Magic Academy's Genius Blinker Chapter 529: Stella (2)

A refreshing gentle breeze swept over the meadow. Baek Yu-Seol lounged lazily in the field, allowing the wind to mess up his hair.

"What... is this...?"

[Search Result: Gentle Breeze]

[Classified as wind force level 3, a gentle breeze has an average speed between 3% and 5%... ]

"No, I’m not interested in that."

He casually lifted a hand to take off his Sentient Spec, but then noticed the floating message in front of him wasn’t coming from the glasses on his face... it simply hung there in the air.

He touched his face, dug into his bag, retrieved his real Sentient Spec, and gazed at it closely.

"Hey."

No response.

Naturally, Sentient Spec weren’t built to answer casual greetings like that.

"Sigh..."

Giving up, Baek Yu-Seol slipped on the specs and asked something more useful.

"Can you figure out where this place is?"

[Unable to determine location.]

[Scanning terrain in a 200-meter radius could allow comparison to the world map for location estimation.]

"I see..."

After all, Sentient Spec didn’t come with an embedded satellite. Demanding instant location tracking from them was unreasonable.

But why? How? Why here?

He had to quickly uncover why he’d been sent to this spot and precisely where he was.

Thus, Baek Yu-Seol started walking.

Whoosh... rustle...

Wind rustled through the grass, making it sway softly while the boundless meadow extended ahead. He kept walking, accompanied only by the endless sea of green.

[Searching...]

Far more than the 200 meters Sentient Spec needed had passed, but it still failed to identify his position.

Did Aether World even have such a barren meadow?

Nearly all grasslands across the Aether Continent bore marks from dark magic pollution or magical progress. This spawned bizarre mutated flora and fierce monsters prowling the fields.

Weren’t the Lower Waning Moon Plains filled with sky-high flowers?

Though these effects stemmed from magical quirks tied to civilization’s growth, their stunning allure and environmental boosts ensured nobody griped about them.

[Searching...]

"Still no results?"

[More data is required.]

"This doesn’t make sense. How many grasslands this vast exist in the Aether Continent? With such a large meadow, can’t you at least narrow it down to a general location?"

[Searching with additional data provided.]

[Searching...]

[Search Result: None.]

[No location in Aether World matches this area.]

"...What?"

Baek Yu-Seol halted abruptly.

[Does not exist.]

Those two words spun absurdly in his thoughts.

"Wait, are you saying... this place isn’t on the Aether Continent?"

[Correct.]

[No flat grassland with a 349-meter radius, free of obstacles or anomalies in an expanded visible range of 3,289 meters, appears on Aether World’s map.]

Baek Yu-Seol quickly surveyed around him, then launched himself skyward with successive flashes.

Rising tens of meters high, he at last grasped the sheer oddity of this realm.

"Hah..."

Grasslands. Nothing but grasslands.

No woods. No trees. No settlements. No creatures. Zilch.

Just an immense, barren stretch... a simple plain devoid of anything else.

Thud!

Hitting the ground again, Baek Yu-Seol stared blankly at the sky.

"Constellations... If night falls, I can use the constellations to determine my location."

Yet even uttering it, he struggled to accept his own statement.

And why should he?

The overhead sky stretched perfectly clear, without a trace of clouds.

Beyond the blazing sun above, the enormous void held nothing at all. On the verge of madness, Baek Yu-Seol spoke to the Sentient Spec once more.

"Cancel the location search and instead... scan for spatial distortions and mana anomalies in the area."

This space felt far from normal.

Perhaps it was a man-made pocket dimension or a natural extradimensional realm detached from the real world.

[Search Results: No spatial distortions detected.]

[Search Results: No unusual mana waves detected.]

"Is that so..."

That boosted the chances it was a natural extradimensional space.

Man-crafted pocket dimensions invariably showed traceable mana irregularities or distortions.

Yet this truth worsened his plight.

In an artificial realm, he might dissect and hack its framework to break free. But a natural extradimensional space? Escaping that seemed impossible.

A flash of insight hit him suddenly—he recalled the legends of witch hunters chasing after Scarlet, only to meet grim ends.

Whispers claimed that sentinels at Scarlet’s prison had slain every intruder seeking her, yet the facts stayed murky.

Indeed, since all who pursued Scarlet perished, how could the truth ever be confirmed?

"Actually... was there never a guardian to begin with?"

No sentinel stood guard over the prison.

Rather, those attempting to locate Scarlet received their own inescapable prison as retribution.

The prior witch hunters searching for this realm were probably ensnared here too, doomed to wander endlessly until they withered away into nothingness.

In essence, though this dimension wasn’t crafted by human hands, it possessed both an entry and an escape route.

Without such paths, dragging a living soul from the real world into here would prove impossible.

"If I ended up here, an exit must exist somewhere."

Could someone as ordinary as him mimic the technique of the supreme entity who sealed Scarlet with unmatched might?

Ignoring his uncertainties, Baek Yu-Seol grasped at the slim chance that escape remained possible.

"Think hard, Baek Yu-Seol."

Uncover the path to freedom.

Baek Yu-Seol halted, scanning the area around him.

This vast plain held only grass and endless sky. Lacking any spatial ripples, spotting an exit by mere wandering seemed utterly futile.

Should experts like Hong Bi-Yeon or Flame, masters of vast mana reserves, find themselves confined here, they could regenerate power each day and hunt for dimensional rifts.

Yet for Baek Yu-Seol, such a feat lay beyond reach.

In that scenario—

"...I simply require aid from another magic-wielding entity, right?"

Why did he insist on tackling everything alone?

No reason for that existed.

He had entered this realm to save Scarlet, after all.

Being caught in this bizarre domain already brought him nearer to her.

"That’s it..."

Past witch hunters trapped here likely arrived at the identical realization.

"Someone deliberately pulled me into this natural pocket dimension, so locating the exit is all I need!"

Yet Baek Yu-Seol differed greatly from those earlier witch hunters.

The witch hunters invaded to slay Scarlet, and once ensnared, they abandoned any thought of alliance, meeting their doom in isolation.

However...

Baek Yu-Seol held firm belief that freeing Scarlet would unlock his departure from this trap.

The ancient White Witch, Scarlet, who endured for centuries—

"What defies me would be child’s play for her."

"I must locate Scarlet..."

Murmuring those words, he advanced a step. Then, a buzz vibrated from his wrist.

"Huh?"

He pushed up his sleeve, spotting the white bracelet shimmering and humming softly.

"Scarlet’s bracelet..."

He recalled the summer vacation spent in intense training, where he forged numerous artifacts for Scarlet.

Back then, Scarlet had playfully handed him this bracelet, claiming she crafted it personally.

Lacking any magical traits or functions, he wore it anyway as a cherished present.

"Is this... the ’key item’ the prophet spoke of?"

The prophet mentioned needing an item tied directly to Scarlet as the toll to reach her.

Snap!

That notion sparked as fissures spiderwebbed across the bracelet.

The bracelet served as the ’price,’ its strength gradually crumbling!

This implied... the bracelet shattered while leading him straight to Scarlet.

He thrust his arm bearing the bracelet ahead swiftly.

Vibrations intensified.

Undeniably, this pointed the true path.

Confident now, Baek Yu-Seol launched forward, devouring dozens of meters in a blink. His pulse raced, a subtle grin curving his mouth.

He dashed onward, accelerating relentlessly.

Whether cardinal directions mattered in this void remained unknown, but the bracelet held steady on one course.

Crack...

Fissures widened on the bracelet, yet its signals surged fiercer.

Crack, snap!

Had he foreseen this, he’d have requested a tougher bracelet as her gift!

That regret flickered through his mind mid-sprint—

Abruptly, directly ahead—

Boom!!!

"Ugh?!"

A colossal door crashed down from overhead.

Baek Yu-Seol skidded to an abrupt stop on instinct, tumbling onto the ground. Eyes bulging in bewilderment, he stared up at the towering barrier.

"What is this...?"

Not even the word 'gigantic' came close to capturing its scale.

So vast was the door that it looked like it pierced the heavens, possibly extending into the stars themselves. Its towering height meant Baek Yu-Seol, standing right beside it, still couldn't spot the summit.

How could such a monumental structure have slipped past his awareness until this moment?

Magic had surely hidden it away... and in a manner that felt enchantingly otherworldly.

"Ha... That took forever."

Straining with effort, Baek Yu-Seol hauled himself up from the ground and shuffled slowly toward the door.

[Scanning for magic...]

[Scan complete: Trial of Worthiness detected.]

The Sentient Spec picked up a strange form of magic called the Trial of Worthiness.

Naturally, Baek Yu-Seol had never encountered this magic before, yet oddly, he sensed he could grasp its function on instinct.

Its gaze pierced right through him.

The whole door resembled a enormous vigilant eye, like a tremendous entity staring down from on high.

That ancient presence, asleep for centuries, now roused itself to judge if Baek Yu-Seol deserved to enter.

And the outcome—

Screeeech—!!!

Of course, he succeeded.

The colossal door, far too immense for any physical force to budge, swung open wide.

A flawless white void stretched before him, spotless and immaculate, though its stark purity sliced sharper than blood.

This domain was ideal for Scarlet... pristine and undefiled, but laced with a deep crimson tint.

Inhaling deeply, Baek Yu-Seol ventured forth into that realm.