Wizard: Starts with Advanced Meditation

"Ugh! Staying in this godforsaken place... it feels even colder than being in the Kudo Mountains!"

After walking for an unknown amount of time, Bilim suddenly shivered.

"I feel colder and colder. Are the nests of the Cold Hole Worms really that cold? I don't remember it being like this."

Hughes's expression also looked rather grim.

They had flown quite a distance, during which they not only saw nothing, but the surrounding temperature was also strangely dropping at a visible rate.

Although this doesn't pose any threat to him as an ice wizard at the moment, it is precisely because he is an ice wizard that he can better sense the strange changes in the surrounding ice elements.

"These ice elements... are flowing in the same direction!"

As soon as he finished speaking, both Billym and Jaeiro's expressions changed.

They all knew what this meant, because the direction these ice elements were flowing towards—very likely—the Cold Cave Worm King!

Thinking of this, Jaeiro couldn't help but take out a specially made communication crystal.

This communication crystal was prepared specifically for this mission. Once crushed, Clotilde, who is far away in the open, will immediately receive the coordinates of their location.

Although their mission as formal wizards was to find the Cold Cave Worm King and deal with the controlled monsters.

But everyone knew in their hearts that no formal wizard wanted to encounter a level two magical beast.

"..."

Thinking of this, all three of them, without prior arrangement, began to silently sketch witchcraft runes in their own consciousness.

Even the previously steady breathing gradually became heavy in the increasingly biting cold.

As the group continued forward, the passage became increasingly narrow. What was once a passage that could accommodate 15 people side by side could now only allow 8 people to pass at a time, but it was still barely within the size range of the Cold Cave Worm.

Therefore, they dared not be negligent and maintained the highest level of vigilance.

Unlike the increasingly narrow passage, as they went deeper, the thin ice on the surrounding rock walls actually thickened and solidified, with icicles even hanging down from the top.

—Click, click…

With each step, the subtle sound of boots scraping against the ice surface seemed particularly jarring in the silent underground passage.

The surroundings were eerily quiet, with only the suppressed breathing of the three people remaining. Yet, the quieter it was, the more subtle sounds could be heard from afar.

—Knock knock

The sound was not obvious at first, but it was accompanied by a very slight vibration.

What was that sound?

Bilim stretched his hand forward, and a ball of light for illumination suddenly materialized in front of him.

"Knock knock—"

But soon, the sound grew louder and louder, and even the tremors of the ground became more intense. All three of them could feel the ground shaking noticeably beneath their feet.

At the same time, the illumination sphere has been fully condensed.

Just as Bilim was about to send him out to explore the road ahead, Hughes, who was beside him, reached out and stopped him.

"Let's fly up there."

Hughes' affinity for the dark attribute is second-class, which is low, but still higher than the other two who have no affinity at all.

Therefore, by comparison, his "dark vision" allows him to see more clearly in the dark, and also—to see farther.

Belim trusted Hughes's warning, so he immediately extinguished the light orb and quickly rose upwards.

The next second, a scene that left the three of them in disbelief suddenly unfolded before them.

"Thump thump thump... thump thump!! thump thump thump!!!"

Ahead, the ground trembled violently, followed by a dense wave of cold air.

Immediately afterwards, a large horde of dark, ice-attribute magical beasts, like stray dogs, fled frantically from the front.

Their bodies were covered with wounds of all sizes, some with their intestines hanging out, and many of the monsters were even missing limbs or wings.

The aura emanating from them was extremely chaotic, clearly indicating that they had just experienced a fierce battle.

No matter how badly they were injured, they all rushed to flee behind the three of them, as if some terrifying creature was chasing them.

The monsters didn't notice Hughes and the others above, or rather, they had no time to pay attention to them. Their originally wild faces now showed human-like panic.

"Frostwolf... Ice Crystal Slug... Cave Wolf Spider... These are all common magical beasts found in the Cold Cave Worm's food storehouse."

"Above," Jaeiro whispered.

"Could it be that what's chasing them... is the Cold Cave Worm King?"

But Hughes, standing to the side, immediately refuted the other's guess:

"wrong."

He stared intently at the wounded beasts below, a hint of seriousness flashing in his eyes.

"Their injuries...were not caused by the Cold Storage Worms, but by other ice-attribute magical beasts!"

Upon hearing this, the other two also looked down at the fleeing horde of monsters.

As expected, the wounds suffered by these magical beasts were all different: claw marks on the frost wolves, ice silk on the cave spiders...

Rather than saying that the Cold Cave Worm King was chasing them, it would be more accurate to say that the monsters in the food storehouse were killing each other.

Soon, however, an explanation was found for this absurd scene.

"Knock knock knock knock..."

After the beasts had mostly scattered, the ground trembled again.

The next moment, another wave of "monsters" surged from the front, but they were somewhat different from the previous wave.

Although they are also magical beasts, their bodies are covered with large and small blue crystals.

Hughes looked closely and discovered that the crystal was the same substance that had previously blocked the hole.

Moreover, the expressions of these magical beasts were all very blank, and it was obvious at a glance that they were being controlled.

And without a doubt, what controls them, or the medium that controls them, is these blue crystals.

"Aren't those... the crystals that blocked the hole earlier?"

Clearly, it wasn't just Hughes who recognized the crystals; Bilim and Jaeiro, who were also present at the time, recognized them as well.

"Be careful, I feel they're being manipulated, and the key lies in these crystals."

Jaeiro reminded him.

"..."

But as soon as he finished speaking, the magical beasts below, who had been chasing the herd, all stopped in their tracks.

The next moment, they suddenly looked up, and their dull, lifeless eyes locked onto the three people suspended in the air.

"Have they changed their targets?"

Bilim frowned, puzzled by the sudden change of target by the monsters.

"Hmm, watch out, they're about to make their move."

As soon as he finished speaking, Hughes spread his arms, and the silver-white magic runes on his Flash Set flashed all at once.

"Since things have come to this, let's deal with them first. Anyway, those crystals aren't going to run away."

It's not hard to see from the current situation that something must have happened to the Cold Cave Worm King's nest.

Since that's the case, there's no need to make any further noise; we can just take action directly.