Wizard: Starts with Advanced Meditation

Seeing that Hark had completely stopped breathing, Hughes turned and walked toward Heleto, who was slumped on the ground. He trembled as he pulled a bottle of blood-replenishing potion from his storage bag and swallowed the bright red liquid.

As the medicine took effect, the hideous scorch marks on his body faded at a visible speed, and his skin gradually returned to its original appearance.

"Wow, you're really amazing. I almost died," Heleto exclaimed.

"Is anyone else coming from Thorne's side?" Hughes asked, while casually pulling a bottle of low-grade mana potion from his storage bag, uncorking it, and gulping it down.

As soon as the bluish-purple potion slid into his mouth, a cool current quickly spread throughout his body. Hughes clearly felt the potion transform into wisps of magic in his abdomen, surging outwards. Hughes's magic power was instantly restored by more than half.

This bottle of low-grade mana potion wasn't made by Hughes; he bought it to deal with emergencies during battle. Right now, his mana was almost depleted, and he was in his weakest state. This potion came at just the right time.

"They should be done. The letter only hired this apprentice squad. During wartime, if too many apprentices die, the apprentice academy will intervene. As long as you hold out until the war ends, you should be fine."

Heleto thought for a moment and said, a hint of envy flashing in his eyes. Hughes had finally gotten rid of Thorne, and even if he faked his death, he might not be able to escape.

"Let's go check on that third-rate wizard apprentice first," Hughes said casually, as if he had just thought of something.

Although the poison he obtained from Clyde was very potent, a third-class wizard apprentice had many tricks up his sleeve, and Hughes wasn't sure whether Riber, who was lying there, was actually dead.

"You mean Reber? He should be dead by now. I threw the poison you gave him right in the face," Heleto said confidently, glancing sideways at Reber lying on the ground in the distance.

The poison created by Clyde had some corrosive properties; otherwise, Hughes's Light Barrier light armor wouldn't have been completely destroyed.

But at this moment, Reber's head was completely disfigured, with only the stark white bones exposed, and a few strands of bright red flesh still stuck between the bones, making it look particularly gruesome.

Hughes stared at Reber's head, feeling a deep sense of unease. He asked Heleto, "What type of magic does Reber excel at?"

Heleto looked at Hughes with a puzzled expression and said, "I don't know. I was just invited to their cabin to discuss the plan. Why are you asking?"

Hughes stared intently at Reber's corpse, his brow furrowed. He could clearly see that the other man's life force had long since died out, yet the lingering magical energy remained intense.

Seeing Reber's magic power slowly rising, Hughes sensed something was wrong and tossed a bottle of low-grade mana potion to Heleto, saying, "Restore your mana, consider it a gift from me."

Heleto hurriedly caught the potion, while on the other side, as soon as Hughes finished speaking, he raised his hand and gathered magic power. A spinning ice spike emitting cold air suddenly shot out, piercing straight into Reber's corpse with a sharp whistling sound.

But when he turned around, Riber was nowhere to be seen, and the ice spike missed its target, crashing heavily to the ground and scattering ice shards.

Hughes felt a sudden sense of danger and almost instinctively touched the ground with his toes, his body suddenly lunging backward. Heleto, who was next to him, also instantly sensed something was wrong, his hair standing on end, and without thinking, he quickly dodged to the side.

"boom--"

A dark shadow suddenly crashed down from where the two had just been, the scorched earth beneath its feet crumbling and billowing up thick black smoke. At the same time, two clusters of eerie green flames lit up in the smoke, resembling the pupils of some kind of demonic beast, radiating a chilling aura.

As the thick smoke gradually dissipated, the dark figure slowly revealed itself—it was none other than Reber, who should have been dead long ago.

But at this moment, he had long since lost all human form. His head was nothing but a stark white skeleton, with empty eye sockets, each with a flickering green flame floating in them.

"Necromancer!"

When Hughes saw Reber's current appearance, his heart sank, and he almost blurted out, "However, his hands are still human skin, only incredibly pale."

Since acquiring a third-class necromancy affinity, Hughes had specifically studied some necromancy knowledge, and at this moment he recognized Reber's condition at a glance—he had undergone partial necromancy modification on himself.

Although it is called a localized process, without a continuous replenishment of life force, the parts that have not yet become undead will eventually die, and in the end, he will be forced to become completely undead.

Some wizards, when their lifespan is about to end, choose to become undead to prolong their lives. But once the transformation is complete, they are completely separated from their original race.

Their past knowledge systems and consciousness spaces will all undergo certain changes, and as a result, many weaknesses against undead creatures will be exposed.

But for Reber right now, this is clearly his only way to survive, since undead creatures are immune to most poisons.

However, Hughes' poison still had some effect, after all, it was modified by a mid-level potion master. Reber's pale white skull was still covered with fine corrosive cracks.

Without wasting words, Reber immediately attacked Hughes after seeing that the two had dodged his attack. He had already taken in the entire battle and knew that Hughes was the strongest of the two and that he had to eliminate him first.

With a wave of his pale hand, several pale bone spears appeared out of thin air and shot towards Hughes. These bone spears were covered with the aura of death, and once they were pierced, one's life force would be corrupted by the aura of death.

Hughes was prepared. His Dark Absorbing Robe instantly surged with a dark luster, and two jet-black elemental orbs emerged from them. They then transformed and merged, forming a thick round shield in front of him.

Reber's deathly bone spear slammed into the shield with a muffled "hum," its momentum abruptly halting before it drooped limply to the ground.

Hughes swiftly dodged the incoming bone spears. The elemental orbs had a limit to the amount of damage they could absorb, so Hughes would never take a direct hit unless absolutely necessary, and he would avoid attacks whenever possible.

Just as the bone spear was holding back Hughes, Reber did not ignore Heleto, who was recovering, and swung his left hand sharply in Heleto's direction.

In an instant, the ground beneath Heleto's feet cracked open, and countless bone spikes burst forth from the earth, trapping Heleto inside like a cage, rendering him unable to move.

Fortunately, Heleto's magical artifacts were restored in time, and a pale golden light membrane quickly enveloped his entire body. Although the sharp bone spikes pressed tightly against the light membrane, they were unable to harm him in the slightest.

Seeing that Heleto was temporarily trapped, Reber immediately turned around and focused all his attention on Hughes, who had already used a deflection field and a short-range shield, an invisible field enveloping him.