Wizard: Starts with Advanced Meditation

Following the route in his mind, Hughes trudged through the fine snow that reached above his calves, munching on the dried fire lizard meat from his storage bag, and braved the biting wind as he made his way towards the frost elf's territory.

The fire lizard is a low-level fire elemental magical beast. Its jerky has excellent heat-retaining properties, can raise body temperature, and is extremely filling.

The route given by the Frost Elf was very accurate, and the scenery along the way was exactly the same as described. Unfortunately, the good weather didn't last long. The cold wind was particularly biting today, and the scenery became more and more blurry the further we went.

Hughes could only struggle to observe the scenery, which was heavily covered by snow and wind, and use his ring to release fire orbs in general locations to check for any special landmarks left by frost elves.

Finally, Hughes arrived at a pass; once he passed through it, he would reach the territory of the frost elves—the Ice Rift Corridor.

The wind was like a knife tempered with ice, seeping in through the cracks and swirling snowflakes into Hughes' boots. If Hughes hadn't been an ice element wizard with ice element resistance, he would have frozen to death long ago.

Fortunately, Hughes used Shadow Step to ignore the difficult terrain of the Ice Ridge Mountains; otherwise, he would have slipped and fallen on the frozen, hard ice.

Finally, Hughes trudged through the ankle-deep ice, across the narrow path encased in icicles, and beyond the pass, the valley suddenly opened up before him—the territory of the Frost Elves was hidden deep within this snow-covered valley.

Upon entering the valley, rugged ice cliffs rise on both sides, their surfaces covered with a thin layer of ice, yet some plants stubbornly grow on them.

There was a wide, open gap overhead, through which the cold wind from the valley poured in.

As you venture deeper, crossing a small river, you'll see eerie blue runes appearing on the surface of the cliffs. Following the runes, a magical gate made of eerie blue magic will appear before you.

Suddenly, Hughes felt a movement in his arms, and saw the ice-blue branch given to him by the old frost elf emitting a ghostly blue light.

The branch drifted away from Hughes's arms and headed towards the magic gate. Hughes followed the branch, which stopped in front of the gate. Hughes understood, grasped the branch, and together they passed through the magic gate.

Passing through the gate, Hughes was deeply shocked by the scene before him: this was the territory of the Frost Elves—the Ice Rift Corridor, Leviathan.

This is a village built in a valley. The valley floor is not barren frozen soil, but soft, light blue grass. An underground river flows through the entire village. The surrounding houses are built with various huge, ice-blue leaves and branches. Although the materials are simple, the houses are built very exquisitely.

The most striking feature was the "Tree of Life" in the center of the valley, which was also the first time Hughes had seen it.

The Tree of Life takes on different appearances depending on its environment. The giant tree in front of us doesn't look like a plant at all, but rather like a giant tree formed from millennia-old glaciers. Unmelting icicles hang between its branches, and huge blue leaves grow on its branches.

Looking at the Tree of Life that had grown out of the valley, Hughes sighed that it was only a few hundred years old and must have been transplanted by the Frost Elves. After all, newly born elves would be bound to the Tree of Life according to their race and distance.

When elven groups migrate, they bring with them branches from the Tree of Life to ensure that their knowledge can be bestowed upon new life within their tribe.

However, the knowledge bestowed by the ancient tree is one-time only. More advanced knowledge will be unlocked on the pattern on the forehead as the level increases, so the ancient tree does not restrict the range of the elf's activities.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

As Hughes was figuring out how to make contact with the frost elf, three ice arrows came from different directions, locking down Hughes's movement range and making it impossible for him to dodge.

However, Hughes didn't need to dodge. He deflected the force field and released the three arrows, which cleverly bypassed Hughes and shot behind him.

At the same time, a petite figure suddenly darted out from behind. She was holding a curved knife and was about to slash at Hughes when she was almost hit by a deflected ice arrow. Fortunately, she nimbly dodged it.

Sensing the movement behind him, Hughes suddenly grabbed her slender arm and pulled her in front of him. At the same time, he condensed the surrounding ice elements in his right hand, forming an ice dagger, which he held to the girl's neck.

"Let's see who dares to come over. Also, speak to me in Common (Elven)!" Hughes said fiercely.

At the same time, the dagger moved further in, leaving a small, bright red mark on the girl's neck.

Hughes had secretly learned these few sentences when he was a child playing role-playing games with Tyr and the others. The language of the elves does not differ because of different races, since these Elvish languages ​​and common languages ​​are all bestowed by the Tree of Life.

Moreover, it is said that originally there was only the Elf race, and there was only one Tree of Life. However, someone took some branches from the Elf Tree of Life and planted them in other environments, causing some Elf to mutate and go to live in the places where those branches were located.

When he arrived, Hughes sensed that the ice element here was very dense, and four figures were quietly approaching him.

The frost elf girl held hostage by Hughes had a youthful face and slightly pointed ears. She wore ill-fitting rune-covered leather armor, and her body was trembling violently with fear. The scimitar she was holding had already fallen to the ground.

The frost elf's skin was pale with a hint of light blue, but at this moment, she was so frightened that her face was only pale white.

The other three frost elves also had to show themselves, two men and one woman. They looked about the same age as Hughes, but that was definitely not the case. Even the girl in their arms was probably older than Hughes.

All four were second-class wizard apprentices, but Hughes was confident he could take them down. After all, his strength, due to his cultivation of advanced meditation techniques, was already very close to that of a third-class wizard apprentice.

"If you have the guts, then kill her. We won't let you get away with this," the frost elf boy said calmly to Hughes.

"What did you say, Keller?" the frost elf boy beside him said in disbelief.

The other frost elf girl remained silent, instead pointing her staff at Hughes, her aquamarine eyes fixed on him, her face filled with ferocity.

"Don't worry, I mean no harm. I have urgent business to report to your chieftain, Shirinville, otherwise the Frostskin Dwarves would have turned your territory upside down," Hughes said unhurriedly.

Hughes was about to use the ice-blue branch as proof when he realized that the ice-blue branch that had been floating next to him had disappeared.

Meanwhile, on the thickest branch of the Tree of Life stood a simple wooden house, inside which a beautiful female frost elf gently stroked the icy blue branch.

A tear rolled down her cheek, the crystal-clear tear falling onto a branch. The branch transformed into an ice-blue speck of light, flying out of the window and towards the top of the Tree of Life.

"Father."