Ancient Wizards: A Little Progress Every Day

"Whoosh—"

Beyond the secret realm, above the vast lake, numerous ripples of void appeared, followed by the figures of wizards from various factions emerging from the ripples and falling down.

The exploration of the second area of ​​the Mirror Forest has quickly come to an end in a way that no one expected but was happy to see.

Although it is not completely over yet, it has come to an end for the wizards who were eliminated in the first round of inheritance selection.

The wizards who emerged from the secret realm returned to their respective factions, then handed over their rings, tallied their spoils, and spent time healing their wounds while observing the remaining battles inside.

"Are you alright?"

"Thorn Ring," the wizard Deger slowly walked up to Violet and asked with concern.

Dege has a youthful appearance, with long, black hair tied in a low ponytail at the back of his head, deep brown eyes, and a rather composed demeanor.

Violet shook her head listlessly, her face ashen, without saying a word.

His once beautiful, lapis lazuli-like eyes now appeared dull and lifeless. Compared to the physical injuries he had suffered, the setbacks and humiliations he had inflicted on his personality and will were far more devastating.

"The bloodline of yesteryear!"

Violet slumped dejectedly in mid-air, staring at her hands, and murmured, "Is it really that important to a wizard?"

Violet is a true genius, always proud. Since joining the Thorn Ring, he has distinguished himself step by step, eventually becoming the number one among the younger generation in the Silver Tower.

He had heard rumors about bloodlines before, but never took them to heart until recently when he lost to Dago in a fair fight with a significant advantage, and only then did he truly understand the advantage of being born with an ancient bloodline.

This was the second time, and the feeling was even stronger than the last time, like a branding iron, deeply imprinted into his body.

Deger knew what Clemens had experienced in the secret realm, so he deliberately avoided the topic and instead asked another question: "How does it compare to Dago's old bloodline?"

Violet slowly sat up, her eyes flashing.

After a moment, he gently shook his head. "Dago's old bloodline... is not as good as his."

"While Dago's old bloodline is powerful, it's just pure power. But when I faced that person from the Lava Brotherhood, I felt a profound sense of shame, a feeling I'd never experienced before when facing Dago."

Violet didn't know if Deger could understand her explanation; in fact, even he himself couldn't accurately describe the subtle differences.

This difference is like the different feelings a commoner has when facing a warrior stronger than himself and a nobleman of higher status.

Violet thus concluded that Dago's bloodline might not be as strong as that of the orange-gold-eyed youth.

"Is even Dago worse?"

Deger said in a low voice, then looked up at the water screen projection in front of him and said with some worry, "But this guy seems to have his eye on Dago. He seems to be eager to meet Dago in the arena. I heard that his name is Obadiah, the younger brother of the strongest person in the Lava Brotherhood this generation, and the two of them have the same blood."

"Although this guy has a powerful bloodline, Dago's strength is not bad either. Plus, with the added boost from his magic weapon set, he might even have a fighting chance against him, hmm?!"

Violet was speaking softly when she suddenly felt a slight commotion around her and Deger suddenly stopped beside her. She subconsciously looked at the spell projection.

Upon seeing the scene on the field, Violet's eyes immediately froze, a look of incomprehension appearing on her face, and her brows furrowed deeply.

"What kind of rule is this?"

He subconsciously turned his head to look at the sky to one side, and saw the profile of Carlos, the captain of the second line. After seeing the sudden change in the scene, his face seemed to darken rapidly.

Among the third-ring wizards leading the four wizarding factions, only the bald wizard from the Lava Brotherhood gradually began to smile.

"Whoosh—"

A thin, silvery-white beam of light suddenly pierced through the light shield of the runic array and landed on Dago.

Just as Dago was subconsciously touching his left blue diamond earring, trying to summon the [Eternal Night Frost Mark] artifact set, he suddenly discovered that the earring's power was forcibly sealed by a powerful restrictive force, and he was unable to summon it at all.

Not only that, all the other magical artifacts and equipment he was wearing were also unusable.

Of course, this ban is not only targeting him.

The second-circle wizard from the Thorn Palace standing opposite him, as well as the wizards on other platforms who were preparing to start the battle, were also affected by this restrictive force.

Each person's magical artifacts are unusable; they can only rely on their own pure power.

This appears to be a new rule added in the second round of succession selection.

After a brief moment of surprise and silence, the tranquility of the arena was broken by the loud laughter of a certain "madman" from the Lava Brotherhood on a platform.

Raging flames rose, and bursts of magical explosions rang out. Accompanied by the opponents' low growls of shock and anger, the second round of inheritance selection officially began.

As Dago's opponent, the second-circle wizard of the Water Palace possessed the qualities of a top elite. He quickly adjusted his state and launched an attack on Dago immediately.

"【Spiky Ball!】"

He raised his hand and scattered a large patch of dense black dots towards Dago.

As the black dot drew closer, Dagger realized it resembled the seed of some kind of plant.

As soon as the seeds landed, they quickly sprouted into large patches of strange, vine-like plants on the smooth, mirror-like ground.

After these magical plants grow, they twist into a ball, their pure black branches covered with long, equally black thorns. Once formed, they roll rapidly in all directions like a "rolling ball".

Each spiked ball released intense and extremely unstable energy fluctuations. Despite its metallic sheen, it seemed as if it could explode at any moment upon touching something.

Faced with this overwhelming net of spiked balls, Dago remained expressionless, took a small half-step back, and then spread his arms out to the sides, making an outstretched arm motion. One after another, ice spells silently appeared around him, and the restrained magical fluctuations caused the void and light around him to appear as if they had collapsed.

At this moment, Dago seemed to become an invisible energy black hole, absorbing and taking in all the light, heat, and air around him.

Just when this feeling of contraction and collapse reached a certain extreme!

"boom!"

A terrifying cold wave spread out, and beams of deep blue light burst forth from Dago's body.

Dago was bathed in brilliant blue light, with three magical domains overlapping and swirling around him. His white hair stood on end, and a torrent of despairing, icy aura surged wildly from beneath his robes.

He took a small step forward, and the spiked balls that had been darting around him immediately froze, covered in layers of frost, hanging in various corners of the air like huge black ice balls.

"Winter Star, Aurora!"

Dago walked forward step by step, speaking calmly.

The sound was like the howling of the winter wind sweeping across the snowfield, or like the distant wailing of an ice demon in the snowy night.

Ice spikes resembling thorny icicles, along with fist-sized vortexes of ice and snow, sprang up wildly from the ground and into the void with each step of Dago, instantly covering the entire mirror platform.

The ground spikes that had previously occupied the platform were all frozen in place. Although they exploded one after another under the control of the second-ring wizard of the Water Palace, the power generated by the explosions was quickly covered and concealed by the layers of accumulated ice and snow.

With the banning of the 【Eternal Night Frost Mark】 set of magical items, and the inability to use any magical items that could originally be used to amplify ice magic, Dago felt a slight sense of loss, as if his "version's chosen one" had been "severely nerfed".

but.

Under the blessing of the [Prism] seal, the pseudo "six-domain superposition" and the "replica of Winter Star" still possess powerful extreme cold domain.

In addition, with the spiritual power developed by Solomon's Blessing, which is of a quality far superior to that of others of the same level, and the invisible amplification of ice magic by the traces of ancient winter dragon bloodline in his body, he still has the ability to confront a late-stage second-ring opponent head-on with "naked gear"!

Just as Dago was about to further advance his domain invasion, silver-blue solid ice flowed into his palms, about to condense into weapon form.

A calm voice came from the swirling snow ahead.

"I surrender."

"Well"

Dago paused for a moment.

Through the wind and snow, he saw his opponent, a second-ring Water Palace wizard, calmly concede defeat, then turn and walk towards the edge of the platform. However, the figure of him, shrouded in wind and snow, carried a hint of unspeakable resentment and desolation.

Dago suddenly realized that everyone's magical artifacts and equipment had been sealed, including even spatial storage items.

Many powerful plant-based spells require a medium, and most plant-based wizards carry the seeds they use in their spells in storage items. Sealing them now is practically like cutting off half of their lifeline.

The water palace wizard he fought, the seed of the spiked ball he just used to cast a spell... might just be the only fighting weapon he has left.

Only then did Dago realize that he wasn't the one who had been nerfed the most by the "version".

His opponent is the real one.

The battle on Dago's side had just ended; the opposing wizard hadn't even completely stepped off the stage when suddenly...

"boom!"

A massive pillar of fire suddenly descended, its crimson edges tinged with orange-gold flames, instantly engulfing the entire platform.

The rune array fluctuated violently, blocking all the power of the flames outside the array, while a slight scorching aura seeped in.

In the center of the platform engulfed in flames, Dago pressed his right hand tightly against his chest, breathing heavily.

"Whoosh—whoosh—"

He was breathing deeply, as if he was trying to control something.

Nobody saw it.

With his eyes lowered, Dago's originally azure eyes gradually turned a faint scarlet, and the pupils in the middle seemed to elongate and become vertical.

Amidst the scattered white hair, dark blue, snake-scale-like patterns quickly appeared on the edges of her cheeks and neck, then gradually disappeared.

A faint aura of violence, evil, cruelty, and dominance emanated from him like invisible smoke, or rolled restlessly like magma flowing beneath a thick layer of ice.

at last.

As the flames surrounding him subsided, the strange phenomena on Dago's body gradually subsided.

He slowly lowered his hand from his chest, raised his head, and his deep, lake-like eyes reflected a figure on another platform not far away, a figure as arrogant and flamboyant as a flame.

The young man with orange-gold eyes was facing him, the corners of his mouth turned up, revealing his white teeth, as if he were silently declaring a warning to him.

At this point, the mirror platform he was on began to move closer to and merge with another platform, eventually forming a higher and larger platform.

A pale-faced, sinister-looking wizard in black robes, with a two-tailed scorpion tattooed on his left cheek, stood before him.

"【A Vicious Carnival】!"

Without a word, the wizard from the Black Swamp summoned a spell, unleashing a powerful domain force.

Immediately following, an endless swarm of black insects flew out from beneath his robes, buzzing and spreading like a boundless, thick cloud.

Dago seemed oblivious to this scene, his mind still lingering on the image of the young man from before.

He watched as the terrifying swarm of magical insects drew ever closer, threatening to engulf him.

Dago closed his eyes, then opened them again, his face finally returning to complete calm.

He looked up at the swarm of magical insects that were right in front of him and made a horizontal gesture with his hand.

This stroke seemed to carve a long, invisible slit in the void, from which endless mysterious energy leaked out.

Immediately afterwards, two mysterious, tranquil black rivers appeared out of nowhere in the arena.

One above the other, they approach each other, merge into one, and form an even more magnificent and mighty torrent.

"A single layer of domain resonance, [River of Despair]!"

"【Mirror】Seal, replicated in pairs!"

With a flick of his finger, Dago unleashed the River of Despair, which surged forward, silently sweeping away and engulfing everything in its path.

Outside the secret realm, the green-robed witch of the Water Palace, who was just complaining about the unfairness of the "new rules" for the inheritance selection to plant-type wizards, suddenly showed a surprised expression on her face and tried to cover her mouth.

Carlos, who was right next to her, also quietly took half a step forward at almost the same time, as if he wanted to see the image projected on the spell more clearly.

The two stared at the same scene in silence for a long time, until finally, the silence was broken once again by the green-robed witch.

"Just how much resources and energy did Undine invest in this illegitimate child?"

She turned to Carlos beside her, blinked, and said, "Is she planning to groom him into the next Barker?"

Caroni's eye twitched slightly. After a moment's hesitation, he replied, "Undine has never had a boyfriend in all these years!"

"Of course, it's impossible to admit to something like this now."

The green-robed witch waved her hand dismissively. "Just wait and see. Once this kid's reputation as a genius spreads and he reaches or approaches the level of your Ring of Law's Barker, she'll definitely show off publicly. I'm a woman too, I understand her thoughts."

Carlos was speechless.

Suddenly, the green-robed witch threw several items at him, which Carlos instinctively caught.

After checking, a hint of relaxation and joy appeared in his eyes.

"Thanks."

The green-robed witch shook her head. "It's a bet, you have to accept the loss. These messy rules are just too unfriendly to us plant-based wizards!"

Carlos casually put the item back into his spatial ring, and was considering whether to offer a few words of comfort when the green-robed witch spoke to him instead, saying, "Don't be too happy yet!"

"Um?"

"The final match is between this kid and that monster from the Lava Brotherhood!"

The green-robed witch narrowed her eyes, glanced in a certain direction, and said calmly, "With his magical artifacts restricted and without the support of a complete set, even with his near-second-level resonance magical domain techniques, the chances of this kid defeating his opponent are very low!"

"And don't forget, the Lava Brotherhood are all ruthless monsters who act without considering the consequences. He's also got his eye on that son who specializes in ice magic. What if that kid gets hurt inside? Do you think Undine will come after you?"

"Well"

Upon hearing these words, Caroni's expression froze slightly.