Lake Town 12465

Isaac was preparing to visit the Cottage in the Woods and properly make contact with the wizarding world.

Although he was now a Formal Wizard, in terms of sheer strength, he was actually weaker than ninety percent of Formal Wizards.

At the very least, he stood no chance against Smith.

A qualified Formal Wizard should be slightly stronger than a knight of the same rank. Reality was not a game; there was no such thing as balance. Wizards were simply an absurdly powerful profession.

This was also a process that most Legendary Wizards had to go through. After all, unlike Arcanists, they did not advance step by step, so their methods were certainly inferior.

Ignoring the father and son, who had yet to recover from their shock, Isaac left the dining room and first returned to his laboratory and bedroom. He took a potion and three hundred Gold Coins, then headed toward the woods.

Strands of sunlight filtered through the branches and leaves, leaving specks of light across the ground. Wearing a loose gray Wizard Robe and a large Wizard Hat, Isaac walked through the woods with an astonished expression.

It was actually this real!

Was this the power of a mighty wizard?

Though these woods had only just appeared, quite a few dead leaves and branches remained on the ground, as though they had always been here. He could not understand it...

Filled with curiosity, Isaac arrived at the center of the woods. There, he saw a lake, a wooden boat, a cabin, a cauldron, and an Old Witch stirring red liquid in front of the cauldron.

Isaac stopped more than ten meters away from the Old Witch. His hands, hidden in his sleeves, tightly gripped the pockets within, while the demonic claw inside him was ready to emerge at any moment. If anything went wrong, the rat corpse hidden in his sleeve would instantly come back to life!

However, the Old Witch merely glanced at him. When her gaze passed over Isaac's sleeve, she chuckled and said, "The Wizard Market is in the lake. Row the boat there yourself. You can post and accept tasks in the cabin. Relax a little. The Cottage in the Woods is dedicated to nurturing novice wizards. If we wanted to harm you, you would have no ability to resist."

After saying that, the Old Witch continued stirring the cauldron. Isaac only glanced at it before withdrawing his gaze. She was not brewing a potion, merely maintaining the liquid inside. Even that sort of maintenance consumed materials, though, and was something only wealthy wizards would do.

After withdrawing his gaze, Isaac thought it over and decided the Old Witch was right. He lowered his guard slightly, then entered the cabin first.

When he pushed open the door, sheets of paper plastered densely across the walls came into view. Looking closer, he found that they were all kinds of tasks: searching for companions to adventure with, research partners, apprentices...

Yet the majority were all sorts of requests to purchase materials and recruitment advertisements from wizard organizations.

Isaac was extremely enthusiastic about the wizarding world, so he was in no hurry to leave the cabin. Instead, he carefully read through everything inside.

After looking around, Isaac gained a rough understanding of magical materials and wizard organizations.

First, magical materials were much as he had previously learned—there was all kinds of bizarre stuff, with no unified standards like those used by Arcanists.

For example, materials from rats included: three-month-old rat droppings, rat droppings that were six months and six days old, white fur from a gray rat one month old and three centimeters long, the nails of an adult field mouse...

There were all sorts of strange materials with bizarre prerequisites. To obtain those things, one had to post tasks specifically to buy them. Who knew how long it would take to gather them personally?

Of course, aside from those strange magical materials, there were also standardized arcane materials. However, requests for those were rare, and even when they appeared, they were for extremely precious materials that ordinary shops simply did not sell.

The wizard organizations, on the other hand, surprised Isaac somewhat. There were simply too many of them!

Legendary Wizards were not like Arcanists. As the era progressed, those extradimensional beings would only grow more cunning, and the success rate of advancement rituals would become lower and lower. The inheritance of Legendary Wizards had become increasingly difficult. Under such circumstances, it was no easy feat for so many wizard organizations to exist.

Moreover, this revealed something—the number of Legendary Wizards might not be as small as Isaac had imagined.

Either something had gone wrong with the inheritance on his side, and Legendary Wizards were not actually in such dire straits. Arcanists were merely a newly risen wizarding faction and did not hold the mainstream position. Or this world was far larger than he had imagined!

Just like map-hopping novels from his previous life, this world contained higher-level maps!

But regardless, those were merely Isaac's guesses. He still knew far too little at present. He needed to keep learning~

After musing for a moment, Isaac tugged at his Wizard Hat, turned, and left the cabin. He stepped onto the wooden boat by the lake. In an instant, a breeze stirred, and the boat beneath his feet began moving on its own, carrying him toward the center of the lake.

The Old Witch before the cabin was still stirring the cauldron in front of her, but the corner of her eye held a trace of surprise as she watched Isaac. In this era, there had not been such an arrogant Legendary Wizard in a long time. He had actually seized a strand of Demon Origin by force...

This world seemed rather interesting~

On the other side, Isaac did not notice the Old Witch's gaze. Once he stepped onto the boat, his attention had completely shifted elsewhere.

As the boat moved forward, great amounts of mist suddenly rose from the previously calm lake. In the blink of an eye, the surroundings became a vast expanse of white, and he could only see two or three meters ahead.

Isaac frowned slightly. His hands in his sleeves gripped the pockets again, while the demonic claw behind his head stood ready to appear at any time.

Fortunately, nothing unexpected happened. After the boat traveled through the white mist for a minute or two, the fog suddenly dispersed, and Isaac arrived before the harbor of a town steeped in ancient atmosphere!

Lake Town · 12465

Seeing the wooden sign at the dock bearing the place name, Isaac raised an eyebrow slightly. This number was rather interesting.

Isaac became even more certain of the speculation in his heart. At the same time, a faint excitement slowly rose within him. With the Golden Finger at his side, it would seem rather boring if he cleared everything too quickly.

Setting aside his fantasies, Isaac stepped forward into the town, curiously taking in everything around him.

Beyond the harbor lay an ancient street before Isaac. Dark stone bricks paved the road, and a heavy, ancient aura rushed toward him. At the same time, information flowed into Isaac's mind along with that ancient aura.

Isaac's expression shifted, because it was actually a general introduction to Lake Town and a detailed introduction to the street before him!

According to the information, Lake Town was a place for all wizards in the current world to exchange information. Whether Witch, Legendary Wizard, or Arcanist of the new age, any sound spellcaster could come here to trade as long as there were woods nearby, regardless of where they were!

Of course, one could only leave from the same place one entered. This place was solely for trade.

The information contained a great deal, but Isaac no longer focused on it. His top priority now was becoming stronger. Only by becoming stronger would he be qualified to explore these secrets.

So what he cared about was the second piece of information—Wand Avenue.