Wizard: Starts with Advanced Meditation

The next day, Hughes rushed to the camp. When he and Heleto searched the storage bags, they did not find the bodies of Elena and the others, so it seemed that they had probably successfully evacuated.

Coincidentally, when Hughes returned to Outpost Five and entered his squad's room, he ran into Irena—she was on her way to process his and Heleto's death certificates.

……

Afterwards, Hughes successfully obtained a death certificate for Heleto, and the credit for this mission to the outpost fell entirely into the hands of Elena and the others.

……

Several days later

With the combined strength of some temporarily converted apprentice-level dragonborn dwarves and the Alliance forces, the Frostskin dwarves were unstoppable in the early stages.

Not only did they seize several territories within the Everfrost Spire's sphere of influence, but they also divided these captured areas into separate fronts to defend against the Everfrost Spire's main force.

But ever since Finn Caleb, the "Snow-Haired Sorcerer," killed the second-level wizard of the Frostbone Beastmen, the Allied races that had signed pacts with the Frostskin Dwarves have crumbled like a receding tide.

Without the support of their allies, the Frostskin Dwarves' defenses crumbled one after another, and they were forced to retreat under the relentless pressure from the Everfrost Spire, eventually being driven to their final battleground—Elstein.

The war zones controlled by the Frostskin Dwarves have always been named after the families that control them, and this last stronghold is now being led by the Elstein family, the most prestigious and powerful family among the Frostskin Dwarves.

At this moment, the remaining Frostskin Dwarves' entire army is stationed in the Elstein war zone, putting up a final resistance.

Their defensive line stretched out along the center of the Elstein war zone, like a steel fang embedded in the frozen ground.

A massive ice-blue light shield rose from the rune array, firmly covering their base camp. The shield was covered with intricate and delicate runes.

Behind the light shield were the walls built by the Frostskin Dwarves using black iron and millennia-old ice.

The city walls were covered with rune cannons and frost iron crossbows forged by the dwarves, and the surface of the walls was engraved with complex runes that gleamed with a pale blue light in the cold wind.

Behind the city wall, several watchtowers made of obsidian stood within the position. On the top of the towers, dwarven sentries wrapped in animal skin robes occasionally released magic into their reconnaissance tools, vigilantly sensing the movements in the distance.

On the ground, countless fully armed frostskin dwarves guarded the city. Their sorcerer's tools gleamed with a cold, hard metallic sheen, and their heavy helmets or hoods pulled their heads low, revealing only pairs of eyes burning with rage.

The dwarves stood shoulder to shoulder in a tight square formation, their magical implements occasionally colliding with each other with dull metallic clangs. Each heavy breath they took carried icy mist, and the frozen ground beneath their feet creaked under their heavy iron boots.

Each formation resembled an unactivated steel fortress, its silence exuding a chilling sense of oppression.

Every few squares, there was a catapult emitting gusts of cold air, with a reinforced iron chain wrapped around its thick catapult arm.

The iron basket contained the source of the chill—dangerous frost bombs—which lay quietly inside, ready to be hurled at any approaching enemy.

At the heart of the defensive line was the Elstein family's camp, their crest engraved on the massive ice gate at the center of the camp, featuring interlocking battle axes and warhammer reliefs, symbolizing the military might of this most powerful family.

The most eye-catching feature is the steel behemoth at the rear of the camp—a war fortress comparable to a wizard's tower.

It was cast entirely from dark iron engraved with runes, and countless rune cannons were inlaid at the sharply angled intersections.

Its walls are not as clean and smooth as the wizard's tower; they are full of pits and bumps and equipped with various offensive wizard tools.

This war fortress is a treasure of the Frostskin Dwarves, built by a runecrafter from the Wizarding Plane.

After enduring countless wars, it was hidden in a thousand-year-old glacier and has only been put back into use today.

The war fortress was enormous; even standing at the foot of the black iron walls, from a great distance, one could clearly glimpse its massive, sky-obscuring black shadow.

It's like a lurking ancient beast, exuding a sense of oppression that can crush people's hearts.

Meanwhile, deep within the steel conference hall of the war fortress, the official wizards of the Elstein family and the surviving families sat on their respective thrones cast in black iron, discussing their plans for the near future.

The steel conference hall was filled with the strong smell of rust, and the dim lights cast a few shadows on the mottled metal walls.

The atmosphere in the conference hall was very heavy, after all, what they were about to face was the all-out attack on Everfrost Spire - a tough battle that even a second-level wizard might personally take part in!

"Which families are left?" the elderly frost-skinned dwarf, seated in the main seat, asked calmly, his expression dignified without being angry.

His face was very old, with deep wrinkles covering his entire face, and even his voice was very hoarse when he spoke, like rotten wood about to decay, exuding an unyielding age.

But his body remained robust, and his broad physique was almost identical to that of the dragonborn Barik.

He is Taren Elstein, the patriarch of the Elstein family. He was once a powerful warrior, but time has worn away his sharp edges.

His body was no longer strong, so he retreated to the background, serving as a strategist among the savage frost-skinned dwarves.

Even the aged Taren had to don heavy armor and thick wizard robes to fight the wizards of Everfrost Spire in this war.

"The Dylan family still has two full wizards and thirteen third-class wizard apprentices, including Patriarch Mant Dylan and his eldest son Mance Dylan..."

A frost-skinned dwarf in a white robe was reporting to Taren, holding a recording crystal.

As they listened to his report, the atmosphere in the steel conference hall grew increasingly heavy—the casualties in the various war zones were far more severe than they had anticipated.

Not only have several families been completely wiped out, but the situation of the remaining families is not much better, with only a few people remaining.

The other family wizards present were also filled with rage, clearly recalling the tragic destruction of their families by the Everfrost Spire.

After the report ended, the conference room fell into a brief silence, and the old ceiling lights flickered and seemed to dim a little more.

They weren't mourning the fallen Frostskin dwarves, but rather they simply couldn't figure out how to fight the wizards of Everfrost Spire.

"How about... we negotiate with the people of Everfrost Spire? Just like back then?" a thin, frost-skinned dwarf said cautiously. He was the only surviving member of a small, officially recognized wizard family.

"Ha, negotiation? Do you still want to cower underground in that dilapidated fortress?" said a young frost-skinned dwarf of similarly imposing stature, his tone full of disdain.