Wizard: Starts with Advanced Meditation

When he met Holt in the Ice Ridge Mountains, he sensed that the mountain range beneath his feet seemed quite different from before.

Not only did it suffer from a mysterious "snow disaster," but more noticeably, the concentration of ice elements increased many times over!

Before he came to the center of the mainland, he didn't have a clear standard for this level.

Now that he has entered the heart of the continent and seen many highly demonized areas, he has come to realize that the degree of demonization in the Ice Ridge Mountains is no less than that of some highly demonized environments in the heart of the continent.

—What could be the reason?

Hughes thought to himself.

Is it a secret realm? An experiment? Or perhaps the work of a wizard that created the Ice Ridge Mountains, a highly demonized environment comparable to the heart of the continent?

Just then, Bilim's voice suddenly came from beside him:

"Hughes, I remember you're from Everfrost Spire, right?"

Hughes paused for a moment, then replied:

"Yes."

"I heard that most of the resource points in Everfrost Spire are concentrated in a place called Ice Ridge Mountains? What's that place like?"

"The level of demonization is much lower here, but overall it's alright."

Hughes did not mention the anomalies in the Ice Ridge Mountains in recent years, since even if he did, the other party probably wouldn't believe him.

After hearing the other party's answer, Bilim nodded, but he was simply curious about the outer reaches of the continent and did not ask any further questions.

And so the three wizards continued to cast their flying spells, searching the snow-capped mountains for any trace of the entrance to the Cold Cave Worm's lair.

Unfortunately, along the way, apart from seeing nothing but white snow, they did not see anything unusual until they had explored the entire area under their responsibility.

"Phew, let's go back and see how the other teams are doing with their searches."

At this moment, another wizard in the group, Jaeiro, spoke up.

Due to the influence of Mount Kudo, the elemental fluctuations in the surrounding area are extremely unstable, making it difficult even for perception-based witchcraft to penetrate.

Therefore, the best method at present is to let these wizards rely on their naked eyes and close-range perception to identify them.

Therefore, given the manpower they have now arrived, they probably won't be able to explore the entire area in a short time.

However, at that moment...

"Someone's there!"

Suddenly, Hughes called out to the two people flying forward, gesturing for them to look behind them.

Suddenly, three black dots appeared in the distance; they were three wizards rushing towards them.

"Those are... three Chirka elves? What are they doing here?"

Bilim asked suspiciously, while also becoming wary in his heart.

The Chelka elves are a nickname given by other races to the elves of the Oren plane.

This is because they were extremely obsessed with "Chirka," the only pure-blood surname in the Oren plane, which is why they came up with this name.

The reason why Bilim was so wary of the three elves' arrival was naturally because they had intruded into their exploration area.

After all, the two colleges are currently in an exchange period, and there is also a Clotilde wizard here.

Ultimately, the two colleges are still in competition, and the "harmonious" exchanges between them are just a temporary illusion.

Therefore, Bilim had a feeling from the bottom of his heart that the arrival of these elves was not going to be anything good.

Beside him, Hughes focused a wisp of spiritual energy and quickly extended it forward.

--call out

Soon, he sensed the presence of the three elves, and one of them was somewhat familiar to him—the fire elf, Lapplins.

"Hey! Everyone at the Myriad Spires, we mean no harm."

Before they even got close, Lapplins' voice came clearly, presumably because he had noticed the hostile aura of Hughes and the others.

"We're here... to cooperate with you."

No sooner had the words been spoken than the two sides finally met in person.

Upon seeing Hughes, Lapris, who was at the front, also lit up, clearly gaining more confidence in the cooperation invitation.

"Hughes, do you know him?"

Seeing the other party's reaction, Bilim turned his head and said.

"Yes, that fire elf also came from the outskirts of the continent. He even helped me when I was capturing the Tilitz Winterbird."

Hughes nodded.

Since their last meeting, he had met with Lapris a few times and they had discussed some things about the Frostbreath Source.

"Alright, you can handle the negotiations with them this time."

Hughes nodded, then hovered a few meters forward in front of Lapris.

"Hey, Hughes, I didn't expect it to be you, what a coincidence!"

Lapris spoke first, while gesturing to his companions on either side to reassure them.

Thus, the two exchanged a brief conversation in the air, with two companions from their respective academies floating behind them.

"..."

"So, what kind of cooperation are you referring to, Your Excellency Lapplins?"

After a brief greeting, Hughes got straight to the point and asked about the purpose of the other party's visit to negotiate with them.

"Have you found any clues in this area?" The other party did not answer immediately, but first glanced at the scene below.

"No, besides the snow, there are some demonic plants and magical beasts, but no trace of the Cold Cave Worms crawling around."

Hughes shook his head.

"Okay, then this should be our location."

Seeing that there were no clues in this area, Lapris's tone became somewhat confident.

"In our area, we discovered a huge hole that was blocked by some kind of blue crystal."

"A cave entrance? Blue crystals?"

Hughes raised an eyebrow, and the image of the Cold Cave Worm immediately came to mind.

Many ice-attribute magical beasts gather near Mount Kudo, so the Cold Cave Worm has a chance to come here to forage.

That hole is very likely the one through which it peeks out to hunt, and it is the entrance they have been searching for that connects to its nest.

As for those crystals, Hughes remembered that the Cold Cave Worm would secrete an extremely viscous liquid to repair the holes in the ground in order to cover its tracks.

It's likely that the liquids froze.

"If it's so obvious, then why did you call us here?"

Hughes asked, puzzled.

"Because we are not sure. Although we learned some things before we came, we have not studied this kind of magical beast in depth. We need you to confirm that this is a trace of it."

Lapris shrugged.

"After all, your Koya Spire specializes in researching ice-attribute magical beasts and ice elemental life forms."

Then, he suddenly changed the subject, his tone becoming somewhat serious:

"Besides, I feel that this cave entrance is not simple. Come with me and take a look. When the time comes—we will be looking for Lord Clotilde."