Ancient Wizards: A Little Progress Every Day

"Shhh—"

Within the spiritual space, the third soul seal emitted a soft "crackling" sound as it slowly grew stronger.

The sound was not the sound waves from friction in the material world, but rather the tearing sound of spiritual tentacles forcibly prying open the spiritual dimension during the materialization of the soul.

To advance from the second to the third circle, a wizard needs to condense their own third soul sign, which means they need more "soul power".

This is a process that goes against the laws of nature, like forcibly injecting more water into a sealed iron barrel that is already full of water, without causing the barrel to explode.

For geniuses with outstanding spiritual qualities, their "iron bucket" is naturally flexible, and it is not difficult to achieve this.

However, Dago's aptitude was ordinary, and the outer wall of his soul was hard and lacked flexibility. Therefore, he had to rely on external resources to soften and corrode that barrier with the potent properties of magic potions, and then forcibly recast it with his mental power.

With the addition of the two potions before him—the violent impact of "Abyssal Howl" and the ultimate fusion of "Void Worm Molting"—his soul power increased five times during the late stage of the second ring.

Every growth is accompanied by excruciating pain that penetrates to the bone and physiological tremors; it is the inevitable path for lower life forms to evolve into higher life forms.

In fact, under normal circumstances, that would be enough to break through the third ring road.

However, after his soul power was purified twice by the Grey Sun Meditation Method, Dago's mental power was at least ten times stronger than that of an ordinary second-circle wizard, both in terms of quality and quantity.

Simply put, his soul sign is ten times larger than that of a typical late-stage second-ring wizard!

This means that his foundation is ten times wider than others', and similarly, the materials and difficulty required to build his tower upwards also increase exponentially.

This is why the required soul power standard for breaking through to the third ring is also higher. It's a happy problem, and a price that the strong must pay.

[Strength: Second Ring Official Wizard (189%)]

After absorbing the full effects of both potions, Dago checked his system panel and found that his strength progress had reached 189%.

This 89% overflow was not wasted, but rather compressed into the deepest layer of the soul, becoming a more refined energy reserve.

The growth of soul power stimulated the growth of mental power. The potion given by Undine saved him a lot of meditation time. It was a shortcut built with countless magic stones and resources.

Looking into his current mental space, he saw the third soul crystal, a clear and transparent crystal without any magical seals, floating quietly.

It's like a work of art waiting to be sculpted, or a greedy black hole, always ready to devour more fragments of rules.

The purity of the soul power crystal represents the quality of the soul power, and also represents the upper limit of the future Dharma seal model.

Not only were Dago's three soul crystals completely free of impurities, but they also emitted an unusual, faint golden light.

This golden light appeared after the spiritual power had been purified twice. Dago felt that his soul power had been purified to a level that was about to undergo a "qualitative change".

This "qualitative change" is called "spiritual radiance" in ancient texts of the wizarding world, and is a precursor to the soul interfering with material reality.

This is certainly a good thing for him, as it allows him to unleash spells with more than ten times the power of ordinary wizards, and it also means that he will have a more acute sense of the rules than wizards of the same level in future rule analysis.

Dago gradually released the mental energy fluctuations that he had suppressed to the extreme.

"Buzz—"

The air seemed to thicken, and gravity in the room seemed to be distorted at that moment.

In an instant, his robes fluttered silently, and a strange, pale golden glow emanated from his entire body.

That wasn't light; it was stimulated radiation from high-energy particles under the pressure of a mental force field.

It's like being bathed in the light of dawn, with an indescribable magical charm, a sacredness tinged with a chilling pressure that makes one's heart tremble.

"call--"

Dago exhaled a breath of stale air, suppressing his unusually strong mental energy fluctuations. The oppressive feeling vanished instantly, as if it had never existed.

He quietly got up, his gaze sweeping across the corner of the room.

Seeing that the dust fairy Ottilia was still busy, and that she had somehow acquired an extremely tiny broom made of the leg hair of some unknown insect, she was singing as she swept.

This symbiotic relationship is common in wizard towers, where weak elemental creatures attach themselves to powerful wizards in exchange for the energy radiation they need to survive.

A hint of indifference flashed in Dago's eyes. He didn't disturb them. This was not only a gesture of goodwill, but also a way of maintaining "ecological balance".

He quietly left the room.

.........

A brightly feathered parrot perched on her shoulder as the elegant Undine stood quietly at the very top of the Silver Tower, watching a figure disappear into the distance below.

The cold wind high in the sky fluttered her long robes, but it could not dispel the calm and serene gaze that belonged to a high-ranking wizard in her eyes.

"He has set off."

Steele preened her feathers, muttering, "Oh, Undine, I've never seen you love and spoil someone so much, just like how that awful brother treated you..."

Do you have any special feelings for him? Speak up, Undine. For wizards, age has never been a problem…”

Undine turned her head coldly and glanced at Steele.

There was no shame or anger in his eyes, only the stern respect of someone who had been offended.

Steele suddenly had a bad feeling.

The next second, before he could even scream, an invisible mental force field erupted, sending the bird hurtling off like a cannonball in one direction, leaving only a few scattered feathers swirling in the wind.

"Noisy."

After "dealing with" the outspoken Steele, Undine watched Dargo's departing figure with a complex expression.

It's the look in your eyes as you watch your carefully nurtured child walk into the examination hall.

She murmured, "If he could have a few more years, until he was the same age as Barker... to accumulate more experience, I believe he would shine at the gathering and secure more resources for the Silver Tower."

Unfortunately, time is the wizard's greatest enemy.

The wind at the top of the tower carried away Undine's soft sigh, and also dispelled that insignificant regret.

......

On the quiet, deserted lakeside, the afternoon sun shines on the water, reflecting countless bright rays, shimmering like a giant mirror submerged in the water.

But beneath this beautiful facade lies the fierce battle and energy exchange of countless microscopic organisms.

Dago stood by the lake, enjoying the gentle lake breeze, and a glint of white light gradually appeared in his eyes.

These white lights grew out of his eyes like silkworm silk, a manifestation of the materialization of spiritual power. They wove and recombine, and then formed a faint, mysterious eye pattern between his eyebrows.

This is a rune, and also a miniature detection radar.

Dimensional Detection Technique – Evolutionary Trait: Eye of Truth

This low-level, auxiliary spell, which was so low in rank that even many wizard apprentices disdained to use, underwent a miraculous transformation after Dago used, modified, and optimized it countless times until its progress value broke through the limits of the spell.

Quantitative change leads to qualitative change; a simple spell model is endowed with extremely complex mysteries.

After the spell was cast, the world in Dago's eyes seemed to have a thin veil of haziness peeled away, suddenly becoming clear and colorful.

The original lake water disappeared, and he saw countless energy particles moving on the lake surface, gathering and dispersing like smoke. They were free elements undergoing Brownian motion.

In his view, the world is no longer a sensory picture, but a rational flow of energy.

Spatial energy particles converged into a vortex shape. These particles had an eerie silver-gray color and defied the rules of physics, collapsing and rotating in the void.

It appeared conspicuously in a thicket of tall reeds more than 500 meters away from him.

The entrance to the secret garden was found by Dagger without any effort.

Compared to previous visits, where I had to use my mental energy to search every inch of the lakeside like a blind man feeling an elephant, this was much easier.

This is the power of knowledge; this is how advanced skills crush low-level brute force.

Dago followed the entrance into the secret realm, where a beautiful and tranquil little garden once again appeared before his eyes.

This time, however, through the Eye of Truth, he saw many more details he had previously overlooked.

At the point of entry, there were some unnaturally distributed clusters of energy particles. These particles exhibited a kind of artificially arranged geometric shape and faintly emitted dangerous radiation fluctuations.

Was it a trap? Or some kind of marker?

Dago's eyes flickered. "It looks like someone came here not long ago."

That's normal, after all, he was the "latecomer".

Using the Eye of Truth, Dago surveyed the mysterious garden before him. The spatial teleportation arrays that used to require spells to create a tide of energy particles to leave a trace were now clearly visible in his field of vision.

"The world isn't actually as complicated as you imagine, provided you have a keen eye for observation."

The white eye pattern intertwined between Dago's brows flickered, and then he calmly took a step into the garden.

For three whole years, he studied the mysteries of space and mirror magic in the ascetic pavilion of the Thorn Ring. His research was based not only on a few runes related to space and mirror magic, but also on his personal experiences exploring the Mirror Forest.

The mysterious garden before him had appeared in his mind countless times, and Dago had pondered countless times how to break through this spatial teleportation array maze.

Now, the time has finally come to test his ideas.

"【Living Ice Iron】!"

As Dago chanted softly, layers of ice crystals, like mercury, welled up from beneath his robes.