Market Town

"Chirp, chirp—"

Sunlight and birdsong gently awakened the sleeping Emerald Forest from its beautiful dream.

"Creak~"

The shelter hidden within the earthen slope slowly opened its door, and Dago, dressed in a gray linen robe, stepped out.

He took a deep breath of the fresh morning air, stretched lazily, and casually went through a set of calisthenics in the clearing to loosen up his exhausted body.

He had become too absorbed in studying wizard books and the system last night and gone to bed late. His spirits were low and his body was utterly weary. Rubbing his flat stomach, he turned and went back inside to prepare breakfast.

There was not much grain left in the nearly empty rice jar, probably enough for only two more meals.

Dago bent down, scooped two wooden spoonfuls of rice from the bottom of the jar, poured it into a small iron pot and rinsed it, then lit the fireplace to cook.

He wolfed down the simple rice porridge with some pickled wild vegetables in a few bites. Now he finally understood why this body's constitution was so poor.

The food he ate every day was far too plain. For a stomach that had come from a nation of fine cuisine, this was simply torture.

"Looks like I need to go to Aina Town today to stock up on supplies, and report that black-hearted merchant while I'm at it."

Dago silently set his schedule for the day.

Now, as he continued practicing the Meditation Method, he felt that his mind had become much sharper. His memories had also fused with those of the original owner almost completely.

Dago sat at the wooden table and summoned his system panel with a thought.

Universal Wizard Meditation Method (Novice 9/100)

After staying up late cultivating last night, he had gained quite a few progress points.

"It feels great when hard work brings tangible rewards!"

Dago could not help sighing as he looked at the system screen.

At the same time, he had noticed something else: his practice of the Universal Wizard Meditation Method was becoming increasingly smooth.

According to the original owner's memories, there had been many obscure and unclear parts of the Meditation Method that took weeks, or even a month or two, to resolve.

Yet his cultivation last night had gone smoothly throughout. This was without anyone's guidance, with him relying entirely on his own exploration. He felt that the reason was likely the system.

The system seemed to possess some miraculous ability to "solidify" every bit of his progress. Once he made a mistake and corrected it, he would not make that same mistake again.

After every session practicing the Universal Wizard Meditation Method, scattered insights naturally arose from the depths of his heart and became nourishment for his next improvement.

The effectiveness of his refinement of mental power had also improved significantly each time, but the issue of his soul becoming dizzy from mental power had always remained.

That made what came next simple: he only needed to keep cultivating, and he would keep improving.

Judging roughly by the sun's height in the sky, it was around eight in the morning. There was still plenty of time.

The weather was excellent today. Dago jogged all the way to the large tree by the little lake to practice the Meditation Method.

A cool breeze brushed over the lake, stirring countless ripples.

"This body's constitution is way too weak. It took over half an hour to run just a few kilometers."

Dago panted as he leaned against the tree by the lake, grumbling inwardly.

After resting briefly, he found a patch of grass beneath the tree, closed his eyes, sat cross-legged, and began practicing the Meditation Method.

Casting aside the distracting thoughts in his mind, he shifted his awareness and instantly entered his Mental Space. Mental Mist shrouded the sphere of light, while the black ocean below continued churning endlessly.

His consciousness controlled the sphere of light, slowly drawing the Mental Mist inside to refine it. In the end, it turned into mental power that nourished the soul body at the center of the sphere.

According to the description on the final pages of the Meditation Method book, excessive refinement of Mental Mist by the Mental Core would produce [Soul Entropy]. This was an almost unavoidable phenomenon.

So this was the true reason his soul became dizzy from mental power. At present, it was an unsolvable problem in the Wizarding World.

Once Soul Entropy accumulated and clogged the Mental Core, it would erode the soul body and inflict varying degrees of damage upon it.

Therefore, whenever a certain amount of [Soul Entropy] accumulated inside the sphere of light, he had to leave the Mental Space and rest, waiting for the Soul Entropy to disperse on its own.

After the sphere of light had refined a sufficient amount of mist, Dago's consciousness chose to withdraw from the Mental Space.

The system screen in his vision changed, but Dago had already grown accustomed to the movements of the system panel.

Universal Wizard Meditation Method (Novice 10/100): Progress +1

[Soul Entropy] would undoubtedly slow Dago's progress considerably.

There was a method in the wizarding world that could speed up the expulsion of [Soul Entropy] from the Mental Core: taking mental potions.

This was one of the main culprits behind the Wizarding World's rampant pill-popping culture.

The Low-Grade Mental Potion the original owner had drunk was among the worst of them, but that method was not feasible for Dago at the moment. Mainly because he was flat broke.

Dago sighed and muttered gloomily, "Sigh~ I'll just keep practicing for now. One step at a time."

He rose and stretched his body, casually checked the surroundings for danger, then entered another round of Meditation Method practice.

He practiced and rested like this, and nearly three to four hours passed without him noticing.

After gaining roughly a dozen progress points, he decided to return to the shelter and finish his remaining food.

Dago headed back the way he had come. While walking, he was surprised to discover signs of human and animal activity in this stretch of forest.

"Looks like I have neighbors in the forest. I wonder what kind of people they are? Whatever. Good wine for friends, hunting rifles for enemies."

Dago blurted out a line in Chinese to bolster his courage.

After a little over half an hour, Dago returned to the shelter.

He picked up the waterskin from the wooden table and took several large gulps, then sat on a stool and rested for a while. After some time, he scooped out the last of the rice and began preparing his meal.

It was still simple rice with wild vegetables, sprinkled with the last of his dried meat. He dug right in.

"Looks like I can't cultivate this afternoon. I need to go to Aina Town to buy daily supplies. Good thing the original owner left behind some Magic Stone Fragments, or I'd really starve to death in this shelter."

Dago thought as he ate.

Before long, after eating and drinking his fill, he swiftly cleaned the table.

He crouched in a corner of the shelter's stone wall, felt around within the cracks for a while, and pulled out a palm-sized cloth pouch.

He walked to the wooden table and poured everything from the pouch onto it. They were tiny gemstones the size of soybeans, varied in color.

Dago picked one up and examined it for a while. He found that it was not much different from gemstones from his previous life, except there was a faint flow of energy within it, making it quite beautiful.

Dago carefully counted the tiny gemstones on the table several times. There were sixteen in total.

This was all the money he had left. He could not even scrape together a single Magic Stone.

According to his memories, around ten Magic Stone Fragments were worth one Low-Grade Magic Stone.

Of course, the size and weight of the Magic Stone Fragments had to be reasonable.

As for Magic Stones, they were the official currency designated by the Wizard Alliance. Both their exchange and issuance were controlled by the authorities, and they were guaranteed to work throughout Wizard Alliance territory.

Naturally, precious metals like gold and silver could also be used, and the two circulated together. However, Magic Stones were a higher-tier currency than gold and took priority over it.

This was a world dominated by wizards. Gold might not be able to command a wizard, but Magic Stones certainly could.

"With Magic Stones, even wizards will grind grain." This was a famous saying of the Wizard Alliance.

Thus, even the mundane territories of the Wizard Alliance recognized Magic Stones as currency, because they could be exchanged for gold and silver of equal value at large wizard organizations.

Once he was ready, Dago locked the shelter's rickety door, chose the direction of Aina Town from his memories, and strode forward.

Before long, his figure vanished among the forest.

Dago walked for a long time, over an hour perhaps. He opened the waterskin at his waist, took a large gulp of water, and wiped away the fine sweat on his forehead.

Not long afterward, the rugged mountain path beneath his feet became wide and level, and more and more people came into view.

The outskirts of Aina Town were covered in vast fields crisscrossed by paths.

The main body of the town in the distance, as well as the Academy on the farther mountain peaks, had already come into view. Though it was called a town, it was not small at all. According to his memories, its total population, including transients, was around two hundred thousand.

Most of the farmland outside the town was planted with rice, along with some cotton and hemp. He did not recognize most of the rest.

Following the broad road through the fields, Dago passed through the outer farmland and reached a long stone wall built of gray rock. It stood three or four meters high, covered in green moss and weathered with age.

These stone walls had been left behind centuries ago, when Ainak Wizard Academy had only recently been established.

At the time, many magical beasts lived in the Emerald Forest, and beast tides often broke out.

Only after the wizards gradually cleared out the magical beasts nearby did Aina Town slowly develop to its current scale.

Dago passed through an unguarded gate opening. Before him stretched a brick-and-stone road wide enough for three horse-drawn carriages to travel side by side.

All kinds of shops lined both sides, crowds flowed through the streets, and countless vendors shouted their wares.

Dago stopped in the street to observe. Most of the buildings along the main road were brick-and-stone structures, uniformly built two to five stories high.

They generally had balconies or porches with columns around the entrances, their railings made of iron or wood in distinctive designs.

As he continued observing, he found that the outskirts of town contained crude wooden houses, while the central districts were filled exclusively with sturdy, durable brick-and-stone buildings.

The streets of the town's commoner districts were flooded with garbage and sewage. Food scraps, animal carcasses, and broken containers littered the roadsides.

Cows, sheep, and pigs occasionally wandered freely through the streets, defecating directly on the ground.

The mixture of countless foul smells was almost unbearable to Dago, but the people passing by seemed long accustomed to it.

Most wore clothes made of wool or linen, difficult to wash and reeking strongly of sweat.

According to his memories, although nobles and wealthy families wore high-end fabrics such as silk, they changed and washed their clothes infrequently as well, relying only on perfume to improve the smell.

It took Dago quite a while to adapt to the pungent stench.

He wandered along the cleaner main road, stopping now and then. He did not dare enter any of the slightly grander shops and only dared to stand at their entrances and peek inside.

He had only sixteen Magic Stone Shards on him, so he truly lacked confidence. In the end, he found an ordinary bakery in the commoner district and went in.

The scent of baked bread stirred his hunger, but after looking at the listed prices, he swallowed helplessly and decided to endure it for now.

Inside the bakery, he saw only a sturdy, voluptuous woman with quite a strong odor arranging the freshly baked bread.

A kind of... sour, rancid smell.

When she saw Dago enter, she immediately came over with a smile and asked, "Handsome young man, what would you like to buy?"

"Do you have flour?"

"Yes, yes."

"How much? I'll pay with Magic Stone Shards."

"One Magic Stone Shard for twenty jin. I'll throw in a cloth bag too."

Without another word, Dago removed the black cloth pouch from his waist, poured out one Magic Stone Shard, and handed it to the voluptuous woman.

Her smile bloomed like a huge chrysanthemum, and she then hurried into the baking room behind her.

Meanwhile, Dago paced around the tiny bakery, studying the prices and estimating the town's cost of living.

Before long, the voluptuous woman emerged from the baking room carrying a bag of flour.