Duskblood Council

Dago sensed the dim runes within using his spiritual power and tried to activate them.

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

After stripping the ring, Dago continued searching the corpse. His psychological resistance had lessened considerably now; the joy of getting 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 jolted. This was an organized group. He planned to return and question Mariko first.

Since the Black-Robed Wizard had companions, if he did not return for a long time, his allies would surely come looking for him.

He could not help but shudder and immediately dared not linger any longer.

After tearing off the pendant badge and putting it away, Dago quickly cleaned up the scene, using Air Bullets to wreak indiscriminate damage on the surroundings.

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

Dago raced through the forest, terrified that some Black-Robed Wizard might be chasing after him.

He took winding routes at random to conceal his true destination. Along the way, he did not dare use any witchcraft, afraid the enemy would track him with detection spells.

To cover his scent, Dago even went to the small lake where he had trained before and thoroughly washed himself.

Splash! A naked figure burst from the still lake.

He was a slender youth 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 the branches of a large tree: his hunting outfit, still dripping wet.

"They shouldn't be able to track me now, right?" Dago muttered as he put on the damp 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 for so long? I was about to go look for you at my old friend's cave."

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 also fought him."

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. Then his pupils suddenly contracted as he murmured the name.

The organization's name was like an ice spike steeped in poison, bloody even when spoken aloud.

"What kind of organization is that?" Seeing Mariko like this, Dago grew nervous as well.

He had killed one of their members. That grudge had been forged.

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

Mariko's face turned as white as paper as he spoke as though facing a great enemy.

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

"Dago, tomorrow, take the badge to the academy and report this intelligence: Duskblood Council members 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 news throughout the forest first. Those living in the forest are all unfortunate people. 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 upon returning to his shelter was change out of his wet hunting outfit. He lit a bonfire in the clearing outside and dried both his clothes and body.

Sitting beside the fire, he stared blankly at the skewered crocodile magical beast meat as fat dripped from it under the heat.

A great deal 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 be prepared at all times for their retaliation.

Although he had covered his tracks after the killing, one could never be too cautious in this supernatural world.

The third matter was something both he and Mariko had tacitly understood but never mentioned.

Mariko had miscalculated. The enemy had come too quickly, leaving them no time to react.

But that was only natural. This time, their enemy was the Wizarding World's terror organization, the Duskblood Council.

There was something even more terrifying: these Apprentice Wizards living in the forest might very well have become expendable pawns.

Pawns meant to gradually 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.

Those living in the forest were the scraps at the edges of the Wizarding World. Who cared whether they would live to see tomorrow's sunrise?

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

"But as the saying goes, good wine for friends, guns and cannons for enemies."

Despite his worries, Dago still did not put aside his training and skill improvement. After eating the magical beast meat, he began his training routine.

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

His chaotic thoughts, along with keeping watch over the shelter's surroundings during the night, had kept him from sleeping well. He had experienced his first bout of insomnia in the Wizarding World.

Yesterday, he had sewn the Shadow Leopard hide into the inner lining of his Third-Level Apprentice Wizard robe, providing warmth on the cold autumn morning.

Now, as his Resonance Art improved, he could cover an increasingly larger area of his body with ice elements.

At this moment, one entire arm had been completely whitened by the dormant ice elements intercepted by the Resonance Art, making it look remarkably like the White-Handed game character from his previous life's Dungeon Fighter Online.

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 it for a short time without harming himself.

As for the protective effect of the ice armor, Dago was still unclear and would need to verify it in actual combat.

Resonance Art could not only assist in the release of his Ice Crystal Cannon, but also protect his body.

Looks like I underestimated the forbidden art of [Emerald Life]. I haven't properly improved and developed it. I need to train much harder. Dago thought.

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

This was an essential skill for every wizard in the Wizarding World, and it had even formed an entire major school: the "Protection School."

A wizard who could not cast a shield was not a qualified wizard.

Dago only needed to activate the rune inside the ring with spiritual power to form a transparent 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 Protection Rune ring only contained a low-tier rune.

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

In other words, as long as you had money and covered yourself in rings, you were basically invincible during the apprentice stage.

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

And you needed to be very rich. Dago had seen rune equipment stalls in Academy Square, where a piece of low-tier rune equipment sold for around several dozen Low-Grade Magic Stones.

Putting the protective ring on his left index finger, Dago examined it with satisfaction. This considerably compensated for the weakness in his defenses.

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

As for Formal Wizards, only the dean 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 of the mentors at Ainak Wizard Academy were Half-Step Formal Wizards. Mentor Rosalyn was at that stage as well.

That small step into the supernatural for a wizard was a giant leap in life.

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

So difficult that Mariko had already shattered his fantasies and accepted reality.

These things were still too far away from him. Dago slung his pack over his shoulder and set off for Ainak Wizard Academy.

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

The bakery owner was very fat, weighing roughly two hundred and thirty to two hundred and forty pounds, and possessed highly skilled breadmaking techniques.

The surrounding townspeople were all his loyal customers. The main product sold here was whole-wheat bread.

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

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

This kind of transaction did not require his Low-Grade Magic Stones. One Magic Stone Fragment had roughly the purchasing power of ten pennies.

So the fat woman had cheated him when she sold him that bag of flour for one Magic Stone Shard.

Pennies were the currency most commonly used by the lower classes 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 wheat bran mixed into it.

No wonder it was popular among the town's poor. It filled the stomach better and kept hunger away longer.

The poor people of the town did not care what they put into their stomachs. They only cared how long it would stave off hunger.

This was war in the Wizarding World: a war of a small group that dragged countless others into the water.

Dago shook his head and finished the entire loaf of bread.