"

"But..." a teaching assistant still couldn't help but persuade the mentor to think carefully, but was interrupted as soon as the words came out.

"No need to worry, if the Academy's mages can't even solve the lowest-level skeleton soldiers, then they don't deserve to graduate at all."

Moke, who went against the crowd, smiled faintly, looked at the teaching assistant who made the initial proposal, and made the final decision.

"Let's do it this way, Kemedier, you are responsible for getting a batch of undead from the Luo De Kingdom, be quick!"

"Yes! Mentor!" The teaching assistant was overjoyed and immediately turned to execute the order.

While everyone was surrounding the artificial labyrinth core, heatedly discussing how to "optimize" the trial, no one noticed that in the shadow of a huge stone pillar in the distance of the cave, a figure was quietly watching all this.

Taking in all their conversations and decisions, Sarah's mouth curled into an imperceptible smile, then her footsteps retreated lightly, brushing shoulders with the magic apprentice moving treasure chests, and silently merged into the deeper darkness... ===== CHAPTER 402 =====