It was already six in the afternoon. As autumn arrived, the days grew shorter and shorter.
Before the sky darkened, Dago made dinner and quickly finished eating.
He sat cross-legged on the small bed, practicing the Meditation Method to restore his mental power.
Ten minutes later, he withdrew from the Mental Space and waited for the Soul Entropy in the light sphere to dissipate.
He looked expectantly at the only 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 would talk about selling Mental Potions once that time came.
Besides, with the system panel's help, the difficulty of brewing Mental Potions would be greatly reduced.
With pleasant expectations in his heart, Dago put on the deerskin boots beside the bed...
He walked over to the little wooden table and looked at the silver-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.
Still, he steeled himself, gritted his teeth, pulled out the wooden stopper, tilted 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 suddenly furrowed, his eyebrows twisting together above the bridge of his nose as though he were using every ounce of strength to crush some sharp, stabbing pain.
He resumed practicing the Meditation Method and entered the Mental Space. Like the black substance before, the silver-white substance entered the Mental Space and appeared near the light sphere.
The silver-white substance immediately plunged into the light sphere. Like oil poured onto flames, the light sphere instantly blazed brighter, and the Soul Entropy accumulated within it was swept away in an instant.
Not only that, the light sphere's diameter swelled from just over ten meters to more than thirty meters.
More Mental Mist was caught by the spinning light sphere and instantly refined within it. Mental power flowed around Dago's humanoid Soul Body like a stream, circling faster and shrinking with every turn...
Until it condensed into a drop of deep-blue liquid and sank into his brow.
Dago's consciousness clearly sensed everything. Within the light sphere, his Soul Body seemed omniscient.
He observed it all from every angle without a single blind spot. He had not expected the silver-white Mental Potion to be so pure.
As the deep-blue droplet entered his Soul Body, Dago felt his thoughts moving faster and his vision becoming clearer.
With a thought, he withdrew from 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 improvement of the Meditation Method. The speed at which his mental power increased had become much faster.
"Although it's a common Meditation Method in the wizarding world, if I keep improving through practice, its meditation efficiency should be able to 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 from Resonance Art had accumulated to his wrists, while the detection range of Detection Technique was gradually increasing toward thirty meters.
As his wizard spells grew stronger and their casting speed increased, his combat power naturally surged, and Dago gained confidence.
"Take Moonlight Lake and completely escape this life of poverty." Dago fired himself up.
He ran to the open ground outside the shelter. Deep-blue halos appeared around his pupils.
Once he activated Mental Sight, he could clearly see the energy particles within three meters around him. He raised his hand in the shape of a gun.
Within three seconds, an Air Bullet the size of a fist formed at his fingertips and shot toward a tree. The tree more than ten meters away was directly blown apart by the air explosion...
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, releasing twenty Air Bullets would not be a problem. If he used Ice Crystal Cannons instead, he could probably fire four.
He devoted the rest of the time to training. Under the moonlight, Dago entered a frenzied spellcasting practice mode.
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 hard the previous night. After moving his body around, he did a set of calisthenics.
"This morning, I need to go to the Wizard Hall in town to certify my Third-Level Apprentice Wizard spells, then go to the Academy and tell Wizard Rosalyn about the new method for brewing Mental Potions."
Dago planned out his morning itinerary.
After casually throwing together breakfast, Dago meditated and practiced in the clearing for a while longer.
After about one or two hours, Dago patted off the dust blown onto him by the Air Bullet explosions and set off for Aina Town.
The magnificent Wizard Hall.
Dago walked out wearing a brand-new gray wizard robe, his face still carrying traces of novelty and delight.
It was a Third-Level Apprentice Wizard robe engraved with a [Cleansing Rune]. From now on, he would not need to wash his wizard robes himself.
It was a gift from the Wizard Alliance to newly advanced Third-Level Apprentice Wizards.
He 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 the new Third-Level Apprentice Wizard robe as well. The weather was getting colder, so it would be useful for keeping warm.
As Dago thought about this, he looked up and saw that the leaves lining both sides of the central street had begun to turn slightly yellow.
Because he had practiced Resonance Art, Dago had become increasingly sensitive to changes in air temperature.
He tightened the backpack on his shoulders and headed toward the Academy.
On the road from the central street to the Academy, Dago continually saw nobles and wealthy merchants dressed elegantly, whose bearing and manner of speech clearly differed from ordinary commoners.
Most of them sat in exquisitely decorated carriages piled with bags and parcels, heading out of town.
Dago even saw several wizards hurrying down the street with cold expressions and imposing auras, as though surrounded by invisible halos.
Those who gave him that feeling were almost all High-Grade Third-Level Apprentice Wizards.
People like them should usually stay inside the Academy and rarely come out.
Although he found it a little strange, Dago did not think much of it. He guessed that Ainak Wizard Academy might be holding some kind of group activity recently.
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 need to risk their lives outside for a few resources.
They spent years immersed in all kinds of research in the wizarding world. Some were so extreme that they even forgot the spellcraft they had mastered.
That was why these competitions were usually held to spur the Academy's wizards into action.
Dago had naturally been looking forward to such an Academy tournament for a long time, though he was simply curious and wanted to watch.
As he was thinking about this, Dago saw that many people had gathered on both sides of the road near the main path leading to the Academy gates. More people were still streaming over.
Dago followed them toward where the crowd had gathered.
When he finally squeezed into the densest part of the crowd, he found everyone standing silently with their heads bowed and hands clasped together.
Dago looked closely, and his pupils rapidly contracted.
A funeral procession of Academy wizards slowly advanced along the road leading to the Academy gates. There was no mourning music, only the soft sound of leather shoes stepping over gravel and the occasional rustle of clothing lifted by the wind.
Several elderly wizards at the front each held a walnut urn in their arms. Their steps were slow, while the boxes in their arms were light.
Their backs were straight, as though they were carrying not ashes, but the glory known as Ainak Wizard Academy.
Sunlight pierced through the clouds and cast mottled shadows across 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.
He gently stroked each urn, called out the name within, and chanted a resounding spell.
Then, at the end, he softly said with kindness, "You're home."
Until the second-to-last urn, Dago heard the name he least wanted to hear: Wizard Rosalyn.
Tears he could not stop surged into Dago's eyes.
The wind blew past. Dago silently wiped the corner of his eyes and turned away from the crowd in a daze.
Somewhere in the outer crowd, someone let out a long sigh and said 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 the last of the 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 threw everything about training and danger completely out of his mind.
He only wanted to drink deeply. It was also his first time drinking alcohol in this other world.
Mariko could see that Dago was in a terrible mood. He took the meat and began roasting it without saying anything, then fetched two large bottles of liquor from the treehouse and handed one to Dago.
Gulp, gulp. Dago pulled out the stopper and took a hard swig...
After coughing twice from the burning taste, 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 staggered up from an unfamiliar bed, pushed open the wooden door, and walked outside.
The moon shone bright among sparse stars. The night wind swept through the forest, and the cries of night owls drifted from afar.
He stood on the platform of Mariko's wooden house. One more step forward, and he would fall.
Mariko sat in the clearing beneath the treehouse, breaking the dead branch in his hands bit by bit and tossing it into the flickering campfire before him, where it gave off soft crackling sounds.
Dago slapped his own head as though he were smacking an old television, and he felt much better.
He climbed down along the vines winding up to the platform.
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