Wizard: Starts with Advanced Meditation

"Strange? The Tracking Powder wasn't triggered." Tyr stood up and said.

"Hmm, it seems there are no more clues. Let's go back first," Luna said calmly.

"Keep the news under wraps, don't let the residents panic," Warrick ordered his men.

"yes!"

……

Tyre returned to the room Tom had arranged.

"Could it be spatial magic? No, the tracking powder will also track it," Tyr said, troubled.

The purpose of Tracking Powder, as the name suggests, is to use a powder to track traces, but to be precise, its function is actually tracking magic.

Wizards and magical beasts uncontrollably emit magical particles. Because these magical particles have entered their bodies and been influenced by their souls and mental power, they carry their unique aura.

At the same time, these high concentrations of magical particles can harm ordinary people who cannot withstand magic, so the mortal slaves around wizards generally do not live long and may even undergo mutations.

Just like the lower town of Corella, which is the residence of mortals or first-class wizard apprentices, they work in taverns or restaurants in the middle or upper town during the day and return to the lower town to live at night.

Of course, some live in the employer's house, such as servants and stewards, and their pay is higher. However, nowadays only some wizard apprentices use human servants. Wizards' servants are usually alchemical golems or creatures with high vitality.

Of course, knights do not emit magical particles. They can live with ordinary people because they temper their bodies with magic. Simply calling magic only draws on the magic in the surrounding environment; they cannot store magic themselves.

The principle behind Tracking Powder is that it repels the natural magic in nature, but automatically locks onto magical factors with a special aura within a certain distance and attaches to them.

Some detective and tracking spells work on the same principle. Of course, if one's control over magic reaches a certain level, one can also suppress the emission of magic particles and thus conceal oneself.

That evening, Luna returned to her room.

"Where did they go?" Tyre asked.

The two were originally going back together, but on the way, Luna suddenly thought of something and told Tyrell to go back first, then headed in another direction.

"I investigated some things to verify my suspicions."

"Could it be that the killer is skilled in controlling their magic? Perhaps even a fully-fledged wizard?"

"No, we always thought the killer was a powerful wizard apprentice or a magical beast, but we were wrong. Perhaps the killer couldn't be chosen by the tracking powder at all," Luna laughed.

As she spoke, Luna took out two pieces of parchment. One was filled with the locations of the missing persons, and the other was the guards' shift schedule.

"The patrol area of ​​Maple Leaf City is randomly assigned each day, and two teams are responsible for one area, with one team taking turns to be responsible for one area during the first half of the night and the other during the second half."

As she spoke, Luna pointed to the corresponding information for Tyr.

"I compared the locations where the missing persons disappeared with the corresponding patrol teams."

"And there was one team where every place where someone went missing was within the area he was supposed to patrol that night."

……

It's another night.

If Yorick, the captain of the royal guard of the Hired dynasty, is responsible for leading the guard to protect the royal family, then Fender Corliss, the captain of the Maple Leaf City guard, is responsible for leading the guard to protect the entire Maple Leaf City.

Since the disappearance, the guards have been conducting night patrols every night, and even Warrick, who is second only to the leader, has personally stepped in to boost morale.

The patrol team consisted of five men, with the two Grand Knights, Fender and Warwick, being the most powerful, patrolling alone.

In John the Leatherworker's house, John and his family of three slept on a bed by the window. Fender skillfully pried open the door and quietly slipped inside.

His knight-level body control allows him to easily control his strength, making his movements completely silent.

Finder walked into John's house. Finder stared stiffly at the peaceful sleeping faces of the family of three. He slowly reached out and touched John, gently holding his neck.

"Click."

John stopped breathing. Fender, expressionless, hoisted John's body onto his shoulder and ran towards the largest maple forest next to Rensley...

"It's here!"

The two figures immediately chased after Fender.

It was Luna and Tyre.

Through the information on the two parchments, Luna discovered that the locations of the nightly disappearances were patrolled by Fender and any other guard team. In addition, the Great Knights did not emit magical particles and could not be selected by the tracking powder.

Therefore, Luna became suspicious of the guard captain, and tonight they kept a close eye on Fender's actions, and sure enough, they discovered the real murderer.

Next, they needed to investigate Fender's motive. The two quickly caught up with him in the Maple Forest, but thanks to the Great Knight's physical prowess, Fender soon disappeared from Luna and Tyre's sight.

However, Luna had already marked Fender, and the reason for this was to avoid alerting the enemy, so that Fender would carry the corpse to the final destination. Seeing that Fender had already gone some distance, the two of them no longer held back.

As a body-refining wizard apprentice and a former official knight, Tyr's physical abilities were naturally exceptional.

He exhaled a breath of scorching steam, and fiery red magic runes appeared on his body. His body suddenly swelled up, but quickly compressed back down, his muscles crackling as they were squeezed.

Thales' speed increased several times over, leaving a trail of steam in his wake.

Luna lifted her feet slightly off the ground and cast the Fire Slash Technique, from which a pair of wings made of fire element grew from her back.

Fire Strike is a simplified version of the first-level sorcery spell Firewing, which allows the caster to grow a pair of wings made of fire feathers on their back.

These wings not only allow the wizard to fly nimbly, but also to launch explosive fire feathers for attacks.

The wings that grew from the Fire Strike Technique were not exquisite; they barely formed the shape of wings. The wings burst forth with fierce flames, and the enormous impact propelled Luna "flying" toward her destination.

The two quickly caught up to a cave. Without much thought, they checked that there were no ambushes or traps and rushed inside.

As soon as they entered the cave, the two smelled a strong stench of blood. Tyr and Luna even suspected that the air around them was blood red.

After taking only a few steps forward, the two of them collapsed to the ground. The fiery red magic runes on Tyr's body gradually disappeared, and he lay helplessly on the ground, his body uncontrollably inhaling the thick smell of blood into his nostrils, causing a feeling of nausea to rise in his body.

"vomit!"

Luna's fiery wings stopped breathing fire, and she collapsed weakly to the ground. Her wings gradually disappeared, and the pungent, fishy smell made her gag from time to time.

Fortunately, Luna was experienced and took out two isolation masks and put them on her face. The fresh air immediately made her feel refreshed.

Coming to her senses, she immediately put the other mask on Tyre's face.