Wizards begin by accessing the Inspiration panel.

Chapter 279 Rodrigo's Meditation Method, Second Level

Richard, however, remained silent as he gazed at the tower of bones.

After a long pause, Richard finally spoke, "Perhaps we can try a different approach, Stephania. Do you see that small door at the bottom of the side of the Bone Tower?"

"I see it, Master." Stephania still looked at her master with a puzzled expression. Although there was a small door at the bottom of the Bone Tower, the two of them couldn't get through.

Isn't the point of discussion now how to defeat the Black Knight and enter the tower?

"Have you forgotten your innate sorcery—Shadow Transformation? If there's a door here in the Bone Tower, doesn't that mean there's a passage or space behind it?"

Richard, seeing that Stephanie still didn't understand, smiled and explained.

"That's right! How come I didn't remember!" Stephania's beautiful eyes flashed with joy, her eyes crinkling into crescent shapes as she smiled.

She had always considered her innate witchcraft as a way to evade enemy attacks, and due to the inertia of her thinking, she hadn't for a moment thought that her witchcraft actually had many other uses.

So, when the two chose the Black Knight to go around to the other side of the Bone Tower, Stephania, holding Richard's hand, stepped into the Shadow Realm at the same time. Instantly, two blurry figures walked towards the small door of the Bone Tower.

Soon, two blurry, gray figures, as if they didn't exist in this world, stepped into the white bone gate as if they were stepping into bubbles.

After Richard and Stephanie passed through the bone gate, they found that there was indeed a narrow passage about a meter wide inside. A few meters beyond the passage was a row of spiraling stairs against the wall.

Richard squeezed Stephena's hand.

Stephanie immediately understood, and the two returned from the shadow realm to the passage.

The passageway was surrounded by densely packed bones, but there were still many gaps in the middle. On one side of the wall, there was a phosphorescent lamp supported by the thigh bone of an unknown creature.

Under the glow of the phosphorescent lamps, the entire passageway emitted an eerie pale green light.

Richard thought for a moment and tried summoning the Bloodbone Golem again.

Unfortunately, although he could sense the Bloodbone Puppet, it seemed that the puppet was still being hindered by undead creatures and was unable to respond to Richard's call.

He did not attempt to summon any vengeful spirits or abominations. Given the height and width of the passage, it was likely that the vengeful spirits and abominations could already respond to his summons, and they would be stuck in the passage if they came over.

Therefore, the next exploration will still require him and Stephanie to take the lead.

"Stephena, Spider-Man of the Shadows." Richard thought for a moment and decided to continue having Stephena use Spider-Man of the Shadows as a pathfinder to check the situation first.

Stephena immediately nodded and began summoning the Shadow Spiders. The little creatures that were originally outside the Bone Tower immediately stepped into the Shadow Realm after sensing Stephena's summons, and then, as if they were passing through walls, they came into the passage one by one.

"Squeak squeak squeak!"

After understanding the task assigned by Stephena, the Spider-Men in the Shadows quickly explored downwards along the steps.

Soon, Stephana smiled and said, "Master, it's safer down there than we imagined. There are no undead creatures. This seems to be the territory of the Bone Tower's master. There's an alchemy room down there."

"Hey! Let's go, what are we waiting for?" Richard couldn't help but beam with joy, taking Stephanie's little hand as the two slowly walked down the steps.

Following the spiraling bone steps, the two soon arrived at the bottom, where they found themselves in an alchemy room of over a hundred square meters. The equipment inside was vastly different from what Richard had used in the Ignis School.

It is also very different from the tools used by the gray dwarves of Tug City, and is quite unique!

But what attracted their attention most was a magic array in the center of the alchemy room that shone with purple light, and a fist-sized purple crystal that seemed to be alive, slowly rising and falling.

Richard looked around and was pleasantly surprised to find many bookshelves on the edge of the alchemy area, with a number of books vaguely visible inside.

Richard strode forward, and suddenly, a transparent barrier appeared in front of him, which had been empty. It seemed to be some kind of defensive formation. The barrier was transparent and elastic, and it quickly bounced Richard out of the way.

Richard was startled, but when he looked down at his bone armor and saw that it was undamaged, he realized that the main function of this defensive formation was not to attack or counterattack the enemy, but simply to act as a barrier.

"Master, are you alright?" Stephania also saw this scene and quickly came over to comfort her.

Richard shook his head, rubbing his chin with one hand, and began to think about how to break the formation.

Currently, it seems that the energy supply for this formation is the purple crystal in front of us. However, it is unknown whether a ranged attack, such as a death ray, could shatter or disrupt the stability of this crystal, thereby disrupting the energy supply of the barrier.

However, recklessly breaking this crystal, which is clearly the core of the energy array, is still a very risky act and may bring unpredictable consequences.

For example, it could trigger a massive explosion.

Of course, it might also trigger an alarm in the bone tower, causing all the undead creatures roaming outside to come and kill him and Stephania, the two intruders.

But in either case, the consequences are not something Richard can afford.

After thinking for a moment, Richard turned to Stephena and said, "Stephena, take me with you and try Shadow Transformation again. Let's see if we can bypass this barrier from the Shadow Realm and enter the Alchemy Zone."

"Yes, Master."

As she spoke, Stephania extended her fair hand to Richard and began to cast her innate sorcery—Shadow Transformation.

In an instant, the two figures disappeared from the real world, leaving behind two blurry gray shadows as they walked towards the alchemy area.

To their astonishment, they also saw the transparent barrier that stood in front of them in the Shadow Realm.

Then, the two figures reappeared in the real world.

"Oh well!" Richard couldn't help but feel a mixture of helplessness and admiration.

The wizards who set up this place were so skilled that he could hardly match them; the defensive formations even extended to the spatial level.

This made Richard even more eager to acquire items from the alchemy area.

Richard paced back and forth, lost in thought, while Stephania helped him search the surroundings for possible trigger arrays.

"Logically speaking, the wizards here couldn't have left no clues for those who would come after them before they left," Richard muttered to himself.

After all, ancient wizards loved to be riddle tellers, posing riddles and other enigmatic puzzles to those who came after them. If the person who answered correctly could answer the riddle, they would receive a reward.

"Master! Come and take a look, something seems a little different here." At this moment, Stephania, who seemed to have found something, was waving her arm at Richard.

Richard strode forward and followed Stephania's slender finger to see a unique phosphorescent lamp on the wall. Although it was also made from the thigh bone of a living creature, its material was purer white than other phosphorescent lamps.

"A deathly aura lingers."

After Richard cast another defensive spell on himself, he reached out and touched the bone lamp base, and nothing bad happened.

So I twisted it back and forth with force.

"Snap!"

Sure enough, it could be moved. The white femur lamp holder had rotated about thirty degrees to the right from its upright position.

"Sizzle"

A sound like two rocks rubbing together rang out, and suddenly a crack opened in the white bone wall beside them, revealing a small, independent space.

Richard and Stephanie exchanged a glance, both seeing joy in each other's eyes!

For safety's sake, Richard peered through the gap for a few seconds and found that it seemed to be a meditation room, containing only a bed, a table, and a chair, all constructed from the skeletons of an unknown creature, and all white in color.

The only bright spot was a black box on the table.

Against an all-white backdrop, a completely black box stands out strikingly.

It seems the secret is in this box.

Richard concentrated most of the deathly energy in his right hand, and instantly, the black energy on his right hand became so dense that it almost glowed.

At the same time, he transformed the mimicry metal into a glove and put it on.

Under the watchful, anxious gaze of Stephanie, he carefully opened the black box.

"Click!"

After opening the black box, nothing happened, and Richard felt a little relieved. Then he slowly opened the lid.

Inside, there was a black notebook in the center, with a colorful piece of silk underneath.

It gives the impression of emphasizing the importance of laptops.

Richard opened the notebook and saw a ring tucked inside, with a raised "D" symbol on it.

At the same time, there was a sentence in the notebook written in Hutter, the oldest wizarding language.

Richard read aloud, word by word: "Those who come after, if they wish to know the secrets of this place, should practice the following apprentice-level meditation method and wear the ring on their hand."

As expected, ancient wizards were all riddle solvers!

This guy is ruthless. Anyone who can get here must be a formal wizard. How could he possibly choose to start over with meditation?

Re-establishing meditation techniques means that the core already constructed in one's spiritual sea needs to be shattered and discarded, which will not only cause severe damage to oneself, but also reduce one's strength to the level of a third-level wizard apprentice.

Richard shook his head with a wry smile. Who could do that?

But a second later, Richard's face lit up with ecstasy, which left Stephanie, who was standing to the side, completely puzzled.

After all, Richard had just read those words aloud, and she had heard them clearly from the side.

"Stephena, I can now confirm that the master of this place is the legendary necromancer Rodrigo!" Richard said excitedly, grabbing Stephena's arm.

"Because the meditation method recorded in the notebook during the apprenticeship period is the Rodriguez meditation method!"

Stephania's beautiful eyes immediately lit up, and she said happily, "That's great! Master, it was worth coming all this way."

"Master, please put on the ring quickly."

Richard hesitated for a moment, carefully recalling Rodrigo's life story. There seemed to be no rumors of him being reincarnated as a lich, nor any legend of him becoming a spirit.

Having ruled out the possibility of possession or other evil witchcraft, Richard slowly placed the peculiar ring on the ring finger of his right hand.

As Richard focused his attention on the oddly shaped ring, a strange space suddenly appeared in his consciousness.

Inside, there was nothing but a hexagonal, rhomboid crystal, about the size of a cubic meter.

With a thought from Richard, the crystal instantly appeared in the real world, in Richard's right hand.

"This shape seems to be a recording crystal?" Stephania saw a crystal suddenly appear in Richard's hand and couldn't help but examine it closely. She immediately recognized it as a recording crystal.

Although the legendary necromancer Rodrigo's reign over the continent dates back a very long time, the design of the recording crystals is surprisingly similar.

Richard nodded, agreeing with Stephanie's assessment.

After thinking for a moment, Richard immersed his consciousness into the recording crystal.

Two minutes later, Richard looked at Stephena with a smile and said, "I'm now practically Rodrigo's apprentice."

"These contain the first three levels of Rodrigo's Meditation Technique, enough for me to reach the level of a third-level wizard. As for the alchemy area next to it, I can enter directly as long as I wear this ring."

"There are some experimental records of Mentor Rodrigo there, as well as several improved first and second-level witchcraft spells."

"That's great, Master!" Stephania was initially surprised that Richard called Rodrigo his mentor, but it turned out that her master had already inherited his legacy!

Wait a minute! Something's not right!

The master only said half of it?

"By the way, why did you just say you were half an apprentice?" Stephania asked, puzzled.

"Hehe, that's because this is only half of the inheritance. The other half is in another place. I remember mentioning it to you last time. It's in the Ifos Forest, where the Vitlor Continent Commercial Alliance meets the Death Plains." Richard was in a great mood and answered Stephanie's question with a smile.

"I see!" Stephania nodded.

After thinking it over, Richard decided to immediately start practicing meditation. He had accumulated so many energy points for this very moment!

"Stephena, I'm going to practice my meditation technique."

"Yes, Master." Stephania was already used to her master Richard's peculiar abilities.

Basically, any kind of witchcraft can be quickly learned and mastered once its owner has seen it once, and meditation is no exception!

[Host detected practicing the second level of Rodriguez Meditation. Do you wish to consume energy to gain inspiration for practicing the second level of Rodriguez Meditation?]

Richard immediately dragged the slider to the far right and selected "Yes!"

In an instant, Richard found himself in a dreamlike state, as if his soul had left his body. The dream was set in a spacious cave with four braziers burning in the four directions, and he was possessing a blurry figure.

(End of this chapter)