Wizard: Starts with Advanced Meditation

Heleto's brows were furrowed, and he didn't even notice that his brass-rimmed glasses had slipped down to the tip of his nose. His left hand pressed down on the curled parchment, while his right hand moved the quill pen back and forth across the paper, leaving irregular runes wherever the pen tip went.

"No... the nodes shouldn't converge here..." he muttered to himself, his voice filled with suppressed anxiety, his knuckles turning white from the force.

The parchment was soaked with ink from repeated corrections, and in some places even tiny holes were poked out by the pen tip. There were even two broken quill pens next to his right hand.

……

The flickering light from the oil lamp in the room cast Heleto's thin figure onto the wall behind him, like a taut statue. Hughes stood quietly to the side, showing no intention of speaking.

He knew that at this moment, Heleto's mind was like a bowstring stretched to its limit, every nerve tied to those distorted symbols, and any extra sound could ruin the almost completed deduction.

……

Finally, Heleto finished his deduction, his quill pen slamming down on the paper, the last stroke ending with a barely perceptible tremor.

"It's done..."

Heleto's voice was hoarse, as if it had been sanded. He exhaled a long breath, his tense shoulders suddenly collapsed, and the hand holding the quill pen fell limply to the ground. Ink dripped from the tip of the pen and spread into a small black blot.

He took off his glasses and hastily wiped his bloodshot eyes with his sleeve—suddenly, he realized something, turned to look at Hughes, and slowly said:

"Sorry to keep you waiting, my future... ally..."

Hughes raised an eyebrow after hearing this.

"ally?"

……

Heleto brought over a wooden chair, and Hughes did not refuse. He gently pulled out the chair and sat down, the chair legs scraping against the ground, making a soft rustling sound.

The two sat facing each other, and Hughes spoke first:

"Tell me, who is your teacher, and why did they notice me?"

His tone carried a hint of coldness; after all, being targeted by a strange, formal wizard was hardly a good thing.

Heleto's fingertips were still on the edge of the parchment when he heard this, he paused, and when he looked up, a complex look flashed in his bloodshot eyes.

"My...my teacher is Thorne Carrent, a first-level wizard, and he is also a mid-level runemaster..."

"Thorn Calent..."

Hughes recognized the name; he was the only one in the Everfrost Spire with spatial affinity who had advanced to become a full-fledged wizard.

Thinking of this, Hughes paused in tapping his knee with his fingertips, a look of understanding flashing in his eyes.

He still remembered the apprentice recruitment a few years ago. On the thick booklet, the benefits listed by the wizard Thorne Callent stood out among the stringent conditions.

In particular, the two apprentice benefits—"personal instruction in spatial magic" and "low-to-intermediate guidance in runecraft"—were almost tailor-made for his choice to become a runemaster. However, Nora mentioned the wizard's character in her letter...

Thinking of this, Hughes's gaze darkened slightly, and his fingertips unconsciously rubbed against his knees.

Nora's handwriting in that letter seemed to be right before my eyes—the carefree older sister's handwriting carried an obvious wariness when she mentioned Thorne Carrent in the letter.

"Although it aligns well with your future path, Thorne Calent is not a good mentor; in fact, he is a ruthless wizard. In his eyes, apprentices are merely tools to assist his experiments, and he is also the one who recruits the most apprentices every year."

These are Nora's exact words in her letter. It was because of these words that Hughes gave up the idea of ​​becoming Thorne's apprentice and instead chose Serafina, whose conditions were more reasonable. Now that he thinks about it, Thorne Calent was indeed up to no good.

"Thorn Callent was a madman. He lured apprentices in with impeccable benefits and then studied runes on them. That's how I got tricked into coming here."

At this point, Heleto's fingers clenched the parchment tightly, his knuckles turning white.

"Madman..." he repeated the word, his voice filled with suppressed hatred.

"His so-called 'spatial rune fusion technique' is simply using the flesh and blood of living people as a canvas, and his status as an intermediate rune master is his absolution."

Heleto lowered his voice even further, with a hint of gritted teeth.

"The war between Everfrost Spire and the Frostskin Dwarves has been severe in recent years. The Academy needs him to maintain the stability of the teleportation array and the space nodes of the airships, so naturally they won't move him for the sake of a few apprentices."

"So..." Hughes looked up at Heleto, his gaze serious.

Why did he target me?

Heleto took a sip of water to moisten his throat and said:

"A few years ago, Thorne took on an apprentice who had a third-level spatial affinity. Any runes involving spatial attributes were exceptionally docile when imprinted on his body, and they would take effect almost without any other method."

At this point, Heleto's eyes were filled with fear.

"Every day, those magical runes were repeatedly etched into his flesh and then wiped away. Until one day—his flesh could no longer withstand this endless torment and completely lost its tolerance to magic."

Hughes' heart sank upon hearing this. A wizard's body would naturally be reshaped by magic as his cultivation level increased, transforming into a form more compatible with extraordinary power.

But once a wizard's flesh and blood completely lose their tolerance to magic... it means that the body has regressed to the level of a mortal and cannot survive in an environment with a high concentration of magic.

If one continues to live with a wizard for an extended period, their body will be eroded and infected by the magical particles emanating from the wizard, eventually leading to mutations.

Heleto didn't elaborate on the apprentice's fate, but both knew it perfectly well.

After a long pause, Heleto continued:

"Thorne's next target is you. He has already bribed the person in charge of apprentice information and knows that you have a fourth-level spatial affinity. However, he did not expect that you would not choose the only spatial faction wizard, but instead chose Serafina."

"...So, why are you telling me all this, or what is your purpose?"

Hughes wasn’t too flustered when he learned that he was being targeted by a formal wizard, after all, he was already being watched by the entire Chiss family.

After a moment of silence, Heleto continued:

"Thorne was previously wary of Serafina behind you, but now that you've been sent to the battlefield, he has much more room to maneuver. In a few days..."

Heleto told Hugheshorn about the next plan and mentioned himself.

"As for me, I'm one of the youngest apprentices right now. I haven't been harmed by him yet, but I guess it won't be long. So I want you to cover my feigned death on the battlefield."