Wizard: Starts with Advanced Meditation

At this moment, they were emaciated, no longer the robust figures they once were, and their bodies were covered with shocking dark purple veins.

The huge wounds left by Jovin and Heleto had not yet healed, their edges were rolled up, and they were surrounded by a dense cluster of purple pustules, which were slightly swollen, with a little purple liquid dripping from them.

They stood there silently, their eyes lifeless, only blank white pupils remaining. As if drawn by invisible threads, they stared intently in a certain direction, motionless.

Following their gaze, there was a small platform, on which lay a corrupted tree spirit. It was a little different from other corrupted tree spirits; it did not have purple vines on its body.

Standing in front of the platform was a rather burly frost-skinned dwarf, beside him were some purple vines from the corrupted dryads, and he was trembling as he transplanted these vines onto the dryads.

One of the most robust corrupted treants watched him from the side, preventing Kota from taking any chances.

Although his body was trembling, his hands moved with remarkable dexterity, handling the purple vines and the corrupted tree spirit on the platform.

Kota was filled with regret at this moment, because the war between the Frozen Heart Fortress and the Everfrost Spire had turned him from a researcher into a combatant.

He also became the captain of a frostskin dwarf squad due to his strength as a third-class wizard apprentice. This was his first battle, in which he was responsible for ambushing a wizard squad patrolling the Whispering Forest.

He came from a declining family. One of his ancestors was a powerful plague wizard who left his family a great deal of knowledge. Unfortunately, this ancestor was killed by wizards from Everfrost Spire in a previous war.

The rest of the Knox family were a bunch of brutes, and only Kota was interested in this knowledge. So he spent year after year in the Knox family library—which was actually just a storage room.

One piece of knowledge that caught his attention was about the Knox Symbiotic Vine, a magical plant researched by his ancestor, Bevo Knox.

He fused the symbolic blood of a formal wizard-level corrupted treant with a symbiotic vine, enabling it to produce a sap that assimilates living beings into extensions, while the assimilated beings still retain some consciousness and can cast spells.

The assimilated corpses retain the mindset to cast spells, which is the most valuable aspect. The necromancer is weak in the early stages because the summoned skeletons and corpses do not have the ability to cast spells, and can only win by wearing down the apprentices.

But in the later stages, they were able to summon high-level undead creatures such as liches with spellcasting abilities. At this point, the necromancer truly became an army on his own.

Unfortunately, the Knox Symbiotic Vine has only been able to assimilate some non-living organisms, and it cannot assimilate the corpses of large creatures quickly, requiring months or even years.

After learning about this magical plant, he planned to use it to assimilate the corpses of his dead enemies. This would not only enhance his own fighting strength but also please Dulink, and perhaps his family would prosper again.

Fortunately, his ancestors had left behind some Knox symbiotic vines, and after several months of study, he learned how to use them.

Little did he know that this Nox Symbiotic Vine required a Corrupted Dryad to activate, so he bribed a Frostskin Dwarf who assigned tasks to him, making him responsible for the Whispering Woods quests.

There are no officially wizard-level Corrupted Dryads in Whispering Woods, which is why Everfrost Spire has allowed Corrupted Dryads to breed there.

His original plan was to secretly capture a corrupted treant, a second-class wizard apprentice, with these magical plants, and control it with a slave contract. This way, they could ambush the apprentice squads of Everfrost Spire while assimilating their corpses for their own use.

Little did he know that as he passed through the corrupted tree spirits of the Whispering Forest, he sensed the blood of the Nox Symbiotic Vine, which was the official wizard-level symbol of their race, and captured them.

They forced him to modify them, and he transformed them one by one into apprentice-level corrupted tree spirits capable of assimilating corpses.

During this time, several of his brothers who had escaped were captured and assimilated, leaving him as the only one left. According to his rough calculations, this seemed to be the last corrupted tree spirit.

His condition will probably be dangerous after the transplant. Fortunately, they discovered the Everfrost Spire patrol a few days ago. I'll talk to the guy next to me who speaks Common Tongue later, and maybe he'll agree to let me help them ambush the apprentice squad.

He quickly completed the transplant, wiped his sweat, and then, with a fawning expression, said to the corrupted tree spirit beside him who could understand language:

"Lord Wols, as you know, the wizards of Everfrost Spire are at war with our Lord Dulink. I heard they've sent a squad of Everfrost Spire apprentices to patrol here. Perhaps I could—uh!!"

Kota looked up and saw Worth's distorted face. Unlike other tree spirits, it had two vortexes formed by gnarled roots on its face—those were its eyes.

Although the Corrupted Tree Spirit couldn't make expressions, he could sense that its gaze was that of someone looking at a useless tool.

Looking down, he saw that the man opposite him had extended several branches in his right hand without hesitation, piercing his heart and back, with the protruding branches still stained with his blood.

"The library at home is still the most comfortable place," Kota Knox murmured on his deathbed.

Soon after, his head lolled to the side and he stopped breathing. He never saw what the apprentices of Everfrost Spire looked like. He stayed at home studying the knowledge he loved, and the arrival of war forced him to come into contact with the outside world.

"laugh--"

After confirming that Kota was dead, a purple vine on Worth's body moved, and the end that wasn't inserted into his body quickly pierced Kota's chest.

The vines began to slowly inject a clear mucus into Kota's chest, and as the mucus was injected, purple veins began to appear around Kota's chest and gradually spread outwards.

After the mucus injection was completed, the vine was pulled out of Kota's chest and continued to sway in the air.

After a while, Kota's body began to shrink, becoming as emaciated as the previous assimilated dwarves, with purple veins covering his entire body.

His pupils slowly disappeared, replaced by a blankness, and his fingers, hanging at his sides, began to curl slightly.

"roar……"

With a low growl from "Kota", Worth felt a connection between his soul and the corpse opposite him. At this moment, he was "Kota" but "Kota" was not him. He would not be harmed if "Kota" died, but if he died, "Kota" would die again.