r18novel Chapter 15: The Annual Performance Review is Here
Chapter 15: The Annual Performance Review is Here
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"take off!"
Whoosh—!
A strong airflow swept up the fallen leaves on the ground, and the Winter Feather Sparrow, carrying Lin Ze, shot straight into the sky like an arrow released from a bow.
This flight experience was completely different from the last one.
After more than a month of intensive training with heavy sandbags, the Winter Feather Sparrow's claw strength had reached an extremely terrifying level. Its claws were like hydraulic clamps, firmly locked onto Lin Ze's armor. No matter how fast it accelerated or climbed in the air, Lin Ze felt as steady as Mount Tai.
These are secondary; the most important thing is that we are more secure when we have Lin Ze under our control.
"Turn left! Dive rapidly! And then do a big loop!" Lin Ze excitedly commanded from mid-air.
The Winter Feathered Sparrow executed Lin Ze's every command perfectly. It traced thrilling trails across the night sky, sometimes like a shooting star falling to earth, sometimes like a swallow darting through the forest. The immense centrifugal force and wind pressure thrilled Lin Ze, but the claws on his shoulders never loosened even a millimeter.
The special training proved to be extremely successful. The Winter Sparrow is now an absolutely safe and high-performance private fighter jet. There's no longer any worry about being dropped halfway through a flight.
After experiencing a high-altitude race for more than ten minutes, Lin Ze had Dong Yuque land on the top of the mountain behind the mountain.
A cool night breeze ruffled Lin Ze's hair. He looked down at the dimly lit Bo City in the distance, but his eyes did not show any smugness about his recent success. Instead, they held a deep sense of urgency.
"Although Xiaodong is strong in combat and flies very steadily, it is limited by its size and can only fly by grabbing my shoulder with its claws. This posture is okay for short-distance emergencies, but if it is a long journey or encounters fierce air combat, my spellcasting will be greatly restricted, and my body cannot withstand the pulling for a long time."
Lin Ze muttered to himself, his brows furrowing slightly.
He knew very well that the Winter Feather Sparrow's current form was not its final form.
In the evolution encyclopedia of "Roco Kingdom", the Winter Feather Sparrow can evolve into a higher-level form - the Storm Bird after reaching a certain level!
Once it successfully evolves, its size will increase dramatically, with a wingspan that can reach several meters wide, a broad and flat back, and feathers that act like the toughest magical shield.
At that time, Lin Ze would no longer have to suffer hanging in mid-air. He could comfortably ride on the broad back of the Storm Bird, and even set up his magic wand on its back to unleash magic without restraint, becoming a true bird knight who would strike fear into the hearts of all his enemies!
"But... my current cultivation level is the biggest obstacle to Xiaodong evolving into a Storm Bird and Dimo breaking through to the Warrior level."
Lin Ze closed his eyes, sensing the summoning stardust in his spiritual world that had reached saturation and could no longer expand even a little bit.
According to the rules of the world of Full-Time Mage, the contracted beasts of a novice mage can only be stuck at the servant-level advancement stage at most. No matter how much essence or beef Lin Ze feeds them, they cannot cross that chasm of life level.
Only when Lin Ze's magical cultivation breaks through its shackles, transforming that stardust into a more vast nebula capable of containing more magical energy, and successfully advancing to the level of an intermediate mage, can his contracted beasts undergo a true transformation!
"Intermediate level..."
Lin Ze suddenly opened his eyes, his fists clenched tightly, his eyes burning with ambition and fighting spirit.
"The bloody catastrophe of Bo City is not far off. Before that disaster strikes, I must, and absolutely must, break through to the intermediate level! Only by reaching the intermediate level, and allowing Dimo and Xiaodong to complete their evolution, will I be qualified to protect those I want to protect and control my own destiny in that meat grinder-like catastrophe!"
"Starting tomorrow, aside from necessary combat, all time will be devoted to meditation and intensive training!"
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"Have you heard? After this quarter's training ends, we'll begin our mage trials."
"What exactly is this 'mage training' thing?"
"It's about going to the wilderness."
"No way, I've heard since I was little that there are monsters in the wild, the kind that eat people alive. I'm not going there."
"We can't not go. This experience is related to our college entrance exams; it's a very important subject."
"It's just a trial, what's there to be afraid of? We're magicians, even if we encounter demons, we can just freeze them into ice sculptures with an ice vine."
"But I've heard that demons are very powerful. Didn't our demon class teacher keep emphasizing that we should never face demons alone?"
Just as Teacher Tang Yue said, after this training season ends, we will immediately face a brutal wilderness training, and if nothing unexpected happens, we will likely encounter real demons.
The class on demons has always been there, and the teacher has been talking about demons in everyone's ears for who knows how many years. However, none of the students have ever seen a real demon. Even if they secretly watch some demon videos online, it's no different from watching an American Godzilla blockbuster.
This time, the students were finally going to see real demons. As soon as the news was released, the whole school was talking about it.
The training will begin with the top students.
After the annual assessment, the top students had basically mastered seven stars. Now, more than half a year has passed, and everyone should be able to skillfully control their own department's skills.
Only students who have mastered magical skills are allowed to go out and train; ordinary people are powerless against demons.
Unlike the other anxious and nervous students, Lin Ze was much more composed. He knew that this practical training was arranged by Zhan Kong, and it was basically just to see how these students performed.
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The top class has a total of 100 students, who will be divided into 5 groups, with about 20 students in each group.
Teachers will accompany the group, and two instructors will lead the team.
Each group had its own large bus, so five school buses carried a group of young magicians out of the city.
The route has been roughly decided, and we will be heading to Xuefeng Mountain Station.
Xuefeng Mountain Station is an important small village for hunters of the Hunter Alliance to connect with Bo City for supplies. The entire village is built in the valley.
After boarding the bus and passing through a large area of wasteland outside the city, one after another, mountains and forests came into view.
The mountains and forests are lush and deep, with dense foliage and overgrown weeds nearby, and distant peaks scattered amidst thick clouds.
The bus drove into the mountains, a journey that took most of the day.
Hua Tianhao spent most of the day catching up on sleep. His recent late-night cultivation had caused him severe sleep deprivation, so he took advantage of the time spent traveling to catch up on sleep.
In stark contrast to him was Mo Fan, who sat next to him and also maintained his meditation on the bus.
We finally arrived at Xuefeng Mountain Station.
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