The few of them still planned to form a team after the assessment began to increase the success rate of passing the assessment.

In the last assessment, they also relied on sticking together to make others somewhat cautious.

The format of this assessment was still unknown, but forming a team in advance was definitely not an issue.

Simon also tried to gather information about this assessment through some channels, but unfortunately, he couldn't find a single piece of information.

...

The day of the assessment arrived quickly, and Duke and Simon, together with the third person, arrived at the familiar dock and boarded the ship.

This time, there were much fewer participants in the assessment, only a little over a hundred people.

Duke remembered that during the assessment for third-class Wizard Apprentices, there were over three hundred people, and now there were obviously much fewer.

However, this could only represent the number of people participating in this batch of assessments. Even for the second-class Wizard Apprentices' assessment, it was conducted in batches.

It's even possible that two second-class Wizard Apprentices might have different assessment content.

The person in charge of this batch of Wizard Apprentice assessments was Selene. She was well-liked and popular among the Wizard Apprentices, and was currently on deck interacting with the surrounding Wizard Apprentices.

When Duke walked over, he happened to hear Selene say, "I cannot disclose the specifics of the assessment, but I can give a hint: prepare more food and water..."

No one knew why they needed to prepare more food and water, but since Selene said so, the Wizard Apprentices also followed her advice.

The Wizard next to her hurriedly pulled Selene aside, a red-haired man: "Selene, please stop; you're practically revealing the assessment content..."

Selene chuckled, "I won't say anymore, I won't say anymore..."

She just felt that the assessment content was a bit tough, and without giving any information to these Wizard Apprentices, it might lead to a rather high casualty rate.

Selene couldn't bear to see such tragedies, so she couldn't help but give a little reminder.

Duke and Simon exchanged glances with their companions; they had already prepared a lot of food and water.

But now it seemed like they should prepare even more.

As for food, it couldn't be prepared too much, and since they were already on board, there was no place to buy more, so they could only hoard some more food during meals.

As for water, it was easier to handle. Duke immediately conjured a significant amount of clean water on-site and stored it in his Space Ring for backup.

The time to reach the destination was faster than everyone expected, even before lunch time.

This shattered the plans of many who intended to carry more food from the ship during lunch, as the ship docked at a small island.

Unlike last time, this time Selene instructed them to disembark directly.

Once Duke and his companions arrived on the island, they followed Selene and several Official Wizards further ahead.

He found that the island looked uninhabited, more like some sort of laboratory, constructed with many large buildings.

These Wizard Apprentices arrived at a grand hall, and only then did Selene begin to announce the contents of the assessment.

Each person received a parchment with detailed task requirements and some task-related information.

Duke immediately began reading the content and only then understood what their task was.

The task was to enter an independent space, consisting of endless desert and gravel plains, known as the Desert Lizardmen Petri Dish.

This place was just like its name; it was inhabited by a kind of humanoid creature called Desert Lizardmen, divided into many tribes.

The task for Duke and his group of Wizard Apprentices was to submit at least one map of a Desert Lizardman tribe's terrain and distribution of defensive forces.

Moreover, each person had to submit the head of a Desert Lizardman. Only upon completing these two tasks would they pass the assessment.

This assessment allowed team formation, and a maximum of five people could form a team to complete the task.

Five people could jointly submit a map and submit five Desert Lizardman heads as a team.

Duke realized that this somewhat reduced the task's difficulty.

Many Wizards not adept at combat could also collaborate with others utilizing this rule, as long as the team submitted five Desert Lizardman heads.

The assessment had a total duration of ten days, and just like before, tasks couldn't be finished ahead of time. One must wait until the ten days ended.

Duke also noted that the parchment contained intel about the Desert Lizardmen's strength.

Besides being strong and sturdy, the Desert Lizardmen also possessed Casting Ability, capable of using some magic in combat.

Generally, an adult Desert Lizardman's strength was equivalent to a First-class Wizard Apprentice. However, within their tribes, there were leaders comparable to Official Wizards.

When Duke saw this information, he immediately felt it was rather tricky.

In such a desert region, Wizard Apprentices were already at a disadvantage fighting under harsh conditions and had to face opponents stronger than themselves.

This pressure seemed excessive since, for most Wizard Apprentices, it might be challenging to kill a single Desert Lizardman in one-on-one combat.

No wonder the task allowed team formation; the probability of completing the task without teaming up was too low.

A team of five second-class Wizard Apprentices should still be able to kill one Desert Lizardman.

This was assuming they faced one-on-one; the actual situation inside was unknown. It's possible there could be more Desert Lizardmen than Wizard Apprentices.

At that time, not only would they be outmatched in strength, but they might also be outnumbered.

The more Duke thought about it, the more he felt this possibility was high, especially recalling that the task mentioned multiple Desert Lizardmen tribes inside.

He and Simon exchanged a glance, seeing the heaviness in each other's eyes, acknowledging that this assessment would be extremely challenging.

Among the remaining Wizard Apprentices, it was uncertain how many would survive.

If the objective were merely to stay alive, there should still be ways to survive until the assessment ended, with significantly lower difficulty, but in doing so, they wouldn't complete the assessment task.

This assessment was far more difficult than the last, with a significant difference in format.

Duke felt this time it was more about testing their team coordination and ability to collaboratively complete the task.

After everyone understood the assessment rules, Selene led the crowd to the hall's rear. Passing through several large doors, they arrived in a spacious yet somewhat dimly lit room.

Inside the room stood a massive Light Gate, with a blue light curtain swirling inside, its destination unknown.

Selene then said, "As per the signed-up teams just now, enter one by one..."

Naturally, Duke was with Simon and their two companions, making the team four people, without adding a fifth person.

Since they had learnt from the previous incident with Went, they knew that adding an untrustworthy person wasn't as good as forming a team with four relatively familiar people.

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