Duskblood Council

Dago used his spiritual power to sense the dim runes inside, trying to activate it.

But he failed. He guessed it had run out of energy, so he tucked it into his pocket for now.

After stripping the ring off the corpse, Dago continued searching the body. His psychological resistance had weakened considerably; the joy of striking it rich outweighed his fear.

He then found an exquisite pendant around the man's neck, a badge carved with a red-and-black castle.

It looked like the emblem of some organization or faction.

Dago's heart skipped a beat. This was an organized group. He decided to go back and question Mariko first.

Since the black-robed wizard had companions, if he did not return for too long, they would surely come looking for him.

He shuddered involuntarily and immediately did not dare linger there any longer.

Dago tore off the pendant and put it away, then hurriedly cleaned up the scene, firing Air Bullets wildly to cause indiscriminate damage to the surroundings.

That way, there would be far fewer traces of him left to collect at the scene.

Dago raced through the forest, terrified that some black-robed wizard might be pursuing him from behind.

He took a winding, erratic route to conceal his true destination. Along the way, he did not dare use any spells, afraid the enemy would track him with detection magic.

To cover his scent, Dago even went to the small lake where he had trained before and gave himself a thorough wash.

Splash! A naked figure burst from the still lake.

He was a slender young man with fair skin, blue eyes, and wet black hair draped over his shoulders. He was elegant and handsome.

Dago shook the droplets from his hair, then walked step by step onto the grassy shore.

His clothes hung from a tree branch: his hunting outfit, still soaking wet.

"They shouldn't be able to track me now, right?" Dago muttered as he put on the wet hunting clothes.

Picking up the cloth bag and machete from the ground, Dago set off for Mariko's treehouse.

By the time Dago arrived, it was already five in the afternoon.

Mariko was sitting on the platform outside the wooden house with his eyes closed in meditation.

"Wizard Mariko," Dago called out to him.

"Apprentice Dago, why were you gone so long? I was about to go to my old friend's cave to look for you."

Mariko opened his eyes, slid down from the treehouse platform, and asked Dago with concern.

"The situation is bad. Your old friend may have been killed by a black-robed wizard. I fought him too."

As he spoke, Dago took the black-robed wizard's badge from his cloth bag and handed it to Mariko.

"Duskblood Council..." Mariko examined the badge for a moment before returning it to Dago. His pupils suddenly contracted as he muttered the name.

The organization's name was like an ice spike steeped in poison, carrying the stench of blood even when spoken aloud.

"What kind of organization is that?" Seeing Mariko's expression, Dago became tense as well.

After all, Dago had killed one of their members. The grudge was already set.

"They are a notorious black-robed terrorist organization from the Dark Crystal Highlands, made up of a group of deranged lunatics. Their favorite thing is mixing Dark Crystal powder with human blood and drinking it."

Mariko's face went pale as paper as he spoke as though facing a formidable enemy.

"What should we do?" Dago said after a long silence.

"Dago, tomorrow, take the badge to the academy and report this intelligence: members of the Duskblood Council have appeared in the forest outside the town."

Mariko analyzed the situation calmly.

"Alright. I'll leave for the academy at dawn tomorrow and deliver the information." Dago accepted the task.

"As for me, I'll spread this information throughout the forest first. The people living in the forest are all unfortunate souls. There's no need for them to die here for nothing."

"It's extremely dangerous to be active in the forest at a time like this."

"Dago, no buts. Just wish me luck. I've survived several wizard wars."

Seeing that Mariko had made up his mind, Dago did not try to persuade him further and simply told him to stay safe.

Afterward, the two discussed and analyzed how the war might develop, then returned to rest with their own worries.

The first thing Dago did after returning to his shelter was change out of his wet hunting clothes. He lit a bonfire in the open space outside and dried both his clothes and himself.

He sat beside the fire, staring blankly at the fat dripping from the skewered crocodile magical beast meat as it roasted.

A lot had happened today, especially his first time killing someone. It would become a turning point in his life, something he would remember forever.

The second matter was the Duskblood Council. He had to remain ready for their retaliation at all times.

Although he had covered up the traces of the killing, one could never be too careful in this extraordinary world.

The third matter was something both he and Mariko had silently acknowledged but never mentioned.

Mariko had miscalculated. The enemy had come too quickly and given them no time to react.

But that was only normal. This time, their enemy was a terrorist organization of the wizard world: the Duskblood Council.

There was something even more terrifying: the apprentice wizards living in the forest might very well have become expendable pawns.

Pawns meant to be sacrificed one after another to wear down the Duskblood Council.

Today, it was Mariko's friend who had been attacked by the Duskblood Council. Tomorrow, it could be any one of them.

Yet the academy had never informed them that the Duskblood Council would be the ones attacking.

They were merely the scraps at the edge of the wizard world, living in the forest. Who would care whether they lived to see tomorrow's sunrise?

"Tomorrow, I'll put this matter on the table and discuss it with the academy," Dago said fiercely.

"But the saying still stands: fine wine for friends, guns and cannons for enemies."

Despite the worries weighing on him, Dago did not stop cultivating and improving his abilities. After eating the magical beast meat, he entered training mode.

The next morning, Dago walked out of the shelter with a yawn, dressed in a brand-new Third-Level Apprentice Wizard robe.

His chaotic thoughts and his vigilance over the shelter's surroundings throughout the night had left him sleepless. He experienced his first bout of insomnia in the wizard world.

The Shadow Leopard hide from yesterday had already been sewn into the inner layer of his Third-Level Apprentice Wizard robe, keeping him warm on the cold autumn morning.

Now, as his Resonance Art improved, the area of his body he could cover with ice elements grew larger and larger.

At that moment, one entire arm had been completely dyed white by the dormant ice elements intercepted by Resonance Art, making it resemble the White-Handed game character from his previous life.

He had discovered a useful application for Resonance Art. By activating the ice elements covering his arm with spiritual power, he could form a layer of ice armor around his arm for a short time without injuring himself.

As for the protective strength of the ice armor, Dago was still unsure. He would need to test it in actual combat.

Resonance Art could not only assist with casting his Ice Crystal Cannon, but also protect his physical body.

It seems I still underestimated the forbidden technique of Emerald Life. I haven't properly developed its potential. I need to train it harder, Dago thought.

He had also figured out the use of the rune ring he acquired yesterday. It was an energy-particle protective barrier, the very barrier that had blocked Dago's Air Bullet yesterday.

This was an essential ability for every wizard in the wizard world, to the point that it had formed an entire major discipline: the Protection School.

A wizard who could not put up a shield was not a qualified wizard.

Dago only needed to activate the rune inside the ring with spiritual power to form a transparent light barrier within two meters around himself.

The strength of the transparent barrier depended on the rank of the rune in the equipment. Unfortunately, Dago's protective ring only contained a low-rank rune.

Dago had tested it with Ice Crystal Technique. The protective ring could provide enough energy three times a day to block low-rank spells.

That meant that as long as one had enough money to wear rings all over one's body, one would basically be invincible during the apprentice stage.

The prerequisite, however, was having enough spiritual power to activate the runes.

And one had to be very rich. Dago had seen rune equipment stalls in the academy square, where a single piece of low-rank rune equipment cost several dozen low-grade magic stones.

Dago slipped the protective ring onto his left index finger and looked at it with satisfaction. This significantly made up for the weakness in his defenses.

At present, his combat ability among Third-Level Apprentice Wizards was considered extremely formidable. Ordinary Third-Level Apprentice Wizards were no match for him.

As for Formal Wizards, only the headmaster of Ainak Wizard Academy was a Formal Wizard...

People of that level were generally equivalent to mayors from his previous life, or leaders who controlled an entire faction.

Most instructors at Ainak Wizard Academy were Half-Step Formal Wizards. Instructor Rosalyn was at that level as well.

For wizards, this small step into the extraordinary was a giant step in life.

Yet that small step had nearly cost Mariko his entire life. It was too difficult, far too difficult.

It was so difficult that Mariko had already shattered his illusions and accepted reality.

These matters were still too distant for him. Dago slung his pack over his shoulder and set off for Ainak Wizard Academy.

At eight in the morning, Dago first went to a newly opened bakery in town and bought two loaves of bread for a simple breakfast.

The bakery owner was very fat, weighing around two hundred and thirty to two hundred and forty pounds, and he possessed highly skilled bread-making techniques.

The townspeople nearby were all his loyal customers. The bakery's main product was whole-wheat bread.

Most of the villagers who had recently flooded into town came here to buy bread because it was cheap.

Amid the jostling crowd, Dago finally got his bread. One penny could buy a loaf.

His low-grade magic stones were useless for this kind of transaction. One magic stone fragment had roughly the purchasing power of ten pennies.

So that fat woman had cheated him when she sold him that bag of flour for a single magic stone fragment.

Pennies were the most commonly used currency among common folk, used to buy daily necessities such as bread, vegetables, and firewood.

Dago left the fat baker's shop and took a bite of the bread. It was dry and hard.

There was quite a bit of bran mixed into it.

No wonder it was popular with the poor townspeople. It filled the stomach better and staved off hunger longer.

The poor of the town did not care what they put in their stomachs. They only cared how long it would keep hunger away.

This was war in the wizard world: the war of a small handful of people that dragged a great many others into it.

Dago shook his head and finished the entire loaf.