Ancient Wizards: A Little Progress Every Day

"The area of ​​the Despair and Frost Domain has also doubled in size, and the icy aura within the domain is even stronger. Of course, the most important thing is that the sense of despair permeating the domain is much more intense than before."

"Pure cold air can only freeze the opponent's body, but the feeling of despair can make the soul fall into an icy abyss. Those with weak wills will simply give up and wait for death in despair."

Dago looked at his fair, slender hands, which seemed almost translucent against the backdrop of the snow, and murmured to himself.

Dago has already tested this on many magical beasts.

"After comprehending the core essence of the Dharma Seal and embarking on the correct path of enlightenment, the progress value during the transformation period increases rapidly, but the explosive growth period of the Soul Dharma Seal seems to have passed."

Dago looked thoughtful. In the past few days, he had noticed that the growth rate of [Winter Star]'s progress value had started to slow down again.

He has returned to the original state where he can only improve by accumulating insights through repeated practice. The reason is actually very clear to Dago: his memories and understandings about Neptune, big and small, have been emptied out. His past accumulations have been thoroughly digested and turned into progress values ​​reflected on his current panel.

"If I could see the real-world Winter Star or Ice Giant in person, I might have more inspiration."

These various extraordinary phenomena most likely originate from the boundless spirit world, which is magnificent, beautiful, and beyond comprehension.

Dago had no idea that he might one day meet Winter Star.

After sorting through his harvest, he strolled out of the snowy region.

"It's about time to go inside the Silver Tower and take on a few quests."

During this month, Dago hardly returned to the Silver Tower. Apart from having the status of a core member of the Silver Tower, he was cultivating alone in the forest, and his state was no different from before he entered the tower.

It seems there has been no follow-up to his actions a month ago at Kroger Manor, where he taught those Painful Thorn Wizards a lesson.

At first, Dago thought the other side might send people to take action in Cletam City, so he was extremely cautious every time he went in and out, for fear of being followed and then being put in a sack.

But nothing unexpected happened over the course of a month, as if the other party had completely forgotten about him.

Dago had a sense of calm before the storm.

"It's absolutely impossible to forget. I wouldn't be able to swallow such a huge loss, let alone a genius at the third level."

Dago was convinced that the guy he'd offended, Jareden, was either waiting for an opportunity or secretly plotting something big.

The Thorn Ring strictly forbids members from killing each other, and the fact that Bernal is still alive and well after all these years proves that this rule is indeed an ironclad law that no one dares to violate.

Bernal once said that Jareden would most likely take other measures to defeat, cripple, or tame him.

"I'd really like to see what other way it could completely break me down, cripple me, or even force me to submit."

Dago remained calm, a glint of light flashing in his blue eyes.

Despite the prospect of Bernal's fate looming ahead, D'Ago was not actually that afraid.

The biggest difference between his current situation and Bernal's is that he is still just a "knot".

Even a "three-way tie" like Jareden cannot directly attack him; he is still protected by certain rules.

Now that his mental strength has advanced to the mid-stage of the first ring, and his trump card, the Soul Seal, has grown significantly, Dago is confident that he can even face a true second-ring wizard head-on.

No matter how much the other party tries to hold back, the upper limit of their pent-up desire is predictable.

As long as Dago is careful enough and doesn't foolishly fall into pre-arranged traps, no matter how strong the opponent is, they can't do anything to him.

Of course, despite his thoughts, Dago was still quite cautious in his actions.

This is called strategically despising the opponent while tactically respecting them.

If he hadn't had to return to the Silver Tower to take on a quest, Dago would have preferred to just lie low until he was promoted to second-circle wizard.

However, the Thorn Ring has explicit rules that official members and above must complete a certain number of tasks, otherwise they will be punished, and in severe cases, their membership may be revoked and they may be expelled from the Ring.

He also had another reason why he had to take on missions to earn contribution points.

Bernal has no shortage of magic stones, and every now and then he asks Dago to help sell a batch of magic potions or runestones. Dago can easily make a living by taking a small "kickback" from these sales.

The main items are certain special and precious resources, including magical potions for Dago to enhance his mental power. These items are not available in the shops of Cletam City and are therefore priceless.

The only way to ensure that Dago can hunt in the Great Rift Valley himself is to rely on his own efforts when he returns to the forest.

Dago left the forest and returned to the Silver Tower.

He recently returned to Bernal's secret base, where Serena had cut his long hair short. His appearance was quite different from a month ago, and it was not easy for people who were not close to him to recognize him.

Even so, not long after Dago entered the Silver Tower, he immediately felt that he was being watched.

Dago suddenly turned his head and looked in the direction from which he felt he was being spied on.

As it turned out, he saw an ordinary-looking, bald, middle-aged male wizard with the strength of a late-stage first-ring wizard, standing a few dozen meters away from Dago, coldly staring at him without any intention of hiding or concealing himself.

Dago squinted, stared at him for a few seconds, then turned and walked straight toward the Silver Tower.

The bald wizard followed him closely, radiating intense hostility, like a ghost wandering in broad daylight, clinging firmly to his back.

Dago remained calm and did not change his plans because of the other party's appearance. He continued to act with the goal of taking on missions and earning contribution points.

Upon entering the tower, one finds a spacious metal hall with runes and magic circles flashing on the walls.

Inside the hall, some wizards wearing silver robes sat, some contemplating and resting alone, others chatting in small groups.

Most of them are ordinary members, and occasionally you can see the "Ichi-kyu" who represents the core.

When Dago and the bald-browed wizard walked in, they attracted several pairs of attention, with more focusing on Dago, probably because he only had the strength of a mid-stage first-ring cultivator but held a core position.

There are many windows in the hall, and each window is staffed by members of the French Circle.

The normal process for accepting a task involves going to the corresponding window to select, register, and report the task. After the task is completed, delivery is also done at the window by a designated person.

Dago looked around the hall and saw that several mission windows were occupied, except for the leftmost one, which was empty.

He walked straight to the empty task window and saw a girl with short, ear-length hair sitting inside. She had an apple-shaped face with a bit of baby fat and was resting her chin on one hand with her eyes closed. It was unclear whether she was dozing off or meditating.

The spiritual energy emanating from his body was only at the early stage of the first ring, giving him a silly and cute feeling.

Dago walked up quietly and tapped on the metal surface of the mission counter.

"ah!!"

The short-haired girl was startled awake by the sound and hurriedly straightened her robes.

"Do you want to accept the mission?"

Her face was flushed when she spoke to Dago, and she looked as shy as if she wanted to disappear into the ground. It seemed that she had indeed been dozing off.

When Dago saw the girl's appearance, he couldn't help but smile, and even the displeasure he felt from being stared at by the bald wizard since he came in was greatly relieved.

"Yes."

Dago nodded, and the short-haired girl immediately handed him a thin task booklet, filled with detailed information about various tasks for him to choose from.

Dago quickly flipped through the entire booklet, lowered his head and thought for a while before finally making his choice.

"Let's take this one, the gland sac of the Earth-Splitting Rock-Drilling Dragon."

The Earth-Drilling Rock Dragon is a level 1 magical beast. It looks like a large earthworm with a hard, rock-like shell. It's not very strong, but it likes to burrow and play around, making it a bit troublesome to hunt.

But Dago considered the bald wizard behind him, who had been staring at him ever since he came in, and assumed that Jareden already knew that he had entered the Ring of Light to accept the quest.

"Judging from this, he probably can't hold back and is preparing to take action against himself," he thought to himself.