The young Stu Ao mustered his courage to meet Dago's sapphire eyes, a brilliant smile gracing his face.
"It's a pleasure to be of service to you, esteemed Wizard."
"You can just call me Dago, Stu Ao."
"Understood, Lord Dago."
Dago passed a two-story villa with a rose garden, specifically glancing at it a few times.
There was a runic fountain, a statue of an old man covered in thorns, and two pretty, fair-skinned maids tending to the roses in the garden.
Soon, Stu Ao led him through the streets and alleys to an ordinary inn in the city's residential area.
When Dago saw the inn's sign, he was inexplicably dazed, instinctively recalling the Wizard Inn in Aynak Town that didn't even have a name.
Dago was silent, lost in a brief memory.
"Lord Dago," Stu Ao called out.
Only then did he snap out of it.
Rose Inn.
The sign was inlaid with some glowing runic crystals, but unfortunately, several of them were cracked and dull, mixed in with the others.
This was the lodging Stu Ao had brought him to. Dago inquired, "What's the price for a monthly rental?"
Stu Ao's expression became serious, and he replied, "The normal daily rent here is one low-level magic stone per day, and the monthly rent is twenty low-level magic stones."
Listening to Stu Ao's explanation, Dago couldn't help but sigh, noting that the monthly rent here was even more exorbitant compared to the Wizard Inn in Aynak Town back then.
However, Aynak Town was just a remote area, and now he was in Thorn Law Ring, within the protection of a runic magic array.
Just the gate fee to enter the floating city cost one mid-level magic stone.
Dago thought for a moment and replied to Stu Ao, "Eighteen per month, if that's acceptable, then I'll pay and rent it directly."
"Then I'll go inside and discuss it."
Stu Ao quickly ran into the Rose Inn and negotiated with the front desk for a while, emerging after about three minutes.
"They agreed."
Stu Ao said to Dago, "And the inn provides self-service breakfast, lunch, and dinner; you just need to enjoy them at the scheduled times."
It even includes meals?
Dago was a bit surprised; calculating it this way, it was actually a quite cost-effective place to stay.
He nodded in agreement and walked into the inn with Stu Ao.
Upon entering, the front desk was small, with an old but clean carpet on the floor and a glass crystal chandelier hanging above.
A middle-aged man and a girl stood behind the long counter, looking at them.
After Dago entered, the freckled girl immediately came out from behind the counter and rushed towards the two.
"Welcome, esteemed Wizard."
The girl looked at Dago with a hint of infatuation as she spoke.
Dago nodded to the middle-aged man, who was clearly the owner, and after paying a month's rent, he was led upstairs to his room.
Dago surveyed the room he was about to occupy.
It was smaller than he expected, but like a sparrow, it had all its vital organs, meaning it had everything necessary.
Looking out the window, he saw a large rose garden, with many roses even on the windowsill.
Dago felt quite satisfied, nodded to the owner, and handed him two low-level magic stones, saying, "This room it is."
Afterward, the two went downstairs together, seeing Stu Ao chatting happily with the freckled girl at the front desk.
Her father, however, had a stern face and was about to scold Stu Ao.
Dago stepped forward at this moment, called Stu Ao over, and handed him two low-level magic stones.
He told Stu Ao that his work for the day could end early, and the remaining magic stones were his tip.
The owner of the Rose Inn then said nothing more, instead pulling his daughter aside and whispering something to her.
Under Stu Ao's grateful gaze, Dago returned to his room upstairs.
"Finally settled down."
Dago sighed softly, collapsing onto the room's sofa in a 'Ge You slouch,' completely relaxing.
A month of long-distance travel, and that too after experiencing a life-and-death battle.
Dago's body was fine, not having suffered any injuries, but his spirit was exceptionally weary.
He only wanted to get a good night's sleep now, but he still had some things unfinished.
After lying down for a while, Dago got up and walked into the bathroom.
There was a silver half-length mirror inside, and Dago looked at his current self in the mirror.
His skin was fair and delicate, and the lines of his face had become softer and more perfect, making his features much more refined.
If he looked closely in the mirror, his skin was subtly "glowing."
A very small, weak elemental "force field" emanated from his body's surface, so much so that almost no dust could settle on him.
"Is this the effect after the Elemental Resonance Art's transformation?"
Dago touched his cheek, muttering to himself.
He shed all his clothes and then entered the bathroom to wash.
Warm water flowed quickly over his skin, yet it was like a lotus leaf's hydrophobic layer, leaving no trace.
Even his black and white hair was the same; now, taking a shower was like showering for nothing.
He just wanted to maintain this project of his good hygiene habit.
After a perfunctory shower, he emerged from the bathroom wrapped in a clean robe, and Dago called up his system panel.
【"Dago's Gray Sun Meditation" (Extreme); "Ice Core Cruise Missile" (Extreme); "Elemental Resonance Art" (Extreme); "Dimensional Detection" (Extreme); "Potion Crafting" (Beginner 18/1000)】
Dago had not wasted this past month; besides traveling, he had mostly been meditating and practicing spells.
The progress of each spell had been maxed out, except for "Potion Crafting," which he truly couldn't grind.
Among them, after the transformation of "Elemental Resonance Art," ice elements had penetrated beneath his skin and flesh, beginning to transform his blood and flesh; he was straying further and further from the path of a human.
However, his white hands still hadn't disappeared; this was a small, mischievous quirk of his.
"Ice Core Cruise Missile" was undeniably a brand-new ace spell, combining crowd control and damage.
"Dimensional Detection" had evolved a third eye, allowing him to directly perceive changes in the spatial curtain.
"The most pressing issues to resolve now are the Soul Imprint and the inheritance problem, otherwise, I'm just wasting the system's function."
Dago walked back to the room's sofa, lay down again, and thought quietly while gazing at the ceiling.
Because of the lack of these two things, Dago couldn't be considered a true Formal Wizard even now.
Without the system's inheritance, and no one to guide him, relying on himself to fumble around like a headless fly, sometimes he wouldn't even know when he had lost himself in Scale Two.
Like the Darkblood Councilor Flax, in the end, was he still himself?
Extreme hatred, twisted desires, mad brutality, and pathological joy—all kinds of extreme emotions would attract demonic entities from Scale Two to possess them, leading to madness.
This was the price of becoming a Wizard: gaze into the abyss, and the abyss will also gaze into you.
And the reason this world hadn't collapsed was because Origin Moon Artemia used herself to protect every ordinary person in Scale Two, although they also lost the opportunity to become a Wizard.
"At least it's better than a certain old yellow-skinned man," Dago thought to himself.
His current plan was to join the Thorn Law Ring and then obtain the inheritance through the Magic Ring.