"That's quite a surprising piece of information."

After a moment, Belle memorized the name Nidhogg and left the area under Nina's team's influence.

"Tch..."

Nina smirked in annoyance.

She was aware of some things between Belle and Armland. Although she wasn't familiar with Belle, Nina couldn't stand some of Belle’s actions.

In Nina's opinion, apart from strength, everything else is inconsequential in the presence of a sorcerer. Belle, however, refused to publicly acknowledge her relationship with Armland due to her reputation, which Nina found incomprehensible.

Soon, Nina stopped thinking about Belle. After arranging the formation cautiously, she transformed one eye into an eagle's eye to observe the invisible "guardian" near the altar.

Later, Nina ended the eagle-eye spell.

“No, my eagle-eye can’t detect this guardian. Maybe it’s buried underground or is a completely invisible creature—I can’t tell.”

Nina frowned and looked at Robin, saying, “Let your green-eyed monkey have a try. Its eyes react strongly to certain spiritual, ghostly, and mystical entities.”

Robin shook her head. “I’ve already tried; the green-eyed monkey had no reaction.”

This left Nina in a dilemma until Binhan suggested, “How about I sneak in to check?”

“No!”

Nina and Robin both instantly rejected Binhan’s idea.

How could they risk Binhan against such an unknown and bizarre guardian?

Nidhogg suddenly spoke up, “I’ll give it a try.”

“You?”

Nina gave Nidhogg a doubtful look, surprised. “Do you have detection sorcery?”

“Uh…”

Nidhogg wasn't sure how to explain. Should he say he practiced the "Hunter's Nose" technique she threw away in Bisel City?

After a moment of hesitation, Nidhogg simply nodded without speaking further, appearing confident to the others.

Nidhogg approached the confinement magic pillar and fully activated his Hunter's Nose, capturing every scent in the air.

He detected: the smell of grass, mushrooms, rotting branches, body odor, bird droppings...

After a full five minutes without moving, Nidhogg finally gave up. Despite his enhanced sense of smell, he couldn’t detect any trace of the "guardian."

At this moment, a chill ran down Nidhogg's spine at the thought of this hidden "guardian."

Like Nidhogg, other apprentice sorcerers couldn’t gather any information on the "guardian," yet detection spells confirmed its mysterious presence within the confinement magic circle, increasing everyone's dread of it.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Right, try the mask's ultrasonic locating sorcery!

Determined, Nidhogg closed his eyes and activated the ultrasonic sorcery from his mask. Soon, a gigantic "thing" appeared vaguely in Nidhogg's vision.

Hiss...

Nidhogg gasped, shocked. "What on earth is this thing?"

Through the ultrasonic sensing, a massive, transparent liquid-like entity occupied the entire space within the confinement magic circle, surrounding the altar.

Although Nidhogg discovered its presence, he didn't see its actual form but rather the "membrane" around it, which seemed to be a collection of natural energy.

Moreover, this enormous entity appeared to be writhing, unable to escape due to the confinement magic. Tentacle-like appendages seemed to sway gently around it.

Concerning those detection spells, it's less that they were attacked by the "guardian" and more that they entered the "guardian's" body.

Even with ultrasonic detection, the entity remained elusive, and upon opening his eyes, the magic circle appeared a void in regular human vision.

Such a bizarre "bioform" (Nidhogg wasn’t sure if it was a lifeform) was unlike anything he had ever encountered or heard of.

Returning to his team with a somber face, Nidhogg shared his findings with the other five.

“Such an oddity? What kind of monster have these sorcerers assigned as a guardian?” Binhan asked, astonished at the others.

The Yorkris siblings and Nina looked equally troubled, finding this mystery beyond their knowledge challenging. Only Robin seemed hesitant, taking a moment before speaking: “Perhaps... I know what this creature is?”

The others were shocked, turning to Robin: “You know?”

“Uh... when studying contract summoning, I came across a book that described creatures similar to what Nidhogg mentioned—sorcerers call them Void Worms.”

Robin paused, seeing the perplexed expressions, and elaborated.

“According to the book, our infinite world is a conceptual world called the three-dimensional. This world divides into length, width, and height, with time as a barrier preventing higher-dimensional beings from entering, while spatial limits restrict lower-dimensional entities from entering our world.”

“Creatures from different dimensions perceive space and time differently, so even if they exist in the same region, they can’t affect each other. Some unusually gifted sealers might encounter certain dimensional beings in dreams or illusionary spaces.”

Nina, Nidhogg, the Yorkris siblings, and Binhan were stunned, having never encountered such profound sorcery knowledge. This touched upon world and dimensional studies—a realm for sorcerers above level four.

Seeing their dumbfounded looks, Robin felt a surge of accomplishment.

“In sorcery understanding, our three-dimensional infinite world divides into the material and void worlds, like the body of a thing and its shadow. The material world is our sorcerers' realm of exploration and conquest, while the void world... acts as glue? Energy system? Rule? Framework? The book didn’t specify.”

Yorkris asked, “What kind of creature is this Void Worm?”

“Void Worms function like world rules for the material world. Unlike world rules that perfect themselves internally, void worms secrete void energy externally, isolating material worlds to maintain stability.”

“So, without the nearly infinite Void Worms, our material world might soon merge into one.”

Binhan and Yorkliana inhaled sharply at Robin's eerie and profound explanation, while Nina merely frowned slightly before asking, “So how do we deal with this Void Worm and obtain the altar's treasure?”

Clearly, Nina was a practical woman, focusing on real-world solutions.

“Well... Void creatures can’t survive long in the material world, as material beings can’t in the void either. If this is indeed a Void Worm, it’s constantly perishing—not by soul, mind, or body, but by annihilation.”

Robin thought and cautiously added, “In theory, a sorcerer could accelerate this by communicating with nature's rules. However, as apprentices, we might hasten its demise by injecting matter.”

While Nina contemplated the feasibility, Nidhogg quickly asked, “Uh... can I borrow the book you read? I'd like to gain this knowledge, at any price.”

Robin paused in surprise, “Of course.”

Suddenly, Binhan embraced Robin, exclaiming, “Dear, you’re amazing. I didn’t know you were so learned...”

“Idiot, I haven’t agreed to marry you!” Robin replied, pretending to be annoyed.

After a while, Nina finalized the plan, whispering, “We’ll start by casually injecting matter into the circle, with Nidhogg monitoring the Void Worm’s annihilation. Then, at the opportune moment, we’ll snatch the altar’s treasure!”