Delivering a Letter

Autumn afternoons always carried a warm, sun-drenched languor.

Dago carried the magical beast crocodile meat from that morning's hunt to Mariko's treehouse area.

"Is Wizard Marico here?" Dago called from the clearing below.

"I'm coming," Mariko poked his head out.

Before long, he slid down along the vines.

"You brat are living quite comfortably," Marico teased when he saw the meat in Dago's hand and understood what he meant.

"Not bad, just so-so. How many people have joined the Mutual Aid Society recently?" Dago handed him the magical beast meat.

"Two have chosen to join already. This afternoon, I still need to talk to two old friends."

"Is there anything you need me to help with?"

"Yes, Dago. This afternoon, could you take my handwritten letter to one of my old friends and talk to him about this?

"Seeing as I'm an old man, you wouldn't want to watch me running all over the place, would you?"

"Of course, no problem."

Mariko took the chilled magical beast meat back to the treehouse. When he slid back down, he was clutching an envelope, which he handed to Dago.

"Walk in this direction for more than thirty minutes. When you see a rock wall, follow it for a few more minutes, and you'll find a natural cave. That fellow lives inside."

Mariko pointed toward the southern part of the forest.

Dago accepted the envelope and nodded to show he understood. Without further conversation, he set off to deliver the letter.

The clouds had been kneaded thin by the wind, spreading white across the sky.

He headed in the direction Mariko had indicated. According to Mariko, his old friend was also a Third-Level Apprentice Wizard who had lived in this forest for a long time, an old man about the same age as him.

However, when that man was young, his wife and child had both died in the war, leaving him rather withdrawn.

He had since lived alone in a cave deep in the forest, ignoring worldly affairs.

Mariko said that the two of them had rarely kept in touch in recent years. He only visited occasionally to see whether the man was dead yet.

Dago used his chipped machete to hack apart the wildly overgrown vines. He could vaguely make out that this had once been a path.

Fortunately, his hunting clothes offered protection. Otherwise, Dago would inevitably have been scratched by branches along the way.

After thirty minutes, Dago finally saw the rock wall and followed it.

BOOM—

A violent explosion sounded from ahead of Dago.

He immediately went on guard. It was clearly the sound of a spell exploding.

A ring of light lit up in Dago's eyes as he activated Detection Technique.

He tried to make no sound, crouching as he approached the source of the explosion step by step.

Gently parting the bushes beneath a large tree, he saw a devastated clearing outside a cave entrance...

Broken, fallen trees lay everywhere. The turf was burning, and the ground was pitted with craters.

On a low stone not far from the cave entrance was a burning, charred human-shaped lump...

Dark red, viscous blood had sprayed all around the stone. This was clearly the scene of a battle that had happened only moments ago.

The intense stench of blood and burnt flesh kept flooding Dago's nostrils, speeding up the flow of blood through his body.

The lingering traces of elemental energy in the air revealed that a fierce battle between wizards had taken place here.

Dago's heart pounded furiously as he tried to quietly retreat the way he had come.

"What a poor bastard. What rotten luck."

A man in a black robe came cursing out of the cave.

Dago's pupils shrank. Intense fluctuations of energy particles surged around the man's body...

His spiritual power fluctuations were also far stronger than Dago's. He was an Advanced Third-Level Apprentice Wizard.

Dago had only recently become a Third-Level Apprentice Wizard. He could not beat him.

Dago cautiously shifted his deerskin boots, but the foot he had just raised landed on soft, damp earth...

Crushing a dry branch with a faint snapping sound~

Though the sound was incredibly slight, it made Dago's heart tremble.

I'm finished. Dago muttered inwardly. He knew he had been exposed.

A pale middle-aged man with a short beard looked over...

His eyelids lifted very slowly, while the outer corners of his eyes slanted downward as though carved by a blade, forming two cold, harsh lines.

Like a vulture staring at dying prey, like a venomous snake lurking in the shadows and studying passing footsteps...

Every inch of his gaze was aggressive, chilling Dago to the marrow.

The black-robed wizard spat out a rapid, clipped incantation and waved his hand. A burning fireball the size of a basketball appeared from nowhere, carrying layers of heat as it shot straight toward Dago.

At the same time, Dago murmured the Ice Crystal Technique incantation. As an icy wind swept through the air, an ice crystal pillar rapidly took shape.

There were no unnecessary words, only the resolve to kill the other.

The instant the ice crystal pillar collided with the fireball, a great cloud of mist spread out...

It blocked Dago's vision, and the other man's as well.

In the field of view provided by Detection Technique, intense traces of fire element movement surged ahead again. Dago quickly shifted position.

Yet he was still locked onto by intense killing intent. He decisively flung an Air Bullet toward the surging fire elements.

The trailing current from the Air Bullet carved out a window through the mist...

The Air Bullet flew to within two meters of the black-robed wizard before suddenly being blocked by an invisible barrier and exploding.

Another fireball condensed in the black-robed wizard's hand, and he hurled it at Dago...

However, the shockwave created by the Air Bullet's explosion shoved his body slightly, throwing off his aim. The fireball landed five meters away from Dago.

The flames that erupted in that instant set an entire patch of nearby bushes and grass ablaze.

Even Dago felt the heat wave burn him.

This won't work. Even from five meters away, it can burn me. Dago was alarmed.

He activated the white ice-element gloves formed by the Resonance Art he had cultivated and began forming an Ice Crystal Cannon shell with his hands. Large amounts of ice element gathered in his palms.

With Ice Crystal Technique as the main force and Resonance Art and Air Bullet as support, a large-caliber, deep-blue Ice Crystal Cannon shell, as profound as a glacier, slowly formed.

The black-robed wizard saw it and smiled dismissively. Wizards usually fought by layering themselves with all sorts of defensive and enhancement buffs before hurling spells at each other.

This kid did not even have a protective barrier. The residual heat from a fireball alone could burn him to death.

Besides, ordinary beginner evocation spells could never break through his protective barrier.

He continued chanting, his eyes sweeping over Dago coldly, filled with nothing but icy contempt.

Soon, soon. I'll roast this kid into charcoal soon enough. The more the black-robed wizard thought about it, the more excited he became, and the fireball in his hand grew larger and larger.

Dago's Ice Crystal Cannon was fully loaded...

Fire. Dago muttered inwardly.

The powerful airflow of the deep-blue Ice Crystal Cannon shell pushed Dago back several steps...

Dragging a terrifying shriek through the air, the deep-blue ice crystal shell arrived in an instant and sent ripples through a transparent barrier.

The rapidly spinning ice crystal warhead erupted with intense energy particle fluctuations against the transparent barrier.

Countless ice crystals were drawn into the warhead, forming a spiraling trail behind it.

Suddenly, the Air Bullet at the rear of the ice crystal shell exploded again, pushing the warhead onward and piercing the protective barrier.

All of this happened within mere seconds. The black-robed wizard stood frozen in disbelief.

Dago looked up and saw a head-sized hole blown through the black-robed wizard's chest.

The ice crystal warhead had passed through his body, and its spiraling trail of frost had torn away his flesh and blood.

The chill froze the torn wounds around the hole, and Dago could even see the heart still beating inside.

Before long, the black-robed wizard's arms drooped, and the fireball in the air gradually shrank...

In the end, it became a tiny flame and vanished. His body then fell straight backward.

Even Dago was startled by it, before his entire body finally relaxed in relief.

He slowly approached. When he saw the corpse, he bent over and vomited with a "Bleurgh."

This was the first time Dago had seen a dead body from such close range, and he had created this corpse himself.

The adrenaline that had surged during the battle faded as his mind cleared, leaving behind only waves of lingering fear and panic.

He had actually killed someone.

The enormous psychological shock took Dago a long time to recover from. Only then did he review the battle he had just fought.

First came his delight at the power of the Ice Crystal Cannon.

He had used the Ice Crystal Cannon against the bronze crocodile before. After advancing to Metamorphosis, Dago knew its power had increased greatly.

He had not expected even a Third-Level Apprentice Wizard to be unable to withstand a single shot.

The Ice Crystal Cannon was not without weaknesses. Only the first Ice Crystal Cannon shot formed after mobilizing the ice-element gloves attached to Resonance Art possessed its greatest power.

After that, Ice Crystal Cannons made only by combining Ice Crystal Technique and Air Bullet would likely be significantly weaker.

Therefore, he had to end his wizard duels quickly. A prolonged battle would be disadvantageous to him instead.

Dago immediately made up his mind to continue training this spell frantically after returning, to overcome the problem of insufficient endurance.

The second issue was defensive spells. This time, Dago had suffered because his physical body was still mortal.

If the black-robed wizard's second fireball had landed any closer to him, he would have been burned by the scorching flames no matter what.

With complicated, uneasy feelings, Dago began searching the dead black-robed wizard's body.

He turned his head aside, trying his best not to look at the huge hole in the corpse or its wide-eyed expression.

He rummaged through the black robe and felt a bag inside that pressed painfully against his hand.

Dago took it out and found three or four Low-Grade Magic Stones inside. He immediately removed them and put them in his own money pouch.

Then he noticed the Olivine Ring on the corpse's hand. Detection Technique detected lingering energy particle fluctuations around it.

Dago casually pulled it off and examined it in his palm, probing it with his spiritual power...

He sensed a low-level rune inscribed upon the olivine.

This was the first rune equipment he had obtained. Sure enough, murder and arson made one rich.