Ancient Wizards: A Little Progress Every Day

Dargo continued his inspection of the circular experimental table in the room. Suddenly, his gaze was drawn to a recess whose color and material were completely out of place with the surrounding experimental tables.

As he slowly approached, the pungent, putrid odor gradually intensified. In fact, the smell wasn't that strong, because of the Resonance spell, Dargo's sense of smell far surpassed that of a typical second-circle wizard. He had smelled the odor as soon as he went up to the second floor, and it turned out to be coming from this place.

The rough black grooves stood out conspicuously and jarringly against the pure white and delicate lab bench.

There were some dark green, viscous liquid residues in the black sink, lightly covering one corner of the sink. Judging from the large green marks on the inner wall of the sink, this unidentified liquid should have originally filled the entire sink, but it slowly drained away over time, leaving only this small amount in front of us.

"A waste disposal pool for handling experimental waste?"

Dago looked at the water tank in front of him and made a judgment.

He had seen similar things next to Bernal's potion and alchemy lab benches. The waste pools were usually filled with specially prepared, highly corrosive energy potions that could dissolve most experimental waste.

After a slight hesitation, Dago reached out and shot out several thin blue sticks made of activated ice crystals from his fingertips, carefully stirring them into the dark green liquid in the tank.

The thin blue stick and the dark green liquid made a hissing sound when they touched, and a wisp of blue smoke rose up.

Dago frowned, sensing that the activated ice crystals were being consumed rapidly. In just a short while, the amount consumed was almost equal to the amount he had used to cast ice magic and fight someone.

This is an ice-type skill that has been enhanced and evolved by the system, and the corrosiveness of the liquid in the waste pool is much stronger than he imagined.

It was estimated to be at least a third-ring or higher existence, just as Dago was about to retrieve the blue thin stick.

"Click—"

Something beneath the dark green liquid seemed to be touched by the thin blue rod.

Dago's expression shifted, and he quickly manipulated the thin blue stick to "hook" up the thing that had been collected.

He had originally just planned to try his luck, thinking that there might be something left in the experimental waste tank of the ancient Mirror Forest wizard that might have some research value and could be given to Bernal as a "souvenir" from this exploration.

Surprisingly, he actually managed to hook something.

What Dago pulled out of the waste pool was an irregularly shaped black metal ring with a pitted surface. The ring was almost broken, and there was a small, sharp protrusion at one end. It was estimated that the original shape of this thing was not like this. There were other parts outside the ring, but they had been corroded away.

He drained the dark green liquid from the metal ring and gently held the ring in his hand.

Unexpectedly, the black ring shattered like a cookie as soon as it was touched, and then quickly weathered into dust.

Before Dago could react, he felt a burning, stinging pain in his palm.

He instinctively flung away the broken ring fragments in his hand, and looking down, he saw a strange mark on the palm of his right hand.

It looks like a ring with an arrow on top.

At a glance, Dago recognized the pattern as the original shape of the broken metal ring.

Dago rubbed the skin on his palms; it was smooth and flat, without any wounds, not even the lines on his palms were disturbed.

The strange, arrow-shaped pattern seemed to be branded into one's flesh through the skin, and after a few breaths, it began to fade slowly, leaving only a faint trace.

"What exactly is it? Some kind of rune?"

Dago frowned. He could sense that the mark was still inside him, but he couldn't remove it no matter what he tried.

His mind subconsciously recalled the words he had just written on the broken stone slab—taboo, experiment, North.

"Could it be related to that forbidden experiment mentioned on the stone tablet, which was forced to end due to failure?"

Before leaving, the owner of the house hurriedly destroyed all the experimental data, including this arrow-shaped object.

He or she threw the item into the waste bin, never expecting that after so much time, it would still not be completely dissolved.

As Dago pondered the pattern markings and the mysterious experiment, the communication stone inside his storage ring suddenly stirred.

He took out the communication stone and was surprised to find that it was from the wizard in the Silver Tower, besides himself and Violet.

"I encountered people from the Black Swamp. I'm no match for them, and my quest ring has been stolen. I may have to quit this exploration early!"

"Violet, Dargo...you two be careful, good luck."

The wizard's voice sounded weak, as if he had suffered a serious injury.

After hearing the message from the other party, Dago's expression turned slightly serious.

So quickly, wizards from the Silver Tower have been "plundered and eliminated"?!

His strength is not weak; he is at the mid-to-late stage of the second ring and is also a genius who has comprehended the power of the domain.

As a result, they encountered a wizard from the Black Swamp and were immediately eliminated with severe injuries. The other party was not polite at all. Violet was right before. In the exploration mission, the most dangerous thing is wizards from other forces!

At this very moment, within this secret realm of the Mirror Forest, perhaps many similar acts of plundering and being plundered are taking place.

Just then, Violet sent a message: "Where are you now? Can you see a floating, rotating tower nearby?"

Dago did not reply. He quickly searched the second floor, then went up to the attic on the third floor of the small house to check everything. After confirming that nothing had been missed, he left the house.

He walked through the garden and quickly followed the path outside the yard. After about half a minute, Dago stopped abruptly.

In front of him, at the end of a winding gravel path, a familiar, cream-colored house with a garden came into view in the distance.

Have we come full circle again? Is it some kind of maze?

The profound mystery of space and mirrors was perfectly manifested at this moment. Along the way, Dago did not sense anything unusual, there were no energy fluctuations, and no trace of runes or magic arrays.

But he ended up getting stuck in a "closed loop" maze.

Dago frowned and continued walking forward. Sure enough, less than half a minute later, he was back in front of the original little house.

I turned around and went back the way I came, but the result was the same.

Dago wandered around for several minutes, but in the end, his previous experience gave him a way to "break the deadlock".

"If you can't find the way in, surely you can find the way out?"

Dago shook his head, returned to the cabin, and finally found a familiar-looking mirror in a partitioned room on the first and second floors.

Successfully found the activation rune, activated it, and took the first step.

"Whoosh—"

When Dago successfully emerged from the "exit," he was astonished to find himself on a silver-white spiral staircase.

The stairs, whether going up or down, seem to have no end in sight.

The entire staircase seemed to be slowly rotating.

Dago tried to take two steps upwards.

"Da-da-da"

But the crisp sound of footsteps came from above.

He suddenly looked up and met a pair of brown eyes looking down at him. A handsome young man wearing a green robe, with his hair tied into small braids like vines and several black nose rings, was looking down at him with a slightly surprised expression.

On the silver spiral staircase, Dago and the green-robed wizard stood one above the other, their eyes meeting silently across dozens of steps.

Time seemed to stand still at this moment in an eerie way.