Zero Wing City, Teleportation Hall.
Hundreds of figures materialized at the center of the teleportation magic circle as streams of light erupted from its runes. In an instant, the teleportation array — large enough to fill a basketball court — was packed wall to wall.
Yet despite the crowding, no one made a sound. Every single person stood frozen in place, as if they had been turned to stone.
"Impossible!"
"Can mana really be this dense?!"
Fan Muran, standing among the crowd, felt the mana saturating the space around her. Shock and disbelief completely overwhelmed her thoughts.
The mana here wasn't condensed into any visible mist, yet the moment she had stepped into this space, it felt as though she had plunged into a lake.
For the first time in her life, she understood what truly heavy, rich mana felt like. Even the mist-state mana she had encountered before couldn't compare to the density here — the difference between them was like heaven and earth.
She carefully took in the sense of tranquility and ethereal clarity that the dense mana brought, and couldn't help but click her tongue in admiration. "Training in this kind of mana environment, or even sparring here — the improvement to combat techniques and magic skills would be at least double what you'd get in any other guild city on the outside."
Although the Divine Realm offered plenty of items that could sharpen a player's mind and quicken their thoughts, all of them paled into insignificance compared to what Zero Wing City's mana alone could provide.
"Double? You're underestimating this place. The mana here isn't just extremely dense." Vice Commander Shen Ying shook her head, her eyes filled with disbelief. "I can clearly feel that the mana affinity here is two or three times higher than the outside — maybe even more. The operating principles of magical elements are far clearer too. If you trained here, the improvement would be at least three or four times greater. And it would probably be a huge help for advancing to Tier 4…"
The reason advancing to Tier 4 was so difficult wasn't simply because finding a Tier 4 inheritance site was troublesome. More importantly, learning Tier 4 magic skills demanded an extremely high degree of understanding of magical elements and mastery over mana. Aside from a tiny handful of geniuses who possessed an innate talent for both, any other player trying to master Tier 4 magic skills to a sufficient completion level within a set timeframe was a near-impossible task.
It was like being told to learn a brand-new programming language. You might recognize every word, but now you had to build an epic game from scratch within a strict deadline — the difficulty of that was self-evident.
It was simply something ordinary people could never accomplish.
All a player could do was keep pushing, keep familiarizing themselves with magical elements, keep deepening their control over mana — only then might they have a chance. But how could it possibly be easy to familiarize oneself with magical elements and improve one's mastery of mana?
Yet here in Zero Wing City, it had become possible.
Upon hearing this, Fan Muran carefully probed the mana affinity of the space around her, and her expression changed dramatically. Indescribable shock filled her eyes.
She had always considered her ability to perceive the operating patterns of magical elements to be fairly high-level. But compared to what she was experiencing now, the difference was astronomical. Before, what she had seen of those trajectories was shrouded in thick fog — incredibly blurry, nearly impossible to discern. Without inheritance records and illustrated guides, there was no way anyone could know how those magical elements actually circulated.
But right now, watching those magical elements move was like looking through a thin veil. She could clearly trace their flow without even straining to observe.
Things about magical element circulation that she had only half-understood before suddenly made perfect sense, as if a fog had lifted from her mind.
"No wonder Guild Master Black Flame dared to openly charge magic crystals for entry, and didn't even worry about whether guild members would come. He even called it a guild benefit and said he didn't want outsiders getting in." Shen Ying probed her own mastery of mana, and a bitter smile crept onto her lips. "Just the mana density alone would be enough to drive countless Tier 3 powerhouses into a frenzy to get in here."
Given how extraordinary Zero Wing City was — its mana density alone already several times more effective for training than any other guild city — and the far clearer operating patterns of magical elements on top of that, it was an opportunity you couldn't hope to find anywhere else. No amount of ordinary training could make up for the difference.
At that moment, Shen Ying wasn't the only one thinking this. Everyone in the teleportation hall had reached the same conclusion.
"Amazing! Absolutely amazing! If I could live here long-term, not only would my combat skills improve — even my Mana Body would probably reach one hundred percent before long!" a young Tier 3 Summoner exclaimed, his eyes shining with excitement he could barely contain.
Even though he had already become a Tier 3 class, reaching one hundred percent completion on his Mana Body was still incredibly difficult. And the difference between a Mana Body at one hundred percent and one below that was enormous when it came to a player's combat power.
He had practically given up hope of ever reaching full Mana Body completion. But now, for the first time, he could see the path forward — and his chances of success were remarkably high. All it would take was time.