When the light around Hyperion returned and her vision gradually came into focus, she found herself standing in a hall as vast as a theater.
High above arched a vaulted ceiling adorned with intricate murals depicting scenes from Demon Realm mythology. Though the colors had somewhat faded, they still radiated an indescribable grandeur, casting a soft, hazy glow under the lamplight.
At the center of this hall, atop a raised platform, stood another void portal resembling a deep-purple mirror. Perhaps through it, one could continue down into the prison's lower tiers.
Yet as Hyperion stood at the foot of its steps, she noticed its surface was dead calm, devoid of the rippling water-like ripples across deep purple she had seen on the foundation floor's void portal.
There was likely a lock spell placed upon it; without proper authorization, no one could activate it.
Just as Hyperion shifted her gaze away, she discovered that the Poet of Great Love had collapsed flat onto the ground beside her.
It seemed she had lost her footing upon landing and flopped straight down like a ragdoll.
"Lanfu, my Lanfu."
Hyperion hurried to help the Poet of Great Love up, checking her cheeks for injury.
Fortunately, the Poet of Great Love wore a mask that offered some degree of protection, or her face would probably have been bruised red from the fall.
"Sorry, sorry! Next time we take a portal, I'll definitely hold onto you."
Hyperion apologized repeatedly to the black-haired, green-eyed Poet of Great Love.
"Oh."
The Poet of Great Love wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes and gave an absentminded reply, implying it didn't matter—it wasn't his real body anyway, so it wouldn't break.
"Stay close to me in a moment. Once we leave this hall, we might enter hazardous zones," Hyperion said softly beside the Poet of Great Love, knowing full well that the consciousness inside was Lanqi.
While controlling his true body to stall Warden Bakas, he had only spared a sliver of his attention to pilot the Poet of Great Love and assist her in delving into the prison to complete the mission.
This resulted in the black-haired, green-eyed Poet of Great Love appearing somewhat dimwitted—slow on the uptake, eyes blankly innocent, and prone even to tripping over flat ground.
Although the Poet of Great Love possessed an immortal body, she could still feel pain, and whenever a summoned entity was defeated, it incurred an escalating summoning cooldown in the short term.
A second passed.
"Understood."
The Poet of Great Love nodded.
Seeing the Poet of Great Love in this state, Hyperion stopped dwelling on her and turned her attention to the task at hand.
Because the Herrom Underground Prison of the Imperial Capital had inherited the legacy of an ancient Tier 9 barrier from the Demon Realm, its rules adhered more closely to demon logic.
And a "training assessment" was distinctly different from "formal employment."
After "formal employment," one was generally stationed on a specific floor, only transferring or traveling to other tiers under special circumstances.
A "training assessment," on the other hand, required clearing as many tiers as possible.
The deeper one descended and the higher the evaluation earned on each floor, the higher the tier of diploma granted by the Protos Royal Magic Academy upon completion—and the team might even win the chance to select a magic item from the ancient vault.
Even with Lanqi in power now, he could not alter these core operating mechanisms that had been set in stone since the academy's founding, interconnected as they were with numerous royal institutions of Herrom.
Hyperion did not actually expect to go that far.
She was only a first-year student at Ikerite Academy; coming to the Northern Continent and walking away with a diploma from a prestigious overseas academy was simply too fantastical.
What left Hyperion even more at a loss for words was that the Protos Royal Magic Academy, as an elite overseas institution, was even recognized by the Southern Continent United Council. The magical seal of Emperor Franklin was impossible to forge, and the diplomas along with all related documentation were fully verifiable through the Magic Tower Society back on the Southern Continent.
If Milian Milford managed in three months to complete the journey that should have taken Hyperion Aransal three years, she would almost feel tempted to switch accounts permanently.
Hyperion glanced back at her three exceptionally quiet teammates. Standing in place like the Demon King's personal guard, they waited attentively for orders at any moment.
These were three pure bruisers—and expendable decoys ready to serve as body doubles at a moment's notice.
A well-trained Demon King's Army would never lightly voice personal opinions before their commander.
Then Hyperion raised her forearm, looking at her Protos Royal Magic Academy student wristband, which glowed with a deep-red luminescence.
Formal guards possessed specialized work wristbands for Herrom Prison, while for students participating in the training assessment, their student wristbands served the exact same function.
Deftly and swiftly, Hyperion brushed across the red light atop the black-jade wristband. Lines of text immediately materialized in midair, ten centimeters above the band.
[Within Herrom Prison, the Guard Code must be observed. Attacking other guards or staff by any means is strictly prohibited. A first offense will result in a warning; a second offense will result in immediate classification as a prisoner, suppression by the prison barrier, and custody or execution by fellow guards.]
[On Basement Level 1 of Herrom Prison, completing assignments awards corresponding duty points.]
[Duty points may be exchanged for resources within the prison. The trading privileges for the current tier's duty points will unlock only after fulfilling all requirements to advance to the next tier.]
[In the Protos Royal Magic Academy Guard Internship Program, all earned duty points will be converted upon conclusion into Protos Royal Magic Academy academic credits, or optionally exchanged for Protos yuan equivalent to the corresponding guard wages.]
[Current Location: Herrom Prison Basement Level 1, Teleportation Hall.]
[Work Assignment: Labor Dispatch.]
[You will have broad discretion to accept labor commissions from this tier's warden, earning duty points upon completion.]
[Requirements to advance to Basement Level 2: Complete at least one guard assignment on Basement Level 1, accumulate over 1,000 team duty points, and obtain permission and an evaluation from the Basement Level 1 warden.]
Hyperion quickly scrolled through the prompts.
In this guard internship, duty points were everything—the very currency full-time and intern guards had to strive for.
Although she could not yet see what each tier offered for redemption, the Ice Snow Witch had told her that under Herrom Prison's Tier 9 ancient Demon Realm barrier spell, a unique feature existed:
If one paid a steep enough price, one could even select a desired prisoner and attempt to bind them with an unbreakable, lifelong slave contract.
This "price" presumably referred to what was translated in the Protos tongue as duty points.
Of course, this was merely an opportunity.
As for whether one could successfully persuade them and form the slave contract, that entirely depended on the prisoner's willingness.
Once chosen by a person of status, a prisoner could secure a swift release from prison, but at the cost of becoming a lifelong slave, controlled for the rest of their days.
In demon philosophy, they believed that the strong attracted the strong, and only the strong possessed the opportunity and right to grant rebirth and salvation to other strong beings.
Chapter 391