Chapter 247
Chapter 247: I Can't Tell, I Really Can't Tell
【Magic Mirror】
This was the theme of today's open live-combat examination.
While some students were puzzled by the theme, the majority understood that this examination—named 【Magic Mirror】—had without question been meticulously designed by Professor Viktor.
Viktor's work was always exceptional.
Inside the Academy's most magnificent Lecture Hall, new students brimming with curiosity and excitement arrived one after another to attend the Royal Magic Academy's first magical examination of the year.
What made it even more remarkable was that this was an open examination.
This meant that not only the students, but their parents as well, were permitted to enter the Lecture Hall—and in full view of everyone, the true contents of this live-combat examination would be unveiled.
But what shocked people most was that the Imperial Empress—Claudia—had personally come to the Magic Academy.
She was draped in magnificent golden ornamentation, wearing a noble gown that displayed her perfect figure to stunning effect, holding a fan lightly before her lips. An aura of inviolable Imperial dignity radiated from her presence.
Countless wide-eyed reporters clutching all manner of Magic Stones also swarmed through the crowd, competing frantically to capture this moment on record.
Did the Empress's attendance signal that the Imperial family held extremely high expectations for Professor Viktor's examination?
At that very moment, a swirling haze of smoke began to rise inside the Lecture Hall.
Everyone's eyes followed the smoke as it gradually took the shape of a person, forming first into a black Coat.
Then, beneath the Coat, Viktor 'came to life.'
He stood upright on the platform in that black Coat, his expression utterly composed.
The instant Viktor appeared, the Lecture Hall fell immediately silent—every sound dissolved like ice melting in warm water.
"I am Viktor Clavena, Chief Professor of the Royal Magic Academy."
"And today, I am here to formally announce—the Dungeon is now official."
He delivered his conclusion:
"This Dungeon was designed and completed by myself and my assistant."
As his words fell, Cocotte drifted in from the side, seated on her soft, fluffy white cloud. Even before this assembled crowd, she still wore that same expression of someone too exhausted to find any reason to go on living.
Rashel, seated cheerfully in the front row, had just lifted his cup to take a sip of water when he spotted the new arrival—and nearly choked trying not to spit it out.
Cocotte!?
Peering at the Elf who was practically falling asleep on her cloud, Rashel pushed up his glasses and studied her with open curiosity.
What on earth—why had Cocotte become Viktor's assistant?
Viktor had indeed submitted a request to him for a new Teaching Assistant, stating that he already had someone in mind.
Rashel had approved it accordingly.
But he genuinely had not seen this coming.
How had Viktor—a sitting Council Member—managed to convince a former Council Member to serve as his Teaching Assistant?
And this one, of all people—the chronically lazy Cocotte?
Rashel stared at Cocotte, whose eyes were fighting a losing battle to stay open, her face utterly blank of any joy, her brow carrying the faint air of someone nursing a quiet grievance—and found his expectations thoroughly shattered.
Her body swayed unsteadily on the cloud as though it might give out at any moment. If not for the thin thread visibly tugging at Cocotte from behind, she would almost certainly have already collapsed flat onto the cloud entirely.
Forcibly rebooted, Cocotte held her eyelids up through sheer effort and hazily surveyed the audience below.
She spotted Rashel in the front row and was just about to instinctively wave in greeting when a wave of drowsiness crashed over her brain.
Cocotte's hand started to lift—but her half-asleep mind informed her that the moment she had formed the intention to wave, she had already waved.
Watching Cocotte in such a state of near-collapse, Rashel seemed to understand something. He stroked his beard and gave a soft, amused chuckle.
Viktor pressed his palm downward, and the Lecture Hall fell silent again.
He snapped his fingers.
A deep rumbling boom reverberated from the platform, and an enormous mirror slowly rose into view.
"This is today's examination."
The vast mirror surface reflected the sunlight, scattering it into shimmering, rainbow-colored brilliance.
Viktor looked upon the fully activated Magic Mirror, spread his arms wide toward the assembled crowd, and said:
"Get ready."
"Don't blink."
The instant the words left his mouth, the demonic eyes at the top of the Magic Mirror snapped wide open.
2 beams of purple light—like rays of magic—broke through the darkness with breathtaking force.
The enormous mirror began to shatter, cracking apart like a shell of ice. Countless fragments spiraled around the mirror's frame, flickering like stars scattered across a night sky.
The deep, night-black void did not dissipate—instead, it slowly crept outward around the entire frame as every onlooker watched in stunned disbelief.
The black void expanded like a colossal whirlpool, swallowing the sky, consuming everything in darkness.
The world seemed to lose all its color. The sky and the earth both vanished into a sea of pitch-black—as though swallowed by an endless void.
Within that nothingness, a mysterious purple began to spread.
The boundless, deep violet expanded like some enormous creature, drawing every person present into its depths.
Then in the next instant, the pitch-black curtain began to fracture. The world that had been plunged into darkness seemed to greet the coming of dawn—and everything revealed itself anew before each person's eyes.
And yet what they saw was nothing like what any of them had imagined.
The world before them resembled a miraculous jigsaw puzzle—assembled from countless different scenes, chaotic and surreal.
The once-still sun—like a giant that had been sealed away—had fused at one half with a crescent moon, forming a grotesque, grinning face that hung suspended in the sky.
Every person in the hall couldn't help but draw a sharp breath.
Fissures split open between fragments of space, and the entire world looked like shattered glass—countless severed lines barely holding together, cleaving the earth and the sky apart.
Stars and clouds were jumbled beneath a vast grey expanse. The cracks tore upward from the ground, slicing through the grey from below.
The very earth beneath their feet began to warp and twist.
It was unmistakably a flat grassland—yet on the other side of the fractured ground lay a rugged mountain path, and a valley so deep its bottom couldn't be seen.
Fierce winds surged up from the canyon floor, sweeping through the lush green of the grass, drifting toward a land of crackling lightning where flames raged.
And then, in the blink of an eye, all of it shattered again.
These phenomena left every person present dumbfounded. Every student and every Professor stood rooted to the spot, mouths open, not a single word to be said.
Even Rashel narrowed his eyes, surveying the extreme environment around him, stroking his beard—yet beneath the surface, the faintest ripple stirred within him.
This space was far too strange.
There was absolutely no way that a simple 4th-Tier Mage could have created a Vision like this.
Before everyone's eyes, the world around them began spinning at high speed, like a whirlpool—the bizarre sky gradually merging into one, while the earth beneath their feet began to stretch, cross the fissures, and knit itself back together.
It was as though they stood at the edge where dreams and reality were woven into one, and the entire world suddenly heaved like a churning sea.
Then, in the blink of an eye, an entire city rose up from the ground.
This transformation left the crowd even more astounded.
Within the thriving city, all manner of Demi-humans, Elves, and humans moved busily to and fro along the streets.
They greeted one another warmly, friendly smiles on their faces.
Along both sides of the wide roads, shops and vendors lined the way, the sounds of their calls and hawking filling the air without pause.
Children on the road played joyfully, and the passersby who caught sight of them wore pleasant, unbothered expressions—not a hint of irritation.
Every person who had been transported in felt as though they had arrived in another country, another city entirely.
It felt as though they could simply go on living here, freely and without restraint.
The scene before them made a portion of those present think back to that public lecture Viktor had given—and the extraordinary Dungeon they had experienced within it.
That world had felt more like one Viktor had created to demonstrate the sheer scale of his own power.
That world had consisted only of a blazing sun and a lush forest, assembled from dense concentrations of magical elements.
But the world they now stood in was far more real.
So real, in fact, that everyone who had been brought through could no longer tell whether they were in reality—or inside a Vision.
Claudia stood in the very center of a street when a Carriage came rolling around the corner—heading straight toward her.
One of her guards happened to glance over, caught sight of the oncoming Carriage, and cried out in alarm:
"Your Majesty, watch out!"
He lunged forward in a flash, attempting to stop the Carriage.
But the Carriage continued on its way, completely indifferent. The Cat-girl driving it smiled serenely at the road ahead, gently stroking the horse and urging it onward—as though she had never once seen Claudia standing in the middle of the street.
And then the Carriage passed straight through Claudia's body.
Like a faint breeze drifting through, a peculiar pull flowed through her.
In that moment, every pair of eyes in the vicinity went wide in shock.
What—what had just happened to that Carriage?
It had passed through her like she was a ghost!
Claudia raised her hand, feeling the airflow and the light brush of wind around her. She could tell with absolute clarity that the world around her—and she herself—were real.
The Empress lifted her hand, feeling the movement of the air and the gentle touch of the breeze.
She could clearly sense that the world around her was indeed real.
She herself existed in this world that was as tangible as reality.
And yet the bustling crowds on the street seemed to have never seen her—entirely indifferent to her and her companions' existence.
They could not even be touched, let alone affected in any way.
Claudia absorbed the scene before her and opened her mouth to ask:
"Those people… what is going on with them?"