The sun rose in the east, and the morning light bathed the earth.
Dago yawned as he walked out of his room at the Wizard Inn. He used his spiritual power to activate the runes on his Apprentice Wizard robe, and the slightly torn robe instantly became clean as new.
He had worked late into the night to open the storage pouch as soon as possible.
The process was also indirectly improving his Meditation Technique.
Otherwise, in the Town, his skills would be difficult to improve, unlike before in the forest where he could use his skills to chop trees every day.
Dago began to miss the Shelter in the forest. He would go back to see it when the war subsided.
As Dago was reminiscing about his days in the Shelter, he suddenly noticed Serena also walking out of her room.
Serena stretched lazily at the doorway, her expression a little languid. Suddenly, she noticed Dago's gaze...
Her small face instantly flushed red, and she stammered shyly, "Da... Dago, good morning. Shall we go have breakfast together?"
Dago nodded in agreement, and then the two walked out of the Wizard Inn together.
Looking at the Town that was about to awaken, Dago said, "It's another beautiful day."
Serena nodded like a chick pecking at rice, and soon the two were having breakfast at a restaurant not far away.
The two discussed the requirements for cultivating moonlight flowers.
"Captain, according to the soil from Moonlight Lake I brought back last time, the first requirement is soil nourished by magic power."
"The simplest way to obtain magical soil is to heavily irrigate it with the blood of magical beasts. Secondly, it needs to be in a damp and cool environment, receiving prolonged exposure to the Origin Moon to grow quickly."
When it came to topics about magical plants, Serena was clearly much more confident.
Dago listened quietly to her words. It seemed there was still hope for large-scale cultivation, but being in the midst of war, it was difficult to find a quiet and peaceful place.
For now, this matter could only be put aside until after this Wizarding War passed, then he could plan it properly.
The two chatted and enjoyed their breakfast leisurely until an hour later when they slowly walked out of the restaurant and returned to the Wizard Inn.
Three days passed peacefully like this.
At night, in the Wizard Inn, Dago's forehead was covered in fine sweat. He was just a tiny bit away from opening the runes in the storage pouch.
Finally, ten minutes later, Dago's spiritual power completely erased the spiritual imprint left by the original owner.
"Hoo~~~"
Dago let out a long breath. For the past three days, most of his time had been spent on this matter.
He slowly permeated his spiritual power into the rune until the entire rune was activated.
Dago "saw" the space behind this rune; it clearly existed but was not in his real field of vision.
It was like ice elements, on the same plane but a different dimension.
This was a spherical space about one cubic meter in size, filled with many messy items.
The space rune was at the center of this space, connecting reality with the alternate dimension.
He tried to use his spiritual power to pull an item to the space rune, then with a tug, it instantly appeared in his pocket.
It was like Doraemon's magical pouch, slowly pulling things out of the alternate dimension pocket.
This was a black robe. Dago was curious how such a large piece of clothing could be put into a palm-sized pocket.
Then he tried to forcefully stuff the robe into the pocket, but there was no reaction at all.
It seemed the key was spiritual power. Dago used his spiritual power to wrap the clothing and then stuffed it into the pocket.
The pocket seemed to be endowed with magic, swallowing the clothing in an instant, and it appeared in the alternate dimension space.
Dago thought to himself, "This is fun, it really is like a magical pouch."
He also grabbed a moth and threw it into the alternate dimension space, and the result was instantaneous death, as if its soul had left its body.
He threw in a brass pocket watch, and time still turned, which seemed to confirm Dago's guess that this was another layer of space that did not allow souls to exist.
After the experiment, Dago took out all the Black Robe Wizard's belongings from the space and placed them in front of him.
Excluding some common daily necessities, there were forty magic stones, a palm-sized Dark Blood Council emblem, several Wizarding books, a beast-skin scroll, and a few bottles of potions and some miscellaneous items.
Seeing the pile of magic stones on the table, Dago knew he had struck gold and was overjoyed.
Why was he so eager to open the storage pouch? Wasn't it for the desire for magic stones?
Now that it was open, he felt as happy as an old farmer harvesting grain.
Among that small pile of magic stones, there was one that was more crystalline and magnificent than the low-level magic stones.
Its size alone was a circle larger than a low-level magic stone, about the size of a quail egg.
Dago carefully examined this magic stone under the kerosene lamp, figuring in his heart that this was probably a mid-level magic stone.
In the Wizarding World, one mid-level magic stone was worth ten low-level magic stones.
He gazed at it admiringly for a while, then put it back into the storage space.
Dago casually flipped through the Wizarding books. They were all legends about local Wizards and monsters of the Dark Crystal Highlands, like story magazines for entertainment.
Dago's assessment was: "Useless.", and then he put them back into the storage space.
He picked up the remaining beast-skin scroll with dark red bloodstains and opened it.
It began with words of praise for a great existence.
"Your tendrils mend life and death, your dark blood nourishes eternity — Erzog, Master of the Dark Blood Sea."
As Dago silently recited this sentence, suddenly, the wick of the kerosene lamp flickered, as if a slight ripple had spread across a calm lake.
The rest of the content was a thank you for Erzog's grace, recording a wizardry named "Blood Mist Spell."
Dago remembered this spell; it was the one used by the Black Robe Wizard Moluo Ke to kill Gavin.
This spell actually quite met Dago's requirements for defensive means, and the specific inheritance and casting process were all there, making it seem like a spell prepared specifically for Dago.
"However, once I learn the Dark Blood Council's exclusive Dark Blood-type wizardry, I'm afraid I'll be directly treated as a traitor by the Academy and blasted into dust..."
Dago thought about it for a while, struggled for a long time, and then slowly put it back into the storage space without looking at it again.
At this critical juncture when the Dark Blood Council was heavily invading the Emerald Forest, he dared not court death by having any connection with this terrifying organization of the Wizard Alliance.
Dago looked at the several potions with obvious dark red impurities inside, and also left them untouched.
There were also some miscellaneous items that disgusted Dago, such as eyeballs soaked in special potion bottles, a dried finger, and Dark Crystal powder, which looked like alchemical materials for Wizards.
Dago threw them back into the storage space without a second thought, planning to find an empty spot and burn them directly when the time came.
"No wonder Moluo Ke could have a storage pouch. It turns out he was an alchemist in the Dark Blood Council, which is one of the three most lucrative professions in the Wizarding World."
Dago suddenly understood why the Black Robe Wizard Moluo Ke was so rich.
In fact, Dago didn't have many truly useful things, but he was very satisfied with just those magic stones.
Putting the storage pouch close to his body, Dago finally went to sleep contentedly.
........... .
As the leaves of the Emerald Forest slowly fell, the war between Aynak Wizarding Academy and the Dark Blood Council had entered a white-hot stage.
Wizards in gray-white robes, leading well-equipped warriors, continuously walked out of the Town from the Academy.
One could even see Wizards suspended in mid-air like blazing suns, flying out with silver-patterned airships.
Light snow was slowly falling from the sky. Dago tightened his thick Apprentice Wizard robe.
"Fortunately, I didn't sell the Shadow Leopard's fur, otherwise I would freeze to death in this weather."
He walked down the central street of the Town, muttering to himself.
Since he opened the storage pouch ten days ago and obtained a large number of magic stones,
his anxiety about magic stones had lessened significantly, and the matter of finding cheap accommodation was naturally put aside.
These days, he had been staying at the Wizard Inn with Old Marico and Serena.
With magic stones in hand, for the sake of cultivation and progress, he found a Meditation Room specifically for Apprentice Wizards to practice in the Wizard Hall of the Town.
Dago stepped on the accumulated snow on the street, leaving a footprint that was neither too deep nor too shallow.