Wizard: Starts with Advanced Meditation

"Splash—!"

Suddenly, a large, thick hand emerged from the scalding lava.

Although the hand was scalded red, there was no sign that the skin on its surface had melted from the high temperature.

"Bang! Crash!!"

Immediately afterwards, an even larger wave surged up on the surface of the lava, and a burly figure emerged from it.

"Ha... Phew... How long have I been hiding? Two months? Or a year?"

It was Delip who emerged from the lava. He looked up at the volcanic vent above, then leaned back and lay leisurely in the lava.

As a volcano dwarf, his body was naturally unafraid of the scalding lava.

In some ways, the living environment here was much more comfortable than his cramped witchcraft shop.

So at this moment, he was leisurely swaying in the lava, and then he burst into laughter:

"Ha, I can't believe it's been over a year. It really is true that the most dangerous place is the safest place, hahaha..."

A year ago, a huge crack was torn open in one corner of the Holy Wall.

Those who had been eagerly waiting to cross the border immediately rushed into the breach upon hearing the news.

Delipe was one of those stowaways at the time, and he successfully evaded the pursuit of the Golden Crown and escaped into the heart of Maranthelle.

After that, he fled all the way to the edge of the Vomirai family's territory, to an abandoned volcano that could no longer produce special gases.

This volcano was one of the demonized volcanoes destroyed by the volcano dwarves during the early years of war.

Back then, these volcanic dwarves, who had fallen into slavery with the Vormir family, were imprisoned here, and it's surprising that this place still exists today.

So Delipe decided to hide here, which would also make it easier for him to find Messankra’s offspring in the future.

(Chapter 258 mentions a conflict between the volcanic dwarves and the Vomir family, and also mentions Lontagore for the first time there.)

But without a doubt, this was a risky move, tantamount to walking into a trap.

After all, even though this place is only on the edge of the Vormir territory, there are still countless fire elemental life forms patrolling every day.

It's even possible that one day, Messanker might be in a bad mood and blow this place up.

But Delipe was determined to take a gamble, betting that the Golden Ring would never search his own territory.

To this end, he even thought of an extreme method: to use a magic potion to put himself into a state of suspended animation and let his body sink directly to the bottom of the volcano.

Fortunately, he made the right bet, though the price was that he slept in the lava for more than a year.

"Sigh, I originally wanted to bring that kid in with me, but who would have thought he would become a legal citizen there."

Soon after, after stretching his body which hadn't moved in a long time, Delipe slowly swam to the rock wall in front of him.

There, attached to the surface was a translucent crystal containing a storage bag containing all his belongings.

"I wonder how that kid is doing. Has he become a full-fledged wizard yet?"

As he spoke, he reached out towards the crystal...

"Bang! Crash!"

The next moment, Delipe simply twisted the crystal with his fingertip, and it shattered instantly, while the storage bag hidden inside slid into his palm.

"..."

Soon, after getting dressed, he flew away from the lava surface and arrived at the vent at the top of the volcano.

However, he did not rush out rashly. Instead, he first peeked out slightly, his eyes scanning the surroundings warily.

At this time, not long had passed since Messankra flew away from the territory, and the gas floating in the sky still bore the traces left by its body.

Around this abandoned volcano, a large number of fire elemental life forms still roam, patrolling repeatedly along fixed routes.

"If I remember correctly, I saw Messankra throw the dragon egg into the volcano closest to the west."

After observing his surroundings, Delipe withdrew his head.

"What a pity. So many years have passed. The dragon cub in that egg should have hatched by now and reached the stage where it can fly and breathe fire."

Thinking about this, he had a headache. After all, now that the target could move freely, it would undoubtedly be even more difficult to find.

"Alright, let's start the search with that volcano..."

……

At the very moment Delipe awoke.

In the very center of this volcanic archipelago, on the largest main island.

A decision that could affect the entire continent of Maransel has been made...

"call out……!"

Within the volcanic area, a young wizard hurriedly flew into one of the sizable wizard towers.

"Lord Tyk!"

Immediately afterwards, he rushed all the way to the top of the spire, and then, using his authority, forced his way into the most ornately decorated room.

"All the data for the Pillars of Quiris is out!!"

"Creak—"

No sooner had he finished speaking than he forced the door open, and what came into view was a middle-aged man with a cold and stern face.

The other person, wearing a pair of exquisite monocles, paced back and forth in the room.

This is the Tyke the young wizard spoke of, and one of the people in charge of exploring the underground of the Blood Domain.

To be more precise, he was the person in charge, because only he knew how the Pillars of Quiris operated.

Upon hearing this, he immediately stopped what he was doing and turned to look at the young man in front of him.

"Oh? You have the data? Let me see it quickly."

Now, more than two years have passed since the Golden Crown placed the Pillar of Quiris in the Blood Domain, and the time is finally approaching to reveal the true state of the Blood Domain's underground.

However, a hint of difficulty suddenly appeared on the young man's face.

"Well... the people in charge in the Blood Domain had already taken a look at it, and they said..."

"What did you say?"

"I'm puzzled," Tek said, then took the blueprints from the young man's hand.

But when he saw the data on the paper, a look of surprise appeared on his face.

"This! How is this possible? The area beneath the blood domain is just ordinary land?"

The result before him was undoubtedly a huge surprise, since everyone had been somewhat convinced that there was something wrong with the underground of the Blood Domain.

After all, apart from this place, it seems there's nowhere else on the entire Oren plane that they've explored...

However, at that moment, Tyke suddenly glanced around and seemed to notice something amiss.

"Hmm? Something's not right... these lines..."

With his years of experience, he quickly scanned the data from several of the Pillars of Quiris and pinpointed the source of the data.

Their data seemed somewhat unusual to Tektronix.