I Don’t Want To Court Death!

Yang Yang and the Bone Squad traveled throughout the first eight layers with the legacy students. As they descended lower, the Arcane Sapphires would be bigger and denser in magical power, and the number of treasures were greater as well. 

Much to the legacy students dismay, Yang Yang would be the first to locate treasures and completed any trial required to earn them such defeating beasts and challenges. Fortunately for them, although he found many treasures, Yang Yang saw them as unattractive tools. He largely gave them away to his followers and the legacy students. 

Though, what attracted him the most was the Bone Squad’s extraction of the Arcane Sapphires. Instead of digging the ores itself, the earth around the ores would be collected as well so the crystals would essentially remain with the cave. They would then store the earth and crystals into a large spatial pocket in the warship. 

“Why did you not collect the Arcane Sapphires from these greater layers, but instead went up to those weaker layers?” Yang Yang asked. 

“Lord Yang, the ores in the greater layers are usually bigger and connect to greater amounts of earth. It’s usually too heavy and strong for us to collect with the cult's Arcane-Extractor spell. In fact, we originally dug from the Sixth Layer, but our Bone Squad was reduced by a few people because of conflicts so we had to dig at the Fourth Layer,” said Bone One while controlling an Arcane-Extractor spell formation with Bone Two and Bone Three. “However, now that we have more people here, we can afford to collect more crystal ores. The only downside is that there’s a limited amount of space in the spatial pocket of our warship.” 

Yang Yang looked at the black spell formation at the center of the warship. It rotated erratically and appeared to be a large sphere rather than a large circle. “Say, who set up this spatial formation?” 

“It was the Sacred Master, Lord Yang. At least, that’s what we know.” Bone Three replied, but he did not dare to say more than that. 

"This Sacred Master must be a Space Magic magus since only Wisdom Kings can begin gaining insights into Space Magic. Of course, there's also a small chance that this Sacred Master has a unique spell that puts him at the Wisdom King level. If it's the former, I'm good. If it's the latter, I'm screwed." 

Yang Yang continued to watch the mining process with interest while the legacy students were in the back fighting other creatures. Occasionally, they would look back with red, heated eyes. 

......

The whole group spent two weeks in the Eighth Layer before going to the Ninth Layer. Unlike the first eight layers, which were mainly cave labyrinths, the Ninth Layer was an empty space with a myriad of large holes in the ground. 

From what Yang Yang could see on the warship, there were thousands of these holes. Strangely, these holes would close up like mouths and other holes would appear in another empty space. These holes usually don't stay for long, at most ten minutes. 

"The Ninth Layer is entirely composed of these wormholes to the Tenth Layer. In fact, the Ninth and Tenth Layers are actually transitioning regions. If the first nine floors are desolate lands with few life and perpetual gloom, then the last nine layers are paradise with rich resources, radiance, and life. The only thing valuable among these layers are the Arcane Sapphires, but everything else that is valuable can be located underneath," explained Eldest Brother Yang. 

"However, there's a catch." Seventh Sister Jade stepped up. "As you may already know, very few people ever leave the Arcane Abyss. The first nine layers are relatively simple to go through; the next nine layers, on the other hand, are entirely separate worlds. There are a few condition you must abide to when you enter the Tenth to Eighteenth Layers." 

"First, once you enter, you must conform to the rules established by the Arcane Abyss. The abyss will put a seal on you. This seal will prevent you from leaving the Arcane Abyss unless you force your way out with the power of a Wisdom King. You can not become a Wisdom King here so you must somehow gather enough insights and maximize your magical power to reach that level of power. Of course, this is very difficult, so not many people can accomplish that. This is why so many remain here until their death." 

"Second, if you can leave this place, the seal will lock your memories that involve the Arcane Abyss. It can not lock everything, such as emotions felt during that time period, but it can lock up information about any trials or secrets. That's why a lot of details in the intelligence report regarding the Arcane Abyss are vague or minuscule." 

She looked at Yang Yang with tearing eyes. "See? This is why it's hard for us to return because we all do not have Wisdom King level power. If you choose to go with us, then you'll be restricted by the same conditions as we are. You can not leave unless you become a Wisdom King level magus. You should go. Leave. It's for your own good." 

"Girl, that is so fake," Yang Yang thought to himself. He felt like laughing, but instead blandly smiled to hide his emotions. "No worries, Senior Sister Jade. As a legacy student, I'm sure I can leave this place one day as well. Since I'm already here, I'll go all the way." 

Eldest Brother Yang nodded with an approving smile. He grabbed Seventh Sister Jade by the arm and steered his warship downward. The other two warships went down as well. Yang Yang felt the magical laws of Arcane Abyss descend on him and formed a blue-colored mark on his left shoulder; it depicted the image of waves at sea. He could also see a faint outline of another design on the blue-colored mark, but it was too transparent. 

......

"Seventh Sister, what the hell are you doing? Why did you try to tell him to go!?" 

"Yeah, and why did you explained all that stuff? We didn't know about it at first, so he didn't have to either!" 

"Are you trying to protect an outsider?"

"No, no, no. I wasn't trying to do something like that. I was just trying to taunt him into going with us. See? I told him to leave so it would wound his pride and then he would be conflicted on whether to go or not. But I knew he was going to go anyways. It's not like I was trying to protec-" 

"Enough! Stop with the chit-chat. We already got him to go. Contact the main base. I'm sure they would love to hear about the big fish we caught. First phase of the plan has been accomplished, so now we are on the second phase. Get ready, everyone. It's going to be slow, but we need to wait patiently. Soon, everything will come together." 

Laughter like hissing of a snake rang out. Yet, it went unnoticed by any other creature like the first man, who if had destroyed the snake before it could hiss its evil spell, would still be in paradise and not be damned.