The Most Arbitrary Wizard

Chapter 181: Chapter 106: Black Sea

"How can this be...?"

Yisha was bewildered by the pure blackness before her. She couldn’t understand why the chasm below the cliff was such a void-like black. It was as if World’s End was a literal end, a place where their world simply stopped, forbidding any further passage. The feeling of a boundary was overwhelming.

It was like a scene from a movie where the protagonists walk in one direction, only to find a dimensional wall filled with grids and code. ’Is the world we live in fake, too?’

"Where’s the highway?"

"Where’s the city skyline?"

None of the things that should have been below the cliff were there. Full of anticipation just moments before, the group now stood frozen in place.

"Maybe it’s just too dark to see?" Koni whispered, glancing at a disappointed Sean.

Sean didn’t answer.

He was trying to figure out what had gone wrong.

Seeing his silence, Elise spoke up. "Let’s just wait. It’ll be dawn soon, anyway."

Kate looked to his teacher with a questioning gaze.

Adelf shook his head and let out a soft sigh.

The deep night would hinder a normal person’s sight, but many Wizards were an exception. Their spiritual perception was far keener than their eyes. Yet the blackness below the cliff was not only beyond the reach of sight, but also impervious to perception—even his own.

Adelf couldn’t see what lay beneath the cliff, either.

Meanwhile, Lante was walking around the icy plateau, searching for any unique plants. According to the Alchemy Atlas, certain materials only grew in places perennially covered by ice and snow. Finding any would lend credence to Sean’s claims about a "New World."

But the result left Lante deeply disappointed.

On this vast, cliff-top plateau, there was nothing but ice.

He tried using his Magic Power to break through the surface. Beneath lay frozen earth and rock. This was just an ordinary mountain peak, its only distinguishing feature being its exceptional height. There was nothing else special about it.

Time ticked by in the silent, dejected atmosphere.

Soon, the eastern sky began to lighten.

A ray of dawn pierced the darkness, scattering the night and painting the eastern clouds with the colors of sunrise.

Watching the sunrise from a mountaintop should have been a romantic experience. The sight was one rarely seen, beautiful beyond words.

But Sean and the others were in no mood to appreciate it.

Because the chasm below the cliff remained pitch-black.

If, during the night, they couldn’t be sure whether it was simply darkness or a true void, now it was unmistakably clear.

Far from dissipating with the rising sun, the blackness seemed to grow more "solid" in the strengthening light. The more vivid the colors of the dawn became, the more lifeless the darkness appeared. It resembled a boundless black sea, stretching to the distant sunrise and meeting the horizon, creating a stark contrast: red sky above, black sea below.

"What in the world is going on?"

Everyone could see something was wrong with this blackness, but no one knew what to do about it.

"Are we... supposed to jump?" Elise guessed.

Unwilling to accept this, Kate said, "I’ll go try."

But Adelf stretched out an arm to stop him.

"Don’t go looking for death."

Kate: "..."

Adelf gazed down at the chasm, his expression grave. "There are only two possibilities for this blackness."

"One, it’s a man-made Barrier, meant to conceal whatever is beneath the cliff."

Kate asked, confused, "Then isn’t that all the more reason for us to go down?"

"You will die," Adelf said, staring at him.

Not only was Kate ill-suited for operating in darkness, but the sheer power required to create such a vast expanse of it was beyond anyone they could hope to face. If this endless black sea was a form of Magic, it had far surpassed Tier Six, reaching a level beyond mortal comprehension.

A Barrier cast by a Wizard of that caliber was a death sentence for any who dared to enter.

"The second possibility," Adelf continued, "is that it’s a natural phenomenon." Personally, he was more inclined to believe this explanation.

He had a vague memory of something similar, a report from the Era of Polymath about a so-called "Black Sea."

And it was no easier to "deal with" than a man-made one.

As Adelf had said before, humanity was insignificant in the face of nature. Regardless of which possibility was true, if one wished to explore or even cross the Black Sea, they would need to be at least a Grand Mage just to have a chance of survival.

"..."

Those words left Kate speechless.

It was common knowledge that the world no longer had the resources for a Wizard to break through to Tier Seven.

They had come searching for the New World precisely for those resources. But now they were being told that to get the resources, they first had to reach Tier Seven. Wasn’t that a catch-22?

Elvire hadn’t given up. She was still trying to think of a solution.

"Should we try to contact the people who have been here before?"

The ground was littered with flags, most bearing names or team emblems. For the Dawn Council, tracking these people down wouldn’t be difficult. That way, they could gather more information about World’s End—at the very least, they could find out if the chasm had always been this pitch-black.

"I’ll help you," said Elise.

She understood Elvire. Normally, Elvire would be the first to question something like the existence of the Kovri Ruins. Her lack of skepticism now meant she had already come to a conclusion. Their job was simply to help her unearth the "answer."

"I’ll read out the names, you jot them down," Elvire said.

Elise nodded. "Okay."

"Flor."

"Johnson."

"The Michigan Giant Stone Club..."

"The Krobel Club of Siracle State... Huh?"

"Chris?"

Elvire had started with the flags at her feet. As she scanned them, she found a small flag with the name "Chris" on it. She paused, slightly stunned, and looked up at Sean. "Isn’t that your friend?"