Wizard: Starts with Advanced Meditation

As for why Hughes was so calm?

That was, of course, because he discovered that he could still use the Boundary Anchoring technique, which meant that the Cold Cave Worm King's lair had not been isolated by any means.

In other words, he can still teleport away in a crisis, especially since he is wearing a teleportation suit.

Of course, Hughes won't use it unless it's a truly fatal moment, since doing so would likely expose the gap anchor.

……

Meanwhile, as Hughes and the others were resting on the spot, a similar scene was unfolding in each of the passages.

The crystals seemed to have already anticipated the wizards' route, and they were manipulating magical beasts to occupy the various passages, just waiting for the wizards to arrive.

Under the control of the crystal, the combat intelligence of these magical beasts has become extraordinary.

What's even more terrifying is that various magical beasts from different races can cooperate perfectly.

As a result, many teams are already in a tough fight.

Even as various magical lights exploded one after another in the dark passage, and the roar of flames rose and fell, causing the passage to tremble slightly.

But it still couldn't stop the horde of magical beasts parasitized by the crystals that surged in like a tide.

Even worse, they were completely unaware that one of their wizards had inadvertently come into contact with the crystal, or perhaps inhaled a minuscule amount of crystal dust...

After a long and arduous battle, they finally managed to defeat the monster.

Before anyone could catch their breath, the wizard's eyes suddenly went vacant, and the next second—he cast a spell on his companion beside him…

Similar scenes unfolded one after another in each passageway, and the atmosphere of panic, like a tide, gradually engulfed the entire underground lair.

Their teammates, who were fighting side by side and covering each other as they cast spells just moments before, were now puppets of the crystals.

The witchcraft struck their own people without warning, and the team instantly collapsed.

For a moment, angry curses mixed with the booming sounds of witchcraft echoed repeatedly in the spacious passageway.

Meanwhile, Klotir, who was far above the open space, already knew the location of the passage, so he no longer hesitated and set off to investigate himself.

"call out--!"

He didn't use any magic, yet his movements were incredibly fast, leaving afterimages in the air.

"..."

Although the force fields and fluctuations within the lair were chaotic, he could still roughly pinpoint the location of the Cold Cave Worm King thanks to his immense mental power as a Level Two Wizard.

After all, the fluctuations of a Level 2 being's mental energy are extremely "obvious" no matter what.

The reason for sending formal wizards to explore first was simply to let them find out what other ambushes the other side might have.

However, the current situation is somewhat urgent, so Clotilde simply stopped the slow exploration plan and only wanted to find the Cold Cave Worm King as soon as possible to ascertain the current situation and arrange the follow-up matters of the mission.

"Whoosh! Swoosh—!!"

Following its senses, Clotilde moved very quickly.

With his strength as a second-level wizard, he traveled smoothly without any obstacles, easily dealing with the magical beasts lying in ambush along the way.

Unfortunately, despite sharing the same idea as Hughes, he still failed to extract the crystals.

As soon as a monster dies, the crystals on its body surface instantly lose their luster, and even the fluctuations it emits disappear completely.

And so, Clotilde passed through one passage after another, and the powerful senses of the Cold Cave Worm King became increasingly clear in his mind.

until--

"What?!"

……

Half an hour later, in a certain passage, the three people had almost recovered.

Hughes was the first to stand up and emerge from the shadows in the corner.

"Bilim..."

The other party was still fiddling with the communication crystal in their hand, but their expression seemed even more serious.

"How are the other teams doing?"

Bilim looked up in response, shaking the now slightly dimmed crystal in his hand, and said in a low voice:

"The situation is very bad... Morion is dead."

Upon hearing this, Hughes suddenly stopped in his tracks.

He was somewhat surprised that a death had occurred so quickly.

After all, this was at most a "social" mission, and in theory, no one should have died.

But the fact that someone has died so quickly, and that this was a seasoned and qualified wizard, shows how dangerous this accident was.

"What?! Morion?!...How did he die?"

Jaeiro clearly knew the unfortunate deceased.

"I remember he was already a pool wizard?"

Upon hearing this, Bilim sighed and then said helplessly:

"The situation is probably worse than we thought—those crystals can be manipulated even by formal wizards."

Before he could finish speaking, Hughes and Morion exchanged a glance, then tacitly mobilized their mental energy to carefully examine their physical condition.

"Moriom was controlled by the crystal, and then launched a sneak attack on Maxie and the others when they were weak after killing the monsters, but he was killed instead."

After Bilim finished speaking, the three of them fell silent.

If they had any doubts before, they are now absolutely certain that the danger posed by these crystals far exceeds that of this mission.

Although it was eventually discovered that there was nothing wrong with his body, Jaeiro's expression was still extremely grim:

"Even a certified wizard can be controlled... and no one noticed along the way... this thing is definitely not something we should touch."

Bilim twisted the crystal at the top of the staff, his fingertips turning slightly white:

"I'm afraid it's not just Morion... other teams will probably get infected one after another. If this continues, our entire exploration team will be wiped out."

"..."

Hughes was silent for a moment, then turned his gaze to the depths of the passage, to the places they had not yet explored.

"Lord Clotilde is a second-level wizard, so I'll assume... it's difficult for him to assess the danger of this incident from our perspective."

He suddenly spoke, his voice a little hoarse.

"So I think we can't put all our hopes on him."

"..."

Upon hearing this, Bilim and Jaeiro did not refute it, but fell silent.

Those who can become official wizards are most likely to be shrewd and intelligent, especially since they have grown up in a wizarding world where profit is the primary goal.

So how could they not see the real purpose behind Clotilde's arrangement for them to explore each passage one by one?

Therefore, when Hughes said those words, they couldn't help but feel a little shaken.

"Then...we won't wait here?"

"Is this a question from Bilim?"

"If the Cold Cave Worm King and Lord Clotilde start fighting later, waiting here... will most likely result in being caught in the crossfire."

As he spoke, Jaeiro turned to look at Hughes.

"I think you mean we should abandon the exploration mission and retreat to the open area where we first arrived, right?"