Wizard: Starts with Advanced Meditation

Torregia's interrogation lasted for a long time, until the next morning when Hughes was confirmed not to be a suspect in the Black Ring and was released.

Fortunately, he had asked Ilya for the improved Shadow of the Black Mist, otherwise he would have been hit by her detection methods.

After leaving the main hall, Hughes immediately flew to his dormitory.

On the way, he also passed the location where he had encountered the teleportation trap.

At this moment, several wizards were hovering there, their hands glowing with various colors, seemingly intending to use the traces left by the teleportation trap to trace the culprit who set it up.

After all, this teleportation trap was most likely set up in secret by an inside agent planted by Black Ring within the academy.

As Hughes passed by those people, their conversation happened to reach his ears.

"Hey, did you hear? This happened not only in our college the night before last, but similar things happened in the other four colleges as well."

"They all stepped into teleportation traps and then encountered attacks from the Black Ring Crown outside?"

"Yes, the methods are all similar, and some of those teleported away were even apprentices...tsk tsk, as for the wizards? [Unclear text]"

I'd heard that only the wizard from our academy survived.

"That's terrifying. I never imagined that the Black Ring Crown could extend its reach into the academy."

"..."

The news has not yet spread, and they are unaware that the wizard who escaped the Black Ring assassination attempt last night was none other than Hughes, who had just passed by them.

Hughes, who had already flown far away, did not turn back. He recalled the conversation of those people just now, and a thoughtful look flashed in his eyes.

To outsiders, this might just appear to be a terrorist attack launched against the Central Academy as the Black Ring Crown returns.

But Hughes, who was directly involved, clearly felt that something was wrong.

The attacks that occurred in the other colleges all broke out after he experienced them, and the frequency of these attacks kept increasing, as if they were deliberately covering up his own incident.

Thinking of this, Hughes couldn't help but turn his head and look at a tall tower in the center of the academy.

That was the Tower of Knowledge that the Dean built for Valerius to reside in; at this moment, perhaps he is in the tower with Barossa.

"Could it be you, Barossa?"

In fact, Hughes's sarcastic remarks to Barossa yesterday were not only to break ties with him, but also to test his identity.

It has been more than a year since he last met Iluya, but she has not sent any news.

But he himself always stayed in the minaret with Valerius and Barossa.

The other party was a vampire spy whom he had learned about by chance, yet he held a high position within the Golden Crown.

The other person is a suspected vampire who, for reasons unknown, wants to harm him.

These two hidden dangers were always close at hand, like two time bombs that could explode at any moment, making Hughes constantly on guard.

Therefore, he took the risk of probing Barossa, attempting to provoke him into making a move.

Unfortunately, the assassin that day turned out to be an elemental life form...

"Phew, after the experiment at the Fugri Spire is over, let's quickly study the system for constructing the half-pool."

Thinking of this, Hughes sighed softly.

"And what about Hector's heart? Should I choose the most suitable one from the four great knights' corpses, or find another wizard's corpse?"

Without a doubt, his most important task at this moment is to improve his strength.

After all, he had to face far more than just the vampires, whose power had swept across the entire Maranthel.

The Chiss family, and even the second-level wizard Cassidulin behind the scenes, are the real formidable enemies he must face alone.

"Whoosh—!"

Thinking of this, he immediately strengthened his levitation technique and flew rapidly towards the distant horizon.

"It's strange... why hasn't that guy, Tyre, made a move?"

"..."

Meanwhile, inside the temporary dormitory building of Wanling Spire.

"Creak—"

A figure quietly opened the window and caught the firebird that flew in from outside.

"Ha... Hughes Craig, thank goodness you weren't killed by them."

"..."

Noon arrived quickly, and news of the Black Ring Crown's terrorist attack on the Central Academy spread throughout the entire Myriad Peaks.

The academy was abuzz with speculation. Some believed that it was after the Holy Wall shattered that the Black Ring Crowns were able to flood into the center of the continent, while others questioned the Gold Ring Crowns' border management capabilities.

But many people couldn't help but recall that final trial from back then, which was also the first tragedy caused by the Black Ring Crown's return.

As for Hughes, one of the victims of this incident, he is currently at his home in Wiesholm.

He sat quietly by the window, holding a vial of a drink he had concocted using his knowledge of potions.

"Buzz, buzz..."

At that moment, the rune mailbox inside the room lit up.

Hughes went to the closed door, opened the mailbox and found the newspapers he had ordered inside.

He spread out the newspaper, and the headline was about the series of attacks that had suddenly occurred yesterday.

The content was largely the same, but at the end, a new message was appended:

This morning, all five academies have successively located the hidden Black Ring members who set up teleportation traps within their academies.

Unfortunately, those infiltrators had already destroyed their own souls, using the infamous self-destruction magic of the Black Ring Crown.

"Ha, another act of self-destruction..."

Hughes scoffed. It was less a matter of self-destruction and more a matter of having no way to prove anything.

"But... could it be that there are wizards like Valerius or Barossa lurking among the five great academies?"

He shook his head and turned to walk into the basement.

"..."

At this point, the basement appeared to have undergone a major renovation.

There was a lot of empty space inside, but four huge, glass-jar-like containers were stuffed into it.

Within these four containers, four incredibly robust bodies were submerged—the remains of the four great knights that Hughes had obtained in the Abandoned Land.

Moreover, these four containers, each placed at one of the four corners, are all connected to a small spherical container in the center via specially made pipes.

Inside the container, a still-beating, vibrant heart is submerged.

This heart is clearly unusual; its surface is noticeably reddish, and tiny sparks even occasionally burst from certain areas.

And this is Ector's heart, a semi-finished enchanted organ formed under the long-term influence of the Lava Heart.

Although it is a semi-finished product, its appearance alone shows that its affinity for fire element is in no way inferior to that of a fully formed demonized organ.

Let alone necromancers who are skilled in corpse modification, even body-refining wizards might covet this heart and have the idea of ​​implanting it.