Delivering the Letter

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

Dago carried the monster crocodile meat from his morning hunt to Old Mariko's treehouse district.

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

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

Before long, he slid down along the vines.

"You brat have been living well," Mariko said teasingly when he saw the meat in Dago's hand and understood his intention.

"Not bad, just average. How many people have joined the Mutual Aid Society lately?" Dago handed him the monster meat.

"Two people have chosen to join already. This afternoon, I still need to speak with 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?

For the sake of an old man like me, you wouldn't want to see me running all over the place, would you?"

"Of course, no problem."

Old Mariko took the chilled monster meat back to the treehouse. When he slid back down, he had an envelope clenched in his hand and passed it to Dago.

"Walk in this direction for a little over 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."

Old Mariko pointed south into the forest.

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

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

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

However, when that man had been young, his wife and child had both died in the war, leaving him rather withdrawn.

He had then lived alone in a cave deep within the forest, ignoring worldly affairs and leading a solitary life.

Mariko said that they had rarely kept in touch over the past few years. He only visited occasionally to see whether the man was dead yet.

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

Thankfully, his hunting clothes provided Protection Rune. Otherwise, Dago would have inevitably been scratched by branches along the way.

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

"Boom~~~"

A violent explosion rang out from ahead of Dago.

He immediately became alert. This 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 his best 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 chaotic clearing outside a cave entrance...

Broken and toppled trees lay everywhere, grass burned, and the ground was pitted with craters.

On a low rock not far from the cave entrance, a human-shaped lump of charred black flesh was still burning...

Dark-red, thick blood had sprayed all around the rock. It was clearly the site of a battle that had happened only moments ago.

The intense stench of blood and burnt flesh continuously flooded Dago's nostrils, making the blood throughout his body race faster.

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

Dago's heart pounded wildly as he carefully tried to retreat the way he had come.

"What a broke bastard. Bad luck."

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

Dago's pupils contracted. Powerful energy particle fluctuations surged around the man's body...

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

Dago had only entered the Third-Level Apprentice Wizard stage not long ago. He could not beat him.

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

Crushing a dead branch with a faint snapping sound~

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

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

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

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

Like a vulture watching dying prey, like a venomous snake hidden in the dark observing passing feet...

Every inch of his gaze carried aggression, chilling Dago to the marrow.

The Black-Robed Wizard spat out rapid, clipped syllables and waved his hand. A burning fireball the size of a basketball appeared out of thin air, carrying waves of scorching heat as it shot straight toward Dago.

At the same time, Dago muttered the Spell for Ice Crystal Technique. As a cold wind swept through the air, an ice crystal pillar rapidly took shape.

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

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

It blocked Dago's vision, and his opponent's as well.

Within the vision of Detection Technique, intense traces of fire-element flow surged ahead again. Dago hurriedly shifted positions.

Yet he was still locked onto by an intense killing intent. He decisively hurled an Air Bullet toward the source of the surging fire element.

The wake carved out by the Air Bullet formed a window through the mist...

The Air Bullet flew to within two meters of the Black-Robed Wizard before it was suddenly stopped by an invisible barrier and exploded.

Another fireball condensed in the Black-Robed Wizard's hand and was thrown toward Dago...

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

The flames that erupted in an instant set the surrounding bushes and grass ablaze.

Even Dago felt the heat wave burn his skin.

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

He activated the white ice-element gloves formed through his cultivated Resonance Art and began shaping an Ice Crystal Cannon shell by hand. A large amount of ice element gathered in his hands.

Using Ice Crystal Technique as the core, with 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. A wizard's usual fighting method was to cover himself in various protection buffs and enhancement buffs, then throw spells at each other.

This brat did not even have a protective barrier. The residual blast 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 Spell, his eyes sweeping over Dago with icy coldness and contempt.

Almost there. Very soon, I'll roast this brat into charcoal. 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 from the deep-blue ice crystal shell pushed Dago back several steps...

Dragging a terrifying, shrieking sound as it tore through the air, the deep-blue ice crystal shell arrived in an instant, sending ripples across the transparent barrier.

The rapidly spinning ice crystal projectile collided with the transparent barrier, unleashing violent energy particle fluctuations.

Countless ice flakes were drawn into the ice crystal projectile, forming a spiraling wake.

Suddenly, the Air Bullet at the rear of the ice crystal shell burst again, pushing the ice crystal projectile forward and piercing through the protective barrier.

All of this happened within a few short seconds. The Black-Robed Wizard stood there in stunned disbelief.

Dago looked up and saw a hole the size of a head blasted through the Black-Robed Wizard's chest.

The ice crystal projectile had passed through his body, its spiraling icy wake carrying away his flesh and blood.

The cold had frozen the torn wounds around the hole. Dago could even see the heart still beating inside.

Before long, the Black-Robed Wizard's arms dropped limp at his sides, 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 what he had done. Then his entire body relaxed with relief.

He slowly approached. The moment he saw the corpse, he bent over and vomited with a "Blegh."

This was the first time Dago had seen a dead body from such close range, and this corpse had been created by his own hand.

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

He had actually killed someone.

The massive psychological shock took Dago a long time to recover from. Only then did he reluctantly 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. As he progressed into Metamorphosis, Dago knew its power had increased greatly.

He had not expected that even a Third-Level Apprentice Wizard could not withstand a single shot.

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

Later, if he used only an Ice Crystal Cannon formed from Ice Crystal Technique combined with Air Bullet, its power would likely be greatly reduced.

Therefore, his wizard duels had to end quickly. A prolonged battle would put him at a disadvantage instead.

Dago immediately resolved that after returning, he would train this spell even more frantically and overcome this lack of endurance.

Next was protective magic. This time, Dago had also suffered from having an ordinary mortal body.

If the Black-Robed Wizard's second fireball had landed a little closer to him, he would have been burned by the scorching wave of flames no matter what.

With complicated and uneasy feelings, Dago began searching the dead Black-Robed Wizard's body.

He turned his head aside, trying not to look at the huge hole in the corpse or its expression of dying with eyes open.

He rummaged through the black robe and found a rough, hand-scraping pouch in its inner layer.

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

Then he spotted 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 inside with his spiritual force...

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

This was the first rune equipment he had obtained. Sure enough, murder and arson were the fastest path to riches.