Dago was like a person who had slept for a thousand years, finally stirring awake from his slumber, rubbing his eyes groggily.
He quickly walked outside, only to realize that the sun was almost setting, casting its last rays.
At this moment, he felt as if his entire being had been resurrected.
Dago's first reaction was to quickly make dinner; otherwise, it would be too difficult to cook by candlelight after it got completely dark.
Moreover, he felt his stomach rumbling, and his vision was blurry from hunger.
He went to the pile of sundries, took out the small iron pot, cleaned it, then went to the rice jar, scooped two spoons of grain into it, added water to wash it, and placed the small iron pot on the fireplace to simmer.
While the rice was cooking, he also boiled a pot of meat and vegetable soup with dried bacon and wild vegetables. Not long after, Dago brought a pot of rice and the meat and vegetable soup to the table and began to eat.
The simple meal tasted like a feast of delicacies, and he finished it all in no time.
After he had eaten his fill and cleaned up the dishes, it was already completely dark outside.
Dago used a flint to light the candle standing on the table in the Shelter, and the dim candlelight illuminated the entire Shelter.
He pushed open the creaking wooden door and slowly walked out of the Shelter.
He noticed that the moonlight reflecting on the ground was exceptionally bright. Looking up, he saw two moons hanging high in the night sky.
One was a bright white moon, and the other a silvery-white moon.
The bright white moon was roughly the same size as the moon in his previous life, while the silvery-white moon was only about one-sixth the size of the bright moon.
Besides their size, there was another point: it spontaneously emitted a faint glow, adding a touch of light to the dark night sky.
In the Wizard Alliance, the Silvery-white Moon held an extremely high status, so much so that even the massive Wizard organizations, akin to gods, willingly referred to it as the Origin Moon.
This was because it was the mother of all extraordinary things in the world, and it also protected and blessed the Wizards.
Dago shook his head, casting away the sudden memory fragments that flashed through his mind, and returned to reality.
Looking out, the dark forest resembled an abyss. Despite the bright moonlight, the tall trees still blocked the light.
A gentle breeze swept through, and countless shadows, like wriggling monsters, seemed to prey on people. This sent a shiver down Dago's spine, and he hastily retreated back into his small Shelter.
The candle flame on the wooden table flickered, providing him with an infinite sense of security.
He walked towards a stone wall in the Shelter, removed a loose stone, creating a stone hole.
Dago reached into the stone hole and rummaged around until he found a box, which he took out and held in his hands.
He blew the dirt off the box and walked to the wooden table to sit down.
By the candlelight on the table, he opened the box and saw a copy of the "Wizard Universal Meditation Method" lying inside.
This was his predecessor's most valuable treasure; this book represented the very beginning of the Wizard's path.
Many people gathered in Aynak Town, like him, came with dreams of becoming Wizards, and of course, like him, they were all unfortunate souls harvested like leeks.
Aynak Wizarding Academy's admission standards were very simple: either you possessed exceptional talent or a tiny bit of money.
As for those with neither talent nor money, well, unfortunately, they had to struggle in the Town for a while; if they managed to make something of themselves before turning eighteen, they could enter the Academy.
At Aynak Wizarding Academy, the path of a Wizard was a business, and unfortunately, his predecessor belonged to the group with neither talent nor money.
Dago opened the old "Wizard Universal Meditation Method" and read it carefully.
He finished reading it after two-thirds of the candle had burned down. He closed the book, closed his eyes, and savored its essence in his mind.
Spiritual power was the core of the Wizard's power system, and Meditation was the primary way to obtain spiritual power.
What was spiritual power?
First, you must believe that the human soul exists. Once you believe in the existence of your soul, then there must be a realm where the soul exists, and that is the Spirit Realm.
"Spiritual power" is the external manifestation of the "soul," and the Spiritual Space is the outermost layer of the Spirit Realm.
The Spiritual Space is like a "small bubble" floating on the outermost edge of the Spirit Realm. The energy of the Spirit Realm seeps into the "bubble," forming the mist that drifts within the Spiritual Space.
After opening one's Spiritual Space, a Spiritual Core will form, which is where spiritual power is refined and stored, and also the abode of the soul.
Once the Spiritual Core is lost, in severe cases, the soul dies; in mild cases, one becomes an imbecile.
In fact, every conscious soul has the potential to open a Spiritual Space.
However, most people do not have what is called Wizard aptitude, and after reaching eighteen years of age, they no longer have the possibility of opening their own Spiritual Space.
"Relax your body, clear your mind, and focus your thoughts on a single point."
Dago followed the steps described in the book, one by one.
The world fell silent for a moment, and his vision suddenly darkened, as if he had abruptly fallen from the sky into the deep sea, with chilling seawater surging from all directions.
The seawater firmly pulled Dago, the uninvited guest who had stumbled into this deep sea, attempting to trap him there for all eternity.
Cold!
Despair!
He could no longer distinguish whether this was reality or illusion; it was as if he were truly in the deep sea.
He felt himself sinking little by little, his consciousness slowly becoming sluggish, and his soul dissolving into this sea.
Just as Dago's soul was about to completely dissolve into this abyssal sea.
Suddenly, an invincible power erupted from the depths of Dago's soul, and his consciousness abruptly cleared.
Immediately, countless points of light suddenly emerged from the depths of his soul, continuously rotating and leaping around his soul, enveloping it, and transforming into a fiery golden sphere of light.
The sphere of light emitted endless radiance, instantly evaporating countless amounts of seawater, turning into countless bubbles that floated upwards. The sphere of light flew along the direction of the rising bubbles, moving incredibly fast, like a meteor streaking across the night sky.
He saw a dark sea with countless spiritual mists floating above it.
The black sea surged violently, suddenly raising terrifying, towering waves that rolled towards the sphere of light, attempting to smash it back into the abyss.
The moment the towering wave was about to crash down, the sphere of light flashed again, and countless fiery golden rays, like golden swords, shattered the giant wave into a myriad of raindrops.
The sphere of light once again transformed into a Backflow Meteor , soaring upwards from the sea surface.
After an unknown duration of flight, the sphere of light slowly came to a halt. Dago's consciousness couldn't discern how high he had flown in the Spiritual Space, but he could feel that the dark ocean still occupied the Spiritual Space below him, with continuous towering waves.
However, the waves couldn't harm the sphere of light, and the sphere of light also had no way to deal with the black sea.
The two sides could only remain in a stalemate.
Dago couldn't deal with the black sea for now; he planned to follow the steps in the Meditation book and first convert spiritual power.
With spiritual power, he could control his Spiritual Space and then understand what the black sea was.
Concentrate thoughts, discard distractions.
The sphere of light began to rotate slowly, becoming the Spiritual Core of the Spiritual Space, drawing in a large amount of surrounding spiritual mist to refine into spiritual power.
At this moment, Dago's soul was curled in the center of the sphere of light, appearing as a hazy, star-dusted humanoid body without specific facial features.
After the spiritual mist was drawn into the sphere of light, it was continuously rotated and refined, finally transforming into a drop of Blue water drops that merged into the center of the humanoid body's forehead.
From then on, Dago possessed spiritual power, which meant he was already a Level One Apprentice Wizard, qualified to learn spells.
With a shift of thought, Dago's consciousness withdrew from the Spiritual Space and returned to reality.
"What is that dark ocean? Why did an invincible power emerge when I was about to get lost?"
Dago frowned, contemplating with a serious expression.
And at this moment, a voice from the depths of his soul sounded.
"Ding!"
"Successfully bound to host's soul."
"Detected host's soul is about to be annihilated. Initiating Progress System's first principle of self-preservation during destruction!"
"System self-preservation procedure starting. All hope energy prioritized for system self-preservation procedure!"
"System energy output power has maxed out, overloaded! Overloaded! System is about to shut down and restart!"
"Core error detected: 3#￥#2, core intelligence has become dormant, cannot be awakened!"
"Core error detected: ￥#￥#, host guidance module missing, cannot be repaired!"
"System self-check initiated, cannot awaken, cannot repair, cannot awaken, cannot repair....."
"System's ninety-millionth restart, took ninety-millionth of a second, concept loading successful!"
The messages carried by these "voices" emanating from the depths of his soul were naturally understood and received by him.
While he was stunned, a grain-sized speck of light leaped into his vision, then split at light speed until it formed a light screen.
"Welcome to the Progress System after ninety million restarts!"
Dago was utterly dumbfounded. He rubbed his eyes hard, but the light screen in front of him remained motionless.
"This is a direct take-off! Most of the problems in the Spiritual Space also make sense now."
"The system was crippled by the anomaly in the Spiritual Space right from the start. This is really not good enough."
"However, judging from the received messages, this system isn't a good system either; it's one that wants to rebel against the natural order."
Dago was so overjoyed that he was already gesticulating and talking to himself.
After a long while, he finally managed to suppress the uncontrollable upward curve of his lips.
"Phew~~~ For now, I still need to figure out the general function of this system."
Dago composed himself, exhaled a cloudy breath, and calmed down to study the system.
With a thought of "【Close】" (put away), the light screen disappeared.
With a thought of "【come out】" (come out), the light screen reappeared.
After repeating this several times, Dago knew that the light screen was controlled by his thoughts.
After trying various secret codes, the light screen showed no reaction, still displaying the same string of text.
Without a built-in system guide fairy, he was completely bewildered and could only constantly try and error, testing the system's functions with various thought-words.
However, after trying a lifetime's worth of vocabulary without a single response, Dago could only put the system aside for now.
The long night stretched ahead, and he had no desire to sleep. He decided to strike while the iron was hot.
Dago's attention returned to the Spiritual Space.
He entered the Spiritual Space again.
This time, entering was incredibly smooth. With focused concentration and a shift of thought, he entered the Spiritual Space.
At this moment, the black sea was still surging with towering waves, attempting to swallow the sphere of light in the sky.
Dago chose to ignore the black sea. The sphere of light slowly rotated, refining the spiritual mist into spiritual power and integrating it into his soul.
But as more spiritual mist was refined into spiritual power, Dago noticed something was amiss: he felt his soul getting a bit dizzy from the spiritual power.
Helpless, he could only choose to exit the Spiritual Space.
In the blink of an eye, the light screen in his vision changed.
"Detected a developable skill: 'Wizard Universal Meditation Method'. Do you wish to develop it?"
Dago was completely stunned and quickly selected "Yes" with his consciousness.
"'Wizard Universal Meditation Method' (Novice 1 / 100): Progress Value +1"
The characters on the light screen flickered, instantly transforming into a brand new version. This time, Dago could no longer suppress the corners of his mouth. Exhausted, he had no desire to sleep at all.
So he decided to read by lamplight, continuing to flip through books and study the system.
It wasn't until the drowsiness became utterly irresistible that he finally chose to lie down on his bed and fall into a deep sleep.