The blinding blue light of the teleportation array swallowed my vision.
The spatial displacement felt exactly like being violently yanked through a frozen keyhole.
My ears popped, my stomach dropped, and the crisp, clean air of the Academy courtyard was instantly replaced by something entirely different.
My boots hit soft, damp earth. I immediately bent my knees, absorbing the shock of the materialization, my right hand instinctively dropping toward the hilt of my sword.
The Obsidian Woods lived up to its name.
The ambient light plummeted. Massive, towering trees with bark as dark as forged iron stretched up into a thick, overlapping canopy that almost completely blocked out the sun.
The air was incredibly heavy, thick with the smell of wet moss, decay, and the sharp, metallic tang of concentrated, untamed mana.
"Ugh, disgusting," someone groaned immediately.
