Wizard: Starting from the Skill Tree

He wore a coarse, dark hemp robe, without any armor or weapons.

Judging from the faint energy fluctuations emanating from his body, these simple clothes appeared almost shabby.

Yet on him, it looked mysteriously fitting, as if any extra adornment would destroy some subtle balance.

The frontline commanders on the side of the Molten Spirits called him Jin Mo in private.

In the ancient language of the Molten Spirits, Jin means the ashes left after a burn, and Mo means silent.

It is said that he gave himself this name; no one knows his true name, nor where he came from.

Occasionally, soldiers who see him in action on the battlefield describe the scene softly, saying he can silently erase an entire wizard scouting squad, that his power is unlike any elemental race’s magic system, that he doesn’t belong to any official army, accepts no royal commands, and comes and goes like the wind, never leaving a name.

Over time, the nickname Ashen One spread among the lower rank soldiers.

The intelligence system of the Wizard Plane gave him the cold code name "Dark Gold," with a threat rating provisionally set at level 4 independent unit, recommending immediate reporting upon discovery.

These are all external accounts.

The real situation is that for a long time, Jin Mo hasn’t fought with anyone.

Most of his time is spent in solitary cultivation, traveling from the Earth Spirit’s underground city to the Sky Spirit’s storm floating island, from the Molten Spirit’s Furnace Council to the Ocean Spirit’s deep sea temple.

Every realm of the four elemental races he has set foot in, yet none truly considers him one of their own.

He is too different, so different that it instinctively makes people uneasy.

Those so-called encounters, in his eyes, are just things casually picked up along the journey of cultivation.

The elemental crystal mines others scramble for, he can pick up the exposed cores just by passing by.

Bottlenecks that others can never surpass in a lifetime, he naturally overcomes after a nap.

He doesn’t find it surprising because he has been like this since childhood, he is used to it.

But this does not mean he lacks thoughts.

Quite the opposite, the more disengaged a person is, the more they observe everything.

He knows the open and secret strife among the four kings, knows the hidden interests behind the long meetings of the Four Spirits Council.

Jin Mo just doesn’t want to get involved; he’s even thought that if he got a bit stronger, maybe he could find a way to truly make the four races set aside their prejudices, but this thought always flashes through and gets suppressed.

It’s too difficult, harder than condensing a four-attribute Divine Status.

Until the invaders came.

More precisely, until he saw with his own eyes a once-prosperous Earth Spirit’s underground city turned into rubble filled with debris and elemental core fragments after being crushed by the slave creature legion of the Wizard Plane.

Those robed wizards stood on the ruins, methodically classifying the corpses of elemental life as if processing a batch of ordinary alchemy materials.

From that day, he began to appear on the battlefield.

Not as a warrior of any legion, not as an envoy of the Four Spirits Council.

He is just himself, a level 4 life wandering the most intense parts of the war, specifically targeting wizard squads.

He doesn’t like killing, but his stance is clear.

This land is his home, no matter how many conflicts there are among the four races, when outsiders come to dismantle home, fight them off first.

This time he came to the Black Stone Plain because he sensed something amiss here.

Three days ago, the signal from the mineral veins directly north of the Black Stone Plain suddenly disappeared from his senses.

Then yesterday, the one to the northeast also cut off.

Now, standing at the edge of a dead volcanic crater, he closes his eyes, extending his senses outward.

Just then, the signal from the southeast vein also completely went silent.

Three veins were cut off in sequence within three days, the timing too uniform, like executing from the same timetable.

There must be a highly coordinated force operating behind this.

Jin Mo opened his eyes, his differently colored pupils reflecting the distant grayish skyline.

The color of those pupils is unlike any known elemental life form, with four colors intertwined together, primarily crimson and deep brown, edged with strands of pale green and azure, like a mini storm sealed within the depths.

The invaders have laid a net on the Black Stone Plain, but before their attack, they chose to clip the wings first.

This means they know exactly what the trump card of the Molten Spirits on the Black Stone Plain is, and they also know the weak points of that card.

In other words, intelligence has been compromised, and of high-level information.

Jin Mo silently dropped from the edge of the dead volcanic crater, his feet touched the ground without a sound.

As he descended, his body’s energy form quietly shifted, the surface of his dark gold skin emitting a very faint earthy yellow luster, the ground beneath him rippling like water, then silently swallowed him.

Rocks and soil parted automatically in front of him, forming a temporary underground passage, then quietly sealed shut as he passed, leaving no trace.

...

At the fortress, Duke was still scavenging for spoils when suddenly a chill shot up from the base of his spine to the back of his head.

It wasn’t a change in temperature.

The air around the fortress was still scorching, the magma lake still roiling below, the stench of sulfur as pungent as ever.

But something deeper changed in that instant.

Like a massive, boundaryless fish silently swam through a calm lake, the surface undisturbed but the water pressure had arrived.

Duke halted his steps.

His Six-Element Compound Spiritual Crystal frantically signaled, every affinity element screaming at the same moment.

It wasn’t a sound, but a primal alertness, like every cell in his body simultaneously recognized the presence of danger.

He didn’t turn around, didn’t look up to see what was coming.

Because in that instant he had already judged, something able to approach the fortress unnoticed and provoke such a fierce reaction from his spiritual power was at least a level 4 existence.

And a level 4 life from the Four Spirits Elemental Plane was beyond his ability to handle.

He also didn’t ponder why the others around seemed oblivious, with slave creatures still moving ores on the platform, Rex overseeing the aftermath, and distant wizards tallying the spoils.

They felt nothing, which precisely marked the most dangerous signal.

Duke didn’t hesitate, he stepped forward, not toward the main fortress gate nor the mountain crevice, but to the edge of the mining platform overlooking the churning magma lake.

As he took that step, he sent a succinct warning via spiritual power towards Vera, Morris, and Leon.

Not a detailed enemy analysis, just a straightforward signal—danger, run.

Vera, squatting beside a pile of rune boards, jerked her hand as the warning hit, nearly dropping the silver needle.

Having fought alongside Duke too many times, she knew too well he wouldn’t joke or exaggerate at such times.

She didn’t even stand, she crushed a small emerald-green seed on her waist directly.

A dark green glow exploded from her waist, transforming into countless bushy vines encircling her entirely, then rapidly contracted, vanishing both person and vines without a trace.

From receiving the warning to completing the teleportation, the whole process lasted barely a moment.

Morris, standing by the magma lake, his surrounding black fog not yet fully dispersed.

His reaction was faster than Vera’s, having long been accompanied by the shroud of death, his intuition for danger sharpened nearly to foreseeing levels.

Even before Duke’s warning reached him, he already sensed something amiss.

The warning simply confirmed his judgment, Morris instantly dissolved into a wisp of black mist, disappearing without a trace.

The same happened with Leon and Edmond, both using their pre-prepared escape artifacts immediately.

After all, since they came to participate in the Plane war, they naturally had ample survival strategies prepared.

And being well-heeled favored ones, they never lacked in this type of measures.

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