A noun entry: Wizard

Bertrand Russell.

"Gray".

"Pat."

"Serio".

The four people wrote their names on the scroll, and then Pais tore the scroll apart, turning it into four beams of light that shone on the four of them.

Russell vaguely sensed that an additional layer of constraint had been placed on his soul.

Once a certain condition is triggered, this "binding" will erupt, damaging Russell's soul.

but.

The binding force is somewhat weak.

Even if Russell were to directly withstand the attack with his soul, it would at most cause injuries that would require Russell to sleep twice to recover from.

"Unfortunately, this is just a low-level soul contract. It is said that there are soul contracts that can target wizards."

"There are even soul contracts that can affect the entire race, the kind we've signed with those alien races now."

"Grey sighed."

"A soul contract that can be used against a formal wizard might be more valuable than the treasures in this wizard's ruins."

Pais rolled his eyes and then tossed a mirror to Russell.

The mirror wasn't large, and its back was covered in flesh and blood that hadn't even dried yet, clearly indicating that it had been torn from the head of the Mirror Wolf not long ago.

"Let's go." Pais didn't say anything more and walked with Serio towards a nearby cave.

"Hehe, let's go." Gray took a few more steps closer to Russell and followed the two of them.

Russell wiped the flesh off the Mirage, shook his hand, and followed silently behind.

Upon entering the cave, Pais had barely taken two steps when he bumped into a stone wall.

Then, he completely merged into the stone wall!

"It seems this is the entrance to the wizard's ruins." Gray watched Serio follow him in, and then he bumped into him as well.

Russell, holding the Mirror of Illusion in his hand, crashed into it and merged directly into it.

The space in front of him suddenly changed, and a slight dizziness appeared. Russell unconsciously condensed a swirling stream of water in his hand.

Once things returned to normal, he dispersed the water element in his hand and observed his surroundings.

"That spell from just now."

Pais was the first to enter and the first to regain consciousness. Upon seeing the spell that Russell had conjured in his hand, he gasped in shock.

Water element bubbles.

Alongside Earth Elemental Cannon, Fire Elemental Cannon, and Wind Elemental Roar, it is hailed as a high-level zero-tier spell that is closest to a first-tier spell.

It often requires a level 3 wizard apprentice to consume four spell model slots to construct four spell models.

Only then can a combination of spells be cast.

However, it was ultimately just a level zero upper-level spell.

Theoretically speaking, it is possible to construct it using only one spell model.

However, this difficulty is almost the same as constructing a soul spell!

Both of these belong to the difficulty level of first-tier spells.

This is something no normal wizard apprentice could do.

Even if all four spells can be cast instantly, it still takes a relatively long time to construct a water elemental bubble.

"And this Russell just condensed it instantly, achieving a truly instantaneous effect!"

"The opponent not only constructed a water elemental bubble on a spell model, but even perfected it?"

"Thank goodness they got the other party to sign the contract!"

Pais breathed a sigh of relief.

He couldn't imagine what would have happened if Russell hadn't signed the contract and had secretly followed them in, even if the three of them had been prepared...

I doubt he'd be a match for Russell either.

"Ha! This spatial teleportation is pretty powerful!" Gray shook his head violently, coming back to his senses.

The spatial teleportation only caused Russell a slight dizziness, but for the other three, it was like being hit on the head with a sledgehammer!

It took me a few seconds to come to my senses.

Because Pais arrived earlier, he was able to see the water element that condensed briefly in Russell's hand before dissipating.

Neither Gray nor Serio noticed.

"What's inside this wizarding ruins is still unknown, so we need to cooperate fully," Pais said in a deep voice.

After witnessing the instantaneous water element bubble, he consciously stopped using all his underhanded tactics of bypassing contracts to seek personal gain.

Put on a facade of genuine cooperation.

Serio glanced at Pais with a puzzled look, but said nothing.

Gray smiled but didn't say anything.

Russell nodded silently without saying anything, which was taken as tacit agreement.

Only then did Pais quietly breathe a sigh of relief.

"Where should we go next?"

Russell looked around and found himself in a forest again; to the untrained eye, it looked like he had returned to the Lost Forest.

However, the forest was not shrouded in white fog, and visibility was excellent.

"The wizard's best possessions are naturally kept in the wizard's tower. Let's head over there."

Pais pointed to the towering black wizard tower not far away.

"Okay," Russell nodded.

Gray and Serio both had strange expressions. It seemed that after entering the wizard's ruins, Pais had become Russell's little brother.

You have to ask Russell about everything first.

After a moment's thought, Russell realized that the other party must have seen his water elemental bubble, which was why he changed his attitude.

It's nothing.

In any case, the water element bubble was not the strongest technique that Russell had accumulated during his year of seclusion.

However, thanks to his royal bloodline, Russell has a very strong control over the water element, and he can cast water element bubbles the fastest.

At the same time, it can contain itself without releasing, and can gather and dissipate in an instant, which is the magic that Russell is most proficient in.

Other spells may be equally powerful, but they cannot be controlled so perfectly.

Russell followed behind Pax, keeping a watchful eye on the three of them, ready to risk the backlash of his soul to kill them at any moment.

In any case, neither the soul contract just signed nor the soul contract from the Wizarding Association will have a significant impact on Russell.

The soul contract from the Wizarding Association, which only requires signing and does not need to be torn up to take effect, can only be applied to wizard apprentices.

Or rather, it only applies to wizard apprentices.

After all, wizard apprentices and wizards are, strictly speaking, two different kinds of beings.

The former is a short-lived species, while the latter is a long-lived species.

Different life scales lead to different ways of thinking about problems.

It is quite possible that the former's entire life was merely the experimental cycle of the latter's research.

Wizard apprentices, eager to become wizards, desperately want to acquire the most resources for themselves within their limited lives.

Formal wizards, on the other hand, tend to accumulate experience over time because they are long-lived and therefore cherish their lives more.

Only when their lifespan is about to end, some will accept it peacefully, while others will go mad.

Of course, there are a few wizards who still follow the methods they used when they were wizard apprentices, but they are ultimately a minority.

Therefore, the contracts signed by wizard apprentices are to prevent the number of wizard apprentices from rapidly decreasing to a very low level.

Formal wizards do not need to do this.

The four of them continued on their way and soon arrived at the foot of the Wizard's Tower.

The forest was eerie and oppressive, with no signs of life, which made the four of them very wary.

They only breathed a slight sigh of relief when they arrived at the gate of the Wizard's Tower.