Chapter 70: Free Fall

Chapter 70: Chapter 70: Free Fall

Jeremy glanced down at his feet.

They had just stepped out of the spatial teleportation channel, currently completely not standing on solid ground but suspended in mid-air, supported by a massive magic disk conjured by Griffin.

This meant that if the practice failed, they would experience the full sensation of a free fall, and the landing spot was the giant nest of spiders and venomous snakes below.

Jeremy clenched his fists, silently praying that he wouldn’t be so pathetic as to tumble head over heels on his first try. He closed his eyes, cleared away distracting thoughts, and focused his entire concentration into his spiritual sea. He followed the instructions exactly, directing the flow of magic power to thread through every meridian path in his body.

Muttering the incantation in his head, his right arm extended, his index finger nimbly tracing the star pattern scheme in mid-air.

When the star pattern matrix was half complete, Jeremy clearly felt the core power boiling, surging massively toward his spine. Along his nervous system, a heat spread. Accompanied by the fluctuation of magic power, space tore open from his shoulder blades, slowly condensing into a pair of brilliantly golden wings of light.

The star pattern scheme completed, flashed brightly, then vanished into the void. Jeremy turned his head to glance behind him.

The pale gold wings spread wide, sturdy and powerful. There were only two wings, not as exaggerated as Griffin’s six wings; perhaps the number of wings was limited by his current realm.

But the sensation of magic power circulation was extremely smooth, much more comfortable than he had imagined. This magic... wasn’t that difficult, was it?

At the same time, the teammates around him also successfully began to manifest theirs. All of them had two wings.

Leon’s wings bore a sharp silver color.

Evelyn’s wings radiated a clear green hue.

Lucius’s wings were a cold mixture of white and ice blue.

As for Phoenix’s, they bore a mysterious pitch-black color.

The twig in Griffin’s hand turned into fine powder. He lazily clapped twice, the corners of his lips curling into an extremely malicious smile: "You’ve all successfully manifested them, right? Good, then try flying."

As soon as the words fell, the brilliantly golden magic disk beneath the five people’s feet shattered instantly without warning.

Leaving them absolutely not even half a second to react, the bodies of all five suddenly lost their center of gravity, falling vertically toward the cruel ground below like rocks tied with lead weights.

The howling wind in their ears sounded like shrieking demons, whipping agonizingly against their facial skin.

Jeremy immediately braced himself, mobilizing magic power into his wings, trying to flap them to break the fall. But theory and practice were separated by a vast chasm. His body right now completely disobeyed his control. The left and right wings flapped chaotically, one high, one low; the uneven distribution of magic power caused his center of gravity to shift entirely to one side.

As a result, Jeremy’s body began to spin dizzily in mid-air, twisting exactly like a spinning top with a broken string. The fierce wind rushed into his throat, making him unable to breathe. He knew full well how abstract and pathetic his posture looked right now, but there was no way to stop it.

The other four fared no better.

Panicking, Evelyn hastily summoned her Sacred Weapon, intending to use vines to cling to the cliff. But precisely because she divided her spiritual force to use another skill, the wings on her back began to flicker, dimming before breaking apart into shattered specks of light. Without the wings supporting her, Evelyn’s falling speed grew even faster, her normally serene face clearly revealing panic.

The two with apathetic personalities, Leon and Lucius, after trying to struggle a few times without success, decisively gave up. Both crossed their arms over their chests, closing their eyes and letting their bodies plunge straight toward the ground.

As for Phoenix, he hurriedly pulled his hood down low, hiding his face flushed red from the wind and his messy hair, trying to salvage the last bit of dignity of a Beast Tamer.

In short, all five of them had only taken half a step on the right path. The latter half was a disastrous mess.

The distance to the ground was closing in the blink of an eye. Jeremy glared at the giant venomous spiders and snakes waiting with wide-open maws below. Imagining the scene of his face smashing straight into that pile of rotting corpses covered in slime caused Jeremy’s expression to instantly twist.

He would rather break his bones than absolutely ever allow his lips to touch that disgusting pile!

Psychological trauma flared up into an intense will to survive. Jeremy roared, frantically squeezing out the last drop of his spiritual force, forcing the fading wings to condense once again.

The brilliantly golden wings flared up brightly once more. This time, Jeremy didn’t try to brace himself against the wind’s resistance. He relaxed his muscles, riding the wind, letting his body merge as one with the air. In a flash, his wings regained balance, and his falling momentum was abruptly braked. He came to a steady halt about twenty meters above the ground.

Seeing his four teammates still plunging straight toward the rotting cesspool, Jeremy gritted his teeth, deciding to be a good person for once. He snapped his fingers, and his Sacred Weapon instantly transformed into an endlessly long seven-star chain whip, shooting down to tightly wrap around the waists of the four of them, yanking them back.

"Ugh!"

The moment the pulling force transmitted to the chain, the green veins on Jeremy’s forehead throbbed. His arm felt as heavy as if a mountain were pressing down on it.

It was a disaster!

Phoenix was nearly 1.89 meters tall, Leon was 1.89 meters, and Lucius was roughly the same. Evelyn, although a girl, was also tall. The four of them, even if firm without an ounce of excess fat, combined must weigh well over three hundred kilograms.

The terrifying weight dragged Jeremy’s body downward. His face flushed bright red. If he could use magic power for support, it would be a different story, but right now all his magic power was concentrated in his wings to maintain balance. He was relying entirely on the muscle power of a short young man to arrest the falling momentum of four heavy weights!

His wrist joints cracked as if about to snap off. The resulting sharp pain caused a gap to appear in Jeremy’s spiritual force.

Crack.

The wings on his back flickered and then vanished completely.

This was just great. A chain of five people, one after another, plummeted straight down.

In that life-and-death moment, Jeremy attained a profound realization: From now on, unless he was certain of winning, he must absolutely never dispense kindness indiscriminately!

"Teacher! Save us!!!" His spiritual force depleted, his magic power unable to retain even a drop to condense a defensive shield, Jeremy completely abandoned his dignity and screamed.

Standing high above, Griffin clicked his tongue. He lazily lifted a finger.

Pop. Pop. Pop.

Five transparent magic bubbles formed instantly, neatly enveloping the five of them the exact moment the tips of their shoes nearly touched the rotting slime. Afterward, these bubbles leisurely floated back up into the air, returning them to their starting position.

"Could you guys... be any more useless?" Griffin’s tone was as caustic as ever, stabbing straight into the geniuses’ self-esteem.

Trapped in the bubbles like ornamental fish, all five remained dead silent, every single one of them looking disheveled.

Griffin sighed, massaging his temples. He truly couldn’t understand why a basic magic that operated so smoothly turned into a comedy act in the hands of these brats. Was failing on the first try supposed to be that easy?

Looking at his students’ pathetic states, Griffin intended to drop a threat but then loosened his limits: "Keep practicing. I’ll give you one more hour. If you still can’t fly, then prepare yourselves to be thrown straight into the stomach of that tree monster by me."

As soon as the words fell, the protective bubbles shattered simultaneously.

Free fall again. But this time, mentally prepared, the five didn’t panic to the point of turning into spinning tops. Even so, controlling the magic wings was like a fledgling bird that had just sprouted feathers; everything was incredibly bumpy and unfamiliar.

Jeremy had always believed that his magic talent wasn’t bad. But today, under the grayish sky of the Wasteland, he experienced firsthand what a disaster-level training process truly meant.

Griffin stood high above with his hands clasped behind his back, his purple eyes looking down apathetically. His students kept falling down, being scooped up by bubbles, then falling down again... Over and over an unknown number of times.

He frowned. The operational steps he taught were clearly very fluid; he couldn’t understand why some still did it wrong. At this rate, they wouldn’t be able to fly even when it got pitch dark.

Could there be a problem with his teaching method?

Griffin shook his head slightly, brushing that thought away. Although this was his first time being a mentor, before the course started, he had personally gone to the Magic Tower to obtain an SS-rank teaching certificate. Furthermore, he felt that his teaching method was already the gentlest and most detailed in the world.

There was absolutely no problem whatsoever. The problem definitely lay in the stupidity of these brats.

It could be said to be a thousand times gentler than what he himself had experienced.

If it were him at this age, regardless of whether it was basic magic or high-difficulty magic, failing more than twice would result in being thrown into a demon cave as punishment.

Could it be that these brats lacked a sense of crisis, which was why they were being lazy?