Ancient Wizards: A Little Progress Every Day

"Buzz—"

As Dago was thinking, a dark shadow suddenly flashed past his eyes.

It was a black magic box with wings, flapping its wings at an extremely high frequency, causing subtle ripples in the air.

They flew out from underground with the golden magic box, a dense swarm like flies.

He was almost forgetting about the existence of these magic boxes because they were scattered by a crimson staff from the Ash Witch Tracy.

Dago blinked, and with the blessing of the [Eternal Night Frost Mark] magic item set, large patches of frost appeared around him.

The aura of the extraordinary domain surged out from around Dago, quickly condensing into a pure white ice blade.

The ice blade appeared and then quickly disappeared, leaving only a dark slash in the void.

Those are tiny cracks created when space is frozen and cracked by extremely low temperatures.

"clang!"

A crisp sound of metal being struck rang out.

The sound did not spread, but was frozen in place.

The flight path of a magic box with gray wings was abruptly cut off.

Its power core was precisely destroyed, pinned down by a pure white ice blade, and then quickly fell into a fair and slender hand.

"Click—"

Dargo gripped the magic box and gently applied force.

The Eye of Truth instantly scanned the internal structure of the magic box.

The black magic box, pierced from both ends by ice blades, shattered completely.

The broken black box was empty.

Only some metal fragments, almost frozen into ice crystals, still bore traces of runic patterns.

That was the residue from a failed alchemy attempt, or some kind of malicious joke.

"Fake?"

Dago frowned.

He couldn't believe that such a meaningless creation could exist here.

"Whoosh—"

Under his control, the pure white ice blades transformed into blurry streaks of light and disappeared.

They shot down several more black magic boxes with wings, but without exception, they were all fake magic boxes that were "all show and no substance".

This is a smokescreen.

These are countless noises created to cover up the real core.

"It's all fake."

The shattered pieces of the magic box turned into cold, white metallic powder in Dargo's hands and fell from his fingers.

Every grain of powder was analyzed by Dago's perception; it was ordinary iron, ordinary copper, with no mysterious properties.

Dago's eyes flickered, and he began to question the authenticity of the golden magic box that flew out along with countless black magic boxes.

If you go through all that trouble only to find out that the magic box you finally manage to snag is a fake, then it's a huge loss.

The depletion of mental energy and the exposure of one's trump cards must both be factored into the cost.

"Melville and the dwarven craftsmen of the Mechanical Heart wouldn't be so inhuman, would they?"

This kind of wicked humor is in line with the character of those ancient sorcerers who enjoyed playing pranks on people.

Dago's unwavering belief began to waver at this moment; he didn't want to end up with nothing.

Maximizing profits and minimizing risks—that's the principle of survival.

Just as Dago was hesitating, the giant Box Monster, engulfed in raging crimson flames in the distance, finally reached its limit.

Its metal shell had reached its melting point, and the internal runic structure began to collapse.

With a loud "BOOM!", it exploded completely.

Amidst countless splashes and churning molten metal, Tracy's figure, wielding the Crimson Lotus Staff, came into view.

She was unharmed.

Even her exquisite makeup wasn't smudged at all.

Beneath a sky full of golden and red fire, Tracy, dressed in a tight-fitting long dress and robe, stood languidly.

It was as if she were in her own backyard, not on a battlefield.

With a mere gesture, he could take down the giant Pandora's Box monster, a creature that even a third-ring wizard would hesitate to approach.

To her, it was as if she had done something extremely insignificant.

That composure comes from absolute control over power.

She even yawned, looking bored.

"Too weak, not even worthy of letting me warm up."

Tracy was surrounded by a huge and powerful magical field.

That was the prototype of the "Ash Realm".

Within the domain, countless crimson flames flickered and shone, like red lotus flowers that constantly withered and bloomed again.

Each cluster of flames resembled a drifting red petal.

Beautiful, yet deadly.

At that moment, Tracy displayed an absolutely stunning beauty, so much so that even Dargo was somewhat mesmerized.

But soon, Dago's gaze was drawn to a rich golden color.

That was the only purity amidst the chaotic colors.

The giant box monster is gone, and the shadow of the golden box is fully revealed.

All pretense has been stripped away.

At this moment, the two pairs of wings on the back of the golden magic box vibrated so much that they almost completely disappeared.

Its energy seemed to have been exhausted in that explosion.

Beneath it was a fist-sized piece of black metal emitting a mysterious luster.

It was like a fledgling bird whose nest had been destroyed, frantically fleeing in the direction away from Tracy.

"Now!"

A sharp glint flashed in Dago's eyes.

The opportunity was fleeting, and reason told him that the black metal was definitely a carrier of some kind of rule.

Under the coating of silver ice metal, it flashed several times in succession.

Spatial particles vibrated violently around him.

His figure transformed into a silver phantom that appeared and disappeared intermittently.

He moved through the narrow gaps in space at an extreme speed.

Meanwhile, in the distance, Tracy stretched out her arms and then exploded into a shower of sparks with a "bang".

Dago and Tracy, one after the other, from two different directions, reached out almost simultaneously, grabbing at the fleeing golden magic box.

One is a silver, frost-covered hand, the other a burning, crimson hand.

Just as the golden magic box was about to fall into their hands, with no escape in sight...

"Buzz—"

It's not a sound.

It is the tremor of the world's rules being plucked.

A strange fluctuation suddenly emanated from the golden magic box.

That is a kind of "exclusivity" law fluctuation.

At this moment, the entire space seemed to fall into absolute stillness, and even time stopped flowing.

The wind stopped, the fire froze, and even the workings of thought became sluggish.

A huge golden halo emanated from the golden magic box.

The aura itself has no offensive power, but it possesses an irresistible "assimilation" property.

He quickly passed by Dago and Tracy, who were standing one in front and one behind.

The protective energy shield was penetrated like paper.

Starting from their fingertips, their motionless bodies gradually turned golden.

To Dago's horror, he discovered that his proud silver body had its material structure forcibly altered the moment it came into contact with the golden light.

Even Tracy, who was in her elemental form, had her flames frozen into golden crystals.

In the blink of an eye, every strand of their hair, and even every pore, shone with a golden luster.

They lost their biological essence.

They resembled two human-shaped statues made entirely of gold.

The golden halo continued to spread outwards, reaching the areas it passed through.

The dust in the air turned into gold dust.

The abandoned city-state beneath the mechanical heart, composed entirely of earth, stone, and metal.

The gears, which were originally rusty, instantly became brand new and gleaming.

Including those wandering puppets, the rampaging metallic elemental life forms... all of them turned golden.

All the movements were frozen in time.

The whole world seemed to be turning towards gold.

Luxurious and splendid, yet cold and devoid of any vitality.

"Click click click—"

A sickening cracking sound shattered the silence.

Amidst this spectacular and eerie transformation into gold, a lifelike and exquisitely beautiful statue of a witch girl, suspended in mid-air, suddenly emitted a crisp cracking sound.

That was the sound of a powerful soul forcefully breaking free from the constraints of matter.

Those golden eyes regained their liveliness and sparkle.

But it was also filled with deep apprehension.

Thin pieces of gold flakes peeled off her body.

That was her skin, the surface of her being assimilated by the rules.

Her eyelashes and her robes were peeled away inch by inch as the gold fragments fell off.

It was as if she was shedding her skin, abandoning her polluted body in an extremely painful way.

As most of the gold on the girl's body fell off, large sections of her fair and perfect body were revealed.

"boom!"

A ball of crimson flame rose from under the girl's skirt, quickly engulfing her entire body.

She was reshaping herself with flames, using the high temperature to isolate herself from that strange law.

A moment later, a pair of delicate, white feet gently emerged from the flames.

The crimson flames faded, and a young girl, now dressed in a magnificent fire-patterned dress, strolled out, staff in hand.

Although she appeared elegant, her aura had clearly weakened.

"The Golden Curse..."

The girl blinked, and her sparse eyelashes began to grow back.

She could feel that the rules were like maggots clinging to her bones, trying to erode her soul.

She looked around; the golden phenomenon was still spreading and seemed to be covering the entire secret city-state.

The statue that Dago had become still floated in the distance, motionless, as if it were completely dead.

Looking down at her fingernails, she saw that there were now tiny golden spots growing on her khaki-colored nails.

That's a remnant of the rules, trying to make a comeback.

Annoyance crept onto the girl's face.

This was the first time she had encountered such a formidable opponent—not a person, but pure, disgusting rules.

"How annoying."

She gave a soft hum, and a wisp of fire ignited at her fingertips, burning away the gold spot.

She took two steps forward expressionlessly, but just as she was about to reach the golden magic box...

The sense of crisis was alarming.

Noticing that her hair had regained some of its golden luster, she stopped moving, her eyes flickered, and then she retreated again.