Ancient Wizards: A Little Progress Every Day

Countless arcs of light and countless lines were peeled away from a complete whole. This peeling process emitted obscure fluctuations, which contained terrifying power.

The scratch that had just grazed Dago was extremely insignificant; no blood flowed from the edge of the wound, only a deathly gray void, as if that piece of flesh had been directly erased from this dimension by some indescribable rule.

As Dago gazed at the distorted area from afar, even with his second-circle wizard's mental strength, he felt a chill run down his spine from the depths of his soul.

That is an instinctive fear of higher-dimensional power, and also the trembling of lower beings when facing higher rules.

At this moment, Dago looked down at the "Broken" rune in his hand, a deep emotion appearing in his eyes, a complex expression that mixed fear and fanaticism.

"This is... the power of space collapsing!"

Only when a complete spatial structure collapses in an instant can such terrifying power be generated.

This is not an explosion at the level of elemental particles, but a collapse at the level of rules.

He was acutely aware of the extraordinary nature of the mysterious rune in his hand; it was a key, a bloodstained key leading to the temple of truth he had longed for.

The next second, a bold, almost insane idea arose from the bottom of his heart.

The thought made his heart pound violently, like a war drum beating, and almost made all the blood in his body surge.

It's the immense thrill of suddenly seeing the light of dawn after a long and arduous search in a dark labyrinth, just as you're about to collapse from exhaustion.

To prepare for this moment, Dago spent three long, dark years in that cold and damp ascetic attic in the French Ring Road.

For three years, more than a thousand days and nights, he did one thing—he tried to forcefully integrate the ethereal and mysterious space system into the hard and cold ice system magic!

This is undoubtedly dancing on the edge of a knife.

In the wizarding world, inter-elemental fusion is already an advanced topic, let alone when there is a lack of corresponding spatial magic inheritance, which is almost an impossible thing to do.

If he is not careful, the backlash of his soul power will turn him into a drooling idiot, or his head will explode, making him just another "trash" in the magic ring to be cleaned up due to research failure.

But opportunities are often accompanied by huge risks.

Because of the silver staff left behind by that mysterious miracle-level being, a precious seed of spatial energy was planted in him.

Under the natural "nourishment" of the long years, this seed caused a miraculous transformation in all of his basic spell runes.

The originally stable framework of the Dharma Seal began to loosen, and the foundation for spatial transformation was laid, making everything possible to be implemented.

After three years of sitting and deducing, Dago has made considerable progress in the spatial transformation of the Soul Seal, although this progress was achieved at the cost of countless mental exhaustions.

After countless failed attempts to rebuild his [Silver Ice] seal, he finally acquired the extremely rare effects of "short-distance directional teleportation" and "brief spatial freeze".

The ice spells he unleashed based on this foundation were far more powerful than before, both in terms of their unpredictability and explosive force, giving him an advantage in battles against wizards of the same rank.

This rune is not of high grade; it is only a rare second-order space-type rune with a relatively simple structure and high plasticity.

If it exceeds the second order, the complex entanglement of rules may leave Dago at a loss, making it impossible to complete this grafting of cross-attributes.

To date, Dago's work on optimizing the [Silver Ice] sign is still ongoing, like a precise alchemical experiment, as he carefully tries to add the effect of the "space-splitting power" sign to it.

This inspiration came from the bell artifact he had previously obtained on the rattan table in the Secret Garden. By analyzing the core magical runes within it, Dago extracted this sharp rule.

The principle of "spatial cleavage power" is to forcibly compress invisible spatial energy, condense it into an invisible "knife", and then use this "knife" to cause damage.

This spatial cleaving force is far more powerful than the simple cutting force produced by physical magic, such as metal-based spells. It ignores physical defenses and acts directly on the spatial coordinates of the object.

This is one of the reasons why spatial magic can transcend ordinary elemental magic and become a nightmare for many wizards.

This step is crucial for Dago, even affecting his future survival.

In fact, after advancing to the second-circle wizard, as the enemies he encountered became stronger and stronger, and various shield spells and enchanted items emerged one after another, Dargo had already felt the fatigue in the destructive power of pure elemental spells.

Physical attacks are not only easy to counter, but also ineffective against spirits or monsters with special forms.

When he was a first-ring wizard, it could become his main battle spell, sweeping away lower-level apprentices.

However, after the second ring, the dimension of combat increases. Simple physical impact and piercing can only provide auxiliary combat effects most of the time, or be used to clear out mobs.

The main reason is that it is not powerful enough and lacks the lethality of a "one-hit kill".

This may also be related to the fact that the elemental spell inheritance obtained by the Thorn Ring is not strong enough, after all, the Thorn Ring is not known for its elemental spells.

Dago's crazy modifications to his elemental magic system were all aimed at making up for this shortcoming.

If the "soul" of spatial mysteries could be integrated into the "shell" of elemental magic, the situation would certainly be different.

At that time, every strike he makes will have spatial properties, making them impossible to defend against.

Three years later, a [Silver Ice] seal that had been modified beyond recognition, even to the point of being somewhat deformed, could barely be considered proof that his idea was still feasible.

According to Dago's original plan, once he successfully analyzed and integrated the "space-splitting power" of the bell artifact into the [Silver Ice] seal, he would complete the process.

The spatial modification of the metal element system seal is now complete, meeting his expectations and giving him a trump card that can threaten elites of the same level.

However, now, looking at the "Shattered" rune that exuded an aura of destruction before him, Dago's breathing became heavy.

He discovered a more powerful, more insane, and logically more suitable approach to modifying the [Silver Ice] sign at this stage.

It's like someone who's been piecing together a jigsaw puzzle, only to suddenly discover that the piece they're holding actually belongs to a much grander picture.

......

"If... if I were to abandon the 'Spatial Severing Power,' which sounds good but is actually just a linear attack, and instead incorporate the profound mysteries of 'Spatial Collapse,' which belongs to area-based or even volume-based attacks, into the [Silver Ice] seal..."

Dago's eyes gleamed with a calculating light, like a precision machine operating at high speed.

"Spatial Collapse" is more profound and advanced than "Spatial Rift," involving more complex and powerful rules! Rift is merely cutting, while collapse is utter destruction!

The most crucial point is that the current [Silver Ice] sign already has the 'Space Freeze' effect derived from the Miracle-rank Silver Staff.

This is a perfect example of "pre-control"!

After the "Freeze" effect is activated, everything within the area covered by the power—whether it's flowing air, flying spells, or the flesh of an enemy—will be forcibly fixed into a single entity, like an insect frozen in amber.

At this moment, this frozen space becomes an extremely vulnerable target. If the "shattering" effect were used to break it further...

Click!

The entire space shattered like a mirror, and all matter inside was torn into the smallest particles.

This is not just an addition of power, but a qualitative leap! Power will be further upgraded, producing an effect that is far greater than the sum of its parts.

Control first, then destroy. The entire process was undoubtedly far smoother than simply increasing the cutting force he had originally envisioned! This was the combo that conformed to the aesthetics of wizard combat; this was the rhythm of truth!

"Stagnation...shattering..."

At that moment, numerous ideas surged through Dago's mind, countless inspirations bursting forth, colliding and merging. He seemed to see himself in the future, effortlessly annihilating powerful enemies with a mere wave of his hand.

His gaze kept shifting between the broken runes in his hand and the crumbling garden before him.

The once vibrant flowers and solid rocks in the garden were indistinguishable in the aftershocks of the collapsing space, instantly turning into dust.

This indiscriminate destructiveness is exactly what he desires.

Countless tiny lights flickered and danced in Dago's eyes, an outward manifestation of his highly concentrated mental energy. In his mind, something sprouted and grew rapidly like a seed, constructing a completely new spell model.

The surrounding air seemed to become oppressive because of his intense mental fluctuations. The wind stopped, the chirping of insects disappeared, as if even the environment was holding its breath, waiting for the birth of something new.

I don't know how much time passed.

Perhaps it's a fleeting moment, perhaps half a century. In the palace of thought, time loses its meaning.

Dargo, who had been as silent as a statue, suddenly raised his hand, his movements stiff yet resolute, and made a waving motion.

"Buzz—"

A deep, resonant sound rang out.

Beneath the robe, a dazzling silver light shone forth. It was no ordinary light, but rather the product of a high concentration of metallic and ice elemental particles combined with spiritual power.

Silver Ice was flung away by Dago as if it were a living creature that was constantly wriggling. It was liquid mithril, an extension of his will.

The silver light flashed and disappeared several times in the air; that was the short-range teleportation effect inherent in the [Silver Ice] seal, making it impossible to track its trajectory.

The next moment, at a certain location ten meters ahead, the silver ice suddenly solidified into a huge silver disc with a diameter of about two meters.

The disc floated in mid-air, and the flowing metallic patterns on its surface froze instantly, as if time had been paused at that moment.

A faint, heavy, stagnant aura emanated from the disc, a sign that the rules of space were being disrupted.

The space where the metal disc stood suddenly took on an eerie quality; light passing through it was distorted, displaying a mirror-like reflection. The air stopped moving, fallen leaves hung suspended in mid-air, and even dust seemed frozen in place.

This is "spatial stasis"!

Dago stared intently at the disc, cold sweat beading on his forehead as he tried to guide the violent "shattering" power.

"Smash it!"

He let out a low growl in his mind.

Then, at the moment when the stagnant energy reached its peak and the spatial structure was stretched to its limit, everything quietly shattered.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a soft, crisp sound, like glass shattering.

"Click."

The silver disc, along with the spherical space it occupied, instantly disintegrated into countless tiny fragments.

The fragments did not scatter outwards, but rather collapsed inwards, squeezing and cutting each other until they turned into a black void, which was slowly filled and repaired by the surrounding space a few seconds later.

A huge rock that was originally in the position of the disc has completely disappeared, leaving not even a trace of dust.

Dago withdrew his trembling hand, looked at the space that was healing, and a cruel yet satisfied smile appeared on his lips.