Death and Spirits

It was already six in the evening. As autumn set in, the days grew shorter and shorter.

Before the sky darkened, Dago cooked dinner and quickly finished eating.

He sat cross-legged on the small bed, practicing the Meditation Method to recover his mental power.

Ten minutes later, he left the Mental Space and waited for the Soul Entropy in the light sphere to dissipate.

He looked expectantly at the sole bottle of Mental Potion on the little wooden table and decided to drink it himself to increase his mental power.

Only with strength could he go to Moonlight Lake to pick Moonlight Flowers and brew more Mental Potions.

He could think about selling Mental Potions once that time came.

Besides, with the help of the system panel, the difficulty of brewing Mental Potions would drop considerably.

Filled with hopeful expectations, Dago put on the deerskin boots beside his bed...

He walked over to the little wooden table and looked at the silvery-white liquid dissolving inside the glass bottle.

"Why do I remember Mental Potions being purple? There shouldn't be anything wrong with this bottle, right?"

Dago thought uneasily.

But he still steeled himself, gritted his teeth, pulled out the wooden stopper, tipped back his head, and drank it in one gulp.

The icy liquid slid from his throat into his stomach like a block of thousand-year-old ice.

Dago's brow abruptly furrowed. His eyebrows twisted together at the center of his forehead as if he were using all his strength to pinch off some sharp stabbing pain.

He resumed practicing the Meditation Method and entered the Mental Space. Like the black substance from before, the silvery-white substance entered the Mental Space and appeared beside the light sphere.

The silvery-white substance immediately plunged into the light sphere. Like oil poured onto a fire, the light sphere flared brightly, and the Soul Entropy accumulated within it was swept away in an instant.

Not only that, the light sphere's diameter surged from a little over ten meters to more than thirty meters.

The rotating light sphere captured more mental mist and instantly refined it within. Mental power flowed around Dago's humanoid soul like a stream, circling faster and faster as it dwindled...

Until it condensed into a drop of deep-blue liquid and entered his brow.

Dago's consciousness clearly perceived everything. Within the light sphere, his soul body seemed omniscient.

He monitored everything from every angle without a single blind spot. What he had not expected was for the silvery-white Mental Potion to be so pure.

As the deep-blue droplet entered his soul body, Dago felt his thoughts turning faster and his vision becoming clearer.

With a thought, he left the Mental Space.

He summoned the system panel.

[Universal Wizard Meditation Method (Beginner 811/1000); Ice Crystal Cannon (Beginner 966/1000); Resonance Art (Beginner 331/1000); Detection Technique (Beginner 257/1000); Potion Brewing (Beginner 1/100)]

In less than a month, he had become a Third-Level Apprentice Wizard.

It was mainly thanks to the progress of the Meditation Method. The rate at which his mental power grew had increased greatly.

"Although it's a common method in the wizard world, if I keep progressing through cultivation, my meditation efficiency should eventually rival those wizard geniuses, right?"

Dago thought expectantly.

His progress in practicing Ice Crystal Cannon had not slowed either. It was currently his most destructive wizard spell.

Its casting speed had increased again. Now, Dago only needed five seconds to form an Ice Crystal Cannon.

The ice-element attachment of Resonance Art had accumulated to his wrists, while the detection range of Detection Technique was gradually approaching thirty meters.

As wizard spells grew more powerful and casting speed increased, his combat strength naturally soared, giving Dago confidence.

"Take Moonlight Lake and completely escape this life of poverty." Dago gave himself a pep talk.

He ran to the open space outside the shelter. A deep-blue halo appeared around his pupils.

Once he opened his mental vision, he could clearly see the energy particles within three meters of himself. He raised his hand in the shape of a pistol.

Within three seconds, a fist-sized Air Bullet condensed at his fingertip and shot toward a tree. The tree more than ten meters away was directly blown apart by the air blast...

Unfortunately, its power had not changed much...

Still, its current power was enough to kill a Shadow Leopard with one shot. With his current mental power reserves, firing twenty Air Bullets would not be a problem. If he used Ice Crystal Cannons instead, he could probably fire four.

He left the rest of his time to training. By moonlight, Dago entered a frenzied spellcasting practice mode.

Early the next morning, Dago pushed open the shelter's wooden door. Wearing a gray apprentice robe, he held his aching lower back and breathed in the fresh air in the clearing.

He had trained a little too intensely the night before. After moving his body around, he did a set of aerobics.

"This morning, I need to go to the Wizard Hall in town to certify my Third-Level Apprentice wizard spells, and I also need to tell Wizard Rosalyn at the academy about the new method for brewing Mental Potions."

Dago planned out his morning itinerary.

After casually dealing with breakfast, Dago meditated and trained in the clearing for a while longer.

About an hour or two later, he patted away the dust that had been blown onto him by the Air Bullet's blast and set off for Aina Town.

The magnificent Wizard Hall.

Dago walked out wearing a brand-new gray wizard robe, his face still filled with lingering novelty and delight.

This was a Third-Level Apprentice wizard robe engraved with the [Cleaning] rune. From now on, he would no longer need to wash his own robes.

It was a gift from the Wizard Alliance to newly advanced Third-Level Apprentice Wizards.

He had packed his old robe into the backpack on his back. Shadow Leopard hide had been sewn into it.

When he returned to the shelter, he would need to sew it into his new Third-Level Apprentice robe. The weather was getting colder too, so it would keep him warm.

As Dago thought about this, he raised his eyes and saw that the leaves along both sides of Central Street had begun to yellow slightly.

Because he had cultivated Resonance Art, Dago had become increasingly sensitive to changes in air temperature.

He tightened the backpack on his shoulders and headed toward the academy.

Along the road from Central Street to the academy, Dago kept seeing nobles and wealthy merchants dressed impeccably, their bearing and manner of speech clearly different from ordinary commoners.

Most of them sat in exquisite carriages laden with packages, heading out of town.

Dago even saw several wizards hurrying down the street with stern expressions and imposing auras, as though they possessed invisible halos of authority.

Those capable of giving him such a feeling were almost all high-level Third-Level Apprentice Wizards.

People like them normally stayed in the academy and rarely came out.

Although he found it somewhat strange, Dago did not dwell on it. He guessed that Ainak Wizard Academy might be holding some collective event soon.

He had heard that the academy held internal competitions every so often, something like a grand academy tournament.

Many academy wizards lived in comfortable conditions and did not have to risk their lives outside for a bit of resources.

They spent years immersed in all kinds of research in the wizard world. Some were so extreme that they even forgot the spellcraft they had mastered.

That was why these tournaments were generally held to spur the academy's wizards into action.

Dago had naturally long looked forward to such academy tournaments, though he only wanted to watch out of pure curiosity.

As he was thinking about these things, Dago saw quite a few people gathered on both sides of the main road leading to the academy gates. More people were continuously streaming over as well.

Dago followed the crowd toward where everyone had gathered.

When he finally squeezed into the densest part of the crowd, he found everyone lowering their heads, clasping their hands together, and remaining silent.

Dago focused his gaze, and his pupils immediately constricted.

A funeral procession of academy wizards slowly made its way toward the academy gates. There was no mourning music, only the soft sound of leather shoes stepping on gravel and the occasional rustle of clothing lifted by the wind.

At the front, several elderly wizards held walnut urns in their arms. Their steps were slow, and the boxes they carried were light.

Their backs were perfectly straight, as though they were carrying not ashes, but the glory known as Ainak Wizard Academy.

Sunlight broke through the clouds and cast mottled shadows over the road. Holding the urns, they lined up before the headmaster.

The headmaster of Ainak Wizard Academy wore a splendid white wizard hat and had a long white beard.

Each time he gently stroked an urn, he spoke its owner's name and chanted a resounding spell.

Then he would say kindly and softly, "You're home."

When it came to the second-to-last urn, Dago heard the name he least wanted to hear: Wizard Rosalyn.

Tears he could not stop welled up in Dago's eyes.

The wind blew past. Dago silently wiped the corners of his eyes and turned away from the crowd in a daze.

Somewhere among the people at the edge of the crowd, someone let out a long sigh and spoke in a heavy voice.

"The black-robed wizards from the Dark Crystal Highlands have officially started a war... Aina Town isn't safe anymore!"

Dago returned to the shelter, put down his backpack, took out his last piece of magical beast meat, and went to find Mariko.

"Mariko, do you have any liquor? Today, I want to eat meat and drink."

For the first time, Dago cast aside everything about training, danger, and all the rest.

He only wanted to drink deeply. It was also his first time drinking in this other world.

Mariko could tell Dago was in a terrible mood. He took the meat and began roasting it without saying anything, then brought down two large bottles of liquor from the treehouse and handed one to Dago.

Glug, glug. Dago pulled out the stopper and took a fierce gulp...

After coughing twice from the burn, he said to Mariko, "Tell me, how could such a good person just be gone like that?"

Mariko still said nothing. He raised his bottle, letting the liquor speak for everything.

Later, Dago only knew that his head hurt terribly. He swayed as he rose from an unfamiliar bed, pushed open the wooden door, and walked outside.

The moon shone bright among sparse stars. The night wind threaded through the forest, and the cries of night owls came from afar.

He stood on the platform of Mariko's wooden house. One more step forward and he would fall.

Mariko was sitting in the clearing below the treehouse, snapping the dead branches in his hands bit by bit and tossing them into the wavering bonfire before him. They made soft crackling sounds.

Dago patted his own head like he used to pat a television as a child, and he felt much better.

He climbed down along the vines trailing up to the platform.