Wizards begin by accessing the Inspiration panel.

Chapter 131 Clues Left Behind by Rodrigo

Richard immediately noticed the pattern on Mei Luo's chest, which had changed from one bone stick to two bone sticks.

It seems that Meiluo has already advanced to the level of a second-level wizard apprentice, though she doesn't know when it happened.

However, just as Richard was staring at the pattern on Meiluo's chest, Meiluo mustered up her courage, raised her head, and prepared to say something.

But when she saw Richard staring intently at the top of her curves, she was immediately embarrassed, stomped her foot, turned around, opened the door, and ran away!

This left Richard somewhat bewildered. What was going on? He hadn't done anything, had he?

Well! Girls' thoughts are really hard to guess.

However, this was just a minor incident.

From that day on, the relationship between Meiluo and Richard progressed rapidly. Basically, every day after Richard finished learning about basic pharmacology from his mentor Seres, Meiluo would wait for him to go to the second-floor restaurant of the cafeteria for a meal.

The originally exorbitant restaurant bills are now as affordable for Richard as adding a small stir-fry in his previous life.

With a beautiful female senior by his side and delicious food in hand, Richard was living a wonderful life!

Richard also learned that Meiluo had successfully advanced to the second-level wizard apprentice level last month, taking one year and eleven months, which was considered a top-notch speed.

Considering Meiluo's aptitude, this speed is quite normal.

Moreover, Richard learned for the first time that Mero was a behemoth of a commercial alliance from another continent—the continent of Vitlor.

This is a state similar to the Athenian city-state system of Richard's previous life, a vast alliance of hundreds of kingdoms, duchies, regions and large cities. The alliance is only responsible for two things: joint defense and free trade. Apart from that, each entity governs its own affairs.

Moreover, the Business Alliance is very unique. If you have a map of the entire territory of Vitlor, you can clearly see that the territory of the Business Alliance stretches along the coastline of the continent.

In other words, the hundreds of kingdoms, duchies, regions, and large cities that formed the commercial alliance all developed along the coast.

Its massive shipping and commerce industries are the cornerstone of its economic prosperity.

It is said that in many port cities of the Commercial Alliance, goods are plentiful and commerce is far more prosperous than in the cities of the continent of Baias.

In addition, the Commercial Alliance is the only human kingdom on the continent of Vitlor, but not the only civilized one. In the central part of the continent of Vitlor, on the boundless grasslands, lives an ancient and powerful orc race.

Mero comes from a region called the Loras Peninsula, which is located in the eastern part of the continent of Vitlor.

Starting from the Loras Peninsula, once you cross the Storm Strait, you can immediately reach the Crab Claw Peninsula of the Kingdom of Heron.

Therefore, from this perspective, although Meiluo's hometown and Richard's hometown belong to two different continents, they are not that far apart.

According to Melo, she came to the Ignis School because her father had some connection with a formal wizard in the Ignis School.

Although she is primarily affinity-for-dark elements, the commercial alliance of the continent of Vitrol not only has numerous white wizard academies, but also a considerable number of black wizard academies.

So normally, she should join the wizarding academy on the continent of Vitlor.

However, because her father was worried that the family infighting might implicate her, he specially arranged for Meiluo to come to the continent of Byers.

Her family, the Norris family, is one of the wealthiest merchant families on the Loras Peninsula, known for controlling the peninsula's vast maritime trade.

But where there are interests, there are struggles, and her family was no exception.

This reminded Richard of his own family, which, though small, was very warm and welcoming.

-

During the few days Richard returned to the school, Ram and his girlfriend Courtney also visited him once.

The two were still first-level wizard apprentices, but their mindset was much better than before. Having gone through the life-or-death ordeal last time, they were more composed and at ease.

Through Ram, Richard also quickly learned about the recent situations of several of his friends.

For example, Ophelia and Andrea, after the Dark Fishman incident, thought they had really died and were quite sad. They have been working hard to improve their strength for the past six months.

Therefore, the two of them went there very early as soon as the Norman Secret Realm opened.

According to Ram, Ophelia and Andrea's strength increased at an extremely rapid pace.

Ophelia, in particular, is now quite famous even among second-level wizard apprentices.

Of course, the most eye-catching of the three wizarding academies is Torrey Grace from the Academy of Gurus.

It is said that during the last Dark Merman incident, he was the one who turned the tide, relying on a low-level magical artifact given to him by his mentor to withstand the Merman's attack and wait for the arrival of the formal wizard.

Subsequently, he was directly rewarded with a bottle of Crimson Shock Potion. Now, this famous figure, Torrey Grace, is also in the Norman Secret Realm, and it is said that his strength is about to break through to the level of a third-level wizard apprentice.

This is quite exaggerated, because he is very likely to break the record of the fastest person to advance to the third level of wizard apprentice at Gurus Academy.

The previous record at Gurus Academy was one year and seven months, but Torrey Grace has already reached the peak of the second-level wizard apprentice level in just one year.

"It seems there are always geniuses in every era. Torrey Grace? That name sounds familiar," Richard thought to himself.

Every night, Richard would return to his dormitory and carefully study the memory crystal that his mentor, Seres, had given him.

Recently, he also took some time to visit the school's library a few times to look for some information about Rodrigo.

But after searching for a long time, Richard found that most of the information about Rodrigo was found in the biographies of bards. These fragmentary records did not constitute a systematic content, let alone any clues about the ruins related to it.

In contrast, the memory crystal given by mentor Seras contained much more detailed information, such as the passage Richard just saw.

"Hiss! Rodrigo, the greatest necromancer of ancient times, was the founder of the necromancer summoning school. He was said to be worth hundreds of thousands of regular soldiers. Isn't that a bit of an exaggeration?"

Richard was taken aback by this long passage, but the next second, he frowned deeply.

"Ancient times."

This really is ancient times! This is troublesome!

Basically, none of the ancient traditions have been able to be passed down in their entirety.

After all, it's been so long since then. It's highly likely that the ruins that Professor Seras visited weren't Rodrigo's ruins, but rather the ruins of a school of thought or an academy with deep ties to him.

As Richard continued reading...

"The necromancer Rodrigo created two levels of necromancy—Undead Army and three levels of necromancy—Undead Plague."

"Hiss! These two spells are both very famous among necromancers. So they were both created by Rodrigo! No wonder he is called the progenitor of the necromancer summoning style."

Richard knew something about the power of the Level 2 sorcery - Undead Army. It was said that this sorcery could summon thousands or even tens of thousands of undead creatures, led by Death Knights and composed mainly of Abominations, Banshees, Ghouls, and various skeletons.

An entire county can be destroyed with ease!

For example, in Richard's hometown of Rossby County, if a necromancer were to cast the second-level spell—the Undead Army—in the county town, the entire county town would be destroyed.

The third-tier necromancy spell, Undead Scourge, is even more terrifying; it is said to be able to destroy an entire kingdom.

Unfortunately, as far as Richard knows, the third-level sorcery—the Undead Scourge—has been lost for nearly a thousand years.

The Second-Level Undead Army of Wizardry is classified as a top secret of the Ignis School, and obtaining the qualification to learn it is extremely difficult. In addition, it is said that only a handful of people can actually learn it. Of course, this may also be related to the fact that there are very few Second-Level Wizards.

Richard was thrilled by what he read, eager to find and explore Rodrigo's relics, and ideally, to discover and learn these long-lost, powerful spells.

After calming himself down, Richard continued to read carefully.

According to the memory crystal, based on the clues and judgments collected by mentor Seras, Rodrigo's traces can be found in three regions: the Bering Mountains on the continent of Byers, Baseles Island in the Summer Sea, and the Ifos Forest at the border of the Commercial Alliance on the continent of Viterol and the Death Plains.

Richard had never heard of the latter two, but he had long heard of the Bering Mountains on the continent of Byers.

This place is a notorious forbidden zone on the continent of Byers, filled with all sorts of powerful monsters.

Even formal wizards who want to explore usually go in groups of several people, and they often hear of famous formal wizards who have perished there.

"The difficulty of searching for relevant clues in the Bering Mountains is already extremely challenging. This matter seems to be completely unsolvable for me at the moment!" Richard frowned deeply.

Of these three regions, the Bering Mountains are extremely difficult, while the latter two are obviously very far from Richard, either on some remote island in the vast ocean or on another continent.

If we were to actually go and explore, the long journey itself would likely be fraught with danger.

"Well, it seems that for now, we should first search for information about Baseles Island in the Summer Sea and the Ifos Forest on the Vitlor Continent before making any further plans."

"Hmm, it seems like we can entrust both of these places to Senior Meiluo. Her family is a large commercial family, and its geographical location is on the continent of Vitlor, so it should be relatively easier to search for them."

-

Noon the next day.

The restaurant on the second floor of the school.

On a table inlaid with gold patterns, several delicacies were laid out, one of which was baked crystal snails. These were made from crystal snails, a strange creature that could slightly enhance the speed of mental recovery after consumption. They also had an excellent taste and unique flavor.

"Senior, there's something I might need your help with."

"Hmm, what's up?" Mei Luo asked, looking at Richard with her big eyes.

She knew this junior of hers, but he rarely asked her for help.

Richard took out two boxes, opened them, and then quickly closed them again, since there were other people dining around.

But Meiluo had already seen clearly that it was filled with at least dozens of bottles of Fire Dance Star.

Richard also quickly showed the other box, which contained some basic mental recovery potions that he had recently made.

As the three major necromancer academies and the five matriarchal families of the Underdark continue their fierce battle, the prices of alchemical bombs and combat potions have been soaring.

Currently, the price has exceeded that of six months ago, with Fire Dance Star reaching 22 magic stones per bottle, and the prices of various combat potions have also increased significantly.

"Richard, what's this?" Meiluo asked in confusion.

"Senior, it's like this, I'd like to ask your family to help me gather some information, and this will be considered as a commission fee for the task," Richard said after organizing his thoughts.

"Huh? What kind of information would cost so many magic stones?" Meiluo knew the value of the two boxes in front of her. According to the current market price, they were worth at least 1,500 magic stones.

This is a huge sum of money anywhere; it's enough to launch a mission within the school and hire several third-level wizard apprentices to participate.

"I would like to ask your family to collect some things for me on Baseles Island in the Summer Sea and in the Ifos Forest on the continent of Vitlor. Mainly, I want to collect some local legends, folk songs, and biographies of bards, as well as descriptions of local strange events and customs."

Richard understood perfectly well that there were definitely no clues directly related to Rodrigo; otherwise, he wouldn't have had the chance to find them.

Therefore, the only option is to collect information and data and analyze it yourself.

"As you know, senior, neither of these locations is on the continent of Byers; they're too far away, so you see..."

Meiluo immediately understood Richard's meaning.

"I see. However, this investigation will probably take quite a long time. Richard, the Summer Sea you mentioned, I've heard my father talk about it before. It's located south of the continent of Vitlor."

It is said that the seawater there remains above 30 degrees Celsius year-round, hence its name, the Summer Sea. Presumably, the island of Baselles must be located there, perhaps tens of thousands of miles away from our school.

"It's alright. As for the timeframe, six months is the limit. Is that okay, senior? Just help me gather the relevant information within six months if possible." Richard estimated the time required for his various preparations and then said six months was the limit.

"Is it just local customs, biographies, and strange events, etc.?" Mei Luo was also a little confused, wondering why her junior wanted to collect these things.

However, although Richard saw the puzzled look on Meiluo's face, he did not explain. After all, it was better for him to know some things on his own.

"But we probably won't need that many magic stones, right?" Meiluo thought for a moment and pushed a box back.

"No, senior, the more detailed the investigation, the better. You know, I've been studying potion-making with Instructor Seras recently, and I've gained some insights. So, earning magic stones is relatively easy for me," Richard said with a smile and a shrug.

"That's true, you're practically a master potion maker now," Meiluo said with a smile. "Then I won't stand on ceremony and will accept it."

"Of course, senior, remember to let me know if it's not enough," Richard said, raising his glass in a gesture of respect.

(End of this chapter)