Wizard Lord:I can Extract Anything

The place for ascending to wizardry was a sealed room, without windows or doors, accessible only by teleportation. The room was small, about twenty square meters, seemingly carved directly from the trunk of the World Tree.

The walls and floor were covered with intricate patterns that, when combined, formed a dizzying and complex design. Scattered runes among the designs made the entire room resemble a three-dimensional magic array.

At the center of the room was a crystal ball, and upon probing it with his mind, Richard received information on how to use the room.

"Rotate the crystal ball clockwise once, then meditate," Richard noted the instructions regarding the crystal ball. "Is ascending to wizardry really this simple?"

He followed the instructions, rotating the crystal ball once.

A gentle wave of magical energy entered Richard's senses.

With the infusion of magic, the room's patterns began to glow, filling the space with a vibrant life force. Additionally, a mysterious fragrance emanated from the walls, bringing a sense of calm and tranquility.

"Incense?" Richard murmured to himself.

Simultaneously, he experienced an indescribable feeling.

It was as if he had returned to infancy, cradled in his mother's arms—secure and comfortable.

Without hesitation, Richard began to meditate.

Under the influence of this soothing aura, Richard quickly entered a meditative state.

Unlike usual meditation, this time Richard did not enter the sea of his soul; instead, he found himself in a void.

In this space, the only source of light was a dimly glowing orb in the distance.

Upon seeing the orb, Richard immediately recognized it.

"The Source of the Wizarding World... does it really look like this?"

Instinctively, Richard moved toward the Source, like a baby drawn to its mother.

The Source of the Wizarding World seemed to sense him, and a warm beam of light shot out, slowly reaching his forehead.

In an instant, Richard felt a gentle energy entering the depths of his soul, unlocking an unseen shackle.

Once the shackle was removed, the energy left a mark deep within Richard's soul.

It was an imprint from the Wizarding World, signifying that Richard had been acknowledged by it.

After marking him, Richard's awareness suddenly blurred. It felt like being pulled from underwater without warning.

When he regained clarity, Richard found himself in a space devoid of light.

Meanwhile, in the room, the walls began to secrete a resin-like viscous liquid. This liquid followed the magic array's patterns, eventually enveloping Richard like amber.

In ancient times, wizard apprentices faced two major challenges when ascending: the soul's dark night during the mental power upgrade and avoiding death from physical exhaustion during the transformation.

The transformation from apprentice to wizard required a long time, often measured in years. During this period, the apprentice would be in a vegetative state.

In such cases, the apprentice needed a solution that would both protect them and nourish their body.

This amber was the Tower of Truth's solution.

The World Tree's life-rich resin, mixed with various ingredients, ensured that even if a wizard apprentice slept for a hundred years, they would awaken full of vitality.

...

In darkness, Richard gradually understood what Jolord meant by perseverance.

In this pitch-black space, with no reference points or sensations, Richard had no way to gauge how long he had been there.

And he had nothing to occupy his time.

It was a form of torture.

In this space, the bored Richard began to recall his memories, from his past life to the present, from his experiences in the previous life to his travels and observations in this one.

These memories became Richard's only support to prevent madness.

He couldn't sleep, for in this space, Richard felt no fatigue, his mind remaining clear without needing rest.

If he forced himself to sleep, he would meet an end.

Once, twice, thrice...

His memories, initially blurry, became clearer, eventually playing like a movie before his eyes.

As time passed, Richard could even recite each frame of this movie.

Monotony, boredom, then rage, madness, and finally, calmness.

After countless recollections, the darkness before Richard suddenly broke.

The magnificent scenery of the sea of his soul greeted him.

The dark night of the soul had ended.

The stunning starry sky awakened Richard's numbed heart, and in an instant, tears streamed down his face. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

He had forgotten how to speak.

After a while, Richard finally reawakened his instincts, murmuring to himself:

"Is it over?"

He could feel his body undergoing continuous transformation in the sea of his soul. To use an imperfect analogy, in his apprentice days, Richard's body in the sea of his soul was like a plankton. Now, he had evolved into a shrimp.

As his soul completed its transformation, Richard felt his body suddenly sink, as if plunged into water, with the scenery before him shifting.

It seemed he had entered a deep sea, surrounded by countless floating points of light, and he was one of them.

Looking up, the starry sky remained unchanged, but it felt more distant.

"So I was merely on the surface of the sea of my soul before? Now I've truly entered it," Richard realized.

Entering the sea of his soul for the first time, Richard found everything around him incredibly novel.

The sea's waters nourished Richard's soul, and he could feel his mental strength growing with every minute spent in the sea.

This speed far surpassed his meditation as an apprentice.

Richard attempted to move his body, but being a point of light without limbs, swimming like a human was impossible. Instead, he tried using his mental strength as propulsion, like a squid propelling itself through jetting water.

In the sea of his soul, Richard's application of mental strength became increasingly imaginative.

He continually compressed his mental strength until it reached a limit.

Richard targeted a nearby point of light and suddenly released his mental strength.

In an instant, the distance between Richard and the target light point closed.

"Success!" Richard exclaimed with excitement.

Upon touching the light point, he finally saw what it was—a wizard's written name.

"Maggie... It seems these light points are marks left by wizards in the sea of their souls," Richard speculated.

To verify this, Richard touched several more light points.

The content varied, but they were all symbols, confirming Richard's hypothesis.

Richard continued diving and soon saw a different scene.

There were creatures in the sea of his soul!

He saw a creature swimming in the sea, resembling a constantly twisting line of light, moving like a water snake.

"Is it hunting souls?" Richard hid behind a large light point, cautiously observing the creature.

In his current state, likely due to the ascension process, he couldn't stop meditating and could only wait for it to end naturally.

As Richard observed, a light point suddenly dispersed.

Seeing this, the light snake sped toward the dispersed light, absorbing its fragments into its body.

"Does it feed on dispersed marks?"

Marks left by wizards in the sea of their souls typically wouldn't disperse unless the wizard's life had ended.

After observing, Richard noted the light snake ignored intact marks, only interested in dispersed ones.

This realization brought Richard some relief.

After all, if there were soul-hunting creatures nearby, the great wizards or even the Truth Wizards would have taken action long ago.

Yet he remained cautious, using light points for cover as he quickly left the area.

After swimming for a while, Richard encountered many light points of varying sizes and colors.

Richard hypothesized that the size of these points indicated mental strength, with larger ones having more, and smaller ones having less; the color represented the soul's age, brighter being younger, dimmer being older.

Souls also had ages.

According to wizard research, without becoming a level four creature, a soul's maximum lifespan was ten thousand years.

Beyond that, a soul's structure would irreversibly collapse.

This is the origin of a wizard's lifespan limit.

For wizards, creating a body was simple; cloning spells could easily reproduce a wizard's exact body.

But no one could restore a collapsed soul.

After swimming for a while, Richard felt a pull.

His entire being was drawn toward the sea's surface.

"Is it time?" Richard wondered.

Advanced meditation techniques could only maintain meditation for eight hours. If he started timing from when he entered the sea of his soul, the time seemed about right.

As Richard neared the surface, he noticed something unusual—ripples formed in the otherwise still sea.

A white light shot from the sea's depths, fragmenting into smaller, weaker pieces as it flew.

"Is something battling in the sea of souls? Or has the Lord of the World left a means of resurrection?" Richard pondered.

Before he could determine anything, the white light flew toward him.

In an instant, his consciousness returned to his body, accompanied by the white light.

"Caw, caw, caw... I, Ulysses, Lord of Ravens, have escaped! Abyssal scum, you'll never catch... Whoa, what's this?"

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