Ancient Wizards: A Little Progress Every Day

The technique of compressing despair energy to achieve "complete despair" was devised by Dago a long time ago. The idea is ingenious, but the operation is very crude.

This is like using a violent gunpowder explosion to drive a precision piston; although it can generate power, the wear and tear on the engine itself is irreversible.

As his proficiency level with [Blue Demon Body] increased, Dago considered further optimizing and modifying this technique of compressing and unleashing the power of despair.

He felt there was still a lot of potential to be tapped here.

Especially after fusing with the "Desperate Winter Dragon Bloodline," his physique grew a second time outside of the [Blue Demon Body].

"The state of 'complete despair' is no longer the limit my body can withstand; it can only be achieved under sufficient external pressure."

Dago looked at his hands, which were long and fair, seemingly glowing in the starlight of the dark night.

These are hands suited for playing the piano or the harp, but if Dargo so desired, he could transform them into a pair of monstrous claws in a single breath.

Those nails will instantly keratinize, becoming harder than pure gold, and the muscle fibers will twist together like steel cables, tearing apart everything in their path.

"My technique for compressing the power of despair is too primitive and crude. As the life sphere grows stronger, the difficulty of compression also increases."

"The growth of mental strength is lagging behind the pace. This aspect must be improved, otherwise this trump card will be eliminated sooner or later."

Dargo snapped out of his reverie and refocused his gaze on the real experimental table.

He gave the roaring fish in the tank a good boost of energy to ensure it wouldn't die anytime soon.

He put it away and then turned his attention to another small box containing a mysterious black beetle.

That fish was just a decoy, a "waste" used to mislead others in the transaction.

In fact, what Dago really wanted to buy at that stall during the day was the beetle in the small box; the howling fish was an unexpected bonus.

Opening the box, Dagger placed the black beetle on the back of his right hand.

By the moonlight, he carefully examined the mysterious black beetle.

It has a single horn, a shiny shell, and its abdomen is covered with densely packed, slender, segmented legs.

If it weren't for the occasional twitch of its thin legs, this beetle would easily be mistaken for a dead insect specimen.

Dago's eyes flickered, and gradually some gray marks slowly appeared on the back of his fair and smooth hand.

Those were remnants of the World Stone coordinates he had come into contact with, a kind of rule imprint engraved in the gap between the soul and the body.

As the gray mark appeared, the black beetle that had been lying motionless on Dago's hand suddenly began to show intense restlessness.

That's the instinctive phototaxis of organisms when they encounter high-energy reactions, or... the fear when they encounter a predator?

It moved, its carapace opened, revealing two pairs of thin, transparent wings, trying to fly away, but it was firmly imprisoned by Dago's mental power and could not break free.

Gradually, a semi-transparent, unidentified liquid began to seep from the bottom of the black beetle's belly. Dago frowned.

While considering whether to clean up the thing that looked like beetle "urine," the translucent, unidentified liquid was completely absorbed by the gray mark on the back of his hand.

This is not excrement, but more like a high concentration of pheromones, or a lubricant for some kind of space medium.

The color of the mark gradually deepened, turning from gray to black, and then it began to wriggle like a living thing.

It was a chilling combination.

About an hour later, the black beetle on the back of Dago's hand completely quieted down.

Dago removed it and saw a long string of strange, twisted symbols clearly imprinted on the back of his right hand, like a tattoo.

These symbols do not belong to any known wizarding language family, nor to ancient elves or dragons.

"this"

Dago's eyes flickered, his expression a complex mix of emotions.

The World Stone coordinates that he accidentally obtained in the Ancient Mirror Forest were not completely extracted by Undine, and some traces remained.

The coordinates were static, like a lock without a key.

He sensed the presence of the beetle at the Sunset Market, and it was this coordinate mark that triggered his connection to the mysterious beetle.

"The coordinate imprint appears to have changed."

It has come to life and is establishing a faint but stable entanglement with some distant spacetime.

Dago reached out and poked the strange, unintelligible symbol on the back of his hand, but there was no reaction.

Physical contact cannot trigger a switch at the rule level.

He attempted to infuse his mental energy into it.

There was no defense mechanism whatsoever; his mental energy surged straight in, as if he had fallen into a bottomless abyss.

"Hiss—roar—"

That was not a sound, but a shriek from the depths of the soul.

In an instant, countless distorted and fragmented images flashed through Dago's mind, deep within his mental space.

Within that sea of ​​despair that could not be completely eradicated, the dormant ancient consciousness of the Winter Dragon of Despair, Beheilite, also erupted at the same time.

"Whoosh—whoosh—"

Dago abruptly released his grip, cutting off the supply of mental energy.

The feeling was like a drowning person finally surfacing, greedily breathing in the cold air.

Under the starlight and moonlight, his face was as pale as a blank sheet of paper, and his forehead and back were covered in sweat.

That was cold sweat, the body's instinctive stress response to extreme danger.

"What...is that?!"

Dago stared in horror at the series of strange symbols on the back of his right hand.

It wasn't just a coordinate; it was more like a peephole, a one-way transparent window from hell.

He had absolutely no recollection of what kind of images those symbols had just conveyed to him.

The only thing that stuck with me was the same atmosphere of "distortion, chaos, madness, and destruction" that those images conveyed.

This aura even triggered a surge of despair within his Winter Dragon bloodline, which he barely managed to suppress.

"Even Behemoth's remaining consciousness is uneasy, could it be...?"

As Dago gazed at the incomplete and hazy moon overhead, a thought that he dared not accept arose in his mind.

"Was what I just saw a scene from that other world corresponding to the coordinates?"

Because it absorbed the bodily fluids of the mysterious beetle, the coordinates transformed into another mark, seemingly establishing a deeper connection with the otherworld.

Therefore, he can "peek" into some scenes of another world through this mark.

This beetle may be a "dust" left behind in the wizarding world from that world.

If his guess is true, then the ancient Mirror Forest, so powerful back then, would have decisively stopped the experiment and listed it as forbidden.

It seems plausible that they would even go so far as to destroy the World Stone, and hastily move their entire force away.

Because the aura that Dago sensed from that world was truly terrifying.

He almost met his doom by catching only a glimpse of the aftermath.

If the passage were to truly open, even if it were just a tiny crack, it would be a catastrophe for the wizards of the southern continent.

"This matter must never be known to the Resurrection Movement. Once they find out that this coordinate connects to such a terrifying world, who knows what crazy things they might do."

Those lunatics, driven by their desire for power and so-called "revival," have no regard for the survival of the world.

Dago gritted his teeth and thought to himself.

But then his expression turned somewhat unpleasant.

Because if things weren't handled properly, the people at the Revitalization Committee would already know everything; the cleanup that started three years ago is still going on.

But no one knows exactly how deeply the Restoration Church's influence has penetrated the south.

"This is a huge problem; I hope it doesn't involve me anymore."

With a somber expression, Dago silently concealed the strange symbols on the back of his hand, and also put away the mysterious beetle that had caused the coordinate mark to change.

He examined the surrounding traces again and used purification magic to remove the residual pheromones from the air.

He was already starting to regret buying the beetle. Some things, the more you know, the more entangled you become, and the more trouble you just end up with.