Ancient Wizards: A Little Progress Every Day

Amidst the vast snow-capped mountains and high ridges, on a flat, snow-covered clearing at the top of a broken mountain peak, Dago stands quietly.

He stood tall and straight, wearing only a long robe. The biting wind made him look rather thin, but it only added to his cold and ruthless aura.

"After a month, I have finally mastered the 'Gray Sun Meditation Technique' and the 'Elemental Resonance Technique' to the point of breaking through the limits."

Looking at the vast snow-capped mountains, forests, and sky so white it was almost completely pure, Dago opened his system panel.

[Gray Sun Meditation (Breakthrough) Evolution Trait: Winter Stillness; Elemental Resonance (Breakthrough) Evolution Trait: Iceberg Resonance]

These two skills, which were at their limit on the system panel, were pushed beyond their limits through his relentless training day and night, evolving into unique characteristics of their own. This is the miracle flower that has blossomed in magic.

At this moment, the gray sun in his mental space had grown to be two sizes larger than before he broke through the limit, and his total mental power was about three times that of an ordinary early-stage second-ring wizard. Even more exaggeratedly, his recovery speed was more than five times that of before.

A spiritual energy field naturally emanated from him, intensifying the viscosity and distortion of the surrounding air and light, already displaying the aura of a late-stage second-ring wizard.

I am confident that I will shine brightly once again on this grand adventure through the Mirror Forest.

As he thought this, the gray ring in Dago's eyes swirled and shone brightly. In an instant, his spiritual power surged forth, and a sudden blizzard and gale swept up the mountaintop, with a large number of ice-type energy particles rolling in from all directions.

An immense spiritual energy field emanated from Dago's body, weaving mysterious energy bands in the air, like the aurora borealis descending upon the world.

"Iceberg Resonance!"

The vast snow-capped mountains and ridges were adorned with countless icy white rays of light, which then rapidly converged upwards, forming an inverted iceberg in the sky.

"buckle!"

The entire iceberg rapidly collapsed, with the force of an avalanche, layer by layer, forming a new iceberg among the distant mountains.

The iceberg is crystal clear, shimmering with an eerie brilliance under the cold sunlight. Endless cold air is released from the iceberg, freezing the surrounding air.

Dago looked at the pure white iceberg in front of him, his eyes flashing slightly. The phantom image of the Winter Star appeared in the sky, and countless icy energies surged from the phantom image.

[Absolute Frozen Domain]!

Countless cold currents overflowing from the iceberg roared towards him, and together with the icy power of the Winter Star, they transformed into icy veins in the space beneath Dago's feet, growing around him like blue and white plant roots, with an extremely cold and sharp icy wind blowing through the air.

Dago's pupils gradually turned into a pure ice-blue color, all distracting thoughts were frozen, and he quickly sank into the state of [Winter Stillness].

The frost and snow particles formed a hurricane that soared higher and higher, growing stronger and stronger, enveloping several mountain peaks among the mountains.

And Dago stood right in the center of this frost hurricane, enveloped by streaks of icy blue aurora, his black hair and long robes fluttering in the wind!

Just as the frost hurricane grew to a height that almost touched the sky, and the three ice-type skill concepts contained within it were subtly connected, just as their fusion and interaction were about to be achieved.

"boom!"

A massive, icy hurricane suddenly burst open, the tornado collapsed, and a tsunami-like wave of extreme cold swept in all directions, causing a heavy snowfall in the sky above the mountains.

"Crackling and popping—"

Thick snowflakes mixed with fist-sized hailstones kept falling, but before they could get close to Dago's body, they were directly crushed by the powerful mental force field naturally emanating from his body.

Standing alone amidst a hailstorm and snow, the icy blue in Dago's eyes slowly melted away.

"It's still not quite there!"

As Dago pondered, his brain, which had just emerged from the stillness of winter and had been stimulated by five bottles of "Solomon's Blessing," was now as cool and clear as the world before him.

"But my thinking should be correct. These three skills are all extensions of the ice element. Although their effects are different, they are entirely possible to be combined."

Dago kept pondering, hoping that a delicate balance among the three skills might achieve the result he wanted.

Thinking this, he raised his hand to disperse the mental energy field, intending to return to Ice Castle Town.

At this moment, a message suddenly came from a communication stone brick inside the storage ring.

From Quinn.

After a quick glance, a glint of light flashed in Dagger's eyes.

"The bloodline modification project is finally showing some progress!"

At the Ice Clam Tavern, Dago sat in his usual window seat, while Quinn respectfully handed him several parchments and a recording stone.

Whether it's parchment or a recording stone, the information recorded inside is about "bloodline modification".

The handwriting on the paper was different, clearly indicating that it was written by different people. Quinn didn't even have time to sort it out before notifying Dago to come over.

Dago scanned through all the information, gently put down what he was holding, calmly looked at Quinn, and said indifferently, "Do you have any good suggestions?"

Quinn glanced at the high-grade magic stone that Dago had placed on the table to weigh down the parchment, and unconsciously swallowed, suppressing the burning desire in his eyes.

After thinking for a moment, he said seriously, "Of these three, the wizards from the Kovdal family can provide the most types of magical beasts for modification, but their failure rate is the highest."

"I'm not sure if it has anything to do with the wizards who undergo 'bloodline modification' themselves, but the success rate of wizards who undergo 'bloodline modification' in the Covedale family has always been only half of the normal rate, sometimes even less than half, but they promise to refund half the fee if they fail."

"Ice Valley used to be the gathering place of the Adela family, but now it has declined to the point that only an old man named Helasga remains. This old fellow is eccentric and unpredictable. Sometimes he will suddenly raise the price on the spot, but he is quite polite to second-circle wizards of the same level."

"Relatively speaking, Lady Darren of Icethorn Manor has a very good reputation. However, there have been rumors of monsters appearing near Icethorn Manor for the past hundred years, and people disappear there every year. If you go there, sir, please be extra careful!"

"monster?"

Dago's eyes flickered, and he asked Quinn, "Has anyone seen what the monster looks like? How strong is it?"

"Most of the people I saw are dead. Those who survived either went mad or became mentally unstable, and the monsters they talked about were all different and bizarre. As for the strength of the monsters you mentioned, sir..."

Quinn gave a wry smile and said softly, "To us wizard brokers, anything that's a monster is naturally an insurmountable and terrifying existence. I don't even know what kind of strength it is!"

"What level of wizard was the highest-ranking person to go missing in that area?"

"A late-stage wizard disappeared over there and never reappeared, and there was more than one."

"Don't the other wizarding families in Ice Fortress care?"

"Icethorn Manor belongs to Lady Darren's family territory. Other families have no right to interfere or govern it. Few wizards from other families go to Icethorn Manor. Most of those who go there are foreign wizards who are going to receive 'bloodline modification' or apprentice wizards and ordinary people who sneak in to hunt."

Dago asked Quinn a few more questions, and finally he nodded and made his decision.

"Let's go with Icethorn Manor. Help me contact this so-called Lady Darren."

Quinn didn't try to persuade him further, but simply agreed respectfully, put away the high-grade magic stones on the table, and then hurriedly left.

After Quinn left, Dago sat alone at the table, tapping his fingers lightly on the surface.

"Icethorn Manor, population missing, monsters!"

"Is there a wizard conducting some kind of human magic experiment inside?"

Dago thought quietly for a while, then stood up and, like a gust of cold wind, passed through the tavern, quickly returning to his own quarters behind the tavern.

The room wasn't very big, but the roaring flames in the fireplace added a warm, orange-red hue to the entire space.

The room was built with cedar wood. Ice Castle had just experienced a blizzard in the past two days, and the snow outside was piled up to almost halfway up the windows. The windowpanes were covered with large, exquisitely shaped, and beautiful ice flowers, creating a fairytale-like atmosphere.

However, even the most beautiful snow scenery can become tiresome after looking at it for more than a month.

Dargo's patience was slowly wearing thin, and Undine had given him a two-and-a-half-month deadline.

He couldn't possibly go back at this exact moment; if he missed the opening of the Mirror Forest Secret Realm, that would be a huge loss.