Nightmare's Call

“Darksider Tools?” Lin Sheng looked at the pictures in the brochure, and it seemed to be some special items formed out of machine and dark powers.

Among them were mechanical limbs, strength enhancement equipment, speed enhancement equipment, elasticity enhancement, endurance enhancement, animal prosthetics, and the like.

“Seems pretty decent.” Lin Sheng looked at the prices. The cheaper ones were just a few hundred dollars and the most expensive cost around tens of thousands of Migan dollars.

Along the way, the street had all sorts of shops tightly packed together, and he would never finish looking at them. Most of them were mainly selling Darksider equipment or potions.

Some were clubs or experience centers.

Lin Sheng had no idea what these experience center clubs with their thick fuming smokes were all about. They had no signboards or descriptions, and only lines of customers going in or out of it.

Only after he had gotten to the latter half of the street that the crowd died down a little.

There were a number of large cars parked outside the shop lots on both sides of the road, and the car plates seemed to indicate that they were heading to different districts in Miga.

Lin Sheng reached the end of the street and stopped at the last garbage transfer station before turning back toward where he came from.

Not long later, he returned to the busy street that he had originally arrived in and headed in the opposite direction.

That other street was slightly longer, but not by much.

After moving across the entire Flowing Avenue, Lin Sheng estimated the entire street to be about three kilometers long, and what impressed him was, every living person in this street seemed to come and go the way he did.

All of them were using dark powers to open up a mysterious portal to arrive here safely.

Meaning, if not for their mastery of those portals, very few people would have found the place.

“It’s like a mini Hidden Realm...” Lin Sheng wondered.

Half an hour later, he once again reached the end of the other side of the Flowing Avenue.

Over there it was an endless barren plain filled with yellow sand. Aside from the people on the street, there were no living things there at all.

After window shopping for a while, Lin Sheng returned to his point of arrival, and with a tap of dark powers, the scenery before him changed as he returned once again to the fields outside the Soul Fortress.

The cacophony around him disappeared as a serene quiet of the fields greeted him.

After regaining his composure, Lin Sheng walked back toward the fortress, and soon he was passed the main gate and back into the classroom.

The professor was not in the classroom. Only two students, who had reached earlier were whispering to each other.

Mylissa was not there too.

Lin Sheng looked at the time before going over to the canteen, and after his meal, he went back to his room to rest.

He only returned to the classroom about two in the afternoon. It was almost time for the afternoon session.

Professor Auldmandiller was already sitting by the edge of the classroom drinking a glass of water, and before him was a short-haired youth whom he had never seen before.

The youth had an impatient look in his eyes. He was clad in some sort of white fitting uniform, and on his wrist was a black-leather watch.

“He’s here. This is your junior, Lin Sheng from Xylond!” The professor burst into a smile the moment he saw Lin Sheng enter the classroom.

The youth turned over to Lin Sheng and gave him a measuring, towering look.

He was indeed tall, at least two meters in high, and he stood before Lin Sheng like a bamboo pole.

“You called me back just for this?” the youth grumbled. “Sir, I’m a busy person, I don’t have time to waste on this sort of unimportant meetings! Please don’t bother me with this in the future, alright?”

Auldmandiller’s originally happy face turned awkward with the youth’s grumbling and tantrum.

“Alright, I’ll be leaving.” The youth ignored Auldmandiller and simply walked past Lin Sheng before disappearing into the hallway.

“Don’t mind that, Lin Sheng. Your senior is a very busy person. He’s very tensed up due to the qualifiers. This will affect whether he will get a full Carte Blanche research grant or not...”

“No worries.” Lin Sheng was initially worried about Auldmandiller having some sinister plans for him, but it now seemed that he was just thinking too much.

His senior’s attitude toward the professor seemed to be bad, yet Auldmandiller’s treatment of his senior was the same as him, accommodating as always.

“Your senior is called Mokhra, and he is posted at Carte Blanche’s Ninestar Mere. His aptitude is excellent, and just like you, he’s a Darkheart as well.”

Auldmandiller fought through the slight awkwardness and helplessness as he explained.

Lin Sheng nodded and let the topic rest.

“Then, sir, I suppose you’ll be talking about the training methods for dark powers in the afternoon?”

“Hmmm, I’ve planned for the training practice to be done later, but since you want to accelerate that, I can adjust the teaching plan. We’ll talk about how to train one’s dark powers today.”

Auldmandiller’s genial smile returned.

In the afternoon, as Lin Sheng chatted with Auldmandiller, a few new apprentices entered the classroom as well.

After everyone was present, Auldmandiller started the lecture about how to train one’s dark powers.

“As for the training of dark powers, every school has their own methods and teachings, and Baine University here has twenty-seven main schools.

Now that you’ve joined my Soul Fortress, I can allow all of you to choose the Soul Fortress’ unique Crystal school as your main training method.

Auldmandiller waved his hand as he stood at the lectern.

Soon, a series of silver crystal slivers flickered in the air. Very quickly, however, they disappeared and things returned to normal.

But on Auldmandiller’s lectern, a gigantic silver crystal the size of a human head appeared on it.

The crystal was a perfect orb, and within it was a series of compact light points. It was enchantingly beautiful as Mylissa and the other girls gasped in amazement.

Girls were always much more easily attracted to pretty things like this than boys.

“The Soul Fortress’ dark power training method is our own unique Legacy Crystals. It is beautiful, powerful, yet extremely difficult.”

Auldmandiller was pleased with the reaction of his apprentices.

“I’ll teach all of you the preliminary training methods. This level is free, but if you want to continue further, you’ll need to pay the fees. I’ll publish the fees list later.”

As he got there, he looked at Lin Sheng.

“But of course, Lin Sheng could learn it all for free. This is the natural benefits of a Darkheart.”

Lin Sheng smiled amidst the envious gazes.

Mylissa sat in a corner and bit her lips. She looked at her hands, which had been toiling for a good part of the day. Her gentle, smooth palms were horribly unmade by the corrosive nature of the potions.

She could not help but to look at Lin Sheng’s hands, it was clean and smooth, without any scars.

They were new students from the same batch...

When she thought of that, a painful bitterness welled up within her.