Adam's face was full of grievances as he looked at the rolled-up scroll in his hands. He wanted to cry. He was given such a great opportunity, but he ended up wasting it.
He looked at the Joker and asked meekly, "Sir Joker… can I get another try? Please?"
"Fafafa!" The Joker laughed out loud seeing the youth's pitiful look. He severely admonished him, "Who told you to run your mouth without even thinking? You could have first gone through the library to see what books could benefit you, yet you didn't."
"Please!" Adam clasped his hands. "Just give me one more chance."
"Shoo!" The Joker waved his hand as if swatting an annoying fly away. "If you ask again, I'll take back that scroll."
Adam opened his mouth but ended up swallowing his words. He cursed inwardly, Damn it!
Who would have thought that Mathias the Free had such little attainments in the School of Illusion? And the only research about illusion magic in the entirety of the Soaring Library would be just this single scroll.
Without even opening the scroll, Adam knew what the content inside of it would be. It was sure to be something related to the illusion runic formation that was present in all the testing rooms in the House of Cards.
With a heavy heart, he put away the scroll inside his earring.
"Not even going to take a look at it?" The Joker asked, smiling tauntingly.
"Hmph, I already know what's on it," Adam pursed his lips and stomped away.
Seeing the youth throwing such a tantrum, the Joker couldn't help but chuckle. Ah, you're still a kid after all.
…
Edward's body was riddled with injuries as he valiantly fought the merfolk. In the past three months, he realized that no matter how many of them he killed, they would always spawn endlessly.
So he decided to just charge through them and only kill the ones in his way of reaching the other island.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})After countless trials and errors, he was finally able to come up with a plan to fight the merfolk and advance at the same time.
Today, his plan would finally come to fruition.
After killing the last of the merfolk with his bare hands, Edward finally managed to reach the other island. Now, all he needed to do was climb the steep cliff and the reward would finally be his.
About half an hour later, Edward was finally able to climb the cliff with sheer willpower alone. He had already exhausted all his strength fighting the merfolk.
He crawled toward the spear hovering at the center of the island. The weapon was surrounded by streaks of blue lightning and looked very dangerous.
Surprisingly enough, when Edward approached the weapon, the lightning parted and made way for him, as if welcoming him.
With a wide grin on his face, the teenager finally came before the weapon. He stretched his hand out and finally grabbed the spear's shaft.
THUNDER!
…
In the heart of the verdant rainforest, Lisa used one spell after another to take down the wooden golems. At some point, her weapon had already been destroyed.
Just like Edward, she too learned how these golems would spawn endlessly after she destroyed one. There was no end to them.
In the end, she could only focus on advancing toward the ancient temple instead of using all her strength to kill every last one of the golems.
After months of struggle, she was finally able to do so today. With great struggle, she restrained a wooden golem with thick vines and nimbly managed to dodge the attacks of other golems.
Finally, she was able to step foot on the stairs leading to the temple's entrance.
Much to her surprise, she realized that none of the golems followed after her. It seemed that the temple was out of bounds for them.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})Realizing this, she dropped to her knees, gasping for air. A wave of fatigue swept over her, but the feeling of accomplishment couldn't be hidden in her eyes.
She clenched her fists in triumph. She had done it! After more than three months of failure, she had finally achieved her objective.
After recuperating her stamina and mana, she got to her feet and finally walked toward the entrance of the temple. It was a large door made of stone. On it, there was a large mural of beasts and humanoid creatures worshipping an ash tree.
The ash tree was very peculiar. Its roots and branches covered almost the entirety of the mural.
She only cast a momentary glance at the carvings, not thinking much of them. The next moment, she pushed open the heavy stone door and entered the temple.
…
"How come most of the rewards in all the room are weapons?" Adam asked curiously as he gazed at the various floating magical screens in the Viewing Room.
The Joker replied while eating corn seeds, "That's because my Master was an Artificer, a quite good one at that."
"Ohh?" Adam's eyes lit up. He then thought of something and asked, "Is that why the treasures in the secret plane seem inexhaustible to the Magi outside?"
"Fafafa, is that what you all think?" The joker was amused. "Well, I guess you're not entirely wrong. My Master had forged many artifacts in his lifetime and gathered even more. All of them are safely kept in the vault under the library."
"Ehehe~" Adam had a fawning expression on his face. "Come to think of it, I didn't get any artifacts. Sir Joker, how about giving me a pair of gauntlets?"
"Don't push it." The Joker rolled his eyes. "Those books are far more valuable than a chunk of iron, and you know that as well.
"Tsk, so stingy."
The pair continued to watch the Magi on the floating screens. By now, the vast majority of them had completed their tests and already received their rewards.
"Is it time?" Adam glanced at the Joker, his tone laced with a hint of sadness.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})"It seems so, fafafa!"
Adam remained silent for a while. The next moment, he waved his hand, and a large wooden barrel appeared in front of him. "Here's my parting gift to you."
The barrel contained Adam's Tears. He had managed to brew quite a lot of them during his stay in the secret plane. When he left this place, he would sell all of them to Edward's father, Viktor, later.
"Oh, what's this?" The joker curiously asked, staring at the barrel.
"It's wine. I brewed it myself." Adam then stuck his hand out. "Where's my parting gift?"
"Fafafa!" The Joker laughed out loud. "You sure are one greedy young lad."
The next moment, a strange item appeared out of nowhere in his hands. He flipped it, showing it to the youth.
It was an ivory playing card—The Joker!
Adam took it from the man and looked at it. "What does this do?"
"It's your key to the secret plane."
"What?!" The youth gasped in shock. "You mean I can enter this place whenever I want?"
"Whenever you're around the portal to the secret plane, inject mana into my calling card," the Joker began. "After I sense it, I will directly teleport you inside."
"Whoa!" Adam's eyes shone bright like the stars. "Thank you so much!"
"It was nice getting to know you, lad." The Joker smiled warmly.
"Hehe, you too, you too!" Adam chuckled. "Let's meet again soon, okay?"
"Fafafa! If fate wills it, we most definitely will. Remember to always smile. Farewell!"
SNAP!
