From the direction of the Academy ahead, a 'whooshing' sound of wind pressure could be heard.
Dago stopped, and along with many numb people on the street, looked over.
Amidst the snow-covered peaks of Aynak Wizarding Academy, three small silver-patterned airships, twenty to thirty meters long and resembling sailboats, rose into the vast, falling snow.
“The Academy seems to be deploying airships more and more frequently lately. Has the situation changed again?”
Dago stared at the airships disappearing into the snow, his eyes flickering as he thought to himself.
He watched for a moment, then continued forward, entering the Wizard Hall.
The Wizard Hall was quite empty at this time, with only a few wandering Apprentice Wizards conducting business. These days, most Academy Wizards whose identities had been verified chose to return to the Academy.
Dago decided not to return to the Academy yet; Viser would surely try to cause him trouble. Rather than get entangled in it, he might as well let him be pleased for a while.
He went to the Level 3 Apprentice counter, manned by the same young woman from his first visit. To her astonishment, he completed the process for using a Meditation Room.
The deposit was one low-level magic stone, the usage time was five hours, and the usage fee was one-fifth of a low-level magic stone.
Dago was quite astonished by the Meditation Room's fees; they were extremely expensive. He truly missed the days of freely casting spells in the Shelter.
Entering the Meditation Room, the room was of pure stone structure, with walls built from greenish-grey granite.
One of the stone walls was covered with pits and holes of varying depths—marks left by previous Apprentice Wizards casting spells.
The floor was covered with a half-foot thick jute mat, and in the center was a hexagonal rune array, with a fist-sized “Elemental Crystal” embedded in its core. The crystal's color would change with external elemental fluctuations.
It turned crimson when fire elements were dense in the air and glowed an ethereal blue when ice elements were active.
No extraneous sounds could be heard in the entire room because sound-absorbing rune arrays surrounded it.
The pitted stone wall had an energy-absorbing rune array, which could be used for spell impact experiments.
Dago activated his spiritual vision and felt a “humming” permeating the air, which was the resonance produced by elemental collisions.
In the Meditation Room, he primarily focused on cultivating three skills: Meditation, Detection Art, and Resonance Art. He dared not use any other combat skills.
He was mainly afraid of blowing up the rune wall, which would be too expensive to compensate for, even if he sold himself.
Dago brought up his system panel and displayed the progress values for these three skills.
【"Wizard Universal Meditation Method" (Transformation 1310/10000); "Resonance Art" (Transformation 80/10000); "Detection Art" (Transformation 57/10000)】
Meditation, of course, was a daily essential cultivation skill.
With its progress, the range of his spiritual power reached five meters, and the soul entropy expulsion time came to five minutes.
After his mental power was exhausted, he could also slowly convert mental mist to provide mental power, and his mana recovery ability improved.
The ice elements now retained by Resonance Art could cover his arms and chest.
Moreover, he discovered that after Resonance Art progressed to the transformation stage, it actually improved his physique.
His body, which had long coexisted with ice elements, received an extremely minute amount of elemental radiation.
Essentially, this was an external-to-internal wizardly evil art; once cultivated deeply, it would cause the flesh to rot.
To put it simply, the human body cannot bear elemental power unless you possess the bloodline of an ancient species.
“Could I possess the talent to become a legendary, one-in-a-million bloodline wizard?”
Dago thought to himself with a pleased expression.
The progress of Detection Art was also evident; it could now detect a forty-meter fan-shaped area in front of him.
It also provided basic information about spells within that range, a magical change likely bestowed by the system.
As the ethereal blue light of the “Elemental Crystal” in the center of the room flashed, Dago also entered cultivation mode.
In the afternoon, after finishing his cultivation in the Meditation Room and settling the usage fees, Dago walked back to the Wizard Inn.
As he stepped into the inn's main entrance, Dago saw Serena and Old Marico sitting in the empty tea room, drinking refreshing tea.
According to Dago's understanding, this was a magical plant imported by the Wizard Alliance from the distant East, and it was the tea he was familiar with.
It was invigorating and refreshing, known as a small Mental Potion, though unfortunately, the price was a bit steep.
The two were chatting with smiles on their faces, and upon seeing Dago, they immediately invited him to join them.
Old Marico looked at Dago's long hair and said with a mischievous smile, “Dago, your hair is quite long now. Our little Serena is quite good at cutting hair. How about it, interested in a haircut in the courtyard?”
Serena's face quickly flushed upon hearing this, but she did not refuse, only stealing glances at Dago's expression.
Dago looked at his shoulder-length hair and nodded. He thought to himself, “Yes, it's been almost two months since I last cut my hair with a dagger in the Shelter.”
Seeing Dago agree, Serena's face broke into a smile, and she scurried upstairs to fetch scissors and a barber's cape.
A few minutes later, Dago, draped in the cape with only his head exposed, sat on a wooden chair. Serena, with gentle yet swift movements, was cutting his dark, long hair.
She made almost no sound while cutting, and Dago only heard the rustling of his own hair falling to the ground.
Old Marico walked nearby, smiling as he said, “The Evans said they want to invite the three of us for dinner, to thank us for taking care of them during our time in the patrol team.”
Dago searched his memories. The Evans were the couple who left the team after Gavin's death, saying they would move to the Town to stay with relatives.
“Of course, no problem. I also miss our days in the patrol team,” Dago said without turning his head.
It seemed Old Marico had run into quite a few old friends lately.
He was actually well aware of the difficult situation faced by wizards living in the forest.
After migrating to the Town, most of them would not adapt, like free birds of the sky suddenly caged.
Apprentice Wizards who chose to live in the forest were inherently those without any special skills, finding it difficult to live well in the Town. Their savings would quickly be depleted.
As Dago was thinking, he felt Serena stop her movements.
She removed the cape from Dago, her face flushed, indicating that she was finished.
Then, as if by magic, she produced a silver mirror from behind her back and held it before Dago's face.
In the mirror, the eighteen-year-old him looked like a green pine kissed by morning light, his brow bone sharp as if carved, and his eye sockets held the unique, subtle shadows of youth.
Coupled with his freshly cut short hair, his entire being exuded a handsome blend of youthfulness and sharpness.
He smiled at Serena, “Your skill is excellent. I feel like you could even open a shop in the Town.”
Serena, having received Dago's approval, couldn't help but say happily, “Thank you for the compliment, Captain Dago.”
Dago got up and returned to his room to wash off the loose hair, using a small amount of mental power to compress air and create a small hairdryer to dry his hair.
After finishing these tasks, he went downstairs to meet the two, preparing to go to The Evans' dinner invitation together.