Wizard: Starts with Advanced Meditation

"Um?"

Just as Hughes was about to throw what he was holding into the furnace, he suddenly remembered something, paused in his action, and took back the pile of letters he was holding.

"Strange...why haven't we seen any letters from Bohr?"

Hughes asked in confusion, then piled the letters on the table and began searching through them again.

Over the years, he has been working with the family behind Bohr, which is why he has refused other families. As the intermediary between the two sides, Bohr is arguably the acquaintance with whom he communicates most frequently.

Every month, whether Hughes was in the house or not, Bohr would send him at least one letter, both to inform him about the potions the family needed each month and to subtly try to get closer to him.

However, after searching around, Hughes couldn't find any of the letters Bohr had sent over those three months.

However, considering that he was delivering the goods every few months, Hughes didn't think much of it. After sending a message to Bohr using the communication crystal, he threw the pile of letters into the furnace.

……

"Elements never tame you on their own, not even those transformed by magic."

"If you want to solidify them or turn them into gas, you cannot force them with your mental power. You must use your mental power to guide their magical nodes, just like combing through silk threads. In this way, each element becomes your thread, weaving the shape in your heart."

"Practice it yourselves..."

"..."

Inside the practice room, which was filled with cold mist, a thin layer of white frost had formed on the floor, which crunched underfoot.

The wizard Via stood in the center of the arena. Her flowing hair was as blue as silk soaked in ice, and when it swayed occasionally, tiny frost flowers would fall from it.

She is the instructor in the Everfrost Spire responsible for teaching ice elemental shaping, and at this moment she is in the practice room instructing several ice elemental apprentices on how to shape their ice elements.

Hughes was among them, struggling against a ball of cold air, preparing to turn it into a solid block of ice.

This is much more difficult than casting a spell, because he can no longer mobilize excess ice elements and can only rely on manipulating this scattered bit of cold air to transform it.

Shaping ice is a profound art, at least for wizards who manipulate ice.

In the past, the sorcery that transformed ice elements into ice spikes and ice walls was not shaped by the apprentices themselves, because the sorcery runes had already shaped the ice elements for them.

However, in the usual battles, the ice walls and ice blades that Hughes condensed using ice elements were not, strictly speaking, formed by ice elements.

Because this is merely an "accumulation" of ice elements, Hughes's construction of the ice wall is simply a cuboid made of ice elements, lacking the thickness of a true "wall".

When he constructed the ice blade, he merely made the two sides as sharp and thin as possible, without the sharpness of a "blade". Even though he had mastered the art of layering, he only piled them up more densely. Although the effect was significant, it consumed a huge amount of mana.

Just as he was struggling to condense a few ice particles from the ice mist, Viya suddenly turned her head to look at Hughes, who was tightly clutching the ice mist and had beads of sweat on his forehead.

"Release your hand, Hughes apprentice."

Although Viya's voice was clear and cool like an icy spring, it was not stern at all.

"Don't keep staring at that cold air in your palm. Remember, the key to shaping the objects in your mind is 'resonance,' not 'observation.'"

Upon hearing this, Hughes quickly loosened his stiff fingers, and the icy mist that had just barely gathered in his palm and condensed into a few small ice crystals immediately trembled.

Just as the icy mist was about to dissipate, Viya stepped forward and gently touched the icy mist in front of him with her fingertips. A gentle power spread out along the magical nodes of the icy mist.

The ice elements that had been scattering wildly as if startled suddenly stopped their agitation and instantly transformed into a small block of ice emitting a chilling aura in front of him.

"Don't look at my hands, sense my spiritual power."

Viya looked at Hughes, then slowly raised her other hand, a hint of cold air emanating from her palm.

Hughes stared intently and saw the shimmering white mist spreading out with her spiritual power.

First, it was drawn into a slender arc, then slowly narrowed, and in just a few breaths, a crystal-clear ice blade hovered in her palm.

This ice blade is somewhat unusual; its edge gleams with a cold light, yet not a trace of extra chill leaks out, making it appear as if it were a regular blade.

"It's not 'coercion,' it's 'guidance,' it's 'communication,' which is why some witchcraft requires chanting in Esso."

With a gentle twist of her slender wrist, the ice blade in her palm instantly transformed into several tiny ice needles. But in the blink of an eye, these ice needles melted and condensed into a water droplet the size of a fist.

Hughes used his mental power to probe and saw that it was not water droplets, but liquid ice element (don't ask, it's magic). Beneath its soft, icy blue exterior, it contained dense, fine ice particles.

"You need to first memorize the characteristics of the corresponding item in your mind, such as the sharpness of a sword or the curvature of a shield."

"If you align your consciousness with the ice element, it will condense into any entity you can imagine, following your mental power."

As Viya's words reached his ears, Hughes's understanding of ice element shaping gradually faded and became clearer.

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and began to communicate with the ice block in his palm, using his mental power to carefully explore its magical structure.

With a "crash," the ice block suddenly turned into tiny ice particles, which floated in Hughes's palm, gathering and dispersing repeatedly, appearing very unstable.

Seeing this, Viya did not urge them on, but instead turned to instruct the other apprentices.

After an unknown amount of time, the scattered ice particles suddenly stretched and extended, transforming into extremely fine ice threads. The icy blue lines were almost transparent, and their existence was completely imperceptible unless one looked closely.

What's even more amazing is that these fine threads made of ice elements are surprisingly soft. When they land in Hughes's palm, they bend gently and slowly slip through his fingers.

This scene attracted the attention of the apprentices around Hughes, who stopped what they were doing and looked at the soft, fine threads in Hughes's palm with surprise and uncertainty.

Viya looked in the direction of Hughes, then quickly stepped forward and looked at the ball of ice silk in Hughes's palm. Her slender white fingers then reached out and gently picked up a thin thread and began to caress it.

Feeling the smooth texture on her fingertips, Viya's lips curved into a slight smile:

"Very good, Hughes, you're finally not 'fighting' against the ice element anymore, but starting to 'guide' it."

"This is the first lesson in plasticity—understand it, and then guide it."

"..."

A few days ago, Hughes purchased a course on ice element shaping to learn in-depth knowledge of ice element shaping science, and today's class is the first one.

As for the reason? Because in his self-created sorcery, the core of his conception is the knowledge system of rapid shaping of ice elements and elemental compression.

This allows ice magic to retain sufficient power while also giving it a flexible and varied form of casting.