Wizard: Starts with Advanced Meditation

After finishing his biological modification class today, Hughes arrived at the Ice Dragon Restaurant exhausted. Hughes had a full schedule today because, since acquiring the magic stone, he had started purchasing some paid courses.

These paid courses are very expensive. The biological modification course that Hughes just took costs 20 magic stones a year. In addition, Hughes also chose the low-level rune literature course, which costs 25 magic stones a year.

Ice Dragon Restaurant is highly regarded among apprentices, and Hughes now comes here for a good meal whenever he has time, which is very beneficial for Hughes, who is still only a first-class wizard apprentice.

These monster meats were made by wizard apprentices who knew some biological modification, maximizing their nutritional value and magical power.

Hughes even felt that he could be promoted to Grand Knight just by eating.

After a hearty meal, Hughes returned to his dormitory. He clipped Booker's storage bag to his waist, added a black robe and a mask, and prepared to go to the black market to sell the stored potions.

Luber had already told Hughes about the trip to the academy's black market, and also told him about some shops with good value for money.

Soon, Hughes arrived at a small alley in the market area. From the outside, the rooms on both sides were filled with clutter, and crows were circling on the rooftops.

Hughes took out a magic stone and threw it upwards with force.

"Whoosh"

One of the crows caught the flying magic stone in its beak, then swooped down and rushed into a door. Hughes opened the door, and a dark underground passage appeared before him. Hughes glanced at it and saw that it was a dark elemental.

The market area of ​​Everfrost Spire has many such alleys. The crows are gatekeepers trained by the administrators. After paying the entrance fee to the gatekeeper, they will randomly open a door leading to the black market.

Hughes put on a black robe and a bird-beak mask, making him look somewhat like the bird-beaked doctor from his previous life.

The pointed part of the mask is equipped with a voice changer, which can effectively mask Hughes's voice.

The bird-beak mask also has the effect of filtering impurities and purifying the air, because Bohr had told him that some places in the black market had very strong smells.

As he reached the deepest point, the surrounding dark elements clung to Hughes like liquid, carrying him through the ground and causing him to plummet rapidly downwards. Hughes was surrounded by darkness, with only a feeling of weightlessness.

A few seconds later, the feeling of weightlessness disappeared, and the dark elements slowly detached from Hughes's body like liquid and moved upwards.

Hughes looked up and saw that the dark elements were slowly flying upwards. Hughes looked around and found that he had come to a square.

……

In the alley, dark elements gathered at the door, eventually forming a crow that flew back into the sky.

Hughes left the square, observing the entire black market as he walked. The black market was hidden deep underground in the Everfrost Spire market area, where the light was rather dim, with only the magic stone streetlights emitting a faint glow.

Hughes's boots trod on the worn stone bricks, some moss growing in the cracks between the bricks. The stalls in the square were closely packed together, displaying many trinkets that were not usually seen and bloodstained witchcraft materials.

Some streets are narrow and winding, with dilapidated shops on both sides. The wooden structures of the buildings are rotten, and the signs on the doors are faded and illegible. Some even use twisted snake or skull patterns instead of words.

Some streets, however, were incredibly wide and clean, with even the shops along the street being spotlessly clean, seemingly indicating a newly developed commercial area for the black market.

There weren't many people in the black market; the apprentices all wore robes that covered their entire bodies and used various methods to conceal their faces.

Some wore masks like Hughes, while others simply covered their faces with magic.

They were almost all alone, not traveling together. Hughes casually found a corner, spread a black cloth on the ground, arranged the potions one by one, and then sat down on a stool to wait for customers to come.

He recently succeeded in refining a qualified antidote, and it's a good opportunity to sell it to cover up his identity, since some people in the academy already know that Hughes can refine blood-replenishing and nutrient solutions.

Potions are always in short supply, especially now that Everfrost Spire has collected a large amount of war potions. Soon, a wizard apprentice came up.

He was tall and wore a black bear mask. Beneath his simple robes were massive muscles, or perhaps something else entirely.

"How much are the premium blood tonics, premium nutrients, and qualified low-grade antidotes?" the black bear mask asked in a deep voice, as black smoke billowed from beneath the mask as he spoke.

"10 magic stones for a high-quality blood tonic, 2 magic stones for a high-quality nutrient, and 5 magic stones for a qualified low-grade antidote," Hughes said in a high-pitched voice from his bird-beak mask.

After some haggling, Black Bear Mask bought most of Hughes's potions for 8 magic stones for a high-quality blood replenishment potion, 1 magic stones for a high-quality nutrient potion, and 4 magic stones for a qualified low-grade antidote.

Looking at the 186 magic stones that had been added to his storage bag, Hughes guessed that the black bear was probably going to participate in the academy's mandatory mission.

In recent years, conflicts between Everfrost Spire and the Frostskin Dwarves have become increasingly frequent, with more and more apprentices being sent to various parts of the academy to guard the area. Even second-level apprentices have mostly started forming teams to take on missions to hunt down Frostskin Dwarves.

Speaking of which, Hughes's older sister Nora should be back soon.

She had previously accepted a mission to be stationed in the Mortal Empire, and later in the letter she said that she had found a small wizarding ruin nearby, so she specially extended the mission period to go to the ruin to find resources to break through to the third-level wizarding apprentice level.

Several wizard apprentices came to buy Hughes' potions, and some even asked where Hughes would set up his stall next time. In less than half a day, Hughes' potions were sold out.

Hughes put away the black cloth and strode into the alley. Having sold so many potions, countless eyes were focused on him, but since fighting was not allowed in the black market, Hughes was currently quite safe.

Hughes arrived at a slightly newer potion shop. The shop's sign had no words, only a snake spewing purple poisonous mist.

Upon entering the potions shop, Hughes saw a woman wearing a cobra mask standing behind the counter. Looking into her eyes, he saw that they were actually snake eyes.

Reaching the counter, Hughes got straight to the point: "Two bottles of Ouroboros Elixir."

The woman wearing the cobra mask glanced at him, then turned and went into a room.

"Whoosh—"

Soon, the curtains in the room were lifted, and the woman in the cobra mask came out carrying two carefully wrapped boxes.

"Three hundred and sixty-two magic stones, hiss," she hissed, her tongue long and thin, the tip of which spread apart, as she placed the potion on the counter.

Hughes readily paid the magic stones, put the potion into his storage bag, and walked out of the potion shop.