After the freshman meeting ended, Lilith grabbed a quick bite at the cafeteria before heading toward the academy’s training area.
Afternoons were reserved for free practice, and the training grounds were usually packed to capacity.
However, as a genius among the freshmen, Lilith was eligible to apply for a private training field.
The elderly mage at the management desk adjusted his glasses, glanced at Lilith and her ID card, and nodded after confirming the information was correct.
He handed her a token engraved with the number seven.
“Room 7, the one at the very back. The barrier is already active; you’ll be automatically notified when your time is up.”
“Thank you.”
Lilith took the token and walked straight into the depths of the training area.
In the center of training field seven, there was a small control console that could adjust training difficulty and environment simulations.
She walked to the middle of the room and sat down.
First, she retrieved all the high-level magic books she had copied from her personal storage space.
Lilith picked up the one she had set her sights on earlier and flipped it open.
It described a technique to burn extra magic at the moment of casting in exchange for a significant boost in power.
She closed her eyes and began to circulate the magic within her body according to the book's description.
Magic converged in her palm.
However, the first four attempts ended in failure. It wasn't until the fifth try that she succeeded.
Lilith opened her eyes, looked at the stable cluster of magic in her palm, and nodded with satisfaction.
“Done.”
She dispersed the magic in her hand.
“Not bad,” she noted happily. “The consumption isn't too high either.”
After that, Lilith went through the high-level spells one by one.
...
The afternoon flew by in a cycle of picking up a book, reading it, trying the spell, succeeding, and tossing it back.
By the time the free practice period was nearing its end, Lilith had finished learning all the high-level magic books in front of her.
She wasn't perfectly proficient yet, but it was enough for now.
She stood up and stretched her shoulders.
After standing there for a moment, she suddenly remembered the time-attribute Super-tier magic scroll Veen had given her.
She pulled it out of her personal storage space.
As she unrolled the Super-tier magic book, the dense runes and energy circuits revealed themselves—they were hundreds of times more complex than high-level magic.
Lilith furrowed her brows, trying her best to read it.
Ten minutes later, she gave up.
“What on earth is this even saying...” She rubbed her aching temples. “I recognize every word, but I can't make any sense of them when they're put together.”
She tried to inject a sliver of magic into the most basic time circuit described at the beginning of the scroll.
The moment her magic touched the runes, the entire scroll suddenly bucked! It repelled Lilith’s power with a backflow; the runes flashed wildly a few times before returning to their original state.
She had failed.
And she couldn't even figure out why.
“Sigh, it’s too hard.” Lilith sighed, rolled up the scroll, and threw it back into her personal storage space. “I’ll try again when I have more time!”
It seemed that understanding Super-tier magic really did require a significant amount of time.
Her time in the training field was up. The barrier slowly opened, and Lilith walked out, returning the token to the elderly mage at the desk.
By the time she left the training area, the sky had already darkened.
Lilith walked toward the dorms listlessly. On the way, she suddenly thought of Karl, who had jumped from beginner to Rank 4 in just half a month.
It was too abnormal.
Even with family resources and exceptional talent, reaching Rank 4 in half a month was impossible.
Unless... he used some kind of forbidden method.
“I need to ask Veen,” Lilith thought.
Back in her dorm room.
Lilith stood in the center of the room, closed her eyes, and began to recall the sensation she felt when Veen had teleported her.
She planned to use her own omnipotence to tear through space.
But coordinates were the key. Without coordinates, heaven only knew where she would end up.
However, Lilith possessed Veen’s magic; she still had his disguise spell on her. Theoretically, she could use that to reverse-track the general direction of the Demon Realm.
“Let’s give it a try.”
She extended her right index finger and lightly swiped at the air in front of her.
Sshhh.
A soft sound echoed.
Where her fingertip had passed, a tiny crack was torn into space!
Lilith blinked in surprise.
“That easy?”
She had expected it to be difficult, considering it was a high-level operation involving spatial rules.
But in practice, it was actually quite simple?
Since she couldn't figure it out, she decided not to overthink it. Lilith looked at the crack, hesitated for a second, and then stepped inside.
The feeling of weightlessness lasted less than two seconds.
Then Lilith regained her footing and opened her eyes.
The next moment, she was stunned.
What lay before her wasn't the familiar Demon King's Palace.
Instead, it was... the ruins of a modern city.
The sky was a dark crimson. There was no sun, only a sickly red light bleeding through the clouds, staining the earth the color of blood.
She stood amidst the wreckage of a city.
“...Where is this?” Lilith frowned, looking around in confusion.
As she wondered, a rustling sound came from behind a pile of rubble to her left.
Lilith turned her head.
A “thing” crawled out from the debris.
It was about half the height of a person, its appearance as if the corpses of several different creatures had been crudely stitched together.
It spotted Lilith and immediately lunged at her!
Lilith stood her ground, unmoving.
The moment the monster was about to reach her, an invisible barrier expanded around her.
Thud!
The monster slammed hard into the barrier! The massive impact sent it flying back several meters, where it hit the ground and tumbled several times.
But it seemed to feel no pain. It immediately scrambled back up, making a rasping “he-he” sound from its split mouth as it lunged again!
Once again, it was repelled by the barrier.
And once again, it lunged.
Lilith just stood there, watching it quietly.
After being repelled a third time, the monster seemed to sense something.
It stopped lunging blindly and began to circle Lilith. Its tentacle-like limbs twitched restlessly as if searching for a weakness in the barrier.
But Lilith’s high-level magic provided a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree defense with no blind spots. As long as her magic didn't run out, the barrier wouldn't break.
After observing for about a minute, Lilith reached a conclusion.
This thing had no consciousness.
Its actions were entirely driven by instinct.
“How boring.”
Lilith instantly lost interest.
She turned to look at the spatial crack she had torn when she arrived. “Fortunately, the crack is still there.”
She lifted her foot and walked toward the crack.
The monster seemed to perceive her intention and let out a shrill screech, lunging once more!
This time, black tentacles sprouted all over its body, and it whipped them frantically against the barrier!
Without looking back, Lilith stepped into the spatial crack.
The moment her figure vanished,
the monster lunged into empty air and fell to the ground. It looked up blankly at the spot where Lilith had disappeared, a roar escaping its split mouth.
Then, starting from its edges, its body began to turn into black ash bit by bit, scattering with the wind.
A few seconds later, only a small pile of grayish-black dust remained on the ground.
Back in the dorm.
The crack closed behind her, vanishing without a trace.
Lilith stood in place for a few seconds before raising a hand to rub the space between her eyebrows.
“Sigh, I knew it.”
This was exactly why she had always been reluctant to learn spatial magic or tear through space to teleport—heaven only knew what kind of hellish place you’d end up in.
Those ruins just now were clearly not a normal world; it was likely caused by the instability of the spatial crack.
“Good thing the crack didn't close, or I really wouldn't have been able to come back.” She sighed and sat down on the edge of her bed.
Rate on N.U.
