The Celestial Land

Chapter 10: Nine Illusions World

After the month passed and Elleste finally able to consolidate her foundation, she had learned some basic spells. There were things like creating small fire or making some stones explode; though she can only did that to small stones at the moment. Elleste also learned the runes to protect herself.

In this trial, Mage Serena had taught everything needed so that Elleste would pass it smoothly.

Elleste just sighed, after this trial she would go back to the class from a year ago and be taught under Mage Allan. Feeling the hostility of some people in the class, Elleste felt bitter. She hadn't done anything to offend them.

In the end, she could only sigh. Probably in this world, she could only learn to be indifferent from now on, and not to care too much about the small matters.

Gradually, more people began to appear on the place. As Mage Serena had given her some pointers become coming here, Elleste become slightly more confident. After all, not many mages here got the same opportunity as she was; being taught directly by a mage of fourth stage who specialized in runes.

Some mages also threw her a glance before they retracted their gaze. They seemed to not be able to recognize her. After all, some people were already here for years while Elleste had just gotten there, even more she didn't join the class.

Under those scutinizing gazes, unexpectedly, Elleste was able to maintain her calm. It was largely due to her experiencing the affect of patiently absorbing the nature energy day and night. This kind of boring process required quite some willpower.

The pain from month ago also steeled her heart. Those experiences gradually changed Elleste's temperament without her noticing it.

"Hey, you are the new mage, right?" The sound of a male sounded so close to her made her slightly startled. Elleste turned around to find that the young man from nearly a year ago who argued with Gracia was talking to her.

Elleste nodded and answered curtly. "Indeed, I am."

She knew that she had to remain vigilant. Each of those people were a scheming person. She could see it from the interaction here somehow, though they couldn't also really be blamed. After all, if one wasn't smart enough, it was hard to survive. One needed both strenght and brain.

"Eh, you've ascended to the first stage?" The man named Leon sounded surprised. He no longer had the lazy look on his face and instead replaced by slight beliwderment.

"Have you tried to absorb the nature energy before on your own village? No wonder that they placed you in this batch." Leon muttered, then he looked at how young Elleste was and also surprised.

"Is this your first time here? I have been in this trial for a long time to train myself." Leon said, looking at Elleste in strange manner.

Elleste's pupils shrank in almost unnoticeable manner. This man was slightly dangerous under that lazy look he had always put on his face. Elleste let out a cough and asked him. "Do you know about what's inside the trial?"

Mage Serena hadn't told her about what kind of trial she was going to face. She only prepared the necessities for Elleste.

Leon raised his eyebrow. "You haven't known, eh?"

Elleste could only shook her head.

Leon eventually began to explain everthything from his experiences. After some time, Elleste frowned slightly, but she also said her thanks.

The examiner finally came and interrupted them. When Elleste walked, she felt pair of cold eyes was staring at her. As she looked at the pair of the eyes, she found that Gracia was looking at her coldly, along with Leon's retreating back.

However, Elleste didn't have the time to bother with her right now. She looked at the crowd and began to lined up according to stage with other hundreds of people.

Elleste almost couldn't believe that those people were purple talent. There were a lot, but she also knew that that this world was several times wider than the Earth she used to live in. Naturally, the population was also much higher. Elleste wondered, beside the Green Wood Palace, how many mages were there in other palaces?

She had no time to think before she was transported to a strange place. She had been listening to Leon's explanation earlier and the examiner also stated some task and rule within the trial.

Elleste couldn't help but dreaded it slightly. The moment she appear in another location, she clutched her staff tightly while looking around vigilantly.

She was mesmerized as she looked at the area before her. It was filled with green scenery of mountains just like in the previous life. There weren't even a single colorful tree that was like she had seen in the fantasy world she was currently living.

Elleste didn't know whether what she was seeing right now was real or not. It was as if she was sent to another different world again.

"Where is it?" Elleste muttered to herself as she looked around. She already knew what her trial was. She should train herself here so that she could kill the races from the Dark Side.

This place seemed to be built for the sake of letting the mages get more familiar with their own power, as well as seeking more knowledge so that they were prepared.

Elleste juat didn't know if this place was real or not. She had heard about illusion magic. However, this place was simply too lifelike and real.

Leon had said that this place called Nine Illusions World, and there was the word illusion on it. Frowning along the way, Elleste began to move forward.

She stepped on the slightly muddy ground. The whole place that seemed like a forest was also damp, like it had just raining. Elleste walked through the random path, looking for her target.

She had already almost passed by the river and through countless tall trees, however, she hadn't seen any of those creatures from Dark Side appeared.

As Elleste pondered, her attention was drawn to the magnificent river before her. This place looked so clean that she could see some fishes swimming around the weak currents of water.

Elleste took some water into her hand, feeling curious. She had expected it to vanish as soon as the water separated from the rest; however, it didn't happen. The water in her hand stayed there looked fresh and alluring in this sunny weather.

She subconsiously gulped, and without realizing it, Elleste had drunk the water in her hand. She was surprised to find that it was very refreshing to her body. It had the effect similar to the nature energy. After she examined the water more closely, she found that the whole water element seemed to me made by water nature energy; along with some other types of nature energies slightly mixed within.

This discovery made her feel delighted. Though she was also puzzled. Wasn't this world called Nine Illusions World, why did the water had the real effect on her? This didn't seem to be an illusion.

Frowning slightly, Elleste just shook her head. "Forget it, I will try to absorb more. This may helps me reduce the time needed to ascend the second stage."

Elleste was about to scoop some more water and use it to nourish her body when a rustle in the grass nearby caught her attention. She immediately stood tall and looked at the direction of it vigilantly.

"Come out." Elleste braced herself of whatever was coming towards her. However, the creature that jumped out of the grass had completely stun her.

As it got closer, Elleste found that the nature energy on the other party's body was stronger than hers. It meant that whatever the creature was, it had higher stage and clearly more powerful than her.

Holy crap! After she recovered herself, Elleste pulled herself together and began to retreat. She knew that the other party had probably noticed her earlier.

Yet before Elleste could retreat far enough, a huge bull with red eyes that looked angry had already jumped out. The bull began to run chasing after the retreating Elleste.

Gazing at the huge figure of the bull that was taller than twice hee body combined together, Elleste began to run like crazy. She knew that she had no strength to simply contend against this fellow.

At this moment, Elleste was quite scared, but she hadn't lost her own clarity entirely under the pressure. Glancing at the angry bull behind her, Elleste's eyes lit up slightly as she pointed her staff to the stone near the bull.

The stone immediately exploded a moment later. The stone can be considered small, and it didn't have much effect on the bull. However, still some of it shards managed to pierce the bull's tough body.

Feeling the pain similar to being stabbed by countless needles, the bull roared more angrily and chased after Elleste with more speed. It didn't like the fact that a small figure like Elleste managed to make him feel pain, albeit only slightly.

Elleste cursed silently as she noticed that the stone explosion couldn't do any damage to the bull's body at all. Their distance was also getting closer. It will be in no time that the bull would finally caught up to her and smash her little body into smitherens to vent its anger.

Elleste kept on running, yet the bull still caught up with her until the end. As the bull's body nearly collided woth her, Elleste's tried to calm herself down. She even ask herself once more. Was this really an illusion?

As the huge body slammed into Elleste's petite figure, she had already gotten her answer.