Wizard: Starts with Advanced Meditation

After tidying up his belongings, Hughes prepared to have lunch and then meet his mentor. Along the way, Hughes kept taking in the scenery of the academy.

Although the Everfrost Spire is covered in snow all year round, the temperature is not very low. The snow seems to be just a magical effect. Upon arriving at the restaurant, Hughes went to the food area.

Ordinary food here is free, but food made from magical creatures costs magic stones!

Magical creatures of witchcraft, their flesh is rich in magic and is an excellent tonic for wizards, especially for novice apprentices. Some of their flesh even has many other magical effects.

"It seems that body-refining wizards consume quite a few magic stones," Hughes muttered to himself. Wizard apprentices who follow the path of magic-based body refining basically eat some monster meat every day.

The difference between a wizard apprentice who eats large amounts of monster meat every day and every meal and a wizard apprentice who only eats normal food is quite obvious.

Hughes glanced at the magic stones in his pocket, thinking he should save some money. After eating some simple, ordinary food, Hughes got up to find his mentor.

Following the route, Hughes arrived at Serafina's private botanical garden, which was surrounded by vibrant vines covered with huge flower buds. Standing in front of a flower bud, Hughes gave the bud the command as instructed by his teacher.

"Oak Forever"

As soon as he finished speaking, the flower bud above responded by unfolding its huge old petals. One of the petals landed in front of Hughes' feet, forming a natural staircase. He slowly climbed the petal, passed over the vine wall, and arrived inside the botanical garden.

Hughes felt that this was not a botanical garden, but a forest, where all sorts of strange and unusual plants had taken root.

These plants are not arranged in an orderly manner according to variety in a certain area, but are sown and grow freely, just like in the wild nature. There are even many trees planted, which are also magical trees.

Just as Hughes was overwhelmed by the sights, a blue petal floated over and hovered in front of him, glowing with a blue shimmer.

The petal swayed to the right in front of Hughes, as if sizing him up, before slowly drifting deeper into the distance. Hughes understood and quickly followed.

Arriving before a gigantic ancient tree, which resembled a tall building, its thick trunk deeply rooted in the ground, seemed to sense Hughes's arrival.

A huge, round oak door in front of the ancient tree slowly rose, leading inside to a gentle woman sitting inside a giant flower bud, savoring delicious floral nectar.

She had long, emerald-green hair and wore a wreath made of blue petals, from which a petal floated back into the wreath.

She wasn't wearing a wizard's robe; several small leather bags hung from her short, belted shirt, and her long legs, encased in tapered lantern pants, were casually draped over the flower petals.

Upon seeing the visitor, Serafina opened her dark blue eyes. A glass bottle, half-full of flower essence, sat on the wooden table in front of her. She said languidly:

"Hughes Craig, right? I am your mentor—Seraphina Canningt. You can learn potion-making and materials processing from me for free, and receive a free zero-ring sorcery spell."

After a pause, Serafina stared at Hughes and said:

"However, in return, once you are able to make basic potions, you will have to help me complete the mandatory potion-making tasks assigned by the academy for the next three years, completing about 30% of them."

Then, she looked at Hughes's storage bag:

"Potion making is a profound and extremely energy-consuming field. In two weeks, I will test your mastery of these two subjects. If you pass, I will give you 10 potion-making materials to practice with every month outside of class."

Hearing these words, Hughes thought to himself that the benefits couldn't be that good. Sure enough, the other party changed the subject the next moment and mentioned the conditions:

"But at most six months from now, you must be able to independently refine a basic potion. If you cannot meet these requirements, then you will become a brooder of the Ghost Face Tree outside the gate, understand? If you are not confident, you can quit now."

Hughes felt a jolt in his heart upon hearing this, but still calmly replied, "Understood."

Serafina nodded and placed two fist-sized crystal balls on the wooden table.

"Once you can control your mental energy a little, you can absorb the knowledge inside by contacting it with your mental energy. That's it. Come back in a week and wait for my notification."

Hughes thanked Serafina, picked up the two crystal balls, put them in his storage bag, and left the cabin. Back in his dormitory, Hughes breathed a sigh of relief. He knew those two crystal balls; they were used by wizards to store knowledge.

The low-level meditation method issued by the academy is similar. It forms a rune in the mind, and one can browse the contents by extending mental energy into it. However, one can only see it; memory and understanding still depend on oneself.

Next, it was time for meditation. Hughes took out the "Gap Anchoring Meditation Method" from his storage bag.

Now that he had completely mastered the knowledge of this meditation method, Hughes stroked the expensive book cover, feeling its texture.

"Is there something wrong with the meditation method? Could it be a conspiracy by Gabriel?" Hughes wondered.

This was a problem that Hughes realized a few days ago. Wizards are treacherous and deceitful, and the only known origin of this storage bag is that it was a relic of a potion master in the family.

Whether his elders obtained it by chance or deliberately hid it there, he had no idea. He didn't think that Gabriel would be so kind as to care about a first-level wizard.

After hesitating for a moment, Hughes gritted his teeth. Coming to this world was not easy. If he wanted to master immortality and explore the endless path, he could not just follow the steps. This opportunity was not something that could be obtained at will.

"Let's take a gamble!"

Hughes gritted his teeth. Advancing to a formal wizard was no easy feat. At least among wizard apprentices in the Oren plane, even those with fourth-grade aptitude had failed to advance. This was an opportunity, and he couldn't give it up.

After resting for a while, he began his first meditation. He slowly sat up on the bed, assumed a comfortable position, then cleared his mind and began to mobilize his mental energy according to the meditation method…

Hughes couldn't feel his physical body; the only thing he could move seemed to be a faint trace of his spiritual power. However, he could sense a fluctuation, which should be his soul. When meditating, his connection with his soul would be enhanced.

……

As darkness fell, Hughes relaxed in the room, ending his meditative state and slowly opening his eyes. The room was dark, so he turned on the crystal chandelier, and soft light filled the room.

Hughes could clearly feel that he was different from before; it was already 3 a.m.

But he didn't feel tired. Hughes found that his observation of the world had become more refined. By carefully sensing, he could feel the energy around him, which must be magic.

Among them, the icy blue ice elemental magic and the pale spatial magic resonate with it the most, but it cannot absorb them yet.

It's not advisable to continue meditating now. The time for meditation is limited in the early stages of an apprenticeship, and the body and soul still need to adapt. After washing up, Hughes entered a dream with anticipation for the future.