On the fifth day of the Town being attacked, most residents had already fled, leaving only a small number of old, weak, sick, and disabled residents who could not make the long journey.
The forest area outside the Town had completely fallen into the hands of the Dark Blood Council, and no one dared to approach it.
Aynak Wizarding Academy had deployed a large number of mercenary Witches and defensive fortifications on the outskirts of the Town to block the advance of the Dark Blood Council.
In the fields between the outer perimeter and the forest, magical duels occurred daily, leaving them riddled with craters from magical bombardments.
It was also on this day that Dago finally erased Viser's mental imprint and opened his storage ring.
Inside his room at the Wizard Inn, Dago sat at a table, examining a large pile of items before him.
There was a large pile of intermediate magic stones, a letter, a box, a bottle of mercury-colored potion, and two exquisite magic robes.
The space within the storage ring was much cleaner than Dago had imagined; he found no runic equipment or other miscellaneous items.
The runic space inside the ring was considerably larger than a storage pouch, roughly five cubic meters in size.
Dago guessed this might be related to Viser having only recently advanced to Level 3 Apprentice Wizard, perhaps having exchanged items for a large quantity of Mental Potion to enhance his strength.
However, the current harvest was enough to make Dago feel relieved, justifying his five days of continuous high-intensity work.
Aside from everything inside the ring, the ring itself was quite valuable.
Dago planned to first transfer the contents of his storage pouch into the storage ring, and then give the storage pouch to Serena, as she would be his employee and he should treat her well.
His storage pouch was almost empty; the miscellaneous items left by those Black Robe Wizards had already been burned to ashes, and currently, the space only contained the Ice Crystal Magic Wand, a beast hide scroll, and the Dark Blood Council's emblem.
He had never been willing to burn the Dark Blood Council's emblem and the beast hide scroll, in case he ever became a Black Robe Wizard and could use them to disguise himself as a Dark Blood Council Wizard.
After transferring these three items into the storage ring, Dago first opened the letter and began to read it.
“My dear Viser, may the ancestors of the Hailam Family grant you blessings under the illumination of the Origin Moon.”
“Without further ado, if you have now become a high-level Level 3 Apprentice Wizard, then what we need to do next is to make you a Formal Wizard, contributing to the revival of the Hailam Family.”
“Believe me, becoming a Formal Wizard is a great step for any Wizard, but also a dangerous one, requiring thorough preparation.”
“As you know, the Wizarding World has always pursued the immortality of the soul, and the process of moving towards soul immortality is soul completion.”
“The first step to becoming a Formal Wizard is that you must first complete the transformation of your mental power and begin the soul completion phase of a Formal Wizard.”
“I have prepared an aura potion for you. This is a precious magic potion from Emerald Life, and I hope you will take good care of it.”
“After the soul of the apprentice stage is fully completed, and when mental power can no longer affect the soul, you can drink it.”
“Remember, after drinking the aura potion and transforming your mental power, absolutely do not respond to any calls from outside the Spiritual Space; you must maintain soul silence.”
“My child Viser, only when you reach the mental power level of a Half-step Formal Witches can you open the box; there lies the next step to becoming a Formal Wizard.”
“P.S.: Return to the Hailam Family after being promoted to Formal Wizard; there is no need to remain at Aynak Wizarding Academy.”
When Dago read this part, he paused slightly upon catching a particular word.
He picked up the exquisitely packaged, mercury-colored potion bottle, whose effects he didn't know, and repeatedly examined it in front of him, a look of growing disbelief appearing on his face.
This was an unexpected, sudden surprise that left him stunned.
“An aura potion? Viser actually kept this and didn’t drink it?!”
Dago murmured, and then his heart began to beat faster, thumping rapidly for quite some time before gradually calming down.
The aura potion is a magic potion used for the mental power transformation of Apprentice Wizards, which can greatly increase the probability of mental power transformation and save a lot of time.
For Apprentice Wizards, especially wandering Apprentice Wizards, it is extremely precious.
If Old Marico had such a bottle of aura potion, he probably wouldn't have spent almost his entire life in the Apprentice Wizard stage.
This key to opening the door to a Formal Wizard has always been firmly controlled by large Wizard organizations, and even within the academy, it is extremely difficult to obtain.
This was only the first step in advancing to a Formal Wizard; there was an even more crucial step later, one that even a Wizard with the experience and strength of Raymond found difficult to overcome.
Especially the last sentence of the letter made Dago very confused; it seemed that during the transformation of mental power, there might be a risk of encountering dangers from outside the Spiritual Space.
Dago shook the bottle of pure silver potion; it bore some resemblance to the Mental Potion he refined, only the bottle in his hand was purer—yes, it was a difference in purity.
Without a word, he pulled out the cork, tilted his head back, and drank it all in one gulp, leaving not a single drop.
Given the current situation, every bit of strength improvement was a guarantee for his life.
Dago, with a slight frown, closed his eyes. Accompanied by a sharp pain in his forehead, the images that emerged in his consciousness were the glowing orb and the surging black sea in his Spiritual Space.
Although he was worried about the side effects of the aura potion, there was probably no better way to quickly increase his strength.
Now, he focused all his attention on the changes in his Spiritual Space, only to see a mercury-like substance suddenly appear in the Spiritual Space, plunging directly into the glowing orb.
The glowing orb instantly expanded rapidly, like a balloon being inflated by an air pump.
Its original diameter of over ten meters continuously expanded to a hundred meters before gradually slowing down; at this point, the glowing orb had a resemblance to a great sun.
Countless grayish-white mental mists were furiously drawn into it, constantly rotating and refining.
A large amount of mental mist inside the glowing orb was liquefied, forming small streams, then turning into droplets, their color steadily changing from light blue to deep blue.
Until finally, as it approached Dago’s soul body in the center of the glowing orb, it had completely transformed into tiny, pale purple crystalline powder.
These minute mental power crystalline powders approached the center of his soul body's forehead and instantly merged into the soul body.
Dago only felt an unprecedented sense of exquisite sublimation, as if his soul was drifting on a bizarre and colorful cloud.
His soul body, curled in the center of the glowing orb, could now move, and he also gained a completely new perception of the Spiritual Space, as if he could penetrate the mental mist and “see” further.
Just as he was happily moving his soul body, a call, as if from an infinite distance outside the Spiritual Space, tugged at his soul.
Dago's soul body froze for a moment, instinctively sensing it.
Above the black sea, an extremely blurry mirage-like scene appeared: a dark blood sea composed of writhing blood and chaotic energy.
An boundless mass of dark red blood mist floated above the dark blood sea, with countless twisted blood vessels, eyeballs, and shattered bones churning within the mist, drifting above the dark blood sea.
At its core, a gigantic mouth made of congealed blood was vaguely visible, with no teeth, only layers of mucous membrane folds, exhaling blood rain with a rusty smell as it breathed.
Its mere presence caused Dago’s soul to spasm and twitch, and a strange piece of information directly leaped into his consciousness.
The master of the dark blood sea, “Mother of Blood,” “Lord of Stitching,” Blood Scum Ersuoge, worshipped by the Dark Blood Council.
Blood Scum Ersuoge seemed infinitely far away, yet also very close to the Spiritual Space, continuously calling and pulling his soul body.
This created a strong urge in Dago’s soul: to approach it, embrace it, and in eternal pain and distortion, become a part of its body.
This strong urge constantly destroyed his consciousness, making him muddled, as the mirage-like scene gradually grew larger and clearer.
Just as his consciousness was being continuously pulled by Blood Scum Ersuoge.
The great sun-like glowing orb suddenly shone brightly, scorching the image of the dark blood sea, while the dark sea surface churned with towering waves, also striking the image of the dark blood sea.
Under this dual assault, Blood Scum Ersuoge extended countless dark red tentacles from the blood mist. The tentacles' surfaces were covered with barb-like nails, and their ends sometimes split into human fingers, futilely grasping in the image.
Eventually, it was annihilated in space, leaving nothing behind.
Dago's soul body's consciousness slowly returned to rationality, and he realized he had almost fallen; once Erzog completely anchored his soul body, he feared that his entire Spiritual Space would merge into the dark blood sea.
As his consciousness gradually calmed, Dago exited the Spiritual Space and returned to the real dimension.
Dago released his mental power, and deep blue halos appeared in his eyes, dotted with pale purple specks.
Unlike mental vision, if an Apprentice Wizard's mental power could see and influence the energy particles of the real world.
Then, after the transformation, his mental power could directly affect the real world.
For example, levitation; the air beneath Dago's feet actually lifted him ten centimeters off the ground.
This was a completely new experience, a new power, even giving him the illusion of “everything under control.”
However, after persisting for ten minutes, he couldn't maintain it; with his current mental power quality, he could only affect a range of ten centimeters around him.
Whereas Raymond, who had cultivated for decades, could already affect a one-meter range.
“What a god-like power; no wonder ancient Witches were revered as gods.”
Dago withdrew from that state and said leisurely.
He had only just transformed a bit of Formal Wizard-level mental power; he couldn't imagine the sight after fully advancing to a Formal Wizard.
