In the second layer of the magus world, the first subterranean world.
Twilight Zone, eastern region,
In a cave, there was a concealed teleportation formation set up by some unknown magus. Since this cave was deeply hidden, there was also a special kind of gray moss growing on it.
Soon, the teleportation shone with bright light as more than twenty humanoid figures manifested themselves.
"Finally, we are in Twilight Zone!" Tirus rejoiced, seeing that no one had suffered from any physical damage due to the teleportation.
"Let's get out of this cave first." He instructed others to get out of the cave as he commanded the A.I. chip to scan the atmosphere.
The newest set of data revealed that the concentration of dark, shadow and death, as well as other negative energy particles, rose to about two times that of in the south coast.
The positive energy particles such as that of light, plant, and life were a little lower.
'The concentration of earth elemental particles is quite high, while fire and water are quite meager, huh, won't it make Beth's cultivation faster?'
Tirus, along with everyone, reached the crest of the mountain where the cave was hidden.
He was standing on a little hill formed from large rocks, and surrounding him was a vast plain. There were also numerous shrubs.
A gloomy darkness encompassed the whole area, making it so that there was no light at all. The sky was dim and looked as if it would collapse at any moment.
Vastness, gloominess, a deathly stillness. This was his first impression about the place. Although he had an idea of how this place would look from what he had read in the canon, but experiencing it firsthand was just different.
"Now what?" Beth asked Tirus, bewildered by the new environment.
"We will first collect data while lying low, then…" Tirus explained his plans to Beth as a look of astonishment and understanding appeared on her face.
...
A few months later,
Near a wasteland,
There existed a small-scale guild which was on it's way to decline. There were only 3 semi-converted rank 1 magi who acted as the heads of the guild.
The name of this guild was 'The Sun forge Tower'. Although the name was quite grand, the situation of the guild told just the opposite story.
When the three leaders picked this name, they thought that this is a name befitting the heights the guild will reach in the future, but now, it was nothing but at this moment, it felt akin to an insult to them.
And after the recent skirmish with the dark elves where the humans suffered from the deaths of hundreds of magi, they only had less than 20 official mages in the guild.
"Jared, how is the production of the fire elemental magic tools going? Are you short on ores?" One of the three leaders of the guild, Trever, inquired.
"Everything is just fine, how is your potioneering going? I've heard you were creating a new potion formula?" Jared replied and asked a question in return.
"Hehe, that information is correct, I have been trying to complete a certain potion formula, once I do that, then we will earn a lot of magic crystals and sun stones." Trever said with excitement all over his face.
"Oh really, are you sure? The last time you finished your potion formula, it turned out that it had a pitifully low success rate, are you sure about this one?" Asked, a magus with bright red eyes and hair asked. His name was Roddy, the last of the three leaders of Sun forge Tower.
"You don't need to worry about that." Trever answered in an agitated tone.
"Hey...you know what, I suggest that we just leave this organization and focus on out individual cultivation, I'm sure we can help each other even if we don't have an organization." Jarod advised but he was met with a clod glare from the other two, no, rather than calling it a cold glare, it would be more accurate to call it a flaming hot glare which gave others the feeling of being burned from the inside.
This was the result of the technique the members of this guild cultivated. In the Twilight Zone, no matter what element you had the highest affinity with, if you join a guild, then you must cultivate their meditation technique.
For example, if one had the highest affinity with lightning element but they joined the Sun forge Tower, then they'd have to cultivate the flame element technique that everyone else in the guild cultivated.
If not, then you'd be alienated, which may be fatal for one's life.
This caused many geniuses of the Twilight zone to be struck at rank 1 for their entire lives.
"Well, whatever, it's not like having an organization is completely useless." Jarod changed his statement and tried to change the topic.
"If not for those dark elves, we wouldn't have lost so many of our official mages." Trever lamented the loss they had to bear due to the dark elven kingdom.
What these three didn't know was that their deaths were nearing at this very moment.
To be continued...