Wizard: Starts with Advanced Meditation

"roar--"

A dragon's roar echoed through the mine, making the air vibrate. Just as everyone realized something was wrong and was about to flee, the roar struck them like a heavy hammer.

Invisible sound waves entered their ear canals and pierced their eardrums. Their consciousness was instantly swallowed by darkness, and their legs went weak, causing them to collapse to the ground.

Just then, a heavy scraping sound came from deep within the mine, like a huge rock dragging the ground. As the dust from the dragon's roar dissipated, a tall figure emerged from the shadows.

The newcomer was a dragonborn frostskin dwarf. He was nearly a head taller than a normal adult, and his enormous stature almost blocked half of the mine entrance.

His head appeared even heavier, and his bluish-gray skin was taut like a frozen rock shell.

The most striking feature is the pair of thick dragon horns growing on either side of its forehead. The horns are grayish-blue with spiral patterns all over their surface, just like unmelted thousand-year-old ice cones.

He was clad in heavy armor, his bare arms and neck covered with layers of icy blue scales, the edges of which gleamed with a chilling white, and fine white frost seeped from between the scales.

With each step he took, spiderweb-like ice crystals condensed beneath his heavy feet, spreading outwards and leaving chilling marks on the ground.

……

Barik Modirla was once a powerful third-class body refinement apprentice, but fate is unpredictable. After suffering a fatal injury in a battle on the main battlefield, his strength plummeted, and his mental power runes were reduced to the level of a first-class wizard apprentice.

In an instant, he became a laughingstock among his people and a disgrace to his family. He, who was about to become a wizard, could only retreat to the fortress as an ordinary handyman, suffering the contempt of those around him.

He was unwilling, unwilling that his life had to end so hastily; he hated, hated the fortress's cold-blooded ruthlessness.

until……

"Barek Modirla. Oh no, Barek. It's been a long time." Bron greeted him, but his eyes kept scanning the poorly dressed tribesman in front of him, a slight smile flashing in them.

He himself was dressed in an extremely gorgeous robe, with an expensive runic gold ring on each of the five fingers of his left hand.

Bronn is a steward of the Modirla family. He recently acquired the Modirla surname and now works for the eldest son, Yom.

"Tsk tsk, look at you, how did you become a handyman?" Bloom mocked.

Barik remained silent, clenching his fists at his sides. He and Bronn were among the commoners who joined the Modirla family in the same batch.

He had earned the surname Modilla many years before him, but now he had once again become a commoner without a surname.

"I have a task for you: deliver a shipment to our young master. Don't lose it, or you'll be thrown into the incinerator as fuel."

……

Barik and his group walked deep into the forest, with a huge treasure chest being pulled by a second-class Frostbone Beast behind them.

Barik was accompanied by commoner dwarves who kept an eye on each other to ensure the mission went perfectly—but everyone knew that the second-class Frostbone Beast was there to keep an eye on them.

This shipment was very mysterious; it was intended to be smuggled out of the fortress without being inspected by the fortress guards. Perhaps that's why Bloom specifically assigned these civilians to transport it.

However, Barik had a vague idea of ​​what it was. Having fought on the battlefield for so long, he was already very familiar with its scent—it contained the blood of a frost dragon.

Ever since Dulink granted the Frost Dragon bloodline conversion privileges, countless Frostskin Dwarves have been scrambling for modification slots. Being power-hungry, they naturally crave the strength of the Frost Dragon bloodline.

Some powerful families secretly traded Frost Dragon blood with Priest Glenn, and the Mordirra family was one of them.

Presumably because Yhorm was confident of becoming a dragonborn, the family sent the frost dragon blood to the battlefield where Yhorm was stationed, where the bio-modifiers who followed the family carried out the bloodline conversion.

And this may be his only chance to make a comeback.

As night fell, the group set up camp in the woods to rest. While everyone else slept, Barik slowly opened his eyes.

A sinister glint flashed in his eyes—Bron was unaware that, as a body-refining apprentice, his physical strength remained formidable.

"Run! The Frostbone Beast has gone berserk!"

"What should we do with the goods?!"

……

Leaping over the Frostbone Beast whose body had already been smashed to pieces by its fists, Barik walked to the treasure chest. The chest was entirely ice-blue and emanated a chilling aura. Clearly, this treasure chest had a function to maintain its vitality.

Barik took out a storage bag he had prepared beforehand. In order to treat his injuries, he had exhausted the magic stones and resources he had saved up over the years. Now the storage bag was empty, just enough to fit the entire treasure chest.

After carefully storing the treasure chest, Barik planned to flee the Elokhan region. The Modirla family was gone; having lost such a valuable treasure, Bronn would never let them go, and the commoners would only face certain death even if they returned.

Soon, Keld fled to the Keld Icefield. Unfortunately, Barik was discovered and captured by the Frostskin Dwarves who had established a foothold in this icefield and forced to work as a miner.

It was only thanks to the fact that these frost-skinned dwarves didn't take Barik, a first-class wizard apprentice, seriously, and didn't expect him to have a storage bag, that the frost dragon blood wasn't discovered.

The Fortress of the Frozen Heart was enormous, divided into several areas, and coincidentally, no one here knew Barik.

The Modirla family dared not expose their scheme of secretly buying Frost Dragon blood, and Barik remained silent every day, trying to minimize his presence.

He remained there peacefully until Harrogan and his men invaded the stronghold.

He was resting in the mine that day when he heard a sound coming from afar and knew that the people from Everfrost Spire had arrived. Without hesitation, he ran into the depths of the mine.

Barik took the treasure chest out of his storage bag. The key must be with Yhorm. He raised his pickaxe and smashed the treasure chest again and again.

Finally, the treasure chest was smashed open, and its icy blue color was instantly lost. Barik looked inside and, sure enough, there were two cans of Frost Dragon Blood.

There are two ways to transform oneself into a dragonborn: bloodline transplantation and direct consumption. Bloodline transplantation is the safest, but the Frostskin Dwarves' technology is insufficient, resulting in significantly reduced effectiveness and a low survival rate.

This is precisely why Dulink allowed Glenn to experiment on his apprentices—these frost-skinned dwarves, transformed into dragonborn, were not meant to live long anyway, and Glenn needed to use this to ensure that no mistakes were made when transforming them into official wizards.

As for drinking it directly, that depends on one's constitution and luck. Barik did not hesitate and took out a can and drank it down.

He didn't know that although the frost dragon blood was diluted, it was also intended by Yhorm to be used in several experiments.