In front of Sain was a huge white trench, as if the sky and earth had been split open.
This white trench was likely the Space-Time Rift that their mentor had mentioned.
Around the Space-Time Rift, Sain saw a lot of familiar alchemy equipment.
Many of these alchemy equipment were made by their master and apprentices, and Sain had even touched and participated in making some of them.
However, Sain did not see his mentor Mosido or any other familiar Dark Magicians before this Space-Time Rift, except for a bald man standing in front of it wearing a white mage robe.
Most of the Dark Magicians in Mosobla City liked to wear black robes or other dark-colored clothes.
Sain's Senior Brother Zoro always wore a yellow metallic mage robe, making him stand out as an outlier.
But this bald man in front of Sain was clearly an outlier among outliers.
However, when Sain and the other intermediate magic apprentices saw this bald magician, they couldn't help but tremble.
He exuded a tremendous pressure from his life rank!
This bald magician's strength far exceeded Vice Dean Dadalon by more than one level!
"I am your Vice Dean Martin. Later, each of you will enter the Space-Time Rift in order," said the bald man.
"The red bead that appears in front of you is an important task item for this trip."
" When you arrive in the alternate dimension, gather as many people as possible and give these elemental beads to the strongest apprentice among you."
"If this alternate dimension exploration goes smoothly, besides the benefits of exploring new dimensions, each apprentice will receive 300 Academy Integral Points and 3,000 Black Gold rewards."
"The premise is that you can come back alive."
"Go!" Vice Dean Martin pointed his left hand.
The apprentices in the front row, driven by an irresistible force, walked step by step towards the Space-Time Rift.
Sain, who was in the back half of the team, was not as hasty and nervous as the apprentices in the front row.
He even diverted some of his attention to the red bead in his hand, which was the important task item for this trip.
"What's the Element Pearl? What is it exactly?" Sain wondered in his mind, just as his mentor Mosido's Mental Power message appeared again.
"If possible, try to collect these Element Pearls, it might be useful for you," the message said.
Before Sain could ask anything else, an irresistible force from Vice-Dean Martin suddenly descended, and like other apprentices, Sain was directly sucked into the Space-Time Rift and disappeared.
...
Pain!
Unbearable pain appeared all over Sain's body!
It was like a tearing pain mixed with someone hitting him on the head with a sledgehammer.
In any case, Sain's consciousness was quickly engulfed after entering the Space-Time Rift.
All that remained was a deeply ingrained memory of the excruciating pain.
In the fragmented memories, Sain seemed to only see a narrow triangular crack that was half the height of a person and a bright yellow halo.
For some reason, that triangular crack reminded Sain of the narrow underground crevice he had hidden in during his academy mission years ago.
It was so small that only a person of his strength could pass through it.
As for the bright yellow halo...
since Sain's body had passed through it, he had felt far more discomfort and resistance than he had in the magic altar passage before.
It was like a fish that had been living in water for years, suddenly coming to land.
That suffocating feeling of not being able to breathe and the rejection from the environment around him told him that he didn't belong there.
...
The scorching sun burned Sain's skin.
The boiling yellow sand around him made Sain feel like he was in a frying pan.
When he finally regained consciousness from his fainting state, he saw that more than half of his body was deeply embedded in the sand.
Sain's Constitution was considered good among magic apprentices.
Combined with an Intermediate apprentice's Mental Power value far exceeding that of ordinary humans, his resilience and willpower were also far beyond those of ordinary people.
No wonder the academy had them, as magic apprentices, in the vanguard and put most of their hopes on the Advanced apprentices and quasi-Magicians.
If it were any ordinary low-level apprentice, or even a regular human being, they probably wouldn't be able to handle the excruciating pain of passing through the Space-Time Rift, let alone the treacherous environment they find themselves in now.
The itching sensation on Sain's shoulders made him weak and restless.
He couldn't help but turn his head to see the dense and jagged cuts that covered his body, although most of them had already scabbed over.
He wasn't sure how long he had been unconscious.
The thin air was another major factor contributing to Sain's weakness.
Luckily, he could still control his upper body and managed to use a bit of Magic Spring to activate his Space Ring, which produced a low-level Restoration Potion in his hand.
In truth, Sain's injuries weren't that serious.
Most of the cuts on his body were just skin deep.
His weakness was mostly due to the environment and the impact of passing through the Space-Time Rift.
After careful consideration, Sain decided not to hastily use an Intermediate Restoration Potion.
He only had three of those, but he had plenty of low-level Restoration Potions, at least ten or more, as well as some mid-low-level vitality potions, Antidotes, and other items that Merry had given him.
Fortunately, Sain wasn't buried in quicksand.
Although his lower body was still buried in the sand, he managed to regain some strength and struggled to climb out, aided by the low-level magic spell Feather Walk, which increased his escape speed.
When they entered the Space-Time Rift, there were over forty apprentices who entered in order.
But now, Sain found himself in a world of endless yellow sand, and he couldn't see a single apprentice anywhere.
The vast expanse of yellow sand filled his vision, unlike the underground world, which was always dark and without daylight. This yellow sand world was extremely bright.
Sain didn't dare to look up at the sky because the high temperature and blinding light made his eyes hurt.
Perhaps after he adapted to this environment, he could look up and see if the sky was as he remembered from his childhood.
Sain walked with a wobbly gait towards a certain direction.
In this sandy world, the air was not only thin, but the gravity seemed different from Shadowy Territory.
Sain felt like they could jump higher, but their weak body and the scorching hot sand in front of them made Sain give up on that idea.
"Where could the others be?" After walking for who-knows-how-long and seeing the same scenery around them, Sain couldn't help but wonder.