Heir of Synthesis: The World Mage

Chapter 37: Random

"All of you are young people who were born under the protection of our clan, some more than others. Even those from the side branches were certainly spoiled quite a bit. Since your talents are supposedly extraordinary, your families placed great hopes on you." The Elder’s voice rang out as he stared at the seven of them.

"But after such a long Trial... have you already realized that you’re nothing more than a bunch of trash?"

His words were completely indifferent, without the slightest emotion.

There wasn’t even a trace of mockery in them.

It was as if he were simply stating a fact.

This infuriated Shione, Lumiere, and the two other youths present. They felt insulted.

Elder Raoes snorted coldly.

"The Beasts in that testing area were all placed there by the clan, not because of their strength, but because they possessed unique peculiarities. In the wild, all of those Beasts are considered second-rate in power, and their populations only decrease, never increase. Under normal circumstances, an experienced Mage using only fifty percent of their strength could kill them easily."

"But the actual results disappointed me greatly. During the first day of the test, fifteen people were eliminated due to life-threatening danger. Those people hardly encountered other youths; instead, they fell to the dangers of the area itself. As for you seven... are you going to lie to me and claim you’ve lived easy and peaceful lives these past few days? Or did you suffer quite a bit, forced to fight difficult battles just to survive against those Beasts? Tell me, are you bad or not?"

Those words caused nearly everyone to lower their heads in shame.

It was exactly as Raoes described.

They had encountered no real difficulty against the other youths, but the Beasts had prevented them from even sleeping peacefully.

Shione and Lumiere had been ambushed and poisoned, but that didn’t change the fact that they had nearly died to the Beasts because they had been arrogant and failed to retreat while they still could.

"Listen carefully, children. Truly powerful Mages can only become experts standing at the top of the world because they’re willing to do anything to strengthen themselves and develop their magic. As for the weak, they don’t even get the chance to make excuses. That’s because all of them die," Raoes continued coldly.

"I’m telling you this as a warning. Becoming a Mage is the same as defying the laws of nature. We manipulate energies we shouldn’t manipulate, alter our bodies in ways we shouldn’t alter them, and use things we shouldn’t use... all for our own benefit. Therefore, if you’re afraid of death, then simply leave."

"Now, you must make a choice: fight or give up. If you choose to give up, you’ll still be treated as geniuses of the clan. But if you choose to fight and try... this time, you won’t have the support of the inscription, and you may truly die."

"What awaits you inside those caves is not some ordinary challenge. They are the enemies of all humanoid Mages, even in the Divine plane. They are the rotten oranges born within our own house. We call them Sorcerers."

"Sorcerers!" the two other youths roared in unison, their faces turning pale.

Priam had never heard that term in this world before.

He could clearly feel the ancient and sinister aura emanating from those caves.

And considering that on Earth, Sorcerers were sometimes portrayed as evil magic users, everything seemed to fit together.

When he glanced at Flaris, he noticed that her expression hadn’t changed.

It seemed she had known what a "Sorcerer" was for a long time.

"The Sorcerers I’m talking about are not what you’re imagining. They’re not the goblins and ghosts from your childhood stories and legends. Technically, they are humanoid Mages. But... they chose the sinister path of magic, exploiting the lives of others to strengthen themselves. Essentially, they use Magical Arts that refine the life energy of their targets, but these arts must be used on living victims to achieve greater effects. This is extremely cruel and sinister. Therefore, just as the Beasts of Primordial Chaos are our mortal enemies, this type of Mage is completely forbidden, and anyone who attempts to use these Magical Arts must be executed."

The Elder spoke slowly, but the cold light in his eyes made everyone swallow nervously.

"Your challenge will be to defeat one of these Sorcerers. Cut off their heads, and you will pass."

Everyone broke out in cold sweat.

Obviously, the Elder had said they could quit and still be considered clan geniuses.

But if they truly did so, they would be regarded as lower-tier geniuses and would clearly receive fewer resources than the others in this group.

Thus, fighting and winning, even if they ranked last among everyone, would make a heaven-and-earth difference to their future.

"I’ll give you only one minute to decide. I’ll say it again: losing this battle means death. But by winning, you’ll cease being spoiled children and become true adults."

The Elder finished speaking.

Silence.

What the Elder had said was simply too shocking.

They had never heard of a coming-of-age ceremony as terrifying as this one.

Their hearts pounded nervously.

"What kind of joke is this? We’re all geniuses. Do you think we’ll be frightened by a few words? Hmph. If none of you dare, then I, Gangrel, will take the lead!"

Gangrel stepped forward arrogantly.

A powerful aura radiated from him, while his eyes shone in a seemingly heroic manner.

"Think carefully. This is not an ordinary Trial, but a battle of life and death. The slightest mistake may cost you your life," the Elder warned.

"Don’t worry, Elder Raoes. This disciple understands," Gangrel replied firmly.

Priam snorted indifferently.

This kind of performance was painfully obvious.

The glance those two exchanged was full of hidden meanings.

Gangrel had known about this in advance.

Now he was carving out his reputation and leadership among the generation’s geniuses.

Strangely enough, it worked quite well on the two other youths, as well as on Shione and Lumiere.

The four of them clenched their fists, filled with determination.

As for Flaris, she could easily tell that it was all an act and merely snorted quietly to herself.

When the sixty seconds were up, all seven remained standing firmly in place.

No one took a step back to give up.

The Elder nodded in satisfaction.

"Excellent. If you wish to fight, then I wish you good luck."

He spoke solemnly and then waved his hand.

The stone pillar before him released a gentle energy that caused the seven youths to float into the air.

The inscription itself was handling everything.

They were each carried to the entrance of one of the nine thousand caves at random.

Before the gaping mouth of the cave, Priam saw nothing but absolute emptiness.

The interior wasn’t merely dark; it was as if light itself was afraid to enter.

He took a deep breath, forcing his Ether to circulate frantically through his meridians, preparing every muscle for the unknown.

With slow steps, he entered the darkness.

After walking for about a hundred meters, the tunnel suddenly expanded.

The ceiling rose, the walls pulled back, and Priam found himself standing in the center of a colossal hall.

Three hundred meters in diameter and so tall that its ceiling vanished into the shadows.

The air was stagnant, filled with the scent of dust and blood.

"Mwah-hah-hah-haaaaah..."

A distorted laugh bounced off the walls.

It wasn’t a human sound.

It was as though the air itself were being torn apart.

The vibration was so sharp that Priam felt pain stab into his eardrums, as if invisible knives were piercing his mind.

His eyes fixed on the far end of the hall.

In the middle of the emptiness sat a solitary figure.

It wore a tattered robe and kept its head lowered, long tangled hair concealing any trace of a face.

"Hey! Since you know how to laugh, do you know how to talk too?!" Priam shouted, his voice echoing through the hall before fading away.

He didn’t advance.

If it was a trap, every step could be a trigger for death.

"Hehe... a thousand years... I can finally smell the scent of life again. What delicious nostalgia..."

The voice was female, yet torturous at the same time, like metal scraping against bone.

The figure slowly raised its head. freēwebnovel.com

What Priam saw made his stomach churn.

It wasn’t a woman.

It was a charred corpse.

Its face was a mask of blackened, burned flesh.

Its eye sockets were empty, dark holes that seemed to swallow light itself.

But the worst part was the steel needle.

About thirty centimeters long, it pierced through the creature’s skull directly between its eyebrows.

Priam’s heart slammed against his ribs.

That figure had no heartbeat.

No breathing.

It was nothing but a shell.

Yet a faint and sinister fluctuation of life energy, along with an overwhelming soul power, emanated from that puppet.

Even he could feel it clearly.

"Subtle life energy, but overwhelming soul power..." Priam muttered, shock written across his face. "Are you a Spiritual Body?"

He remembered Flaris’s lessons about demonic arts.

It was possible to seal a soul inside a puppet and create an eternal servant.

That was an extremely high-level Magical Art that only certain demonic races could perform.

It seemed to be the case with this figure, since the body itself was completely dead.

A Spiritual Body possessed limited power that varied depending on the sealed soul.

But at the power level of Mages from the Mortal plane, they were absolute nightmares.

"You know too much for such a young boy," the female voice hissed, overflowing with malice. "That bunch of bastards sealed my soul here, wanting to enslave me as nothing more than a testing tool. Hehe... do they really think I, Hemakra, am so easy to subdue?"

She tilted her head, and the sound of her neck cracking echoed throughout the hall.

"My little one, I’ll give you two choices: you can die now... or surrender and become mine."

Priam remained motionless.

"Don’t even think about escaping," she continued sinisterly. "With your pathetic level, you wouldn’t reach the exit. Even those idiot Elders outside would die to me if they dared step foot in here."

Upon hearing those words, it felt as though a cloak of ice had fallen over Priam’s shoulders.

It was a sensation he had never experienced so clearly before.

This was the weight of inevitable death.

His survival instincts, sharpened by his Anima, were screaming.

Every fiber of his being begged him to run.

Yet his feet felt fused to the ground.

He was certain.

Hemakra wasn’t lying.

She was a natural disaster contained within a puppet’s body.

How had he been sent to fight someone this powerful?

At that moment, Priam narrowed his eyes.

"Random, my ass..."

He hadn’t been sent here by mistake or bad luck.

Elder Raoes, acting under Gangrel’s orders, had thrown him into a slaughterhouse.

They wanted him erased from existence by something no one could blame.

He had been thrown to the lions to be devoured.