Dago sat down next to Old Marico and thanked him.
Old Marico waved his hand and said, "I haven't thanked you yet from last time. Let's call it even."
He imitated Old Marico, throwing dry branches into the bonfire, and through the misty night...
He saw Old Marico's face, illuminated by the firelight with shifting shadows, wearing a worried expression.
"How have you been lately? You don't seem very happy," Dago asked.
"You must have heard about the Black Robe Wizard invasion from the Dark Crystal Highlands today. War has begun again!"
Old Marico stared blankly at the bonfire, speaking with unease.
Dago remained silent. The war had come too suddenly, and he didn't know how to respond.
"I've experienced a war in the Wizarding World before, and I know how terrifying it is."
"While it destroys everything, it also grinds the extremes of human nature—cowardice and bravery, selfishness and sacrifice, oblivion and remembrance—into dust, scattering them on the winds of time. We must take it seriously."
Old Marico said, his gaze distant as he reminisced.
"From my experience, the war is currently only localized and small-scale. The day of a full-scale invasion has not truly arrived yet."
Old Marico's old, low voice once again carried through the flickering bonfire.
"How long will that be?" Dago asked.
"Perhaps one to two months, or even sooner. This is the time for the hostile Wizards to probe our strength, gather intelligence, assassinate, and betray."
"Next, the prices of various goods in Aynak Town will rise significantly, especially for extraordinary items."
"It's already too late to move to Aynak Town. People from the surrounding small villages are all flocking to the Town, and rents have already become ridiculously high."
Old Marico analyzed the war's trajectory, then thought for a moment and added, "Actually, there's no need to blindly follow the trend and move to the Town now. Once the Town is breached, living inside will be the most dangerous."
"We Wizards scattered in the forest are actually the most troublesome existence for the hostile Wizards—familiar with the environment, and slippery like old hunters in the forest.
Normally, we're wary of each other, but now that war has come, we must act like brothers and sisters, watching out for and helping each other."
Dago listened silently to Old Marico's analysis, nodding repeatedly.
"My suggestion is to form a Forest Mutual Aid Society. Although there are only two of us now, I will seek out more people living in the forest to join."
Old Marico looked at Dago with burning eyes as he spoke.
"I have no problem with that," Dago nodded, then paused and said.
"Thank you for your support, Dago," Old Marico stood up and patted Dago on the shoulder.
Dago shook his head, saying nothing, then also got up and left Old Marico's wooden house, picking up a burning log and walking back to his Shelter.
He had already witnessed a corner of the Wizarding World's war. Mentor Rosalind was the first Wizard to be kind to him since he came to this world.
Yet, in the blink of an eye, she was destroyed by war.
"Black Robe Wizards from the Dark Crystal Highlands?"
Dago bit his teeth, suppressing the burning anger in his heart.
An Apprentice Wizard living at the very bottom like him might not even qualify to become an urn.
He had also considered leaving the Aynak Wizarding Academy's area and choosing to become a wandering Wizard elsewhere.
Not to mention how many magic stones he had left to start his next journey, that burning anger had been constantly scorching him.
When the world sheds its fairytale filter, madness is the last candle of the idealist—between sober despair and gentle obstinacy, I choose to be Don Quixote, fighting real mediocrity with fictional glory.
Dago re-composed himself, buried his sorrow, and entered a frantic training mode.
Only strength could extinguish the fire in his heart.
......
Over the next ten-plus days, Dago trained desperately, as if he had gone mad.
He compressed his natural sleep time to less than four hours a day, dedicating almost all the remaining time to arduous cultivation.
In between, he took time to visit the Town to replenish living supplies, finding the situation much more severe than he had imagined.
The entire Aynak Town seemed to be enveloped in a tense and anxious atmosphere.
From potion ingredients, equipment, to grains, bread, and other daily necessities, almost everything was experiencing insane price increases.
The most outrageous price hike was for rents in the Town's residential areas. News from the surroundings indicated that some villages had been completely massacred by Black Robe Wizards, causing those people to flood into the Town.
The Town, originally designed for 300,000 people, rapidly swelled to nearly 400,000, and even the cheapest rent cost four or five magic stone fragments per month.
Meanwhile, the wealthy merchants and nobles in the Town had long since fled to areas unaffected by the war.
War, like a whirlpool, devoured everyone's lives.
On the morning of the fourth day, in the Shelter in the forest.
Dago, fully armed, squatted in the clearing, chewing on roasted venison. The delicious magic beast meat was already gone.
Soon after, he finished eating, slung his pack over his shoulder, picked up his machete, and adjusted his tight hunting clothes.
Today, he was going to Moonlight Lake again to pick moonlight flowers. He brought up his system panel.
【Wizard Universal Meditation Method (Transformation 11/10000); Ice Crystal Cannon (Transformation 97/10000); Resonance Art (Introductory 855/1000); Detection Art (Introductory 787/1000); Potion Crafting (Novice 1/100)】
This was his confidence. Two skills had entered Transformation, becoming faster and stronger.
However, the progress points required for this Transformation were quite demanding, and he found that the difficulty of acquiring progress points had increased.
During the Introductory stage, releasing a skill once would grant one progress point. After entering Transformation, he needed to release it two to three times to gain one progress point.
This might be related to the explosive increase in his total mental power after advancing to Level 3 Apprentice Wizard.
He set off for Moonlight Lake following his previously marked route, with Detection Art clearing the way like a radar.
Since his magic beast meat was finished, he also intended to hunt some more to eat.
Not to mention its delicious taste, its body-strengthening effects alone made it worth hunting.
However, Old Marico didn't seem to react much when he ate the magic beast meat Dago brought him last time, so it seemed that this effect of magic beast meat was insignificant for Wizards.
It was just a type of meat more delicious than ordinary meat, used for a treat or for selling.
The Shadow Leopards in the dense forest seemed to have vanished, as none attacked him along the way. Dago arrived at Moonlight Lake with a hint of regret, seeing the moonlight flowers.
The traces of his last moonlight flower picking were still there. This time, he planned to dig them all up at once.
If left here, they might be harvested by Wizards out on reconnaissance.
Dago glanced at a few pieces of driftwood in the lake, intentionally or unintentionally, then pretended not to see them and boldly walked towards the flower patch.
He pulled out his iron shovel and started digging furiously. Soon, the large patch of moonlight flowers looked as if a dog had dug it up.
Dago collected a full satchel, then sat in the clearing, enjoying the breeze and the scenery.
Until a Bronze Crocodile, unable to hold back, quickly rushed towards him.
"I've been waiting for you," Dago thought, a deep blue halo swirling in his eyes. With a raised hand, an Air Bullet gathered and shot forth.
"Boom!" It hit the crocodile's bronze-colored back, but caused little damage to the hardest part of the five-meter-long Bronze Crocodile's back.
The shockwave from the Air Bullet's explosion slowed the Bronze Crocodile's charge, and the pain intensified its ferocity.
Dago remained seated in the clearing, murmuring the incantation for Ice Crystal Technique. In an instant, snowflakes fluttered in the air, and an ice crystal pillar rapidly condensed into shape.
"Go!" Dago shouted, and the ice crystal pillar, thicker than an arm, flew forth.
"Thud!" The ice crystal pillar struck directly onto the Bronze Crocodile's back, embedding itself there with chilling cold, but not very deeply.
The Bronze Crocodile roared in pain about ten meters from Dago and continued to charge.
Dago, like a matador, continuously chanted spells, embedding ice crystal pillars into the Bronze Crocodile's back. By the fourth pillar, it slowly stopped, let out a mournful cry, and died.
Dago, still uneasy, released an Air Bullet at its wound. Only when it remained motionless did he breathe a sigh of relief.
Other Bronze Crocodiles by the lake were also stirring. Dago calculated his remaining mental power...
He could probably kill about ten more, showing no signs of panic.
He fired an Air Bullet into the lake, scaring them back into the water.
Seeing this, Dago quickly grabbed his machete and ran towards the dead Bronze Crocodile, hacking at its limbs and tail.
Firing an Air Bullet into the lake every few minutes, Dago spent over ten minutes chopping off the Bronze Crocodile's limbs and tail. His knife was even dulled.
He tied the limbs and tail with a rope he carried, weighing a good twenty to thirty pounds, and hoisted them onto his shoulder.
Returning to the clearing, slinging his pack on his back, Dago quickly slipped away.
He noticed that as time passed, the Air Bullet's deterrent effect on the Bronze Crocodiles by the lake was decreasing.
He could slaughter them now, but he didn't want to take the risk.
Back at the Shelter, Dago unloaded his burdens.
He placed the moonlight flowers in a corner to air-dry as before, cleaned the Bronze Crocodile's limbs and tail, and then put them into his wooden refrigerator.
Dago walked out of the Shelter and began his daily cultivation. This behavior had already become ingrained in him.
Unconsciously, it was almost time for lunch. Dago stopped cultivating, built a fire, and set up his iron pot.
He took out the chilled Bronze Crocodile meat, put it in cold water, and skimmed off the foam after it boiled.
Then he added some special forest berries and fine salt to stew it.
After nearly an hour, Dago finally ate the stewed Bronze Crocodile meat. The meat was firm and elastic.
When chewing, he could feel the distinct texture of the meat fibers, yet it wasn't overly tough.
He licked his lips, still wanting more. With a new Bronze Crocodile hunting spot, he wouldn't have to worry about not having delicious magic beast meat to eat in the future.
However, the selling price of magic beast meat in the Town had plummeted because many of the nobles and wealthy merchants who could afford it had fled. Dago was quite helpless about this.
"If no one buys it, I'll just keep it for myself. I'll send some to Old Marico this afternoon," Dago sighed and said.