Ancient Wizards: A Little Progress Every Day

"Given your current soul condition, using such a low-level miracle advancement array to assist in your advancement would have a very small chance of success, and would be a complete waste of time and resources."

"If you want to advance smoothly, you will need to construct at least an intermediate-level advancement array; if you want to use this advancement to resolve most of the soul aftereffects, it is best to choose a higher-level advancement array."

In response, Alazan offered Dago two options: the first was simply to secure a smooth promotion, while the second would not only guarantee the promotion but also perfectly resolve any potential problems that might arise.

But even the resources required to implement the initial plan were more than ten times what Dago originally expected.

Dago remembered the last time he worried about magic stones was when he was a wandering wizard in the treehouse district of Aynak. He never expected that after all the twists and turns, he would have to become a "working man" to save up for his future after becoming a third-circle wizard.

After leaving the private secret space, we went straight up the dark, bottomless waterfall abyss. Along the way, we saw wizards from the same deep-sea school flying out from even lower down. Behind this waterfall in this area, there might be many secret spaces.

Emerging from the Abyss Waterfall, one is surrounded by a white void around the circular lake.

Following the guidance of the "Book of the Spirit Lake," Dago found a nearby spot, chanted a spell in his mouth, and at the same time used the Spirit Lake Ring worn on his right ring finger to quickly draw a special pattern in the air.

Soon, ripples spread across the void, and a small, glowing portal appeared before Dago.

Dago pushed open the door, bent down, and crawled inside.

Behind the portal was a similarly narrow crystal passageway that widened as he walked. After half an hourglass, Dago came across a small door covered with flowers and vines.

The green vines that had been wrapped around the door had grown into the passageway, taking up most of the area. Dago carefully avoided the vines and went around them to continue forward.

Then they encountered small doors made of writhing flesh and blood, and small doors made of flowing water, until they finally stopped in front of the fifth ordinary wooden door with a brass lock.

Dago gently knocked on the small door, which quickly opened from the inside with a creak.

I didn't see Heliodo, but there was a beautiful big white cat scratching at the door frame with its paws.

"Thank you, silver coins."

Dago thanked him earnestly, but the latter ignored him, yawned, and turned to leave.

Dago pushed open the wooden door and went inside, smelling a rather pungent odor, a mixture of various herbal and floral scents and the aroma of wine, so strong it was almost irritating.

He took two more steps forward, and the first thing that caught his eye was an enormous oak tree, many times larger than the one he had encountered when he entered Spirit Mirror Lake, named "Tataka".

The space itself was already quite large, about two or three times the size of Dago's private secret space, and the oak tree occupied two-thirds of the entire space, which showed how lush and robust it was.

The branches of the old oak tree hung down from the ceiling of the space, and at the top of each branch hung a metal or glass jar, large or small. Some were filled with an unknown liquid, some contained something like blood clots, some contained living things, and some contained smoky spirits.

Dargo even saw an ancient fairy, naked and sealed by runes, sitting in a crystal jar the size of a palm, deep in thought.

"Hey, who is that?!"

An old voice called out from under the oak tree.

Dagger looked in the direction of the sound and noticed a huge wooden experimental table under the old oak tree. Next to the table was a strange-looking metal alchemy furnace, which was bubbling something up, and every now and then a scream that sounded like a woman's could be heard coming from the furnace.

Heliodo, dressed in a black lab coat, emerged from behind the oak tree and beckoned Dago over.

You're two minutes late.

Heliodo glanced at the crystal pocket watch in his hand and said with some dissatisfaction, "I don't want the same thing to happen again next time."

"You didn't specify how long I need to get there."

Dago answered calmly.

"You'll know next time?"

Heliodo put away his pocket watch and said calmly.

Dago wasn't angry; he just nodded.

Most older wizards are eccentric, and he was well prepared for that.

"Now I'll assign you a task."

Old Beaver seemed to have something urgent to attend to. He pointed in a direction and said quickly to Dagger, "See that? That's where you'll be working for me from now on."

From now on, over the next two years, I need you to handle the materials needed for 10,000 different potion recipes.

The materials, tools, and recipe list are all on the table.

Okay, now get to your work right away!

Dago looked in the direction Heliodo pointed and saw a much smaller metal lab bench with some containers for preparing medicines scattered haphazardly on it.

However, he didn't rush to move, but quietly looked at Heliodo in front of him.

"What are you still dawdling about?"

Heliodo frowned at him, and said in a somewhat cold tone, "Should I assign this assistant another assistant?"

"Shouldn't you discuss this with me before doing any of this?"

Dago paused for a moment, then continued, "Regarding the compensation..."

"You're talking to me about payment?"

Heliodo clicked his tongue and looked him up and down with an incredulous expression.

"I think you may have forgotten my identity, and your own identity. You may have forgotten that if I hadn't picked you up from the garbage dump, with your soul's qualities, you would have been kicked out of Spirit Mirror Lake long ago."

"I'm sorry."

Dago let out a soft breath.

Heliodo narrowed his eyes and said coldly, "You want to refuse me?"

"No."

Dago shook his head. "I don't have that idea. It's just that I'm not very talented, and if I want to advance to the fourth ring, I have to put in more time and effort than others."

"At this stage, I cannot afford to continue working on a job that offers no reward. I can assure you that I will return here as soon as I have gathered the materials needed to construct the advancement array."

Dago bowed deeply to Hyriodo before him, then turned and walked toward the exit of the space.

The entire space was eerily quiet during this process; the only sounds were the bubbling of the alchemy furnace and the yawning of the white cat, Silver Coin.

Dago remained calm, mentally prepared to face whatever came his way.

The worst outcome would be being forced by Helio to perform "unpaid labor" through various means, mainly to show the other party his attitude.

Five sessions of the "Spiritual Amber" training have made his ability to distinguish between pure and impure souls increasingly stronger. Although Heliodo has an eccentric temper, his soul aura is gentle and kind, so he shouldn't do anything more outrageous.

Just as Dago was about to reach the space exit, finally, Heliodo's voice rang out.

"It seems you've already realized the chasm you'll inevitably face when moving from the Third Ring Road to the Fourth Ring Road."

Dago stopped and turned around, only to see that Heliodo did not have the angry expression he had expected; in fact, he was smiling.

"Without outstanding talent, a powerful status and background, it is indeed not easy for an ordinary third-ring wizard to cross this threshold. The necessary resources can sometimes outlast a person."

Heliodo muttered to himself with a deep sense of agreement, then looked up at Dago and said calmly, "Now I can be your background. The deep sea has inexhaustible resources, provided that your performance satisfies me."

Hyriodo tossed something to Dago, who caught it. It was a brand-new spatial ring filled with all sorts of rare potion ingredients.

"Hurry up. Also, everything here must be left behind before you leave. If I find it... there won't be a next time."

"It's my pleasure to serve you."

Dago bowed, and Heliodo turned away, no longer looking at him.

Having achieved his goal, Dago slowly walked to the workbench that Heliodo had assigned to him.

Besides the mixing utensils, the messy table was covered with several medicine formulas written in scribbled handwriting.

Dago counted them, and there were less than 10,000 recipes on the paper, let alone 20. The steps for processing each ingredient were written in great detail.

"Once you've taken care of these, ask me for the rest of the recipe."

Heliodo's voice came from afar, "If you encounter a problem you don't understand, try to solve it yourself first. The books you might need are over there on the shelf."

"If you still don't understand, feel free to ask me again, but it's best not to, because I don't want to waste my precious time on silly questions."

Dago looked around and found the bookshelf that Heliodo had mentioned. It was in a corner of the space, a birch tree that had naturally grown into the shape of a bookshelf, with silver coins curled up there, dozing off.

Without delay, he carefully read through what Heliodor had written on the paper several times. Then, he took water from the pollen tube of a large white face-shaped flower next to the workbench and washed and dried every tool and utensil on the table.

Then he took out the potion from the spatial ring given to him by Heliodo and, using the "Book of the Mirror Lake" as a reference, picked and searched for it one by one.

This process took him quite a while, and by the time Dago officially began processing the potion ingredients for the first recipe, it was already the morning of the next day.

The recipes written by Heriodo have extremely strict requirements for the proportions of materials, and the processing of some materials must be controlled to within the weight range of a single micro-dust particle.

Fortunately, Dago had been practicing the Ancient Star Meditation Method for so long that his mental refinement far surpassed that of an ordinary third-circle wizard. He also possessed the powerful recovery effect of the Clear Mind Realm. After experiencing the initial failures due to his unfamiliarity with the technique, the subsequent process became increasingly smooth.

On the system panel, in the skills section, the progress value of the skill representing his mastery of potion-making, which was so ancient that he had almost forgotten it, began to steadily increase.

Dago works tirelessly for seven days, then leaves to return to his residence for half a month of daily spellcasting and meditation.

And so it goes.

Heliodo seemed to tacitly approve of his schedule and did not raise any objections.