Windfall

The rising sun bathed the land in morning light.

Dago yawned as he stepped out of his room at the inn. He activated the runes on his apprentice robe with spiritual power, and the robe, which had a few small tears, instantly became clean and pristine again.

In order to open the storage pouch as soon as possible, he had worked hard until late last night.

The process had also indirectly improved his Meditation Technique.

Otherwise, in town, most of his skills were difficult to improve. It was unlike the forest before, where he could use his skills to chop trees every day.

Dago began to miss the shelter in the forest. Once the war was over, he would go back to visit it.

Just as Dago was reminiscing about his days at the shelter, he suddenly spotted Selena stepping out of her room as well.

Selena lazily stretched at the doorway. Then, she suddenly noticed Dago watching her...

Her little face instantly flushed red, and she stammered shyly, "Da... Dago, morning. Want to have breakfast together?"

Dago nodded, indicating that he had no objection. The two then left the inn together.

Looking at the town that was about to come alive, Dago remarked, "Another beautiful day."

Selena nodded like a pecking chick. Before long, the two were having breakfast at a restaurant not far away.

Together, they discussed the requirements for growing Moonlight Flowers.

"Captain, based on the soil from Moonlight Lake that I brought back last time, the first requirement is soil nourished by magic power."

"The easiest way to obtain magical soil is to water it heavily with magical beast blood. Alternatively, it can grow quickly if it remains in a damp, cool environment and receives prolonged exposure to the Origin Moon."

When it came to magical plants, Selena was clearly much more confident.

Dago quietly listened to her. It seemed there was still hope for large-scale cultivation, but with the war underway, it was difficult to find a peaceful, undisturbed place.

For now, they could only set the matter aside and make proper plans after this wizard war was over.

The two chatted as they leisurely enjoyed breakfast. Only an hour later did they slowly leave the restaurant and return to the inn.

Three days passed peacefully like this.

At night, in the Wizard Inn, fine sweat covered Dago's forehead. He was just one final step away from unlocking the rune on the storage pouch.

Finally, ten minutes later, Dago's spiritual power completely erased the spiritual imprint left behind by the original owner.

"Phew..."

Dago let out a long breath. Over the past three days, he had spent most of his time on this matter.

He slowly seeped his spiritual power into the rune until the entire rune was activated.

Dago "saw" the space behind the rune. It clearly existed, yet it was absent from his actual field of vision.

It was like ice elements—on the same plane, but at a different level.

It was a spherical space about one cubic meter in size, cluttered with many items.

The spatial rune was at the center of the space, connecting reality and the extradimensional space.

He tried using spiritual power to guide an item to the spatial rune. With a pull, it instantly appeared in the pouch.

Like Doraemon's magic pocket, he slowly pulled the item out of the extradimensional pouch.

It was a black robe. Dago was quite curious how such a large piece of clothing could fit into a pouch the size of his palm.

He then forcefully stuffed the robe into the pouch, but nothing happened.

It seemed spiritual power was the key. Dago wrapped the robe in spiritual power and pushed it into the pouch.

As though imbued with magic, the pouch swallowed the robe in one gulp, and it appeared in the extradimensional space.

Dago silently thought, This is so fun. It really is like a magic pocket.

He even caught a moth and tossed it into the extradimensional space. The result was that it died instantly, as if its soul had left its body.

When he tossed in a brass pocket watch, time continued to move. Just as Dago had guessed, this was another layer of space that did not permit souls to exist within it.

After finishing his experiments, Dago took out everything belonging to the Black-Robed Wizard from the space and laid it out before him.

Aside from some ordinary daily necessities, there were forty Magic Stones, a palm-sized Duskblood Council Insignia, several wizard books, a beast-hide scroll, several bottles of potion, and some miscellaneous items.

Seeing the pile of Magic Stones on the table, Dago knew he had struck it rich. His heart practically blossomed with joy.

Wasn't his eagerness to open the storage pouch all because of his craving for Magic Stones?

Now that he had opened it, he was as delighted as an old farmer harvesting grain.

Among that small pile of Magic Stones was one that was more crystalline and magnificent than a Low-Grade Magic Stone.

It was also a full size larger than a Low-Grade Magic Stone, roughly the size of a quail egg.

Dago placed the Magic Stone beneath the kerosene lamp and examined it carefully. He figured this was probably a Mid-Grade Magic Stone.

In the wizard world, one Mid-Grade Magic Stone was worth ten Low-Grade Magic Stones.

After staring at it longingly for a while, he stored it back in the storage space.

Dago casually flipped through the wizard books. They were all local legends about wizards and monsters from the Dark Crystal Highlands, more like story magazines meant to pass the time.

Dago's verdict was, "Pretty useless." He then put them back into the storage space.

He picked up the remaining beast-hide scroll, stained with dark red blood, and opened it.

At the beginning was a passage praising some great existence.

"Your tentacles stitch together life and death; your dusk blood nourishes eternity—Esog, master of the Duskblood Sea."

When Dago silently recited those words, the wick of the kerosene lamp suddenly flickered, like faint ripples spreading across a still lake.

The remaining content thanked Esog for his gift and recorded a spell called the Blood Mist Technique.

Dago remembered this spell. It was the spell Black-Robed Wizard Morlock had used to kill Gavin.

This spell actually suited Dago's requirements for defensive measures quite well. It even included the full inheritance and casting process. It was practically a spell prepared specifically for Dago.

"But if I learn Darkblood Magic exclusive to the Duskblood Council, the Academy might directly treat me as a traitor and blast me into dust..."

Dago thought about it and struggled for quite a while before slowly putting it back into the storage space without another glance.

At a time when the Duskblood Council was massively invading the Emerald Forest, he did not dare court death by having even the slightest connection to this terrifying organization opposed by the Wizarding Alliance.

Dago did not touch the bottles of potion containing obvious dark red impurities, either.

There were also some disgusting odds and ends, such as eyeballs soaked in bottles of special solution, a dried severed finger, and Dusk Crystal powder. They looked like materials for wizard alchemy.

Without a second thought, Dago tossed them back into the storage space. Later, he would find an open area and burn them all.

"No wonder Morlock had a storage pouch. So he was an alchemist in the Duskblood Council. That's one of the three most profitable professions in the wizard world."

Dago immediately understood why Black-Robed Wizard Morlock had been so wealthy.

In truth, there were not many things Dago could really use, but the Magic Stones alone satisfied him immensely.

After placing the storage pouch close against his body, Dago finally went to sleep, fully content.

As the leaves of the Emerald Forest slowly fell away, the war between Ainak Wizard Academy and the Duskblood Council entered a fever pitch.

Wizards in grayish-white robes continuously led groups of well-equipped warriors out of the town.

There were even wizards hovering in the air like blazing suns, flying out alongside Silver-Pattern Airships.

Fine snow drifted down from the sky, and Dago tightened the thick apprentice robe around himself.

"Good thing I didn't sell the Shadow Leopard fur, or I'd freeze to death in this weather."

He muttered as he walked down the town's central street.

Ever since he had opened the storage pouch ten days ago and obtained a large number of Magic Stones,

his anxiety over Magic Stones had no longer been so severe, and naturally, he had put aside the matter of finding cheap lodging.

These days, he had continued staying at the Wizard Inn with Mariko and Selena.

Now that he had Magic Stones in hand, he found a meditation room specifically for Apprentice Wizards to train in at the town's Wizard Hall, all for the sake of cultivation and improvement.

Dago stepped on the snow covering the street, leaving behind footprints neither deep nor shallow.