Chapter 63

On the third day of arriving in this world of yellow sand, Cen finally realized that this was not the world he had originally been in.

From the thinness of the air to the gravity, from the surrounding environment to the concentration of elements, Cen could not feel even the slightest sense of familiarity.

Moreover, it was only through the crystal ball that Cen was able to determine the exact passage of time over these three days.

In fact, during these three days, the surrounding sandy environment was always in daylight.

As if this world did not have a night.

After discovering this situation, Cen couldn't help but feel curious and, wearing a pale mask, looked up at the sky.

The bright light made Cen's eyes dizzy.

However, what shocked him even more was that he saw three suns in the sky...

All of this made Cen feel a sense of absurdity and unreality.

"The academy wants us to set up a spatial coordinate generator in this world of yellow sand, and it's absolutely impossible that they would deliberately scatter us."

"There is only one possibility: after entering this alternate plane, all the apprentices were forcibly scattered and lost."

"Perhaps some apprentices had good luck and landed in the same place, but I..." Cen thought, leaning against the side of a man-made sand dune.

Why are mages the embodiment of wisdom?

Because no matter how harsh the environment, they can use their wisdom to create a better environment for themselves.

This desert and sandy environment was also Cen's first time experiencing it.

But after a few days, he could rely on his experience and wisdom to create as comfortable a resting environment as possible and reduce his physical exertion.

A red bead emitting heat appeared in Cen's hand.

This thing was the elemental bead that Vice-Dean Martin gave to Cen and the others before they entered the temporal rift.

Cen found that when he moved in a certain direction, the elemental bead would generate more heat.

Conversely, when he moved in other directions, the heat of the elemental bead would decrease.

Cen speculated that besides other unknown functions, one of the important functions of this bead was to help the apprentices who entered the alternate plane gather together.

Otherwise, Vice-Dean Martin wouldn't have mentioned that lower-level apprentices should hand over their elemental beads to apprentices with higher strength when they encountered them.

Holding a nutrient potion he had made, Cen thought about the problem while cautiously taking a third of the potion.

Because he didn't know when he would find the main group or how long he would have to stay in this place, Cen didn't dare to waste any of his resources.

Even now, Cen hadn't seen any living things other than himself.

He was fine, having a spatial ring and storing some valuable resources like nutrient potions and recovery potions in it.

But what about the other apprentices?

Not every apprentice had an alchemist as a mentor like Cen.

High-quality equipment like spatial rings was something that even most high-level apprentices didn't possess.

Without sufficient living supplies, no living things in the surrounding environment, and no water source,

a few days were manageable, and the black magic apprentices could endure it with their resilience.

But what about five or six days, or even longer?

At this point, Cen regretted not learning a water ball spell, even though he had learned many low-level spells and magical tricks from other disciplines.

Cen could only replenish his body's dehydration with the negligible amount of water in the nutrient potion.

If he was struggling so much, wouldn't the intermediate apprentices who came with him have no choice but to die if they couldn't find the academy's high-level apprentices and quasi-mages in time?

It was only at this moment that Cen had a deeper understanding of the nine-to-one survival rate that his mentor Moses had mentioned.

This kind of alternate plane exploration is indeed not something apprentices can get involved in.

Only formal mages who have mastered many spells and have a deep knowledge base are likely to have the qualifications to adapt and explore such a harsh environment in an alternate plane.

How far had Cen walked in these few days?

And how big was this world of yellow sand?

In this dangerous world where he found no value in exploration or development, he didn't see anything that formal black mages were eager to plunder.

...

On the ninth day of Cen's arrival in the world of yellow sand, he finally saw something other than yellow sand.

It was a tattered black robe, half-buried in the sand, which stood out against the background of the yellow sand.

With a hint of excitement, Cen rushed over.

The lower gravity in this world of yellow sand made Cen feel as if he had a permanent lightness spell cast on him.

Upon reaching the black robe, without regard for the scorching sand, Cen took a handy tool from his spatial ring and started digging.

The excitement on his face gradually turned to shock and despair.

What appeared before him was a completely dehydrated mummy.

This should have been an intermediate apprentice with strength similar to Cen. The distinctive black robe indicated that he was also from the city of Muzubura and was likely part of the same batch that arrived in the alternate world with Cen.

Unfortunately, in just nine days, this capable black magic apprentice had become a mummy.

Cen could hardly recognize his original appearance from the mummy, but certain organ characteristics showed that he was a male apprentice.

"No, he must have been in this alternate world for more than nine days!"

"Although the air thinness, element concentration, and overall environment of this world are very different from the Dark Region,"

"Considering that he must have survived for some time after arriving, it's impossible for him to have become like this in just a few days!"

As a black magic apprentice who had dissected many corpses and was once praised by the formal black mage Kosolong, Cen made his most rational and scientific judgment.

"Could he have been in this world of yellow sand for more than nine days?"

"Or, although we were part of the same batch of arriving apprentices, the order in which we entered the temporal rift might have caused a slight difference in the time we appeared in the alternate plane?" Cen thought, full of doubt.

He was one of the last intermediate apprentices to enter the temporal rift in that batch.

If his hypothesis was correct, it would indeed explain why the apprentice who had become a mummy arrived in the world of yellow sand a few days earlier than him.

Without sufficient supplies, no living things to hunt, and no water source if he didn't know water magic...

Cen sighed lightly and didn't pay attention to the unfortunate apprentice whose body had become a mummy, even his eyeballs had turned into a cotton-like appearance.

Instead, he lowered his head to search for anything useful.