After eating and drinking his fill, Dago lit a candle.
He sat inside the Shelter, taking out the black-covered wizard book he had thoroughly read today.
He already understood the general content of the wizard book; it only recorded one sorcery.
A sorcery born from the wild imagination of a genius Wizard from Emerald Life.
Ultimately, it led to disaster, the sorcery was sealed by Emerald Life, and the genius Wizard was also eradicated by them.
Since ancient times, the Wizard's body has always been a weakness, until high-stage Wizards could elementalize their bodies, which solved the problem.
As for low-stage Wizards, they often died from various assassinations.
So, one day, a Wizard thought, could low-stage Wizards elementalize their bodies?
Facts proved that before the soul became immortal, a body accepting elements was no different from roasting flesh over charcoal, a certain death.
Then why could ancient species wield elemental power with their physical bodies, while humans, as the spirits of all things, could not?
He believed it was due to the environment; ancient species lived in an environment rich in elements, thus gaining the power to wield them.
Could humans learn from ancient species and live in element-rich environments to acquire this power?
Just like magical beasts, who inherited a trace of ancient species' bloodline, gained elemental affinity.
He succeeded, and he failed.
This method of having humans live in elemental environments like magical beasts indeed allowed a very small number of people to possess elemental affinity.
However, most of them eventually suffered uncontrollable bodily decay, like radiation sickness.
Elements, as a type of energy particle, can cause energy erosion to the body with prolonged exposure, ultimately leading to decay.
And this very small number of people also awakened a trace of ancient bloodline, becoming known as Bloodline Wizards, darlings of the elements.
This sorcery was the Elemental Resonance Art of the physical body, or simply Resonance Art.
Dago was conflicted; this sorcery was powerful, but practicing it would eventually lead to radiation sickness, causing the body to rot and die.
He gritted his teeth and decided to practice this sorcery, choosing to trust the system.
Stepping out of the Shelter, he stood on the open ground where he usually practiced; the light of the twin moons still shone.
He lit a bonfire with wood, and by the fire's light, Dago re-read the entire book from beginning to end.
The entire sorcery's incantation was just one word: “Veritas,” which roughly meant for lingering elements to return to their world.
During the element's lingering period, a very small amount of mental power was needed to sustain it.
Then, mental power was used to control the elements to attach to the body, applying pressure from the outside in, forcing the body to adapt to this environment.
Currently, Dago could only summon ice elements, so he could only use Ice Crystal Technique to assist in practicing this sorcery.
A sapphire blue halo swirled in his eyes, scattering light, as he murmured the incantation for Ice Crystal Technique.
A few ice elements appeared, awaiting Dago's command.
“Veritas,” Dago uttered the incantation for Resonance Art.
Most of the ice elements vanished, with only a few scattered points of ice elements remaining.
He carefully used his mental power to control these ice elements to float above his palm, forming a light orb the size of a fingernail.
Then, controlling the output of his mental power, the coldness and light of the orb instantly dissipated by ninety percent; according to the usual release of Ice Crystal Technique, these ice elements should have long since dissipated.
“It seems Resonance Art is working,” Dago said, looking at the ice elements in his palm, which seemed to be dormant.
He then controlled these ice elements to attach to his index fingernail; the ice elements lazily floated over, giving his nail a snow-white manicure.
Instantly, he felt his fingernail cool, and then Resonance Art was completed; the system panel flashed a prompt in the blink of an eye.
【Detectable skill for advancement: <Resonance Art>, do you wish to advance?】
He clicked yes as usual, and the panel changed.
【<Wizard Universal Meditation Method> (Beginner 139/1000); <Air Bullet> (Beginner 166/1000); <Ice Crystal Technique> (Novice 15/100); <Resonance Art> (Novice 1/100)】
From then on, he had another skill he could advance.
He returned to his cultivation, cycling through the four sorceries: Meditation, Air Bullet, Ice Crystal Technique, and Resonance Art.
The beginner-level Meditation's effect was much better than before; his soul entropy was being expelled faster and faster, and his light orb had grown considerably.
As his mental power increased, the speed at which his soul was nourished would also increase.
The speed of soul completion would also be much faster, and his mental power storage would increase.
The number and quality of releases of other sorceries would also go up; now, releasing ten Air Bullets at full mental power was not a problem.
If he continued to progress at this rate, he would soon become a human-shaped self-propelled cannon.
However, Dago felt that he currently lacked some combat experience; apart from various animals in the forest, he had no experience fighting against people.
But he wouldn't worry about this; he was prepared to face the cruelties of this world.
........
The calendar was flipped two pages by the wind; two days later, in the early morning.
Dago, dressed in hunting attire, sat on a wooden stump, heartily eating his breakfast—a few simple steamed buns.
His large hand with ten snow-white nails grabbed a steamed bun, taking half in one bite, and finishing one in two bites.
He no longer went to the academy; Wizard Rosalyn hadn't returned, and he was too lazy to go.
Most of his mornings were spent hunting; he chose the southwest direction of the forest, which was the lake where the moonlight flower grew.
He intended to cautiously delve deeper there, step by step, to familiarize himself with the terrain in advance.
Standing up, his body had grown a few more centimeters; he was already about 1.78 meters tall before.
His flowing long hair was starting to reach his shoulders, which Dago did not like.
This would affect his vision during hunting; he drew the cold, gleaming dagger from his waist, grabbed his hair, and began to cut.
Shortly after, he dealt with the bothersome hair, patting off the hair fragments from his body.
Then he slung his backpack over his shoulders and strode towards the southwest of the forest.
Because this area was basically untouched by humans, there were many more animals.
Dago had to keep his nerves taut at all times, occasionally pulling out his small notebook to record the nearby topography, landforms, and tree distribution.
He marked a giant tree he bypassed and continued forward, pressing on.
After walking for about ten minutes, a dense forest appeared in his field of vision.
The trees in the dense forest were so thick they blocked out the sun, not even specks of sunlight could penetrate.
“It's much quieter here than elsewhere,” Dago thought, feeling a sense of caution.
He carefully observed the surrounding environment; a low-frequency snore echoed through the dense forest.
Similar to “Hoo—roo… Hoo—roo…” low-frequency vibrations, Dago dared not move, remaining still in place.
He listened carefully to the source of the sound, only to see an incredibly large, all-black leopard sprawled on a large tree ten meters away, sound asleep.
“This is probably the magical beast Shadow Leopard,” Dago thought to himself, his pupils contracting as he looked at the sleeping black leopard.
This was his first time seeing a magical beast, a living magical beast.
According to Old Marico's description, this was a magical beast with strong territorial instincts, usually not in groups, so there was no need to worry about the danger of being attacked by a pack.
Shadow Leopards were extremely fast, liked to lurk in shadows to launch fatal attacks, tearing at their prey's throats.
Its fur was excellent magical material, highly sought after in the wizarding world.
Its meat and bones were also delicacies, which noble lords were willing to pay a high price for.
Especially its whip, which was always in high demand but short supply.
“He's not awake yet, I must seize this opportunity and hit him with an Air Bullet,” Dago's thoughts raced, and he immediately made a decision.
Sapphire blue light glowed from his eyes, the airflow suddenly accelerated, and a fist-sized Air Bullet converged two meters in front of him.
A few seconds later, the blue light in Dago's eyes intensified, and he unleashed the Air Bullet with full force towards the Shadow Leopard.
Dago stared intently at the Shadow Leopard on the tree; he saw its ears instantly perk up, its eyelids snap open, its pupils contract into vertical slits, like two poisoned daggers.
Its body stretched like a fully drawn bow, its front claws taut like scythes, and its hind legs exploded with incredible thrust.
It discovered it too late; this charged Air Bullet was too fast, and its usual complacency had dulled its sense of danger.
“Boom,” the Air Bullet still hit its hind leg, and the blast of wind threw its body into the air.
In the air, mottled light and shadow flowed over its body, as if draped in a black cloak woven from slaughter.
Dago aimed again at the Shadow Leopard in the air, firing another Air Bullet, with less than ten seconds between shots.
The Shadow Leopard's body twisted in the air, its tail like a propeller controlling its aerial posture...
The Air Bullet, carrying a strong current of air, grazed its abdomen and flew past.
Then it exploded against a distant tree, and Dago felt a great sense of foreboding...
The Air Bullet's cooldown hadn't reset, and the casting time for Ice Crystal Technique wasn't enough.
The Shadow Leopard landed, crouching low, front paws extended, hindquarters raised high; the first Air Bullet had caused it significant damage, one hind leg was already twisted and broken.
Its tail swayed left and right like a rudder, adjusting its attack angle, then it used its remaining hind leg to powerfully lunge at Dago.
Ten meters, nine meters, eight meters, seven meters, six meters, five meters... only the prey's heartbeat drummed in his ears—that was the countdown of death.
Just as the Shadow Leopard approached its prey as quickly as usual, ready to tear its throat open like paper, it could have done so.
Its world fell silent; an arm-thick ice pillar was embedded in its forehead, and its body rolled on the ground, kicking up a string of dead leaves.
In a world where the strong prey on the weak, elegance and cruelty have always been twin brothers, and death is merely the most precise punctuation mark in the cycle of life.
Dago elegantly blew away the lingering chill from his fingertips, patting his wildly beating heart.
His ten fingernails, which had been snow-white, returned to their flesh color; this was another discovery he made about Resonance Art.
The ice elements attached to his body could be instantly awakened to form a weakened version of Ice Crystal Technique, with only one-third of the power of the formal version, but the release time was much shorter, taking only about five seconds.
“I'll have to get a manicure again when I go back,” Dago muttered.
