Wizard: Starts with Advanced Meditation

"Black Bear" went down first, followed closely by Hughes, and the two quickly entered the dimly lit cellar.

The cellar was cramped and narrow, with a wet stone floor and moss growing in the cracks in the walls.

It was pitch black here, with only a faint white light visible ahead.

"Sir, he is right ahead."

"Black Bear" pointed ahead, the dark elements on its face seemingly automatically enhancing its dark vision.

"Da, da..."

Hughes walked slowly toward the direction of the white light, and with the help of the dark vision enhanced by his eyes, he was finally able to see the scene in front of him.

The white light emanated from a wall of light, behind which lay a man dressed in a tattered gray robe, his hands and feet tightly bound by rune ropes.

His eyes were closed and his breathing was relatively steady, indicating that he had fallen into a deep coma.

Just then, the "black bear's" gruff voice suddenly came from behind:

"I'm dispelling the light barrier now."

As soon as he finished speaking, he turned around and gently stroked a stone brick on the wall.

"Click—"

The next moment, the wall of light suddenly dissipated, turning into countless points of light.

Hughes did not step forward immediately, but first scanned the area with his mental energy.

The opponent was actually a pool wizard, but his mental strength was also at the level to be able to construct a bottom pool.

However, as his gaze swept across the other person's chest, a gold-rimmed badge suddenly caught his eye.

"Three-ring family?"

On the back of the badge were three tightly interlocking gold rings.

"This wizard is a member of the Three Rings family? Where did you get him?"

Hughes looked at the "black bear".

"Could they have smuggled themselves in? Taking advantage of the time when the Holy Wall was shattered?"

To everyone's surprise, the "black bear" shook its head.

"No, his identity is probably still legal on the continent of Maransel."

He deliberately lowered his voice, but it was still clear in the silent cellar.

"Let me put it this way, I 'rescued' him while I was capturing a vampire smuggler in eastern Maranthel."

"save?"

"That's right. He was hypnotized by that vampire and became their puppet. Before the vampire could completely turn him into a blood servant, he ran into me."

At this point, "Black Bear" sounded quite proud, but unfortunately, the wizard was saved by a slave trader.

"But aren't you afraid that his family... has placed some kind of mark on him?" Hughes asked doubtfully.

"Haha, guess why I went to all that trouble to transfer him to the Maranseel Center?"

"Black Bear" chuckled.

"I've heard of his family because I happened to hear about their annihilation during the time I was searching for smuggled vampires."

Hearing this, Hughes was relieved.

Having no family or status, and being a wizard from the outskirts of Maranthel, he eventually ended up in the hands of slave traders in the heart of Maranthel...

With all of this combined, the risk of accepting him is greatly reduced.

"Okay, I'll take it."

Hughes nodded and then handed the scroll of the Blood Meteorite to the other party.

After placing the scroll into the container, "Black Bear" also handed over a slave contract to the other party.

"Do you have any secret passages leading to the upper city? I can't possibly take him through the barrier."

Hughes pointed to the unconscious wizard.

The Boundary Anchor does not seem to have the function of teleporting others along with it, which is a disadvantage compared to other teleportation spells.

"Yes, just go find Bisper, the bartender who had a lot of tentacles transplanted."

"Black Bear" nodded.

"I didn't expect you to live in the Upper City. No wonder you could produce a level two sorcery scroll."

"..."

Hughes did not sign a contract with the wizard, since the other party was about to become an experimental subject.

He planned to keep the other person unconscious, which would reduce the pain of the experiment.

He cast a levitation spell on the other party, making them float up and follow behind him, and that's how they arrived at the edge of the black market.

—Buzz

Instantly, his vision was once again shrouded in a crimson haze, and the blood mist reappeared before his eyes.

And so, he led the unconscious wizard, following the blood mist, out of the secret realm and back to the tavern.

Hughes didn't know how much time had passed, but when he returned, the tavern was already quite deserted, with only a few apprentices sitting in a corner, and the bartender had stopped working.

"Hey, Bisper."

Hughes spoke, his gaze returning to normal.

"What is it, new guy?"

As he spoke, Bisper, who had been lying down, stretched and yawned, also extending his tentacles.

"I need to go to... the secret passage leading to the upper city."

Hughes said in a low voice.

There was nothing behind him because he had cast an invisibility scroll on the sleeping wizard, a classic first-level spell of the Illusionist school.

Even so, Bisper still poked his head out and looked directly at the wizard who had already disappeared.

"Heh, one person needs 30 magic stones at a time... but you need 60."

"Splash—"

Upon hearing this, Hughes readily pulled out a leather bag containing exactly 60 magic stones.

He wasn't worried that Bisper would find out. After all, he hadn't cast the invisibility spell on the wizard to save magic stones; he was just afraid of attracting too much attention when they went out later.

Besides, if he just places a teleportation point in the secret passage later, it will become free afterward.

"Come with me."

Bisper put the leather bag into his storage bag, then walked out of the bar and headed to a corner of the tavern where there was a trapdoor.

"Squeak—"

The so-called secret passage was actually a sewer leading to the upper city.

The throat-cutting tavern bribed the guards at the time, which resulted in the sewer not having any barriers.

"Clang—"

Soon, a manhole cover in the upper town was pushed open, and Hughes slowly flew out from underneath.

Under the cover of night, Hughes took the man directly back to his residence...

"..."

Back at his residence, Hughes placed the person on the laboratory table in the basement.

"call--"

A flash of black smoke revealed Mr. Poison Demon, who was holding countless bio-modification devices in his hands.

"Phew...it's about to begin..."

Hughes took a deep breath. Although he had practiced this many times before, his fingertips were still sweating.

The blood symbolizing merfolk is divided into three parts, but there can only be one human at present.

Although if the transplant fails, he can still salvage the situation by urgently removing the blood symbolizing the merman.

But without a doubt, the success rate of the next transplant, as well as the effect of the transplanted bloodline, will be greatly reduced.

So theoretically, he still only has one chance.

"Um?"

However, just as Hughes calmed down and was preparing to begin the first real experiment of transplanting bloodline into a wizard,

Suddenly, a crimson stain appeared on the other person's neck.