Over the next five days, life was peaceful.
Dago's three-person team's tactical coordination became increasingly synchronized, with Dago serving as the primary attacker.
Old Marico was responsible for defense and harassment, while Serena handled control and healing.
During their patrols, after eliminating dangers, they would conduct tactical drills. Dago even took out one of his remaining four silver-white Mental Potions and shared it with them.
Used to enhance their combat power, all three of their mental strengths increased significantly.
Serena, after drinking the potion, recently learned a family-inherited witchcraft: the Healing Art. Its effect was to accelerate wound healing, and this witchcraft was quite practical.
Dago's progress, naturally, did not lag. The biggest change during this period was his Detection Art.
He could actually detect the approximate effects of the witchcraft his enemies were casting.
This undoubtedly enhanced his adaptability on the battlefield.
In the afternoon, in the forest, Dago's trio.
Dago led the team with his Detection Art active, while the other two stood ten meters apart in a triangular formation.
According to their tests, this was a relatively safe distance for a three-person team.
If any one of them was ambushed, the remaining two could ensure they wouldn't be affected by the witchcraft and could quickly counter the enemy.
During their forest patrol, the three of them communicated not through talking, but through simple hand gestures.
For instance, right now, Dago raised his white hand, signaling to stop moving and maintain vigilance.
Serena and Old Marico immediately stopped in their tracks, awaiting Dago's next instruction.
"Rustle, rustle, rustle—"
The sound of branches and leaves rubbing together reached Dago's ears.
He turned and used his Detection Art to look towards the source of the sound, carefully observing the fluctuations of energy particles, ready to enter combat at any moment.
He saw a Black Robe Wizard in the distance, angrily pulling at some obstructive vines, looking very displeased.
"Damn, damn, damn! Where are those cursed forest rats hiding? How dare they make this Wizard suffer like this? I'll definitely slaughter them."
The Black Robe Wizard cursed loudly at someone, speaking in a fit of rage.
Upon hearing this, Dago felt a little nervous, but not particularly afraid; rather, he was more composed.
He glanced back at the two behind him, raised his hand, and made a gun gesture, pointing in the direction of the Black Robe Wizard.
Immediately, mental energy began to overflow from the eyes of all three, and they whispered softly, preparing to cast their respective witchcraft.
Energy particles began to appear and move, and the oppressive atmosphere started to affect the surrounding air.
The Black Robe Wizard stopped complaining at this moment. He sensed the low-pressure air and the approaching danger.
However, it was too late.
Old Marico was the first to release a soft, glowing orb of light. When it flew one meter in front of the Black Robe Wizard's eyes, it suddenly burst into ten times its original brilliance.
The Black Robe Wizard's eyes were instantly consumed by the white light. He instinctively covered his eyes and tried to run.
But his legs were bound in place as if entangled by a python.
It was Serena casting the Vine Technique, tightly coiling around the Black Robe Wizard's legs from bottom to top.
"Ugh ah—" The roar squeezed from his throat suddenly caught midway, because Dago's deep blue energy orb, condensed by the Ice Crystal Technique, had heavily smashed into the Black Robe Wizard's chest.
The ice patterns spread over his entire body at a visible speed, even his fluttering robe corners solidified into a rigid arc in mid-air.
The cold air froze his twisted, pained face, and his eyeballs were covered with a layer of white frost...
The last thing reflected in his pupils was the constantly expanding, eerie blue ice orb on his chest.
The Black Robe Wizard, like an ice sculpture, remained standing, and the ice orb in his chest slowly disappeared...
Freezing his blood into beautiful red ice flowers, which, under the refraction of sunlight, were even more dazzling than any magic gem.
After a thorough Detection Art scan, Dago found no companions, signaling his teammates that they could move forward to collect the spoils of war.
They collected a total of six low-level magic stones and one purple Mental Potion, then quickly left the scene.
After many twists and turns, they finally returned to the Treehouse Stronghold as the sun was about to set, and only then did the three of them breathe a sigh of relief.
This was Serena's first kill, and to help her overcome the psychological shadow, Old Marico personally cooked that day, making his specialty roasted meat.
The three sat around the campfire, eating the fragrant roasted meat, chatting idly...
Mainly listening to Old Marico recount stories of his youth during wartime, using them to counsel Serena.
"The traces of Black Robe Wizards appearing are becoming more and more frequent recently," Dago said worriedly.
"The worst part is that the front lines in front of the academy are suffering more and more defeats, leading to an increasing number of Black Robe Wizards infiltrating the forest area."
Old Marico also showed a worried expression as he spoke.
Serena remained silent, head down, only her body curled up even tighter like a small ball.
During the next three days of patrols, they were like true forest rats, cautious and careful.
On the afternoon of the fourth day, Dago led his two-Wizard tactical team on a normal patrol in the forest.
However, today they did not have their usual good luck; they encountered two Black Robe Wizard teams in the forest.
Dago's team still initiated the attack first; his Detection Art, like a radar, gained him the advantage of the first strike.
Dago began by casting his ultimate move, the Ice Crystal Cannon; Old Marico released a Flash Orb; and Serena cast the Vine Technique—a classic tactical combination.
Unfortunately, their opponents were not pushovers; one of them was actually a late-stage Tier 3 Wizard Apprentice, just like Moluo Ke from last time.
The power and momentum of Dago's Ice Crystal Cannon were too overbearing. Even after both Black Robe Wizards simultaneously cast two defensive witchcraft spells, one was still blasted away, falling to the ground, groaning in pain.
The other Black Robe Wizard, ignoring his comrade's fate, directly rushed towards Dago.
Dago gritted his teeth, looked at the two, and said, "You two run first, I'll draw away this Black Robe Wizard."
Without waiting for their reply, he also charged directly towards the Black Robe Wizard who was running and chanting a spell.
Along the way, he launched an Air Bullet, which was intercepted by the Black Robe Wizard's shield, but successfully attracted his attention.
Subsequently, the two disappeared into the forest. Old Marico and Serena, after realizing what happened, did not run away...
Instead, they decided to eliminate the other Black Robe Wizard who was lying on the ground before going to support Dago.
Thus, a fierce Wizard chase began in the forest.
......
After more than ten minutes, in the forest, Serena was supporting Old Marico, who was stumbling along.
"Don't mind me, go support Dago first."
Old Marico suddenly spoke, coughing violently, bloodstains splattered on his gray robe's sleeve.
"I didn't expect that the heavily wounded Black Robe Wizard still had the ability to counterattack. I was careless."
Old Marico's face was pale and bloodless, and he spoke weakly.
Serena bit her lip, remaining silent, and cast the Healing Art to heal Old Marico's wounds.
"I'm old, I can't do it anymore."
He sighed deeply, shaking his head helplessly, allowing Serena to continue supporting and healing him.
They hurried through the forest, stumbling over fallen trees, towering ice pillars, and smoking craters along the way, showing how intense the witchcraft duel between Dago and the Black Robe Wizard had been.
Black Robe Wizards who had fought their way out of the Dark Crystal Highlands, filled with conspiracies and blood, were truly much stronger than the complacent Wizards in the academy.
Even if the academy's Wizards might be one or two minor realms higher in cultivation, they were often counter-killed in life-and-death battles.
In the Wizard wars Old Marico experienced in his youth, he had seen too many similar examples.
As they continued to advance, smoke and frost mist intertwined eerily in the forest.
On an oak trunk not far away, half a bone staff was obliquely inserted into a charred tree hollow. The skull gem at the staff's head had cracked into a spiderweb, and the residual shadow energy was slowly being consumed by the surrounding ice prisms, emitting a sizzling, melting sound.
On the ground, countless ice spikes broke through the decaying leaves.
Some ice spikes still had fragments of black robes impaled on their tips, swaying slightly in the cold wind, like funeral banners hanging from branches.
A few ancient trees that had miraculously escaped the impact tilted to one side. Their trunks bore both charred holes from shadow scorching and transparent holes pierced by ice prisms.
Not far away, the body of a Black Robe Wizard was embedded in an ice wall in a twisted posture.
The black robe was frozen into a hard shell, and the exposed skin at the broken parts was covered with purplish-blue ice patterns...
His finger bones futilely dug into the ice, leaving five deep claw marks on the transparent ice surface.
And Dago stood not far away, one arm already covered in a grotesque ice armor.
Two starkly different elemental energies, one black and one white, left winding, intertwined patterns on the ice armor, like two venomous snakes entangled to their death.