Less than an hour passed before all guests had arrived.
After everyone was present, the sovereign ranked guard entered the room, before he announced
"We will depart now, please stay in the center of the magic circle that will manifest any moment! The teleportation magic circle brings us close to the Mythic Garden rift!"
A moment after the sovereign rank said that a large white magic circle with golden stripes intertwined within manifested, enveloping the whole room.
As told, the young men and women walked to the center of the magic circle where they had to remain, standing closely next to each other.
Jason was on the outmost layer and was glared at by a few young men who stood next to him.
He tried his best to ignore them but it was still annoying to Jason that he was looked at with hostility without having done anything wrong.
Sighing deeply, he could only see the sovereign rank releasing his mana to insert it into the magic circle they were currently standing inside.
The magic circle released a white light with faint traces of golden color in it, dazzling the young prodigies.
Jason was forced to close his eyes like everyone else when the space around them twisted.
He was overly familiar with this sensation and didn't think much about it, but upon sensing the unstable mana fluctuations from the young men and women next to him, Jason couldn't help but think that the 'prodigies' that had been invited were nothing but pushovers.
If this was really the case, the high death would be easier to explain than Jason expected but this wouldn't be advantageous in all situations.
There was still the possibility that he required help inside the Mythic Garden which would force him to search for allies.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})However, if everyone is a pushover, easily scared by nothing serious, it might be better to stay alone to avoid unnecessary burdens.
Fortunately, there were only a few unstable mana fluctuations and most were relatively stable which caused Jason to disregard his earlier thought.
He didn't want to search for allies inside the Mythic Garden but he couldn't be sure that he would never need some in the long duration of six months they might spend there!
The Mythic Garden was open for six months but that didn't mean that he had to stay inside for such a long period!
Only the fact that they were teleporting to a place, Jason and more importantly Shane didn't know, was a little downside.
Even if he wanted to, Jason would be unable to ask Shane to take him home.
At least, if Shane didn't know his exact coordinates or where the place they would enter was located.
Suddenly Jason felt that his surroundings changed a few seconds after the space around them twisted.
The bright white-golden light began to dissipate, revealing several hundred young men and women that stood only a few hundred meters away in front of a small stage where a middle-aged woman was standing, holding a speech.
She released a tranquil aura, had long blond hair and had a slender body.
This was not really important to Jason because the two solidified prismarine crystals his mana eyes perceived in addition to a third prismarine crystal that was currently being established inside her mana core spoke volumes about her strength.
'Is she the Jual clan's head?' He asked inwardly, only to avert his attention from the woman on the stage and crowd in front of her to take a look at where they currently stood.
It was bright and Jason could see everything clearly.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})Apparently, they were currently on a small island with the Mythic Garden rift, that gathered mana from the surrounding, manifested in the center.
Jason was interested in the Mythic Garden rift but there was something else that attracted his attention.
'The island is relatively small and I can't see any other islands, but why do I feel like there is something odd about the surrounding area?'
The water around them was tranquil, not moving a little inch, even less making waves, while the blue sky didn't have a single cloud.
Suddenly, while Jason stared at the sky, his mana eyes perceived something weird!
'Why is the sky releasing mana fluctuations? There're also different colors enveloping it? And why is there something above the sky??'
Attracted from these weird facts, Jason couldn't help but scan everything around him more intently.
While everyone walked out of the teleportation circle after a moment of hesitation, Jason only followed suit after the sovereign rank guardian instructed him to do so.
Subconsciously walking towards the stage, following the crowd, his expression began to worsen, when he almost blurted out
'Are we underground?!'
In the beginning, this thought was only an assumption which he wanted to disregard a moment after he thought about it, however, upon looking closer at the sky, Jason could tell that there was something wrong.
'It really is a face sky!' Jason thought and his eyes widened in astonishment.
He was unsure whether it was the work of the Jual clan, but if that was the case, there had to be a proper reason for that.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})'Do they want to hide the exact position of the Mythic Garden that much? Is it really that valuable?'
Jason thought that the Jual clan's careful behavior indicated that the Mythic Garden was even more important than he and his masters thought in the beginning.
With that in mind, he hoped so.
However, more importantly, would be that this importance stemmed from the blessed and cursed beings inside it because that was why he was here!
The only thing he wanted to do in the Mythic Garden was to obtain a cursed being that could weaken his soul world amplification and nothing else!
After he achieved his goal, there was no need for him to stay inside the Mythic Garden anymore.
However, only now did Jason start doubting whether he could depart from the small underground island he and several hundred if not more than a thousand young prodigies were currently on.
'Maybe I'll have to stay inside the Mythic Garden longer than expected? By the looks of it, I can only enter and leave this small underground island through the teleportation magic circles… '
This fact was something he and his masters didn't expect.
They expected that the Jual Clan would have a few tricks to hide the exact location of the Mythic Garden rift but to think that it manifested on a small 'island' in a see underground was ridiculous.
Taking a short glance at his quantum bracelet, Jason noticed that there was no connection which he already expected.
Scratching the back of his head, he began to wonder if they were still on Terebrean or not.
'The teleportation circle didn't use an enormous amount of mana to bring us to this small island. But does that really mean we are still on Terebrean? We could be below the ocean too…. As such I wouldn't even be able to dig through the ground to find a way out without relying on something.
The ceiling looks thick too and I can't see through it, but who knows how far below the surface we are!'
With that thought, Jason averted his attention back to the middle-aged woman on the stage who was currently explaining something when the island shook slightly as the rift in the center screeched out.
Its six-month-long hibernation ended and the rift was slowly awakening!
