Hitting Walls Everywhere

"I told you, this is the price. Rent it or don't. There are plenty of academy wizards in town looking for rooms. If you can't afford it, get lost."

A male wizard with roughly the strength of a Level-Two Apprentice impatiently waved his hand.

""I've seen plenty of academy wizards like you. The town is full of useless fools like you who love putting on airs."

The man looked disgusted as he tried to drive him away.

As he spoke, the man increasingly felt that something was wrong with the air around him...

It became unbearably heavy. Breathing grew difficult, until his face turned red and he began gasping for air.

A faint light flashed in Dago's eyes. His expression was cold as a powerful aura radiated from him. "I don't care what impression you have of other academy wizards, but when it comes to me, I hope you learn some manners."

The man's face went pale. He stared at him in terror, then suddenly dropped to his knees and repeatedly kissed Dago's deerskin boots.

Dago said nothing. He merely looked down at the man expressionlessly.

Amid the man's ragged, rapid breathing, the atmosphere grew increasingly oppressive. Just as he was about to lose consciousness, Dago released the pressure his mental power had placed upon the air.

Only then did the man gulp down fresh air. He covered his face, looked up at the sky, and wept. Never had he felt that the world was so beautiful.

Dago turned and walked straight outside, leaving behind a single sentence. "Learn to treat guests politely next time."

Back on the street, he watched the passersby flowing past him and felt somewhat moved.

This world was suffering for the weak. Yet power without restraint was destined to bring destruction as well.

The inexplicable anger that had surged up just now had driven him to want to crush that man's head.

Fortunately, he had held back. Wizards were forbidden from killing one another within the town.

If discovered by the inspectors, he would be hunted by the administrators. At worst, he could only end up becoming one of the Black-Robed Wizards.

"I still need to temper my state of mind. But neither in this life nor my previous one was I someone born evil!"

Dago let out a breath of stale air. He found it somewhat strange, but did not dwell on it.

In the blink of an eye, afternoon arrived. He casually ate something in the residential district before returning to the Wizard Inn.

There, he encountered a dejected Selena. The two went to the tea room together and found an empty seat.

Dago asked first, "How did it go?"

"I kept hitting walls everywhere." Selena lowered her head, not daring to look at Dago as she spoke softly.

"It's fine. I had the same experience. It's perfectly normal."

"Any progress with the Moonlight Flowers?"

"Lord Dago, I've already mastered the cultivation technique for Moonlight Flowers. We only need a suitable place before we can start growing them."

"Just call me Dago. That's good news. You can grow the Moonlight Flowers from now on, and I'll refine the Mental Potions. Magic Stones will flow endlessly into both our pockets."

At that, Selena raised her head. She and Dago exchanged smiles, both imagining mountains of Magic Stones piled before them.

"The most important task for wizards at the apprentice stage is accumulating mental power. I still have a long way to go before I qualify to attempt becoming a Formal Wizard."

Dago thought about it. According to his original plan, he would enter the academy after arriving in town and continue studying wizard knowledge.

But now that the academy had forbidden entry, his plans had been disrupted. He could only choose to remain in town.

For the time being, he would stay at the Wizard Inn and wait until the academy reopened.

Night fell. The glass oil lamp cast a soft, bright glow as Dago sat at the table in his room, recording something.

Dago was analyzing and reviewing his previous battles, searching for weaknesses and filling the gaps.

Those wizard battles had seemed thrilling but safe on the surface, but in truth, there had been major problems.

The most significant was his lack of control methods. Dago frowned as he wrote. His offensive capabilities were already excessive.

He possessed almost no control skills. The several Black-Robed Wizards he had killed had all fallen due to the Ice Crystal Cannon's overwhelming lethality and the surprise of his timing.

Against wizards who fought like stationary artillery platforms, Dago's combat style might still work.

However, against speed-based wizards or shield-based wizards, once he lost the initiative, it would be difficult to establish an advantage again.

"Control skills are an indispensable component of any complete combat system."

"Only by effectively restricting an opponent's movements can the hit rate of wizard spells be maximized."

Dago considered it and wrote this down. At present, continuing to improve his ice-element wizard spells was the best choice.

He stroked his chin, pondering various ways to develop ice-element wizard spells.

After a while, he thought of another matter: defensive wizard spells. At present, he had two defensive methods.

One was the protective shield from the protective ring, while the other was the ice-element armor from Resonance Art.

The protective ring provided a medium-range energy shield, while the ice armor offered both physical and magical defense at close range.

Dago scratched his head, considering whether he should specifically learn a defensive spell.

After thinking it over, he decided against it. Very few people at the apprentice stage truly learned defensive spells.

That was because apprentice-level defensive spells were generally fragile. They could not withstand even two attacks from spells of the same level before needing to be renewed, wasting already precious mental power.

Rather than passively taking hits until death, it was better to kill the opponent directly.

"After defense comes recovery and enhancement."

Dago began a new set of notes. He remembered facing that final Advanced Apprentice Black-Robed Wizard.

If he had not still possessed one last Silver-White Mental Potion that he had refined himself, he might have died.

At the critical moment, it had produced the miraculous effect of turning the tables in a desperate situation.

There were many potions among wizards that could unleash sudden power during battle.

Especially at the apprentice stage, when mental power was already insufficient, whoever possessed a powerful mental recovery potion effectively had an extra life.

Therefore, if Selena and he could mass-produce Dago's Mental Potion, they would definitely be able to monopolize the wizard market.

There was no doubt about that. After all, he had drunk it several times himself, and its effects were explosively good.

Oh, right. Dago had even flamboyantly named this exclusive mental potion Dago's Mental Potion. After all, he was the one who had discovered it.

There were also healing potions, antidotes, stamina potions, and the like. He would need to resupply those at Academy Square later.

By the end of his writing, Dago realized that no matter which aspect of his plans he considered, none could avoid the most crucial thing—Magic Stones.

At present, he had too few Magic Stones. Setting aside the patrol team's public property, he possessed only eight Low-Grade Magic Stones.

"Take it slowly. Magic Stones will come eventually."

Dago comforted himself, then took out the Leather Storage Pouch.

The fastest way to obtain Magic Stones at present was to open the storage pouch in his possession.

So, he began extending his mental power into the pouch to erase the previous owner's mental imprint.

About an hour later, Dago's mental power was exhausted, and a needle-like pain in his head warned him to stop.

Rubbing his temples, Dago began practicing the Meditation Method again, refining Mental Mist and converting it into mental power.

After working continuously for several hours, he finally could not bear the burden any longer. He lay down on the soft, comfortable bed and fell into a deep sleep.