Wizard: Starts with Advanced Meditation

Harlogan and his group stopped in front of the mine and looked around, not venturing inside for a long time, clearly waiting for someone.

"Captain Harlogan."

Soon after, Missy rushed over—clearly, Harlogan was waiting for Missy to investigate the situation inside.

"How are things going with Taran and the others?" Harrogan asked.

Taran was one of three second-class wizard apprentices responsible for attracting the Frostskin Dwarves, and a member of their squad.

Harrogan's squad consisted of seven people, including himself. Based on his experience on the main battlefield, he should have been at least the captain of a mid-level squad, and there should have been a third-class wizard apprentice in his squad as well.

However, since Harrogan was temporarily leaving with Kolos and would later return to the main battlefield, the academy only assigned him a low-level squad.

"They're here already. I'll go check on the mental energy fluctuations deep in the mine first," Missy said, her brow furrowed, her tone tinged with doubt.

With such a commotion at the outpost, it's impossible that the creatures in the mine wouldn't have noticed. Yet, it remained hidden deep inside, making no move. It's hard to tell whether it was too scared to come out or if there was another reason.

Missy slowly walked towards the mine entrance, gradually sinking her consciousness into her mental space. She gradually shut down her five senses, only using her mental energy to explore the depths of the mine.

After a long while, Missy regained consciousness. Her expression was very serious, and she said to Harlogan in a deep voice:

"That fluctuation of spiritual energy has already reached the level of a second-tier wizard apprentice. And—it's heading this way!"

Before Harrogan could respond, Missy had already taken a crystal ball from her storage bag. A faint purple light began to linger around her fingertips. Missy chanted a spell, slowly channeling the light from her fingertips into the crystal ball.

The next second, the crystal ball slowly rose from her palm and flew automatically into the depths of the mine.

This crystal ball is her detection tool, which is extremely expensive. It can not only detect real-time images, but also conceal her presence.

Next, Missy took out another crystal ball from her storage bag and infused it with a wisp of magic. Ripples appeared on the surface of the crystal ball, reflecting the image detected by the previous crystal ball:

As the crystal ball ventured deeper, it detected the direction of the rock walls, the distribution of minerals, potential caves, and even faint energy fluctuations buried deep beneath the rock strata.

Suddenly, Missy frowned slightly, tapped the crystal ball lightly with her fingertips, and magnified the area in the distance that was shimmering with two faint blue lights.

"Snap—Clang!"

Just as everyone was about to see the scene, the crystal ball suddenly shattered without warning, scattering sparkling fragments all over the ground—clearly, another crystal ball deep in the mine had also met the same fate.

Missy was incredulous; this crystal ball was something even a third-rate wizard apprentice would have difficulty detecting. She focused her mental energy once more to probe deeper into the mine.

The unknown creature should be very close now; a clearer sense of its spiritual energy fluctuations should be able to be detected at this moment—"Ah!"

Missy let out a terrified scream, which echoed repeatedly in the deathly silent mine. The dark depths of the mine seemed to be disturbed by the scream, and a faint restlessness arose.

Missy turned sharply to look at Harrogan, and the sight before him sent a shiver down his spine—her eyes were soaked with blood, crimson blood streaming down her cheeks. Countless veins throbbed on her once smooth forehead.

"quick--"

Before the words could even be uttered, a thick, icy blue beam of light shot out from the depths of the mine. This beam carried terrifying elemental power, and the rock walls it passed through were instantly covered with layers of white frost.

"Pfft—"

The ray easily pierced through Missy's skull, and in an instant, her skull froze into ice at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The next second, the ice shell shattered, and chunks of flesh and brains mixed together with ice crystals flew in all directions.

"Missley!!"

The surrounding companions gasped in surprise. Then, the apprentices who reacted the fastest came to their senses and unhesitatingly unleashed all sorts of witchcraft into the depths of the mine. Various magical fluctuations instantly exploded in the dark space.

"Boom boom boom—"

Various magical explosions resounded throughout the mine, causing the entire mine to tremble violently and scattering rocks as if it were about to collapse at any moment. The other apprentices in the stronghold were startled by the earth-shattering commotion and turned to look.

In the chaos, Harrogan did not make a move. His magic was almost depleted after the battle with Bolton, and besides, he could vaguely sense that terrifying aura coming from inside the mine.

More importantly, the aura made his heart tighten—it was the Dragonborn Frostskin Dwarves, a war machine that the Frostskin Dwarves had deployed in large numbers to the main battlefield and were regarded by both sides as a meat grinder.

Harrogan immediately turned and left; all he wanted now was to reunite with Rock and Elena as soon as possible. The other two had likely also exhausted a great deal of magic power, and only by joining forces could the three of them possibly have a chance against this terrifying dragonborn dwarf.

In the distance, Elena's delicate nose twitched slightly, and her brows furrowed slightly. She turned to look at Vivian and Jovin not far away and said decisively, "Let's go."

Despite their doubts, Vivian and Jovin trusted their captain's judgment and immediately headed towards the gap.

After Irene finished speaking, she looked around quickly, her eyes scanning the surroundings, clearly searching for Heleto and Hughes.

However, there was no trace of the two anywhere she looked. She could only suppress her helplessness and quicken her pace to leave with her two companions.

On the other side, the members of Harrogan's squad had gradually exhausted their magic power. The thick freezing ray from earlier had clearly startled them, as it was obviously not the kind of power that an ordinary third-class wizard apprentice could unleash.

As the last fireball exploded deep within the mine, the group's magic was completely exhausted. One of them collapsed to the ground, gazing at the dark mine before him and sighing:

"This mine is really well-built; it hasn't collapsed yet. The dwarves' construction skills are truly impressive."

One of them glanced at Missy's corpse and said sadly, "That really scared me to death. But that unknown creature should be blasted into mincemeat by now. It's such a pity about Missy..."

"Bang—Ah!"

Before he could finish speaking, a huge stone slab suddenly flew out of the mine and slammed heavily onto the apprentice with a loud "bang." The surface of the slab was covered with a layer of white frost and was full of pits and craters.

The apprentice was completely covered by the stone slab. The immense force contained within the slab propelled him backward, crashing into a fragile wall behind him with a deafening roar. The house, now without a supporting wall, collapsed, scattering rubble everywhere.