“Chirp, chirp, chirp—”
Sunlight and birdsong gently awakened the slumbering Emerald Forest from its sweet dreams.
“Creak~”
The Shelter hidden in the hillside slowly opened its door, and Dago, wearing a flax-grey robe, stepped out.
He took a deep breath of the fresh morning air, stretched luxuriously, and haphazardly performed a set of calisthenics in the clearing to limber up his weary body.
Last night, he had been so engrossed in studying Wizard books and the system that he had gone to bed late, leaving him mentally sluggish and physically exhausted. He patted his empty stomach, then turned back inside to prepare his breakfast.
The bottom of the rice jar revealed that there wasn't much grain left, perhaps only enough for two more meals.
Dago bent down and scooped two wooden spoonfuls of rice from the bottom of the jar, poured them into a small iron pot to wash, and then started a fire in the fireplace to cook.
Simple rice porridge with some pickled wild vegetables was quickly devoured in a few bites. He now finally understood why this body's physique was so poor.
The food he ate day after day was too crude; for a palate accustomed to a gourmet country, this was sheer torture.
“It seems I need to go to Aynak Town today to stock up on supplies, and while I’m there, I’ll report that unscrupulous merchant.”
Dago silently set his itinerary for the day.
Nowadays, with his Meditation practice, he felt his mind had become much sharper, and the memories of his previous self had integrated almost completely.
Dago sat at the wooden table and mentally summoned his system panel.
【【Wizard Universal Meditation Method】 (Novice 9/100)】
After an all-night cultivation session, he had gained a significant amount of progress.
“It feels so good to see concrete rewards for effort!”
Dago couldn't help but exclaim as he looked at the system's light screen.
At the same time, he also noticed that his practice of the 【Wizard Universal Meditation Method】 was becoming increasingly smooth.
According to his previous self's memories, there were many obscure parts of the Meditation that had taken him weeks, or even a month, to successfully resolve.
But his cultivation last night had been consistently smooth, even without guidance and relying solely on his own exploration. He felt the reason might still be attributed to the system.
The system seemed to possess some magical ability to “solidify” every bit of his progress. As long as he made a mistake and corrected it, he would not make the same mistake again.
After each practice of the 【Wizard Universal Meditation Method】, some fragmented insights would naturally emerge from his heart, then become the nourishment for his next advancement.
The effect of refining his mental energy also significantly improved each time, though the problem of soul entropy and mental energy always persisted.
So, the next step was simple: he just needed to keep cultivating, and he would keep progressing.
Based on a rough estimate of the sun's height in the sky, it was probably around eight in the morning, still early.
The weather was excellent today, so Dago jogged all the way to a large tree by the small lake to practice Meditation.
A gentle breeze swept across the lake, creating countless ripples.
“My previous self's physique was too poor; a few kilometers took almost half an hour to run.”
Dago muttered, panting, leaning against a large tree by the lake.
After resting for a short while, he found a patch of green grass under the large tree, closed his eyes, sat cross-legged, and began to practice Meditation.
Dispelling distracting thoughts from his mind, his consciousness shifted, and in an instant, he entered the Spiritual Space. Mental mist permeated around the light sphere, and the dark ocean below still churned endlessly.
His consciousness controlled the light sphere to slowly absorb the mental mist, refining it internally, and finally transforming it into mental energy to nourish the soul body at the center of the light sphere.
According to the descriptions on the last few pages of the Meditation book, excessive refining of mental mist by the mental core would produce 【soul entropy】, an almost unavoidable phenomenon.
It seemed this was the true reason his soul would become dizzy from mental energy. Currently, this was an unsolved problem in the Wizarding world.
Once soul entropy accumulated and blocked the mental core, it would erode the soul body, causing varying degrees of damage.
Therefore, whenever the 【soul entropy】 inside the light sphere accumulated to a certain amount, he had to withdraw from the Spiritual Space to rest and wait for the soul entropy to dissipate on its own.
After the light sphere had refined a certain amount of mist, Dago's consciousness chose to withdraw from the Spiritual Space.
The system light screen in his vision shifted, and Dago was already accustomed to the system panel's movements.
【【Wizard Universal Meditation Method】 (Novice 10/100): Progress +1】
The 【soul entropy】 would undoubtedly greatly slow down Dago's progress.
In the Wizard world, there was a way to accelerate the expulsion of 【soul entropy】 from the mental core: by taking Mental Potions.
This was one of the main culprits behind the rampant use of potions in the Wizarding world.
The low-level magic stone Mental Potion his previous self drank was one of the worst kinds, but this method was currently not viable for Dago, mainly because his pockets were emptier than his face.
Dago sighed, muttering, “Ah~, I'll just keep practicing for now, one step at a time.”
He stood up to stretch his body, quickly checked for any dangers in the surroundings, and then re-entered Meditation practice.
He continued this cycle of practicing and resting, and unknowingly, nearly three to four hours passed.
After gaining about a dozen points of progress, he planned to return to the Shelter to eat the remaining food.
Dago returned the way he came, and as he walked, he was surprised to find traces of human and animal activity in this part of the forest.
“It seems I have neighbors in the forest. I wonder what kind of people they are? It doesn't matter, if friends come, there's good wine; if enemies come, there's a hunting rifle.”
Dago blurted out a Chinese phrase to embolden himself.
After about half an hour, Dago returned to the Shelter.
He picked up the water jug from the wooden table and took a few gulps, then sat on a stool to rest for a while. After some time, he scooped out the last of the rice and began preparing his meal.
It was still simple rice with wild vegetables, sprinkled with the last bit of dried meat, and he devoured it immediately.
“It seems I can't go cultivate this afternoon. I need to go to Aynak Town to replenish living supplies. Thankfully, my previous self still had some magic stone fragments left, otherwise I really would starve to death in the Shelter.”
Dago thought as he ate.
Soon, after eating and drinking his fill, he neatly cleared the table.
He squatted in a corner of the Shelter's stone wall, fumbled in a crevice, and pulled out a palm-sized cloth bag.
He walked to the wooden table and emptied the contents of the bag onto it: some tiny, irregularly colored gemstone fragments, about the size of soybeans.
Dago picked up one and examined it for a while. He found it was not much different from gemstones in his previous life, except for a slight flow of energy within it, which was quite beautiful.
Dago carefully counted the gemstone fragments on the table several times, a total of sixteen.
This was his last bit of money; he truly couldn't even put together a single low-level magic stone.
According to his memory, about ten magic stone fragments were equivalent to one low-level magic stone.
Of course, the size and weight of the magic stone fragments also had to be acceptable.
As for magic stones, they were the official currency designated by the Wizard Alliance, with exchange and issuance controlled by the official authorities, guaranteed to be valid within the Wizard Alliance's territory.
Of course, precious metals like gold and silver were also valid, and the two circulated, but magic stones were a higher-tier currency than gold, with greater priority of use.
This was a world dominated by Wizards. Gold might not always command a Wizard, but magic stones certainly could.
“With magic stones, Wizards can turn millstones” was a famous saying of the Wizard Alliance.
Therefore, the secular world of the Wizard Alliance also recognized magic stone currency, because it could be exchanged for an equivalent value of gold and silver at large Wizard organizations.
After preparing everything, Dago locked the wobbly door of the Shelter and set off in the direction of Aynak Town from his memory, striding forward.
Soon, his figure disappeared into the jungle.
.........
Dago walked for a long time, about an hour, before he opened the waterskin at his waist and took a large gulp of water, wiping the fine sweat from his forehead.
Not long after, the rugged mountain path underfoot became wide and flat, and more and more people could be seen in his field of vision.
The outskirts of Aynak Town were covered with vast farmlands, with intersecting paths.
The main body of the Town in the distance and the Academy on the even more distant mountain peak were already visible. Though called a Town, it wasn't small; according to his memory, including the transient population, the total population was probably around two hundred thousand.
Most of the farmlands on the outskirts of the Town were planted with rice, some cotton, and hemp, while the majority of the remaining crops were unfamiliar.
Dago followed the main road through the fields, passed through the outer farmlands, and reached a long, grey stone wall, three to four meters high, covered with green moss, looking very ancient.
These stone walls were left from centuries ago, when Aynak Wizarding Academy had just been established.
Many magical beasts lived in the Emerald Forest, and beast tides would often erupt.
It wasn't until the surrounding magical beasts were gradually cleared by Wizards that Aynak Town slowly developed to its current scale.
Dago passed through an unguarded gate, and what greeted his eyes was a brick road wide enough for three carriages to travel abreast.
On both sides, various shops were bustling with people, and all sorts of hawking sounds were incessant.
Dago stopped in the street to observe. Most of the buildings along the main road were brick and stone structures, uniformly two to five stories high.
They generally featured balconies or porticos with columns, and the railings were made of iron or wood, with unique designs.
As he observed, he noticed that the outer parts of the Town had simple wooden houses, while the central area of the Town was uniformly brick and stone, sturdy and durable.
The street environment in the commoner's district was plagued by garbage and sewage, with food scraps, animal carcasses, and broken utensils littering the roadside.
From time to time, cattle, sheep, and pigs roamed freely, defecating directly on the streets.
The myriad of mixed foul odors was truly unbearable for Dago, but the people coming and going on the street seemed to have long grown accustomed to it.
Their clothes were mostly made of wool or linen, difficult to wash, and also emitted a strong smell of sweat.
In his memory, although nobles and powerful families wore high-end fabrics like silk, they rarely changed their clothes, only using perfume to improve the scent.
After a good while, Dago finally adapted to the pungent smell.
He walked along the clean main street, stopping and starting, not daring to enter any shops that looked even slightly grand, only peering in from the doorway.
He only had sixteen magic stone fragments in total, and he really lacked confidence. Finally, he came to a common bakery in the commoner's district and walked in.
The aroma of freshly baked bread triggered his hunger, but he looked at the prices displayed, swallowed hard in resignation, and decided to endure it for now.
Inside the bakery, he only saw a robust, plump, and quite fragrant woman tidying up the baked bread.
A… sour smell.
When she saw Dago enter, she immediately greeted him with a smile and asked, “Handsome young man, do you need to buy anything?”
“Do you have flour?”
“Yes, yes, we do.”
“How much is it? I’ll pay with magic stone fragments.”
“Twenty catties for one magic stone fragment. And I’ll throw in a cloth bag for you.”
Without a word, Dago immediately took off the black cloth bag from his waist, poured out a magic stone fragment, and handed it to the plump woman.
Her face blossomed into a smile like a large chrysanthemum, then she hurried into the baking room at the back.
Dago, meanwhile, wandered around the small bakery, observing the prices and estimating the general cost of living in the Town.
A moment later, the plump woman emerged from the baking room, carrying a bag of flour in her hand.